The Multnomah Channel is a
distributary of the
Willamette River
The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...
. It diverges from the
main stem
In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. A ...
a few miles upstream of the main stem's confluence with the
Columbia River in
Multnomah County
Multnomah County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 815,428. Multnomah County is part of the Portland–Vancouver– Hillsboro, OR–WA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Th ...
in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
. The channel flows northwest then north around
Sauvie Island
Sauvie Island, in the U.S. state of Oregon, originally Wapato Island or Wappatoo Island, is the largest island along the Columbia River, at , and one of the largest river islands in the United States. It lies approximately ten miles northwest o ...
to meet the Columbia River near the city of
St. Helens, in
Columbia County.
Chinook people
Chinookan peoples include several groups of Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest in the United States who speak the Chinookan languages. Since at least 4000 BCE Chinookan peoples have resided along the Lower and Middle Columbia River (W ...
, the
Multnomahs, lived in villages along the channel at the time of European exploration of the Columbia River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Flanked in the 21st century by moorages, marinas, and parks, and populated by a wide variety of fish, the channel offers many opportunities for recreation.
Course
Constrained by
dike
Dyke (UK) or dike (US) may refer to:
General uses
* Dyke (slang), a slang word meaning "lesbian"
* Dike (geology), a subvertical sheet-like intrusion of magma or sediment
* Dike (mythology), ''Dikē'', the Greek goddess of moral justice
* Dikes ...
s, the channel is about one-third as wide as the lower Willamette main stem.
[Williams, pp. 205–07] U.S. Route 30
U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route in the system of the United States Numbered Highways, with the highway traveling across the northern tier of the country. With a length of , it is the third longest ...
and tracks of the
Burlington Northern Railroad run roughly parallel to the channel, and to its
left, between its source and the Multnomah–Columbia county border at about the channel's
river mile
A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle roa ...
(RM) 12.5 or river kilometer (RK) 20.1.
[ The maps, which include ]river mile
A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle roa ...
(RM) markers for the channel's entire length, involve the following quadrangles from mouth to source: Saint Helens, Sauvie Island, Linnton.
In its first , the channel receives Miller Creek from the left, then passes under
Sauvie Island Bridge
The Sauvie Island Bridge crosses the Multnomah Channel of the Willamette River near Portland, Oregon, United States. The original Parker truss bridge, built in 1950 with a main span, was replaced with a tied arch bridge with a span in 2008 due t ...
, which carries Northwest Sauvie Island Road. Below the bridge, Ennis Creek enters from the left, then McCarthy Creek from the left at RM 18 (RK 29). Further along, Johns Creek enters from the left, and then Joy Creek enters from the left where the channel leaves Multnomah County and enters Columbia County. About from the mouth, the channel flows around Coon Island. Shortly thereafter, Crane Slough, which drains Crane's Lake, and the
Gilbert River, which drains
Sturgeon Lake, enter from the right. Then the channel receives Jackson Creek from the left and Cunningham Slough from the right before flowing around Louse Island and merging with
Scappoose Bay
Scappoose Bay is a slough of Multnomah Channel, a distributary of the Willamette River, about upstream of where the channel meets the Columbia River in Columbia County, Oregon, United States.
It is surrounded by a broad wetland area full of ...
, which is on the left. St. Helens is on the left as the channel enters the Columbia, about from the larger stream's mouth on the Pacific Ocean.
A few islands, most notably
Coon Island and
Louse Island, are located within the channel.
Name and history
The channel had a variety of names before the
United States Board on Geographic Names (USBGN) agreed to ''Multnomah Channel'' in 1913.
In 1792,
William Robert Broughton
William Robert Broughton (22 March 176214 March 1821) was a British naval officer in the late 18th century. As a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, he commanded HMS ''Chatham'' as part of the Vancouver Expedition, a voyage of exploration through th ...
was the first European explorer to discover the channel. He named it ''Calls River'', probably after the English engineer
Sir John Call.
The early 19th century explorers
Lewis and Clark called it ''Wappato Inlet'' after ''Wappato Island'', the name they used for Sauvie Island.
In the 1840s, nautical surveyor
Charles Wilkes
Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842).
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he commanded ' during the ...
referred to the channel as ''Warrior Branch'' because it met the Columbia River at Warrior Point,
on the northern tip of Sauvie Island.
Before its renaming by the USBGN, the channel had become known as ''Willamette Slough''.
''Multnomah'', used by Lewis and Clark to refer to the main stem of the Willamette, is what the
Chinook people
Chinookan peoples include several groups of Indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest in the United States who speak the Chinookan languages. Since at least 4000 BCE Chinookan peoples have resided along the Lower and Middle Columbia River (W ...
living on Sauvie Island in the early 19th century called themselves.
[McArthur, pp. 683–84] Several Chinook villages with
longhouses
A longhouse or long house is a type of long, proportionately narrow, single-room building for communal dwelling. It has been built in various parts of the world including Asia, Europe, and North America.
Many were built from timber and often rep ...
occupied sites along the channel before the explorers' arrival.
Sauvie Island and its mild climate were suited to
wapato, a root vegetable, and provided access to fish and game.
A large village, one of several on the island, was situated near its southeastern tip, where the channel begins. Another village, with 28 houses and more than 1,000 residents, was sited along the west shore of Scappoose Bay near the downstream end of the channel.
Recreation
The channel offers many moorages for boats and
houseboats.
Private moorages and marinas, some with public fee-for-service boat ramps, lie along the channel between the main stem and the Sauvie Island Bridge.
Further downriver is the Sauvie Island Public Boat Ramp at RM 18 (RK 29), followed by Hadley's Landing and its tie-up and trail later.
The
Sauvie Island Wildlife Area begins at about the halfway point on the channel and extends from there to the mouth along the right bank. A major stopover for birds, it can be reached by boat from the Gilbert River Boat Ramp at RM 6 (RK 10).
Parks near the mouth include
Nob Hill Nature Park and Sand Island Marine Park at St. Helens, St. Helens Landing, Columbia View Park at Scappoose Bay, and Scappoose Bay Landing.
A productive fishery for spring
Chinook salmon
The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus '' Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ...
, the channel is also home to
sturgeon,
walleye
The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...
,
shad,
brown bullhead catfish, and other small fish, and
crayfish. The average Chinook entering the channel weighs , but some weigh as much as . Oregon's lower-Willamette health advisories on consumption of resident (non-migratory) fish, especially large bottom feeders, apply to the Multnomah Channel as well as the main stem.
[Sheehan, pp. 159–60]
See also
*
List of longest streams of Oregon
Seventy-seven rivers and creeks of at least 50 miles (80 km) in total length are the longest streams of the U.S. state of Oregon. All of these streams originate in the United States except the longest, the Columbia, which begins in the ...
*
List of rivers of Oregon
This is a partial listing of rivers in the state of Oregon, United States. This list of Oregon rivers is organized alphabetically and by tributary structure. The list may also include streams known as creeks, brooks, forks, branches and prongs, as ...
References
Works cited
* McArthur, Lewis A.; McArthur, Lewis L. (2003)
928
Year 928 (Roman numerals, CMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* King Rudolph of France, Rudolph I loses the support of Herbert II, Count of ...
''Oregon Geographic Names'' (7th ed.). Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical Society Press. .
* Sheehan, Madelynne Diness (2005). ''Fishing in Oregon: The Complete Oregon Fishing Guide'', 10th edition. Scappoose, Oregon: Flying Pencil Publications. .
* Williams, Travis (2009). ''The Willamette River Field Guide''. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. .
{{authority control
Rivers of Columbia County, Oregon
Rivers of Multnomah County, Oregon
Rivers of Oregon
Willamette River