The Untamable Columbia
Army engineers dismiss dreams of a navigable river highway, citing fatal drops and impossible terrain.
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Captain Thomas W. Symons of the U.S. Engineering Corps recently addressed his discouraging report regarding navigation on the Upper Columbia River. Following inspections of Rock Island and Cabinet Rapids with Colonel Mendell, Symons concluded that navigation could not be improved sufficiently to justify the cost. He noted that Priest Rapids has always been a barrier to practicable navigation, and that formulating plans based on inaccurate water-mark surveys was a mistake. Symons stated he could not conscientiously recommend spending money on a project that offered no real benefit, noting there are six falls with an aggregate drop of seventy-two feet in ten miles. Colonel Mendell concurred, suggesting that if the region's settlement eventually warrants the expense, a vastly expensive system of dams and locks would be the only way to achieve a navigable highway, rather than the current futile blasting operations.
“To my mind it is impossible to give practicable navigation over Priest rapids by following out the present project.”
The debate over the Columbia River’s commercial utility shaped the Pacific Northwest economy for decades. While Symons doubted the river could be tamed, the later construction of massive hydroelectric dams fundamentally altered the region’s landscape and identity, mirroring modern debates over dam removal for ecological restoration.
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