Elk Creek is an tributary of the
Rogue River in the
U.S. state of
Oregon. Beginning at above
sea level in the western
foothills of the
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...
, it flows generally southwest through the
Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Elk Creek Project lands to Rogue Elk Park in
Jackson County. Here the creek enters the Rogue River downstream from
Lost Creek Lake
Lost Creek Lake is a reservoir located on the Rogue River in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. The lake is impounded by William L. Jess Dam which was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1977 for flood control and fisheries e ...
and river miles upstream of the small town of
Trail. Elk Creek Dam, an incomplete flood-control structure that blocked fish migration for more than 20 years, was partly demolished in 2008 to restore
endangered anadromous fish passage.
Course
In its first or so, Elk Creek receives Brush Creek from the
left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right
* L ...
, Swanson and Bitter Lick creeks from the
right, and Button Creek from the left. From here to the creek mouth, Elk Creek Road runs parallel to the stream along its right bank. Thereafter, Dodes Creek enters from the left and Sugarpine, Jones, Shell, and Flat creeks from the right. Near
river mile (RM) 7 or river kilometer (RK) 11, Middle Creek enters from the right, and shortly thereafter
Alco Creek also enters from the right. Elk Creek receives West Branch Elk Creek from the right about from the mouth, slightly upstream of the Elk Creek Dam. Below the dam, the creek passes a
United States Geological Survey (USGS)
stream gauge
A stream gauge, streamgage or stream gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation ("stage") and/or volu ...
, which is on the right at RM 1.3 (RK 2.1). Shortly thereafter, Berry Creek enters from the right. The creek then passes Rogue Elk County Park, which is on the left, flows under Crater Lake Highway /
Oregon Route 62, and enters the Rogue River from its
mouth
In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...
on the
Pacific Ocean.
[ The maps include river mile (RM) markers for the lower of the creek.]
Dam
Elk Creek Dam is about from the mouth of the creek. It was one of three dams authorized by
Congress in 1962 to help control flooding along the Rogue River.
The other two were the
Lost Creek Dam, later renamed the William L. Jess Dam, on the Rogue
main stem, and the
Applegate Dam
Applegate Lake is a reservoir located in the Rogue River–Siskiyou National Forest about southwest of Medford in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is south of Oregon Route 238 along Applegate River Road and slightly north of the Oregon–Califo ...
on the
Applegate River
The Applegate River is a -long tributary of the Rogue River in the U.S. state of Oregon. It drains approximately . Rising in northern California, it soon crosses the border and flows northeast then northwest to meet the Rogue about west of ...
. When the Elk Creek Dam was about one-third finished, lawsuits to protect
endangered salmon and other migratory fish led to a court
injunction
An injunction is a legal and equitable remedy in the form of a special court order that compels a party to do or refrain from specific acts. ("The court of appeals ... has exclusive jurisdiction to enjoin, set aside, suspend (in whole or in pa ...
that stopped construction in 1987.
After 1992, fish trying to swim past the dam were trapped and hauled around it in trucks.
Litigation and political battles lasting more than 20 years led to the compromise of demolishing about 15 percent of the dam and leaving the rest intact so that it might be restored in the future.
In 2008, the
United States Army Corps of Engineers dismantled part of the dam with explosives and restored the creek to its original channel.
Originally scheduled to be high, the dam had reached a height of before work was stopped.
See also
*
List of rivers of Oregon
References
External links
Rogue Basin Partnership
{{authority control
Rivers of Oregon
Rogue River (Oregon)
Rivers of Jackson County, Oregon
Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest
Dams in Oregon
Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States