The Spokane River is a tributary of 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 ...

, approximately long, in northern

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 ...

and eastern

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 ...

in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the

Spokane Valley The Spokane Valley is a valley of the Spokane River through the southern Selkirk Mountains in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. The valley is home to the cities of Spokane and its suburbs Spokane Valley, Washington, Spokane Valley ...

and the city of

Spokane, Washington 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 Canada ...

Description

The Spokane River drains the northern part of

Lake Coeur d'Alene 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 ...

in the

Idaho Panhandle The Idaho Panhandle—locally known as North Idaho—is a salient region of the U.S. state of Idaho encompassing the state's 10 northernmost counties: Benewah, Bonner, Boundary, Clearwater, Idaho, Kootenai, Latah, Lewis, Nez Perce, and Shosh ...

, emptying into the

Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake (also called Lake Roosevelt) is the reservoir created in 1941 by the impoundment of the Columbia River by the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state. It is named for Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was president during the con ...

, approximately downstream.National Research Council, 2005
p. 92
/ref> From Lake Coeur d'Alene, the Spokane River traverses the

Rathdrum Prairie The Rathdrum Prairie is a flat in the U.S. state of Idaho. The prairie contains the cities of Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Rathdrum, State Line, and Huetter. The prairie also contains part of the Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie Aquife ...

until reaching

Post Falls, Idaho Post Falls is a city in Kootenai County, Idaho, between Coeur d'Alene and Spokane, Washington. It is a suburb of Coeur d'Alene, to the east, and a bedroom community to Spokane, to the west. The population was 38,485 at the time of the 2020 cens ...

where it passes over a

dam A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use ...

, and a natural 40-foot waterfall. Continuing westward it passes over 6 more dams, three of which (Upriver Dam, Upper Falls Dam, Monroe Street Dam) are located in the city of Spokane. In Spokane, it flows over the

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 for ...

, which are located in the heart of

Downtown Spokane Downtown Spokane or Riverside is the central business district of Spokane, Washington. The Riverside neighborhood is roughly bounded by I-90 to the south, Division Street to the east, Monroe Street to the west and Boone Avenue to the north. The t ...

, approximately one third of the way down the river's length. About a mile later, the river receives

Latah Creek Latah Creek ( ), also known as Hangman Creek, is a large stream in eastern Washington and north central Idaho in the United States. The creek flows northwest from the Rocky Mountains to Spokane, where it empties into the Spokane River. It drains ...

from the southeast. Soon afterwards, it is met from the northeast by 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– ...

, on the western edge of the city of Spokane. It flows in a zigzag course along the southern edge of the

Selkirk Mountains The Selkirk Mountains are a mountain range spanning the northern portion of the Idaho Panhandle, eastern Washington, and southeastern British Columbia which are part of a larger grouping of mountains, the Columbia Mountains. They begin at Mica Pe ...

, forming the southern boundary of the

Spokane Indian Reservation The Spokan or Spokane people are a Native American Plateau tribe who inhabit the eastern portion of present-day Washington state and parts of northern Idaho in the United States of America. The current Spokane Indian Reservation is located in ...

, where it is impounded by the

Long Lake Dam Long Lake Dam is a concrete gravity dam on the Spokane River, between Lincoln County and Stevens County about northwest of Spokane in eastern Washington. It forms Long Lake (Washington), a long reservoir, and has a hydroelectric generating cap ...

to form Long Lake, a reservoir. It joins

on the Columbia from the east at

Miles The mile, sometimes the international mile or statute mile to distinguish it from other miles, is a British imperial unit and United States customary unit of distance; both are based on the older English unit of length equal to 5,280 English ...

. The site of historic

Fort Spokane Fort Spokane was a frontier outpost in the northwest United States, located in Lincoln County, Washington, approximately west-northwest of Spokane. At the confluence of the Columbia and Spokane rivers, the U.S. Army post was used to ...

is located at the confluence of the Spokane and Columbia rivers. The Spokane River's entire

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...

is about large, of which are above Post Falls Dam at the outlet of Coeur d'Alene Lake. Its mean annual discharge is .

Human use

Until the 18th century, the Coeur d'Alene (Schḭtsu'umsh) and

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 ...

Native Americans (along with other

Salish peoples The Salish peoples are indigenous peoples of the American and Canadian Pacific Northwest, identified by their use of the Salish languages which diversified out of Proto-Salish between 3,000 and 6,000 years ago. The term “Salish” originated in ...

) used to live and travel along the banks of the Spokane River. In 1807, David Thompson was the first European to cross 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 ...

and explore the area. Today, the

Spokane metropolitan area The Spokane–Spokane Valley Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of Spokane and Stevens counties in Washington state, anchored by the city of Spokane and its largest suburb, Spo ...

(population 573,493) is the largest human settlement on the banks of the Spokane River. The metropolitan area of Coeur d'Alene (pop. 170,628) is immediately to the east and upstream of the Spokane metropolitan area. The Spokane River and Lake Coeur d'Alene are the primary sources of recharge for the

Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer The Spokane Valley–Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer is an aquifer in the northwest United States, located in eastern Washington and northern Idaho. The aquifer is centralized under Spokane Valley and the Rathdrum Prairie, hence the name; it conta ...

, which is the primary source of drinking water for each of these settlements.National Research Council, 2005
p. 93
/ref>

Pollution

The Spokane River contains some of the highest concentrations of heavy metals of any river in the state, resulting from pollution coming from

Lake Coeur D'Alene 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 traveling from the

Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting Complex The Bunker Hill Mine and Smelting Complex (colloquially the Bunker Hill smelter) was a large smelter located in Kellogg, Idaho, in the Coeur d'Alene Basin. When built, it was the largest smelting facility in the world.National Research Council, 20 ...

Superfund site Superfund sites are polluted locations in the United States requiring a long-term response to clean up hazardous material contaminations. They were designated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERC ...

. Spokane's

sewage treatment Sewage treatment (or domestic wastewater treatment, municipal wastewater treatment) is a type of wastewater treatment which aims to remove contaminants from sewage to produce an effluent that is suitable for discharge to the surrounding envir ...

facilities empty their outflow into the Spokane River. In 1889, Spokane built a sewage system that dumped raw sewage directly into the river, which was visibly noticeable by 1920. In 1957 a primary treatment facility was installed; however, this was soon deemed inadequate by the

Washington State Department of Ecology The Washington State Department of Ecology (sometimes referred to simply as "Ecology") is the state of Washington's environmental regulatory agency. Created in February 1970, it was the first environmental regulation agency in the U.S. predating ...

. This led to the construction of a more advanced treatment plant that utilized chemical precipitation technology, which was connected in 1975, and operational by 1977.

Fish habitat

After the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whic ...

lines arrived in Spokane in 1882, there was rapid growth in milling operations along the river. Many of these mills required dams to provide power for their machinery. As a result of the dams blocking the river, salmon populations in the Spokane plummeted, leading to complaints from many of the people living upstream. After the construction of Little Falls Dam in 1910 by Washington Water Power blocked upstream passage, the river's salmon populations disappeared completely.Fahey, John (1991); "Power Plays: The Enigma of Little Falls," ''Pacific Northwest Quarterly'' 82, no.4 (October 1991), 122–131.

Steelhead Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...

were also abundant on the Spokane River, prior to pollution and the construction of the dams. Today, the Spokane River system is one of the two largest unoccupied stretches of steelhead habitat within their former range. Today, the Spokane River supports populations of

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

, northern

pikeminnow Pikeminnows, formerly squawfish, are cyprinid fish of the genus ''Ptychocheilus'' consisting of four species native to western North America. Voracious predators, they are considered an "undesirable" species in many waters, largely due to the spe ...

, and

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 ...

s (''Catostomus columbianus''), as well as several non-native species. Many of the remaining fish, however, are not suitable for human consumption due to the chemical pollution in the river, with signs alongside the river warning that the fish are contaminated with

PCBs Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are highly carcinogenic chemical compounds, formerly used in industrial and consumer products, whose production was banned in the United States by the Toxic Substances Control Act in 1979 and internationally by t ...

Crossings

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

Spokane River at nightSpokane River: 6th Most Endangered River of 2004
{{authority control Geography of Spokane, Washington Rivers of Idaho Rivers of Washington (state) Tributaries of the Columbia River Rivers of Spokane County, Washington Rivers of Lincoln County, Washington Rivers of Stevens County, Washington Rivers of Kootenai County, Idaho