Fifteenmile Creek is a long 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 ...

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 ...

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. It drains of Hood River and Wasco counties. Arising in 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, ...

near

Mount Hood Mount Hood is a potentially active stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the Pacific coast and rests in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located about east-southeast of Portl ...

, it flows northeast then west to its confluence with the Columbia near

The Dalles The Dalles is the largest city of Wasco County, Oregon, United States. The population was 16,010 at the 2020 census, and it is the largest city on the Oregon side of the Columbia River between the Portland Metropolitan Area, and Hermiston ...

. It was named "fifteenmile" because in pioneer days the main road crossed the creek about from The Dalles.

Course

Fifteenmile Creek's

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 ...

are near Lookout Mountain in the Cascade Range, east of Mount Hood. It flows northeast, crossing into Wasco County and gathering small tributaries such as Ramsey Creek and Pine Creek. Traveling through the city of Dufur, the creek is crossed by Highway 197. Fifteenmile Creek receives Dry Creek on the

right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

downstream of Dufur, turning north. It then flows west, receiving Eightmile Creek on 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 * ...

while paralleling the Columbia River. The creek is crossed by Interstate 84/

Highway 30 The following highways are numbered 30: International * Asian Highway 30 * European route E30 Australia * Albany Highway (State Route 30, Western Australia) Brazil * BR-030 Canada * Alberta Highway 30 (defunct) * British Columbia Highway 3 ...

just before its mouth. It flows into the Columbia approximately above its confluence with the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

Watershed

Fifteenmile Creek drains of the

Columbia Plateau The Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Col ...

region of Oregon. Fifteen percent of the watershed is located in Mount Hood National Forest and therefore owned by the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...

, while the remaining eighty-five percent is privately owned. Elevations in the watershed range from at the summit of Lookout Mountain to at the creek's mouth.

Fish

Several species of

anadromous fish 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 ...

inhabit streams in the watershed, including

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 ...

, Pacific lamprey, chinook and

coho salmon The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family (biology), family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientif ...

. Fifteenmile Creek is the easternmost tributary of the Columbia home to winter steelhead. Fifteenmile Creek coho salmon populations are within the Lower Columbia River Coho Evolutionary Significant Unit and are listed as threatened (2011). Populations have declined in recent years, due to a combination of overfishing, an increase of hydroelectric dams, and general worsening of habitat conditions.

References

External Links

{{authority control Rivers of Hood River County, Oregon Rivers of Wasco County, Oregon Rivers of Oregon Wild and Scenic Rivers of the United States

Course

Watershed

Fish

See also

References

External Links