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Calapooia Watershed Council |
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History of the Watershed Region
American Pioneers: 1846 to 1879 In 1846, the first Euro-American settlers permanently located in the Calapooia Valley. During this time, the lower valley was covered in grasslands with stands of oaks and ash swales and along the Calapooia River, there was a wide corridor (from 1/2 mile to 1 mile) of mixed hardwood trees and conifers. With a growing livestock industry in the valley, some wildlife species became extinct including grizzly bears, white-tailed deer, wolves, and lynx.
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Thompson’s Mills |
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Pre-Columbian to 1845: Kalapuya Indians
The indigenous people of the Calapooia River Watershed were the Kalapuyans. These people are believed to inhabit the Willamette Valley for at least 9,000 years. Although at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805 there was a total of 10,000 to 13,500 Kalapuyans living in the valley, there were only 400 by 1841 as they had been decimated by European diseases. |
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Although the Kalapuyans occupied a near-coastal environment of salmon, they depended on plants for food. The native’s use of fire in the valley encouraged growth of tall grasses, which they called ‘Kalapuya’ and camas (Camassia quamash), the staple of their diet. Camas, a member of the lily family, requires open prairie habitat which was created by fire at the end of each summer. In the fall, the Kalapuyans dug up camas bulbs, which were then shaped into pies and roasted in earthen ovens for consumption. Some of these ovens, also called mounds, can still be seen throughout the watershed. Camas is also common. |
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Log Highway The Calapooia River and tributary streams were essential for fueling industry in the Willamette Valley. The river was used as a highway for the transport logs from forests to the sawmills. Logs were collected next to the stream and sent downstream during high winter and spring flows. Splash dams were also used to collect logs and store water for floating logs downstream. Effects of this practice can still be felt today: lack of riparian trees, lack of woody debris in the streams, and erosion. |
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Mills Water from the local streams also powered mills. In Brownsville, a flour mill, woolen mill, and planing mill all relied on water power. To operate these mills, water was diverted at a dam in the Calapooia River (removed in 2007) into a 3.5 mile- long millrace (also still present today). There were also mills located in Holley, Crawfordsville, Albany, and Shedd. The Thompson’s Mills in Shedd, now owned by Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, is the oldest operating water powered grain mill in Oregon and was built in 1858. The water rights of the mills date back to 1858, one year prior to Oregon becoming a state. There are multiple dams associated with the mill and all of them serve the purpose of manipulating water flow to the mill from the Calapooia River. The Sodom Ditch, built to divert water away from the mill during high flow events, has displaced about 7 miles of the Calapooia River and is the primary waterway today in this stretch, with 2/3 of the flow. |
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Present Day By the 1950s, the landscape features of the Calapooia River Watershed had changed dramatically. Historic grass prairies, wetlands, and oak woodlands had been converted to farmlands. With a lack of fire set by the Kalapuyans, conifer forest continues to encroach upon grasslands and open oak woodlands. Human population is also increasing, with the majority of people living in Brownsville and Albany. |
