Latah Creek ( ), also known as Hangman Creek,
[ is a large stream in ]eastern
Eastern may refer to:
Transportation
*China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai
*Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways
*Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 1926 to 1991
*Eastern Air Li ...
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
and north central Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
in the United States. The creek flows northwest from the Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
to Spokane
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...
, where it empties into the Spokane River
The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city of ...
. It drains in parts of Benewah and Kootenai
The Kutenai ( ), also known as the Ktunaxa ( ; ), Ksanka ( ), Kootenay (in Canada) and Kootenai (in the United States), are an indigenous people of Canada and the United States. Kutenai bands live in southeastern British Columbia, northern ...
counties in Idaho, Spokane County
Spokane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, its population was 539,339, making it the fourth-most populous county in Washington. The largest city and county seat is Spokane, the second largest cit ...
and a small portion of Whitman County in Washington, where over 64 percent of its watershed resides. Some major tributaries of the approximately creek include Little Latah Creek (also known as Little Hangman Creek) and Rock Creek. The average flow of the creek can range from to .[ Note: The creek length is an estimate from this map scale.] Latah Creek receives its name from a Nez Perce
The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...
word likely meaning "fish". In 1854, the creek received another name, Hangman Creek, from a war between the Palouse Indians and white soldiers, which resulted in several Palouse being hanged alongside the creek.
The Latah Creek watershed is dominated by agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
, which has released large amounts of sediment from the surrounding Palouse soils into the watershed on an annual basis. This has caused the ruin of natural fish populations, riparian zones
A riparian zone or riparian area is the interface between land and a river or stream. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the Earth. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks ar ...
, and natural flow patterns. The creek has been channelized in some places, and meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...
s, islands and natural channel formations have been destroyed. In response to these damaging factors, the water quality
Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...
overall in the Latah Creek basin is quite low, and "Washington State water quality standards for temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and fecal coliforms are routinely violated." The remaining third of the land in the watershed is mostly forest.
Name
The name "Latah" stems from a Nez Perce
The Nez Percé (; autonym in Nez Perce language: , meaning "we, the people") are an Indigenous people of the Plateau who are presumed to have lived on the Columbia River Plateau in the Pacific Northwest region for at least 11,500 years.Ames, K ...
word meaning "a place of pines and sestles", or "fish". When the Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...
passed the area in 1805, they believed that the name was "Lau-taw". Later in a railroad survey, the name used on the small-scale maps was Camas Prairie Creek, while on the maps of larger scale, the name was Kamas Prairie Creek. Other derivatives, including Lahtoo and Kamass, arose from these names, but another name, Ned-Whauld Creek (or Ned-Whauld River) was also documented. Other variant names of the creek include Sin-sin-too-ooley, Hangmans Creek, Hangman's Creek, Hngosmn, Kamas Prairie Creek, Lah-Tah, Lah-taw, Lah-too, Lahtoo, Lartoo, Neduald, and Sin-sin-too-aley.[
The name "Hangman" originated from when 17 Palouse Indians were hanged along the creek after a war. Washington State and Spokane County both approve Latah Creek as the official name, while the ]federal government
A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...
still identifies the creek is "Hangman".
Course
Latah Creek begins east of the town of Sanders, in Benewah County, Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
. The headwaters
The headwaters of a river or stream is the farthest place in that river or stream from its estuary or downstream confluence with another river, as measured along the course of the river. It is also known as a river's source.
Definition
The ...
of the creek are in a small valley south of Charles Butte and Moses Mountain. A few miles after its headwaters, it receives the South Fork Latah Creek, which flows north. At the confluence, the creek turns north, flowing past the towns of Sanders and De Smet, entering channeled scablands
The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods ...
that have been converted to farmland
Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bot ...
. Still small, it runs northwest in a vegetation-choked gully for several miles, beginning to parallel Latah Creek Road. The creek then crosses the Idaho-Washington state border and flows through Tekoa, where it is channelized and runs due north for a short distance. At this point, it has already picked up much agricultural runoff. At Tekoa, it also receives a large tributary, Little Latah Creek.
After meeting Little Latah Creek, Latah Creek continues northwards along State Route 27 to the town of Latah
Latah is a condition in which abnormal behaviors result from a person experiencing a sudden shock or other external stressor almost exclusively having been observed in persons from Southeast Asia. When induced, the affected person typically engag ...
, named for the creek. At Latah, it receives a short tributary, Cove Creek, on the right bank. The creek then bends west and runs north, then swings west again to run near the town of Waverly, and north to pass the town of West Fairfield. (SR 27 breaks away from the creek before Waverly to run to the town of Fairfield.) The creek then enters a steadily deepening, winding gorge that runs generally northwest. It then receives another large tributary, Rock Creek, on the right bank.[
After having received Rock Creek, Latah Creek receives California Creek, a , west-southwest tributary, also on the right bank. In its final few miles, California Creek also plunges down a narrow gorge into the Latah Creek canyon. Latah Creek then continues north, and begins to parallel U.S. Highway 195 as it winds through a widening gorge towards the urban area of ]Spokane
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...
. As it enters the Spokane it flows through the Latah/Hangman neighborhood before passing between the West Hills and Peaceful Valley neighborhoods. As Highway 195 continues to parallel it on the left, High Drive winds along the canyon rim on the east (right) bank. With high bluffs rising on the east side and lower cliffs on the west, the creek receives Marshall Creek on the left bank, and its second-last named tributary, Spring Creek, also on the left bank, and crosses under bridges for Interstate 90
Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...
, a railroad, and Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades east to Figueroa Street in Downtown Los Angeles. It is a major thoroughfare in t ...
. Its last named tributary, Indian Canyon Creek, enters on the left bank as the creek turns northeast to join the Spokane River
The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the Spokane Valley and the city of ...
. The creek's 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 ...
is on the left bank of the Spokane, not too far downstream from Spokane Falls
Spokane Falls is the name of a waterfall and dam on the Spokane River, located in the central business district in downtown Spokane, Washington. The city of Spokane was also initially named "Spokane Falls".
History
The Native American name fo ...
.[
]
Little Latah Creek
Little Latah Creek, about long, is a generally southwest-flowing stream, and at the confluence carries almost as much water as Latah Creek. The creek begins a few miles south of Plummer, and its headwaters are near the ridge where north-flowing Plummer Creek also begins. U.S. Highway 95 crosses the creek very near the headwaters, and for its entire length, it follows Lovell Valley Road. Near the junction of Idaho State Route 60 and Washington State Route 274
State Route 274 (SR 274) is a State highways in Washington, state highway serving Tekoa, Washington, Tekoa in Whitman County, Washington, Whitman County, located within the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. The highway, nam ...
, which is the continuation of Lovell Valley Road in Washington State, it receives Moctileme Creek, its largest tributary, on the left bank. Moctileme Creek is about long, flowing west from Windfall Pass and mostly paralleling State Route 60. At this point, Little Latah Creek has already grown large from agricultural runoff. The creek then bisects Tekoa, flows underneath Washington State Route 27
State Route 27 (SR 27) is a state highway serving Whitman and Spokane counties, located in the eastern region of the U.S. state of Washington. The highway travels generally north from U.S. Route 195 (US 195) through Pul ...
, and enters Latah Creek.[
]
Rock Creek
Rock Creek begins just about west-southwest of Worley Worley may refer to:
Places
* Worley, Idaho, United States
* Worley, Kentucky, United States
* Worley, West Virginia, United States
* Worley Point, Antarctica
People
* Worley (surname), people with the surname ''Worley''
* Worley baronets
* ...
. Like Little Latah Creek, it is in the vicinity of long. The creek turns west from its headwaters and begins to parallel its North Fork, which flows south then turns west from its headwaters at Plummer. The North Fork is actually longer than the mainstream, although it carries only a slight amount of water when they join. The creek then crosses the state border and flows west of Rockford, then turns west then north, crossing under State Route 27, entering a narrow gorge similar to that of Latah Creek. After meandering in the down cut gorge for a while, the creek straightens out and heads west-northwest, spilling into Latah Creek after turning sharply south just southwest of Duncan.[
]
Geology
Latah Creek can be divided into three distinct geological regions; these are a small section of its upper headwaters, a long and broad valley, and channeled scablands
The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods ...
. In its headwaters, the creek flows through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...
, specifically in those of the Clearwater Mountains
The Clearwater Mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains, located in the panhandle of Idaho in the Western United States. The mountains lie between the Salmon River and the Bitterroot Range and encompass an area of .
__NOTOC__ Subranges North ...
. The topography here are steep ridges and peaks dissected by deep, forested close-to-bedrock valleys, drained by rocky and steep mountain streams, with a light covering of soil. After its mountainous headwaters, the creek passes through the much more rounded, older Palouse Hills. Below the deep loess
Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits.
Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...
in the Palouse Hills, a basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
layer separates the creek from groundwater
Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit of rock or an unconsolidate ...
, which finally rises to meet stream elevation at the Washington-Idaho state border.[ Most of the creek from where it turns north at Sanders to about upstream of its mouth flows in a broad and shallow, arid valley atop several hundred feet of ]alluvial
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
deposits. In the final , the Latah Creek watershed intersects the Channeled Scablands
The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods ...
, which were formed by the Missoula Floods
The Missoula floods (also known as the Spokane floods or the Bretz floods or Bretz's floods) were cataclysmic glacial lake outburst floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ...
that inundated the area after an ice dam on the Clark Fork Pend Oreille River
The Pend Oreille River ( ) is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and northeastern Washington in the United States, as well as southeastern British Columbia in Canada. In its passage through British Columbia ...
, during the last ice age, was breached.[ The floods have deposited "terraces", otherwise known as "backflood deposits", which the creek has eroded through, creating steep and unstable gravel slopes topped by sheer cliffs. Near Spokane, the creek turns to the northwest in a nearly straight line; this is caused by a ]strike-slip fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
named Latah Creek Fault.
Watershed
The watershed of Latah Creek covers , stretching from southeast to northwest and straddling the Washington-Idaho state border. The mostly semiarid
A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi- ...
basin is divided mostly among forests and agriculture, with small towns spread along the length of the creek and its tributaries. The largest city, Spokane
Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...
, is located at the junction of Latah Creek and the Spokane River. Except for its upper headwaters and the canyon it flows through in its final few miles, the creek flows in an open plain surrounded by low hills, and originally would form meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves in the channel of a river or other watercourse. It is produced as a watercourse erodes the sediments of an outer, concave bank ( cut bank) and deposits sediments on an inner, convex bank ...
s and braided stream
A braided river, or braided channel, consists of a network of river channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called braid bars or, in English usage, '' aits'' or ''eyots''.
Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment ...
s across this wide floodplain. The conversion of the floodplain to agricultural uses, however, forced the creek to flow in a straighter course. As a result, erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
and turbidity
Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by large numbers of individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality.
Fluids can ...
in the creek has increased, while water quality and habitat have decreased. At its mouth, Latah Creek has been known to contribute up to 90 percent of the flow of the downstream Spokane, and as low as 1 percent.
The small drainage divide
A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a singl ...
on the east side of the watershed separates Latah Creek from streams draining into Coeur d'Alene Lake
Lake Coeur d'Alene, officially Coeur d'Alene Lake ( ), is a natural dam-controlled lake in North Idaho, located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. At its northern end is the city of Coeur d'Alene. It spans in length and range ...
and the St. Joe River, including Plummer Creek. Tributaries flowing off this divide into Latah Creek (right-bank tributaries) include Little Latah Creek, Rattlers Run Creek, Rock Creek and California Creek. Left-bank tributaries include Marshall Creek and North Pine Creek.[ The watershed is bordered on the south by that of the ]Palouse River
The Palouse River is a tributary of the Snake River in Washington (state), Washington and Idaho, in the Northwestern United States, northwest United States. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline ...
, and on the west, Hole-In-The-Ground Creek, a tributary of the Palouse, and on the northwest, Deep Creek, a tributary of the Spokane. Roads paralleling Latah Creek include (from mouth to headwaters) U.S. Highway 195, Latah Creek Road, Spangle-Waverly Road, Washington State Route 27
State Route 27 (SR 27) is a state highway serving Whitman and Spokane counties, located in the eastern region of the U.S. state of Washington. The highway travels generally north from U.S. Route 195 (US 195) through Pul ...
, and Idaho State Route 95. There are no dams on the mainstem of Latah Creek.
Agricultural land use covers of the Latah Creek watershed, followed by of forest. Urban areas within the Latah Creek basin cover only . Because of its importance as a tributary to the Spokane, the pollution in Latah Creek directly affects the Spokane downstream of their confluence. The only Spokane River tributary larger or equal in size to Latah Creek is the Little Spokane River
The Little Spokane River is a major tributary of the Spokane River, approximately long, in eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a rural area of forested foothills and a farming valley north of the city of Spokane along the Idaho– ...
, which joins about downstream of Latah Creek.[ Although there are larger tributaries upstream of ]Coeur d'Alene Lake
Lake Coeur d'Alene, officially Coeur d'Alene Lake ( ), is a natural dam-controlled lake in North Idaho, located in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. At its northern end is the city of Coeur d'Alene. It spans in length and range ...
, the source of the Spokane River (including the St. Joe River and the Coeur d'Alene River
The Coeur d'Alene River flows from the Silver Valley into Lake Coeur d'Alene in the U.S. state of Idaho. The stream continues out of Lake Coeur d'Alene as the Spokane River.
Before the Bunker Hill Smelter in the Kellogg area, which mined lead a ...
) those do not directly feed the Spokane.
Streamflow
Streamflow in Latah Creek is highly variable, with the creek tending to flood in the winter and spring, and diminishing to almost completely dry in the summer. The creek typically does not totally dry up, however, due to agricultural return flows. The monthly average is , while winter and spring peak flows top on average.
The highest recorded peak flow at the creek's mouth in Spokane was on 1 January 1997, closely followed by a flow of on 3 February 1963.
The lowest recorded peak flow was in 1994.[
]
History
In 1854, Latah Creek received its other name, Hangman Creek, which stayed for over a century and a half. According to legend, a Palouse Indian named Qualchan
Qualchan (died September 24, 1858) was a 19th-century Yakama chieftain who participated in the Yakama War with his cousin Kamiakin and other chieftains.
Qualchan was born into the We-ow-icht family, reputed to have come from the stars. His spiri ...
, discovered a cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...
outpost while traveling alone. He was said to have prayed to the god of the mist to disarm the camp's sentries, and as a result, it began to snow, and when the snow had changed into a blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong sustained winds and low visibility, lasting for a prolonged period of time—typically at least three or four hours. A ground blizzard is a weather condition where snow is not falling b ...
, Qualchan led the whites' horses out of the camp, and took them to his camp on the Columbia River
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...
. The Indians later rediscovered the whites' camp, only to find that they had left.[ His war party was later discovered, and after a brief ]war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
, called the "George Wright War", "Spokane- Coeur d'Aléne War", or "Big Fight", Qualchan and six other Palouses were captured and hanged along Latah Creek, giving it its now more commonly used name, Hangman Creek. On 5 October of that year, four more Indians were hanged alongside the creek. In November, 33 Indian hostages were released, ending the war. In the aftermath, the Washington State government and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the federal govern ...
have frequently disagreed on the name of the creek. While Washington State, specifically Spokane County, claims and refers to the creek as Latah, the Board and local residents still refers to the creek as Hangman.[
A single known bog lay beside Latah Creek for many tens of thousands of years, dating from the previous ]Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gree ...
. This bog was discovered in May 1876 by a homesteader
Homestead may refer to:
*Homestead (buildings), a farmhouse and its adjacent outbuildings; by extension, it can mean any small cluster of houses
* Homestead (unit), a unit of measurement equal to 160 acres
* Homestead principle, a legal concept ...
, Benjamin Coplen, who found what seemed to be a gigantic bone in the peat
Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...
-covered water. Coplen then located a vertebra
The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...
of similarly large scale, and a shoulder blade. The bog was quickly drained, and an enormous quantity of bones were discovered. The shoulder blade and vertebra were later determined to be that of a woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...
. Nearby homesteaders William and Thomas Donahoe also drained a similar bog, and located more bones and a skull. These bones, along with those from the Coplen bog, were delivered first to other cities in Washington State for exhibition. The original mammoth skeleton was later delivered to the Chicago Academy of Sciences
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
, and then the Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational ...
of Chicago. It was later proposed that the Missoula Floods
The Missoula floods (also known as the Spokane floods or the Bretz floods or Bretz's floods) were cataclysmic glacial lake outburst floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ...
were responsible for depositing a "bathtub ring" in the channeled scablands
The Channeled Scablands are a relatively barren and soil-free region of interconnected relict and dry flood channels, coulees and cataracts eroded into Palouse loess and the typically flat-lying basalt flows that remain after cataclysmic floods ...
of Washington and Idaho, including in this particular bog.
Fishes
It was said that in the early 19th century, Latah Creek was a clear and pristine stream that provided suitable habitat for anadromous
Fish migration is mass relocation by fish from one area or body of water to another. Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousan ...
fish. However, the creek was shallow and slow-moving naturally, and was not an important habitat for these fish. The primary fishes of Latah Creek were sucker
Sucker may refer to:
General use
* Lollipop or sucker, a type of confection
* Sucker (slang), a slang term for a very gullible person
* Hard candy
** Cough drop
** Mint (candy)
Biology
* Sucker (botany), a term for a shoot that arises undergro ...
and whitefish. Because of the aridity of its basin and the increasing pollution in Latah Creek and many of its tributaries, it is no longer a productive watershed for fishes and other aquatic species. Even as early as 1892, Latah Creek was described as
At the time of the 1892–93 sampling, there were two fishes that have apparently become extinct between then and 1974. The Bridgelip sucker
The bridgelip sucker (''Catostomus columbianus'') is a fish in the family Catostomidae that occupies the Columbia River system. Like all sucker fish, they live only in fresh water. Bridgelip suckers have a tendency to live in deeper waters duri ...
and Chiselmouth
The chiselmouth (''Acrocheilus alutaceus'') is an unusual cyprinid fish of western North America. It is named for the sharp hard plate on its lower jaw, which is used to scrape rocks for algae. It is the sole member of the monotypic genus ''Acroch ...
have disappeared in that time period. In the inventory taken by Gilbert and Evermann (1892) there were many species of suckers, some of which are still present in the creek today. The Native American variant name ''Snt'ut'u'lmkhwkwe'' is known to mean "Suckers in the Water",[ which implies that the sucker are likely the primary fish of Latah Creek.
]
See also
*List of rivers of Washington
This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of Washington.
By drainage basin
This list is arranged by drainage basin. Respective tributaries are indented under each larger stream's name and are ordered downstream to upstream.
Fraser River (Britis ...
*List of longest streams of Idaho
A total of seventy streams that are at least long flow through the U.S. state of Idaho. All of these streams originate in the United States except the Kootenai River (third-longest) and the Moyie River (thirty-first-longest), both of which beg ...
References
Works cited
*Ruby, Robert H.; Brown, John A (1988). ''Indians of the Pacific Northwest: A History.'' University of Oklahoma Press. .
*Frey, Rodney (2001). ''Landscape traveled by coyote and crane: The world of the Schitsu'umsh (Coeur d'Aléne Indians).'' University of Washington. .
{{authority control
Rivers of Washington (state)
Rivers of Idaho
Rivers of Benewah County, Idaho