The Wenatchee River is a river 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 ...

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 ...

, originating at Lake Wenatchee and flowing southeast for , emptying into 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 ...

immediately north of

Wenatchee, Washington Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and largest city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and was estimated to have increased to 34,360 as of 2019. Located in the north-central part ...

. On its way it passes the towns of

Plain In geography, a plain is a flat expanse of land that generally does not change much in elevation, and is primarily treeless. Plains occur as lowlands along valleys or at the base of mountains, as coastal plains, and as plateaus or uplands ...

, Leavenworth, Peshastin, Dryden, Cashmere,

Monitor Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West ...

, and

Wenatchee Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and largest city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and was estimated to have increased to 34,360 as of 2019. Located in the north-central part ...

, all within Chelan County. The river attracts kayaking and river rafting enthusiasts and tourism. Tributaries include the

Chiwawa River The Chiwawa River is a tributary of the Wenatchee River, in the U.S. state of Washington. It is completely contained within Chelan County. Much of the Chiwawa River's drainage basin is designated national forest and wilderness. The upper Chiwa ...

, Nason Creek, Peshastin Creek, and

Icicle Creek Icicle Creek is a nonNavigable stream in the U.S. state of Washington. It originates at Josephine Lake near the crest of the Cascade Range and flows generally east to join the Wenatchee River near Leavenworth. Icicle Creek's drainage basin is ...

. Its

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, ...

is in area.

History

Historically the dividing line between

Okanogan County Okanogan County () is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington along the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. border. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population w ...

and

Kittitas County Kittitas County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. At the 2020 census, its population was 44,337. Its county seat and largest city is Ellensburg. The county was created in November 1883 when it was carved out of Yakima ...

, the river has been in the center of Chelan County since the county's formation around 1899. Water from the Wenatchee River and its tributaries has been diverted for irrigation since 1891, mainly for orchards. There are two small dams on the Wenatchee River, the Tumwater Canyon Dam, which sits just west of the community of Leavenworth, and the Dryden dam, a low-head dam situated just outside the town of Dryden. The Tumwater Canyon dam originally provided power to the original -long railroad tunnel used near Stevens Pass to get trains across the Cascade Mountains, it was later (starting in 1928) used to power the railroad's electrification from Wenatchee to Skykomish.

Pollution

Toxic chemicals banned decades ago in

continue to linger in the environment and concentrate in the

food chain A food chain is a linear network of links in a food web starting from producer organisms (such as grass or algae which produce their own food via photosynthesis) and ending at an apex predator species (like grizzly bears or killer whales), de ...

, threatening people and the environment, according to three recent studies by the Washington state Department of Ecology. In 2007, the

Washington Department of Health The Washington State Department of Health is a state agency of Washington. It is headquartered in Olympia, Washington. The agency was created by the state legislature in May 1989 after splitting from the Washington State Department of Social and ...

advised the public to not eat mountain whitefish from the Wenatchee River from Leavenworth downstream to where the river joins the Columbia, due to unhealthy levels of PCBs.

References

External links

* {{authority control Wenatchee, Washington Rivers of Washington (state) Tributaries of the Columbia River Rivers of Chelan County, Washington

History

Pollution

See also

References

External links