Celilo Falls

Celilo Falls was a series of waterfalls and rapids on the Columbia River in Oregon, submerged in 1957 when The Dalles Dam created Lake Celilo.

Celilo Village: An Indigenous community beside Celilo Falls, historically centered on Columbia River fishing and trade. The village stood beside the falls and was also inundated by the reservoir.
The Dalles Dam: A concrete gravity dam on the Columbia River near The Dalles, Oregon, completed in 1957. Its rising reservoir submerged Celilo Falls.
Columbia River: A major river flowing from British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to the Pacific Ocean. Celilo Falls formed where the Columbia narrowed and descended through basalt.
John Day Dam: A hydroelectric dam on the Columbia River in Oregon, completed in 1971. Its construction further changed the river and salmon habitat downstream from Celilo.
Celilo Falls aerial photographs: Photographic views documenting Celilo Falls and its surrounding Columbia River landscape before inundation. They preserve the river's original channels and falls before the reservoir covered them.
Columbia River treaty fishing rights: Fishing rights reserved by Indigenous nations in treaties with the United States along the Columbia River. Treaty-protected fishing traditions continued after the falls disappeared beneath Lake Celilo.
Lake Celilo: The reservoir formed behind The Dalles Dam on the Columbia River. Its waters covered the falls and the surrounding fishing sites.
Missoula floods: A series of catastrophic Ice Age floods that swept across parts of the Pacific Northwest. The floods helped shape the Columbia Gorge landscape containing Celilo Falls.
Columbia River salmon: Salmon populations that migrate through the Columbia River system between freshwater and the Pacific Ocean. Celilo's fishery depended on abundant salmon runs, which dams and other pressures altered.
Celilo Falls oral histories: Firsthand recorded accounts of life, fishing, and community at Celilo Falls. These testimonies preserve experiences that maps and engineering records cannot convey.

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