From Little Falls to Major Power Producer:
A Brief History of the Post Falls Dam
The Post Falls Dam has stoically served North Idaho for over 100 years and is arguably one of the greatest social and geographical influences in the region today. To appreciate the history of the dam, it is important to start at the beginning, before the dam was built, even before there was a Spokane River or a Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Before Lake Coeur d’Alene existed, the St. Joe River ran through the present lakebed northward and up through the Rathdrum Prairie before turning west and into the Spokane Valley. About 15,000 years ago, during the peak of the last glacial period, huge glaciers covered much of British Columbia. This ice, which was almost 4,000 feet thick, unimaginably covered all but the highest mountain peaks. The glacier slowly crept down into North Idaho, stopping just north of Coeur d’Alene (Wuerthner, 30, 32).
Ice dams in the Clark Fork area that backed up Glacial Lake Missoula actually caused some of the largest floods known to man. As ice will float, these ice dams would periodically rise up and burst, catastrophically flooding the Rathdrum Prairie, eastern Washington and into northern Oregon. Locally, these floods brought in glacial till and deep deposits of outwash that obliterated the St. Joe River once running through the Rathdrum Prairie. The southernmost edge of these deposits terminated where Coeur d’Alene exists today, damming the old St. Joe River and creating Lake Coeur d’Alene (Alt and Hyndman, 73). The new lake received the entire flow of the Coeur d’Alene and St. Joe Rivers, more than could be absorbed through the gravel deposits, thereby causing the lake to overflow and seek a new course, now known as the Spokane Ri...
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..., Edward J. Kowrach, and Thomas E. Connolly. Saga of the Coeur D'Alene Indians: an Account of Chief Joseph Seltice. Fairfield, WA: Ye Galleon, 1990. Print.
Shiach, William S., John M. Henderson, and Harry B. Averill. An Illustrated History of North Idaho: Embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, State of Idaho. [S.l.]: Western Historical Pub., 1903. Print.
Singletary, Robert. Kootenai Chronicles: a History of Kootenai County. Coeur D'Alene, ID: Museum of North Idaho in Cooperation with Coeur D'Alene, 1995. Print.
"Spokane River Hydroelectric Project." Spokane River Project Hydro Relicensing. Avista Utilities. Web. 27 Feb. 2011.
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Wuerthner, George. North Idaho's Lake Country. Helena, MT: American & World Geographic Pub., 1995. Print.
Our name is derived by Vetromile from the Pānnawānbskek, 'it forks on the white rocks,' or Penobscot, 'it flows on rocks’. My tribe connected to the Abnaki confederacy (q. v.), closely related in language and customs to the Norridgewock. They are sometimes included in the most numerous tribe of the Abnaki confederacy, and for a time more influential than the Norridgewock. My tribe has occupied the country on both sides of Penobscot bay and river, and claimed the entire basin of Penobscot river. Our summer resort was near the sea, but during the winter and spring we inhabited lands near the falls, where we still reside today, My tribes principal modern village being called Oldtown, on Indian island, a few miles above Bangor, in Penobscot county.
In “Tecumseh and the Quest for Indian Leadership”, Tecumseh and the many Indian tribes in west America spent years fighting for their land and trying to keep their culture alive. The story illustrates cultural aspects of the period through elucidating the important figure
The positive aspects of ‘Lake’ Powell are few yet noteworthy. Glen Canyon Dam’s hydroelectric power-plant generates one thousand three hundred mega watts of electricity at full operation. That is enough power to supply three hundred fifty thousand homes. Glen Canyon Dam holds twenty seven million acre feet of water, which is equivalent to twice the Colorado River’s annual flow (Living Rivers: What about the hydroelectric loss?). One of the most valuable reasons for the dam to remain active is that “Lake Powell generates four hundred fifty five million dollars per year in tourist revenue, without this cash inflow, gas-and-motel towns . . . would undoubtedly wilt, and surrounding counties and states would lose a substantial tax base” (Farmer 185). These positive aspects are of no surprise considering they are the reason dams are built in the first place.
Fox, R. (2008). Battle of the Little Big Horn. Retrieved April 30, 2014, from International Encyclopedia
Calloway, C. G. (2012). First peoples A documentary survey of American Indian history (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Sioux as told through John G. Neihardt, an Indian boy then a warrior, and Holy Man
Tecumseh ,Shawnee war chief, was born at Old Piqua, on the Mad River in western Ohio. In 1774, his father, Puckeshinwa, was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant, and in 1779 his mother, Methoataske, accompanied those Shawnees who migrated to Missouri, later died. Raised by an older sister, Tecumpease, Tecumseh would play war games with other fellow youths in his tribe. Tecumseh accompanied an older brother, Chiksika, on a series of raids against frontier settlements in Kentucky and Tennessee in the late 1780’s. Chiksika had a vision that he would not survive the battle at Buchanan’s station he went ahead as plan and attacked the stockade and was mortally wounded and was carried from the battle field and the dying warrior asked not to be buried but to be placed on a hill. Tecumseh and the other’s retreated back to a Cherokee village where most went back to Ohio while Tecumseh and some other warriors stayed behind. After that Tecumseh went on mostly hunting but occasionally attacking settler’s. After that moved back towards home and come to find out that the Shawnee’s had moved on to where it’s much safer. The battle of Fallen Timber’s broke confidence in British assistance as well as many casualties. Pissed off by the Indian defeat, he refused to sign the Treaty of Greenville (1795). In the 1800’s Tecumseh began to show signs of a prominent war chief. He led a group of yong Indian warriors to a village on the White River in east-central Indiana. There in 1805 Lalawethika ex...
1. Lambert, Dale A. Pacific Northwest History. 4th Edition. Wenatchee: Directed Media, 1997. 150-151. Print
McClurken, J. M. (2009). Our people, our journey: the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.
This Paper will describe and analyze three articles pertaining to the ongoing debate for and against Glen Canyon Dam. Two of these articles were found in the 1999 edition of A Sense of Place, and the third was downloaded off a site on the Internet (http://www.glencanyon.net/club.htm). These articles wi...
This book was written by Margaret Carrington (1831-1870), the wife of the Commanding Officer Colonel Henry B. Carrington, at Fort Philip Kearny. This novel was written from her own journal about her time spent traveling to the outpost up to her return to Fort Laramie. The book reads initially as a guide to prospective travelers on the Virginia City road, and finishes in the same fashion. In between are her first hand accounts of the troubles experienced at Fort Kearny between eighteen sixty-six and eighteen sixty-seven. The years are significant because miners were responding to the news that gold had been discovered in Montana. The resulting influx of prospectors forced the United States government to deal with the Sioux Indians in order to protect its citizens along the fore mentioned trail.
The first tensions began on the Klamath Reservation when the Modocs signed a treaty to quarter alongside their neighboring Klamath tribe in 1864. Issues here included lack of food, poverty, sickness and general unwelcoming attitudes. Kintpuash’s band of Modocs had to travel to different parts of the reservation to avoid hostile matters. Yet there was no place within the reservation borders that had the resources they ...
The lake was named after the Shoshone Indian woman who had aided the expedition of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark of 1805. The purpose of the expedition was to map the unknown area of the Missouri River and find a possible water route for trade and travel to the Pacific Ocean. Soon settlements were constructed within the valleys of the Missouri River. “Energy sources beginning with hydropower, and later lignite fired generating plants, came into being in the 1940’s and began with the federal government’s construction of Garrison Dam on the ‘Big Bend’ of the Missouri” <http.www.visitmcleancounty.com/ recreation/lake.html>. The length of the dam expanding over 2 miles had multiple purposes. Farmers downstream were provided with flood protection, the Lake of Sakakawea was formed providing many recreational purposes f...
West, Elliott, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, (University Press of Kansas,
"Wind and Water Power Program: Hydropower Resource Potential." EERE: EERE Server Maintenance. U.S. Department of Energy, 13 Dec. 2010. Web. 04 Oct. 2011. .