Join us for our next River History Tour: June 13

Hosted by Kootenai Environmental Alliance (KEA) & Sierra Club’s Spokane River-Lake Coeur d’Alene Team

Join us on June 13 for a Historical Watershed Tour, starting at the birthplace of the Spokane River at Lake Coeur d’Alene and ending at the Cataldo Mission. Some of the West’s most important history happened here in our home watershed. You’ll hear the stories and learn about what you can do to help with restoring our lake and rivers to health.

To register, click here (June 13th is a Sierra Club Outing, and the registration includes a liability release form)

The day:

8:30am Welcome, housekeeping
9-10am Coeur d’Alene Tribe representative: lake history and current issues (Cedar’s Restaurant parking lot).
11-12:30 BEIPC (Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission) representative: mining pollution and cleanup at Burke, followed by a completed cleanup project at Nine Mile.
1-2pm Brown bag lunch in Smelterville Park; Dr. Osborn on baghouse fire and lead poisoning, followed by Panhandle Health District on lead testing.
2:30-3:30pm Cataldo Mission: Janet Torline on forestry issues, followed by The Rev Tom Soeldner on ethics

Bring:

a sack lunch (we’ll have lunch at Smelterville’s public park),
drinking water,
comfortable walking shoes, and
appropriate clothing for the day’s weather.

We will travel by carpool.

Your Homework:

Our 7-8 hours together on June 13th will be more meaningful if you make the time to watch the slide program (below) first. Slides are best viewed on a desktop computer or laptop using Chrome or Firefox. Covering 10,000 years of watershed history takes time, so give yourself about an hour.

Contacts:

Janet Torline, KEA [email protected]
Greg Sletten, Sierra Club [email protected]
John Osborn, Sierra Club [email protected]

Riches, Wreckage, Recovery

Lessons from the Spokane River - Lake Coeur d'Alene Watershed

Table of Contents

(1) MANIFEST DESTINY

Salmon - Salmon People

Missoula Floods

The Great Missoula Floods were a series of catastrophic, cyclical glacial lake outburst floods that occurred roughly 15,000–18,000 years ago, shaping the Northwest landscape.

Missoula floods created an aquifer

The Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie (SVRP) Aquifer is primarily significant as the sole source of drinking water for over 500,000 to 600,000 residents across Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. Its high productivity, geological history, and extreme vulnerability to contamination make it one of the most critical and protected water resources in the United States.

Salmon

The Spokane River's salmon runs were rich. The Spokane flows to the Columbia River, the earth's greatest salmon river. From time immemorial, salmon supported Indigenous people who lived with, and depended on the rivers. For the Spokane River, we know these people as the Spokane Tribe and Coeur d'Alene Tribe. While the City of Spokane is relatively new, people have been living here and depending on salmon for about 8,000 years based on an archaeologic site below Spokane Falls -- at the confluence of Hangman Creek and the Spokane River (now People’s Park).

Rivers of Life: Salmon & Salmon People

Salmon Chief, base of Spokane Falls.

First Contact

First came the pandemics, epidemics

Before Lewis & Clark and David Thompson came the microbes, unleashed into the western hemisphere and Indigenous people with no immunity. Smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, dysentery, and other infectious diseases devastated Indigenous populations causing population declines of up to 90% in many regions. Massive death was also a cultural disaster that led to the permanent loss of traditional knowledge and the consolidation or disappearance of entire villages. Compare that with the recent COVID pandemic with a global case fatality rate often cited around 3.4% that killed about 1.2 million people in the United States. Microbes change the course of human history.

Next came the explorers

Spokane House, a fur-trading center established in 1810 by David Thompson at the confluence of the Spokane and Little Spokane Rivers was the first permanent Euro-American settlement in the future Washington State. David Thompson acted to secure the Spokane River region for Great Britain (and by extension, British North America/Canada). As a partner and explorer for the North West Company (a Montreal-based fur trading company), his actions were intended to establish British territorial claims against American expansion.

Then came the missionaries

CATALDO MISSION. Jesuit missionaries and Coeur d'Alene tribal members started building the Cataldo Mission (Mission of the Sacred Heart) in 1850, four years after the Oregon Treaty. Completed in 1853, 10 years before President Lincoln established the Idaho territory, it is the state's oldest standing building. The Cataldo Mission served as a critical hub for trade, peace negotiations, and cultural exchanges, representing both a spiritual center and a key, early structure in Pacific Northwest history. It remains an island of cleanliness in a sea of mining pollution.

Political Lines Across Rivers

Oregon Treaty of 1846

The Treaty negotiated between far-away governments in Washington DC and London, solidified U.S. ownership of the Pacific Northwest, fulfilling a key "Manifest Destiny" goal of continental expansion from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The decision has enduring impacts on Indigenous communities and transboundary waters.

1846 Oregon Treaty

Drawing state lines across rivers

Creating the Idaho Territory, 1863

The Idaho Panhandle's inclusion in Idaho rather than Washington was largely the result of a political power struggle between rival factions in the early 1860s. While the panhandle is geographically isolated from southern Idaho, it became part of the new Idaho Territory in 1863 because leaders in western Washington wanted to ensure their own political dominance. In the early 1860s, a massive influx of miners to the Clearwater gold fields in North Idaho threatened the political balance of the Washington Territory, which then included all of modern-day Idaho.

President Cleveland's veto seals fate of the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene

President Grover Cleveland pocket-vetoed the 1887 bill to attach the Idaho Panhandle to a new Washington State for at least two reasons: (1) to keep the Idaho territory unified, thereby preventing southern Idaho becoming part of Nevada, and (2) to prevent the creation of another, potentially Mormon-influenced state, ensuring Idaho remained intact with a non-Mormon majority in the north to balance the south.

Washington 1889 | Idaho 1890: cleaving the watershed.

War

The 1858 War

Coeur d'Alene War, 1858

The Cataldo Mission was only five years old when illegal colonial expansion into tribal lands triggered the 1858 War or Coeur d'Alene War, part of the Yakima War that started in 1855. Battles included Tohotonimme (also called Battle of Steptoe Butte or the Steptoe Disaster), May 17; Four Lakes, Sept 1; and Spokane Plains, Sept 5. The war was a critical turning point in the Inland Northwest, resulting in the defeat of a tribal alliance (Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, Palouse) by U.S. forces. The military campaign of Colonel George Wright with vastly superior weaponry ended regional native resistance, forced tribes onto reservations, and secured the region for white settlement as part of the U.S.'s perceived Manifest Destiny.

U.S. Army slaughters 800 horses

Wright's Horse Slaughter Camp

U.S. forces rounded up 800-900 horses belonging to the Palouse, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene tribes, and slaughtered them over three days, September 8-10, 1858. For decades, the bones of the horses would remain visible along the Spokane River's banks. Colonel Wright also ordered his troops to destroy the tribes' food stores needed for winter. The horse slaughter was a "scorched-earth" tactic or "total war" repeated six years later in 1864 by General Sherman in his Civil War "march to the sea" that included burning Atlanta. Colonel Wright's 1858 War atrocities are not forgotten.

Peace - at a terrible cost

The Jesuits at the Cataldo Mission played a critical role as intermediaries in brokering peace between Colonel George Wright and the Coeur d'Alene (Schitsu'umsh) tribe in 1858. Father Joset, who served the Coeur d'Alene people, actively sought a meeting with the U.S. government to prevent the total destruction of the tribe. Peace treaty negotiations were held at the Cataldo Mission. While the Jesuits successfully facilitated the end of active warfare, the peace came on Wright’s harsh terms, which ultimately led to the region's tribes being forced onto reservations.

Killing tribal leaders

Hanging Qualchan.

Hanging Qualchan: Hangman Creek

After leaving peace negotiations at the Cataldo Mission, Colonel Wright headed south. Wright captured and held Chief Owhi, a Yakama leader who came under a white flag to negotiate a peace. Wright threatened to kill Owhi unless the son, Qualchan, came. Qualchan, a Yakama chief, arrived to negotiate for peace and the release of his father. According to Wright, Qualchan arrived at 9:00 AM and was "hung" by 9:15 AM: a summary execution without a trial or formal hearing. The hanging occurred along Latah Creek, renamed "Hangman Creek." U.S. soldiers shot and killed Chief Owhi several days later.

War's living legacy

The Coeur d’Alene people inhabited approximately four million acres of land across what is now North Idaho, Eastern Washington, and Western Montana. After the 1858 war, the tribe was restricted to the Coeur d'Alene Reservation, established by Executive Order in 1873: 600,000 acres, later reduced in 1889 to 345,000 acres. Malnutrition, disease, and death came with the loss of traditional hunting and gathering grounds. The Allotment Act of 1909 further fragmented the reservation, opening "unused" lands to white settlers. By 1921, only four Coeur d'Alene families were able to continue productive farming on their allotments. Opening tribal lands to white settlement and mining in the Silver Valley dumped 72 million tons of toxic mine waste into the Coeur d’Alene watershed, devastating the local ecosystem and the tribe's primary water resources.

Railroads

Railroads transformed Spokane from a remote outpost into a pivotal 19th-century industrial hub, connecting the Inland Northwest to national markets and accelerating regional mining, timber, and agricultural growth. As a major transcontinental crossroads, Spokane’s economy and urbanization were driven by rail access. The 1864 Northern Pacific RR Land Grant is the legal basis for nearly half the region's land titles, profoundly impacting land ownership.

Railroad Land Grants

Railroad Land Grants 1850-1871

180 million acres, about 10% of the "continental" U.S.: Congress and states designated lands for financing, building, and operating railroads, including the "transcontinental railroads." President Lincoln, a former railroad lawyer, signed the 1862 Pacific Railway Act creating the Union Pacific RR and the 1864 Northern Pacific Land Grant. Lands were conditionally granted in alternating square-mile sections creating vast swaths of "checkerboard lands." The checkerboard estates intended to promote the public interest and welfare. However, RR land grants' legal requirements were ignored and violated. These massive checkerboard estates became a source of enormous wealth for a few. Congress and Presidents took action, including to "revest" or take back the RR grant lands.

Northern Pacific RR Land Grant 1864

At 40 million acres, the NP RR Land Grant stretched from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, creating a swath of checkerboard up to 120 miles wide and 2000 miles long. Standing on the tracks in downtown Spokane, you can look north 60 miles and south 60 miles to understand the enormity of what Congress and President Lincoln set in motion. Many lands intended for homesteaders ended up in the hands of major corporations and became a major chapter in the looting of the public domain: America's "Great Barbecue."

Checkerboard estate, Northern Pacific RR Land Grant

The law created a checkerboard of alternating square-mile sections up to 120 miles wide and 2,000 miles long from Lake Superior to Puget Sound.

1864 NP RR Land Grant

St. Joe River checkboard legacy

Mt. Rainier National Park - what cost?

In 1899, timber interests and the Northern Pacific Railroad (NP) utilized a specific provision in the Mount Rainier National Park Act to "block up"—or consolidate—their holdings. NP RR controlled by JP Morgan and James J Hill used "Mt. Rainier scrip" to exchange low-value "rocks and ice" for high-value timberlands in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Within months, Hill sold 900,000 acres of the NP RR grant lands/ Mt. Rainier scrip to his St. Paul next-door neighbor, Frederick Weyerhaeuser. This deal provided the foundational acreage for the Weyerhaeuser Company's massive timber empire in the Pacific Northwest, including Potlatch (incorporated 1903) in north Idaho, and Boise Payette (later Boise Cascade, 1913) in south Idaho.

Living Legacy of Congress's 1864 Northern Pacific Railroad Land Grant

Northern Pacific tracks come to Spokane Falls

In 1881, crews laid tracks to the village of Spokane Falls and, in 1883, completed building the transcontinental NP railroad. The waterfalls provided energy and the name for the village of Spokane Falls. The new city incorporated in 1881 with a population of 500-1000. Within thirty years, with four transcontinental railroads and mineral, logging, and agricultural wealth flowing, Spokane's population had reached 100,000. Spokane exploded into a wide-open frontier city in a region where fortunes were being made.

Spokane

After Spokane Falls' great fire of 1889, the Northern Pacific RR train station was rebuilt in 1890 (shown here in 1926). In 1891, the city dropped "Falls" from its name to become "Spokane". The old NP railroad station servicing Amtrak's Empire Builder was remodeled in 1994 to allow buses to share the station, creating an intermodal facility. (courtesy, Spokesman Review)

Four transcontinental railroads converge on Spokane

Spokane earned its reputation as the "Imperial City" of the Inland Northwest ("Inland Empire") by serving as a major transportation hub for four transcontinental railroads, connecting the city to major commerce centers across the United States and Canada. The four transcontinentals and the dates they came to Spokane: (1) Northern Pacific Railway (NP): 1881; (2) Great Northern Railway (GN): 1892, founded by James J. Hill; (3) Union Pacific Railroad (UP): 1880s; and (4) The Milwaukee Road): 1914.

St. Joe River country and the Milwaukee Road: Avery, Idaho

Avery, Idaho, is a historic town nestled in the upper St. Joe River country, once a bustling hub of railroad activity, logging, and frontier life. Established in the early 1900s, Avery became a key division point for the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad (Milwaukee Road). It was where electric locomotives were switched for steam or diesel engines, making it a vital stop on the transcontinental rail line. At its peak, Avery boasted a train depot, hotels, a school, and even a baseball field, serving as a lively center for railroad workers and their families. (Source: https://averydepot.weebly.com/history.html)

Railroads through the Coeur d'Alene

In the Coeur d’Alene mining district, Northern Pacific Railway (NP) and Union Pacific Railroad (UP) competed to haul mineral wealth. NP reached the mines via a combination of rail, lake steamers, and narrow-gauge tracks before laying track from Montana into Wallace. UP followed the Coeur d'Alene River from the west, eventually reaching Mullan. Today, much of this former right-of-way has been converted into the 73-mile Trail of the Coeur d'Alenes. The Northern Pacific Depot in Wallace now serves as a museum dedicated to this history.

Mining, Pollution

Mining's Riches & Wreckage

Idaho's Silver Valley, located along the South Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River, is historically significant as one of the world's largest and most productive mining districts, while simultaneously being one of the largest and most complex Superfund pollution sites in the United States. Since the 1880s, it has produced over 1.2 billion ounces of silver, along with massive quantities of lead and zinc -- and mine pollution.

Mining's Riches & Wreckage

Burke Canyon, Hecla Mine

The Hecla Mining Company, founded in 1891 in Idaho’s Silver Valley, is significant as the oldest NYSE-listed precious metals mining company in North America and currently the largest primary silver producer in the U.S. and Canada. It has been central to Idaho's mining history for over 130 years, transitioning from its namesake lead-silver mine to operating major, modern operations like the Lucky Friday and Greens Creek mines.

Uncle Bunker: the Bunker Hill Smelter

The Bunker Hill lead smelter in Kellogg, Idaho (1917-1981) was historically significant as one of the world’s largest smelting complexes, producing one-third of the nation’s lead and half its silver at its peak. However, the Bunker Hill smelter is also remembered for producing the worst childhood blood-lead poisoning event in U.S. history.

Mining's Riches: Patsy Clark Mansion, Spokane

Patrick "Patsy" Clark (1851–1915) was a prominent Irish-born mining pioneer, engineer, and entrepreneur who co-founded the Hecla Mining Company. His mansion, built in 1897-1898 in Spokane, Washington, is significant as one of the Pacific Northwest’s most opulent examples of Gilded Age architecture, designed by renowned architect Kirtland Cutter. Its 27 rooms featured extraordinary craftsmanship, including Italian sandstone, imported wood, and Tiffany chandeliers, symbolizing the wealth generated by the regional mining boom.

Riches: Guggenheim Museums

The Guggenheim museum empire is funded by, and built upon, a massive 19th-century American mining and smelting fortune. Meyer Guggenheim and his sons amassed immense wealth through mining and smelting, including the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) before pivoting to philanthropy. ASARCO was heavily involved in Idaho's Silver Valley in mining and pollution.

Coeur d'Alene Labor Wars, 1892

The Coeur d'Alene labor wars (1892, 1899) were violent conflicts in Idaho’s mining region between unionized miners and mining companies, often escalating into battles involving the National Guard and federal troops. Triggered by wage cuts, unsafe conditions, and union-busting efforts, the struggles saw strikers dynamite mines, resulting in martial law and mass arrests in "bullpens". In the 1892 Strike, miners fought back against wage reductions and the use of Pinkerton spies. The conflict escalated with a dramatic explosion of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mining company’s boarding house, leading to the deployment of federal troops and a federal investigation.

Labor War of 1899

In the 1899 labor action, driven by continued conflict, miners seized a railroad train (the "Dynamite Express") and destroyed the Bunker Hill concentrator with 3,000 pounds of dynamite, prompting another federal intervention. The conflicts marked a turning point in labor history, influencing the formation of the radical Western Federation of Miners. The events were characterized by widespread violence, long-term imprisonment of workers, and a direct clash between corporate interests and organized labor.

Assassination of Gov. Steunenberg

The 1905 assassination of former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg was direct retaliation for his actions during the 1899 Coeur d'Alene labor war, where he declared martial law and used federal troops to suppress striking miners. Steunenberg's murder at his home was carried out by Harry Orchard, a member of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), who claimed union leadership ordered the hit to punish Steunenberg for breaking their union.

Gov. Frank Steunenberg remembered, Idaho Capitol Building

Labor, Mining Safety

91 miners die in Sunshine Mine, 1972

Sunshine Mine Disaster

In 1972, two years before Expo '74, 91 miners died underground from a fire and carbon monoxide poisoning at the Sunshine Mine. Their deaths catalyzed Congress to pass the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977. It forced comprehensive reform in mining safety, leading to the creation of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), mandatory training, and mandatory self-contained oxygen units.

Mining's Riches & Wreckage: Pollution

Mining pollution from Idaho's Coeur d'Alene district was massive, spanning over 100 years of operation, resulting in an estimated 70-100 million tons of mine waste contaminating over 150 miles of rivers, floodplains, and lakes. By the 1930s, the river was lifeless, with contamination extending to Lake Coeur d'Alene, where roughly 80 million metric tons of heavy-metal-laden sediment remain at the lake bottom. Adding nutrients to the lake risks moving lake-bottom pollution into the water column: a disaster for the lake and Spokane River.

What happened here -- and why?

Poisoning Children: Bunker Hill's Baghouse Fire

Prior to Expo '74, in September 1973, the Bunker Hill smelter baghouse burned. The baghouse, a collection of 2000 bags or sacks, reduced lead going up the smokestack. The corporate board for Gulf Resources faced a choice: operate the smelter and poison the community, or shut down. They ran the numbers and continued operating the Bunker Hill lead smelter. The result: one of the largest single lead-poisoning events in U.S. history causing some of the highest lead levels ever recorded in children.

Warning: Stop Dumping

By the 1920s with mine wastes impacting Lake Coeur d'Alene and public concern growing, state and federal governments supported a scientific study led by Dr. M.M. Ellis. The study, completed in the early 1930s, was significant because it provided the first comprehensive scientific evidence that mining wastes from the Coeur d'Alene mining district were severely polluting the Coeur d'Alene River, killing aquatic life, and rendering the water toxic to downstream livestock and waterfowl. Dr. Ellis recommended the dumping stop. It did, but not in 1933. Dumping ended 35 years later -- in 1968.

Mine Wastes, Coeur d'Alene River

Polluted waters

Hecla Mine, Canyon Creek

Suction Dredge, Cataldo Mission

The suction dredge at the Cataldo Mission, which operated from 1932 to 1968, was significant for heavily altering the Coeur d’Alene River landscape by moving approximately 34.5 million tons of mining tailings. It was part of massive efforts to dredge, transport, and store heavy metal-contaminated mining waste in "Mission Flats," leaving behind significant long-term environmental impacts in the area. While the dredge was dismantled in 1968, the contaminated tailings it moved remain in the river banks and the flats today, making it a focus for cleanup efforts.

Lead: Damaged children, dead swans

Lead is a highly significant, persistent cause of injury and a major public health concern because it is a potent neurotoxin with no known safe level of exposure. It affects virtually every organ system, with the most severe impacts being irreversible damage to the developing brains of children and chronic, long-term cardiovascular and renal damage in adults. Humans are not the only species harmed.

Lead: Damaged children, dead swans

Each spring, tundra swans migrate into the Coeur d'Alene River Valley on their migration northward. Some never leave.

Looting leads to National Forests

National Forests: why we have them

Stopping the Plunder

Our National Forests are an enduring response to the abject plunder of the public domain -- looters big and small. In 1864 work, the same year as Abraham Lincoln signed the Northern Pacific RR land grant, a seminal work on human ecology, "Man and Nature" by George Perkins Marsh, warned that continued, unchecked destruction of nature would lead to catastrophic environmental degradation, the collapse of civilizations, and eventually, a "desolate and lifeless" planet unfit for human habitation. Destroying forests leads to extremes: severe floods during rainy seasons and dried-up rivers and springs in the summer. "Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords." — George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature (1864)

Logging a continent

Dr. Hough

A physician, Dr. Franklin B. Hough, moved by "Man and Nature" and the forest destruction he witnessed in New England, published "On the Duty of Governments in the Preservation of Forests." He authored the first comprehensive American textbook on the subject, "The Elements of Forestry" (1882), and compiled the massive multi-volume "Report on Forestry" (1877), which provided the first statistical evidence of the nation's forest conditions. In 1881, he became the first head of the United States Division of Forestry, the direct predecessor to today's U.S. Forest Service.

Teddy Roosevelt & Gifford Pinchot

President Theodore Roosevelt and Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot were instrumental in creating the National Forest System. During Theodore Roosevelt's presidency (1901–1909), the National Forest System underwent a massive expansion, growing from approximately 43 million acres to about 194 million acres. Roosevelt and Pinchot imbued the fledgling, decentralized, professional US Forest Service with ethical principles and esprit de corps committed to forest conservation and public service.

Watersheds protected as National Forests: Coeur d'Alene (1906) and the St. Joe (1911)

Roosevelt & Pinchot established the Coeur d'Alene National Forest in 1906. After the great 1910 fire, areas of the Coeur d'Alene were joined with the Clearwater to create the St. Joe National Forest. Today's Idaho Panhandle National Forests (IPNF, 1973) shown in orange combines these two NFs with the Kaniksu NF. These forests are critical watersheds for rivers and lakes.

The Great 1910 Fire

The Great 1910 Fire, often called the "Big Burn" or "Big Blowup," was a massive forest fire that burned roughly 3 million acres in North Idaho, Western Montana, and parts of Washington. Massive walls of flames swept through towns, including Wallace, Idaho, shown here. Of the 85 deaths, 78 were firefighters. Ranger Pulaski saved 35 of his crew in a mine shaft, and later created a favorite firefighting tool: the pulaski.

1910: The Big Blowup

The great fire of 1910 resulted in national wildfire policy: total fire suppression known as the "10 a.m. Policy." Every wildfire must be controlled or extinguished by 10 a.m. the morning after it was first reported. Excluding fire from America's forests had adverse ecologic and economic consequences, eventually forcing change. With the deepening climate crisis, wildfire risks and costs are escalating.

Watershed protection and the U.S. Forest Service: what happened?

"Timber Basket" and Toxic Floods

At 11 miles of logging road per square mile of forest, the Coeur d’Alene National Forest has the highest road densities in the entire National Forest System. Road densities exceed 20 miles per square mile of forest in some areas. Combined with removing forest canopy, the impacts on the watershed are profound. Nearly the entire forest is located in rain-on-snow elevations: major snow accumulation then warm-winter rain storms triggering massive melting and floods. Like dominos falling, the high stream energies cause an unravelling starting at the top of the watershed and moving down, filling in pool structures. Remember what is downstream: 32 million metric tons of mine wastes on wetlands upstream from Lake Coeur d’Alene.

Confluence of rivers and histories

Confluence of the Coeur d'Alene's South Fork (right lower) and North Fork (right mid-photo). The South Fork’s dirty-dough-colored water is carrying mine wastes from the Coeur d’Alene Mining District. The North Fork runs clear in this historic photo, but Forest Service logging decisions bulldozed thousands of miles of logging roads, removing forest canopies, and aggravating floods. Mine wastes and flooding result in the Coeur d’Alene’s Toxic Floods. Thus, these two rivers symbolize a confluence of two histories: mining and logging.

Mine waste "Tailings Pond": Lake Coeur d'Alene

Floods from logging-damaged watershed forests carry massive amounts of lead and other heavy metals into Lake Coeur d’Alene. The lake has 70-80 million metric tons of mine wastes on the bottom. Floods carry significant amounts of mine wastes out of the lake and into the Spokane River and Washington State.

Damming Rivers

Dams, Reservoirs

Dams:

Spokane River and Lake Coeur d'Alene

7 Dams on the Spokane River plus Grand Coulee Dam

Dams and Rivers

There are seven dams on the Spokane, from Post Falls Dam at the outlet from Lake Coeur d’Alene to Little Falls Dam at river mile 29. All have hydroelectric generators. One, Upriver Dam, is owned and operated by the City of Spokane, and the others are owned by Avista Corp., an electricity and natural gas utility based in Spokane. The dams were built between 1890 and 1922. None has fish-passage facilities. Little Falls Dam, completed in 1911 at river mile 29, stopped the fish from returning farther upstream. Salmon continued to spawn downriver from Little Falls Dam into the late 1930s. Time immemorial salmon runs of the Spokane River ended completely when the gates closed at Grand Coulee Dam.

Impacts

Spokane River dams, combined with Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams, impacted profoundly the watershed: blocking historical fish migrations; altering natural flow patterns; dewatering Spokane Falls; flooding and trespassing on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation; depleting dissolved oxygen and raising water temperatures with algae blooms; and concentrating mining pollution, PCBs, and other pollutants in reservoir sediments.

Expo '74: Awakening

"The history of America . . . has been the story of Americans seizing, using, squandering, and belatedly protecting their natural heritage."

-- President John F. Kennedy, 1963

Expo '74: Awakening

Closing the Timber Frontier

Closing America's timber frontier

In America's history, always there was another stand of virgin forest on the other side of the ridge. So it was in New England, the pineries of the Great Lakes region, and then America's Northwest. But by the 1980s, what was on the other side of the ridge was the Pacific Ocean. The timber industry had logged a continent. What remained were forest remnants, mostly in the National Forests. America's timber frontier was at an end. Timber corporations transferred capital elsewhere in the world, leaving behind timber towns to struggle with a historic transition at the end of the timber frontier.

PROTECTING WILDERNESS

Mallard Larkins Wilderness

On the upper St. Joe and Clearwater rivers is a rugged land of blue-ribbon trout streams and elk habitat: Mallard-Larkins. Protecting this 250,000-acres wildland in the National Wilderness Preservation System had broad public support in both states. Despite multiple negotiations in Congress and within Idaho political leadership, no statewide wilderness bill for Idaho passed Congress. Mallard-Larkins proved pivotal in the discussions between the U.S. Senate and U.S. House. The failure to negotiate an Idaho Wilderness Act and fate of wildlands moved the battle to forest planning.

Forest Planning, Coeur d'Alene NF

Forest Planning, Idaho Panhandle National Forests (St. Joe, Coeur d'Alene, Kaniksu NFs)

We have forest planning in response to extensive clearcutting of America's National Forests. The Idaho Congressional delegation, notably Sen. James McClure, delayed the north Idaho forest plans, then directed the Forest Service to jack-up the allowable cut. For the public, forest planning revealed the extent of damage even while political interference devastated the ranks of the agency's professional staff. Top-down wishful thinking versus bottom-up realities of north Idaho's forested watersheds came to a head. In 1987, Conservationists appealed these politicized and timber-driven forest plans for the Idaho Panhandle, Clearwater and Nez Perce National Forests.

Walking the halls of Congress

Sen. McClure led the effort to continue providing high levels of funding to build "hard money" or taxpayer-funded roads through the National Forests. NFs in Idaho already had thousands of miles of logging roads. Conservationists took their cause to Congress: stop wasting taxpayer dollars destroying forests. Opposition to taxpayer subsidized forest destruction prompted the KING affiliates to produce a half-hour special, "Roads to Nowhere," focused on Mallard-Larkins and the way in which road-building had come to dominate the U.S. Forest Service.

BLOW-BACK

The Forest Service agreed to stop logging roadless areas on the Idaho Panhandle, but declined to stop logging streamsides. In response to this and other decisions, industry staff organized major timber rallies and a 300-logging-truck convoy down Montana's Bitterroot Valley: "the Great Northwest Log Haul of 1988". Next was a timber industry rally at Farragut State Park keynoted by the Chief of the Forest Service. Speaker Foley insisted that conservationists be given time with the Chief: a tense breakfast meeting with Q&A attended by reporters, hunters, anglers, conservationists, and retired agency staff.

CITIZENS’ FOREST WATCH

Forest Watch, Closing the Timber Frontier

The Forest Service continued pumping out massive timber sales while also working on the forest plans. Forests that provided wildlife habitat, old growth species diversity, and watersheds for fisheries, drinking water, and to hold back floods were on the chopping block. Conservation leaders - hunters, anglers, mountaineers, and others - came together to support a Citizens Forest Watch led by Barry Rosenberg and Sarah Folger hosted by the Inland Empire Public Lands Council. Forest Watch became a national model: appealing illegal and destructive timber sales and dropping the cut to levels not seen since the 1950s. One consequence: Timber politics worked to remove citizen involvement from forest decisions.

Saving ancient forests

The Upper Priest Lake ancient forests are standing today because conservationists insisted that the Forest Service stop logging these and other remnant forests in Inland Northwest forests. Suzanne Rivers (Spokane Audubon Society) and Mike Irving, leaders with the Selkirk Priest Basin Association, and other local conservation groups struggled to keep these forests standing. With growing public support, in many places, they succeeded.

Speaker Tom Foley and the Clearcut Shame Campaign

Billboards, busboards, and yard signs by the hundreds went up in Spokane calling on Rep. Tom Foley to stop the overcutting of the Colville National Forest in northeastern Washington. Foley, at the time, was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and pivotal in major political decisions impacting the future of the region's National Forests and timber industry. (Placing this yard sign is Dave Crandall, Inland Empire Public Lands Council's executive director.)

Portland Forest Summit

Forest conservationists in the Inland Northwest called on Speaker Foley to include the "non-Spotted Owl" forests in the upcoming Forest Summit held by newly elected President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore. Foley said no, and that the interior National Forests would be managed separately from the spotted owl forests. As timber cuts dropped on the westside owl forests, pressure to cut moved eastward.

Like an old landmine exploding

Liquidation of the NP RR land grant forests resulted in the checkerboard on the map becoming a reality in the forest. The clearcutting spanned from western Montana to western Washington. Timber corporations liquidating the checkerboard estate forests prompted the writing of a history of the NP RR land grant: "Railroads & Clearcuts: Legacy of Congress's 1864 Northern Pacific Railroad Land Grant."

Start with the history

Diagnosis is the first step to treatment in caring for sick patients and sick ecosystems. History is the first step to diagnosis.

Reforming Corporate Power

Corporate boards answer to their shareholders. Conservationists filed a series of shareholder resolutions, making common cause with institutional shareholders. Shareholder resolutions noted that environmental damage was symptomatic of underlying problems with corporate governance. (Bart Naylor, corporate reformer, now with Public Citizen)

Protecting wildlands

Although conservationists lost their lawsuit to protect roadless areas on the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, eventually roadless areas were protected nationwide. The 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule (often termed the Roadless Rule) is a landmark policy protecting 58.5 million acres—roughly one-third of all National Forest System lands—from most commercial logging, road construction, and mining. It serves as a, "significant, long-term conservation measure," preserving vital, intact ecosystems for wildlife, water quality, and recreation. Look no further than the Coeur d'Alene and St. Joe National Forests to understand how important these remnant wildland forests are. The Trump Administration is again targeting roadless lands.

Toxic Floods: EPA and Forest Service need to work together

The Forest Service has yet to connect its forest management responsibilities to reduce flooding and mining-pollution movement into Lake Coeur d'Alene and the Spokane River. The two federal agencies (U.S. Forest Service and EPA) and the two federal plans (the IPNF forest plan and Superfund cleanup plan) don't acknowledge each other: like "two ships passing in the dark". That needs to change.

Superfund Cleanup

CERCLA (Superfund) is significant for enabling the EPA to clean up abandoned, leaking hazardous waste sites, forcing responsible parties to pay, or using a specialized trust fund. Enacted in 1980, it ensures dangerous environmental contamination is addressed, protects public health, and facilitates returning polluted sites to safe, productive use. (Spectators watch as three of four lead smelting smokestacks are demolished at the Bunker Hill Superfund Site near Kellogg, Idaho, in 1996. HCN)

THE BOX

EPA established the Superfund "Box" in 1983, measuring three by seven miles, to tackle the worst lead contamination in US history, with cleanup activities since 1986 focusing on removing lead-contaminated soil from residential areas, schools, and parks to prevent lead poisoning. This decision focused on human health in the directly impacted communities, and did not address the basinwide natural resource damages and longterm human and nonhuman risks.

A forever commitment: “INSTITUTIONAL CONTROLS”

In a polluted place, how best to protect humans? 1983 was a pivotal year for fateful decisions for two polluted places: Times Beach, Missouri, and Idaho's Silver Valley. For Times Beach polluted by dioxin, EPA bought out the town of 2000, moved people out of harm's way, and chalked it all up to the folly of human greed and stupidity. For Idaho's Silver Valley, EPA opted for "institutional controls": using capping and removing of polluted soils to establish a clean veneer between humans and the pollution. Note: Institutional controls demand a forever commitment that includes lead testing to protect the vulnerable, including children and pregnant women. (photo: Times Beach, Missouri)

Robie Russell

Senator McClure succeeded in having the Reagan Administration appoint Robie Russell as head of EPA for the Northwest (Region 10). Russell used his position to block EPA staff from dismantling the smelter, risking human health. On the eve of the release of an IG investigation, Russell resigned. In 1990, McClure left the Senate and joined the boards of mining and timber corporations. (The Bunker Hill Zinc Plant Before Remediation, EPA)

Polluters Fight Back

Under CERCLA, polluters pay. Corporations pulled levers to avoid paying for the cleanup by shifting assets overseas and working the Idaho Legislature and Congressional delegation. Members of Idaho Congressional delegation worked to weaken CERCLA. With tensions and threats escalating, EPA staff donned wear bullet-proof vests. Scientists with USGS analyzing mine wastes in Lake Coeur d'Alene were also targeted.

Video: "GET THE LEAD OUT"

This video exploded the Superfund issue in the public arena, calling attention to mining pollution flowing into Lake Coeur d'Alene and the Spokane River. In the mid-1990s, conservationists obtained funding from Washington State, coordinated with the Tribe, and distributed 15,000 videos door-to-door at homes near the lake and river. The blow-back was immediate, including Idaho Senator Larry Craig attacking Washington State for funding the video. (Mark Solomon, IEPLC executive director, who helped lead the video jumping over toxic floodwaters.) Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qabM16_ilH0

Wherever the pollution flows . . .

"We understand that people are concerned about whether or not the Coeur d' Alene Basin or Lake Coeur d'Alene is now considered to be a Superfund site. In reality, when Bunker Hill was declared a Superfund site in 1983, EPA made clear that the "site" would include areas both upstream and downstream that are contaminated with mining wastes. ... EPA is keenly aware of the social and economic desires of the community, and we are committed to demonstrating that protecting human health and the environment can and must go hand in hand with economic development. Working together, we feel confident that we can make this happen in the Coeur d'Alene River Basin." -- Chuck Clark, Administrator, EPA Region 10 May 5, 1998

Lake Coeur d'Alene: "DONUT HOLE"

Expanding the Superfund site from "The Box" to its current 1500 square mile area -- "wherever the pollution travels" -- was a regional and national decision. It remains a flawed remedy. Responding to the concerns that Lake Coeur d'Alene not be labeled a Superfund lake (despite 70-80 million tons of mine wastes on the lake bottom), the lake was excluded: the lake as a "pollution donut hole." Conservationists objected, but to no avail. The lake remains a ticking time bomb without an effective protective strategy, risking the regional economy and ecology.

National Academies of Sciences

The Idaho Congressional delegation continued to target the Superfund cleanup plan for Coeur d'Alene-Spokane watershed. In Congress, they succeeded in shifting funding, directing the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) to do a review of the plan. When industry scientists were appointed to the study's committee of scientists, conservationists regionally and nationally demanded integrity in scientific review, prompting changes to committee membership. The NAS publication remains a valuable resource: "Superfund and Mining Megasites: Lessons from the Coeur d'Alene River Basin (2005)".

Coeur d'Alene Tribe

Today, the tribe's enrolled members own approximately 70,000 acres of the current 345,000-acre reservation. In 2001, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirmed the tribe's ownership of the southern third of Lake Coeur d’Alene, a critical step in their ongoing efforts to restore their homeland.

Coeur d'Alene Tribe

Reflecting on the arc of history from pandemics and the 1858 War to today, the role of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe acting on behalf of tribal members and life, human and nonhuman, is pivotal and profound. The Coeur d’Alene Tribe, facing mining companies and allies, stepped forward to lead: the driver behind the cleanup of the Coeur d'Alene Basin (Bunker Hill Superfund site), acting as a legal catalyst, a sovereign land manager, and a natural resource trustee. Their involvement shifted the cleanup to a basin-wide restoration project. Thank you.

Protecting the Aquifer

The Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie (SVRP) Aquifer is the sole source of drinking water for over 500,000 to 600,000 residents in Washington and Idaho. Its high productivity, geological history, and extreme vulnerability to contamination make it one of the most critical and protected water resources in the United States. The aquifer is an essential source of water for the Spokane River: if you pump the aquifer, you rob the river of its life-giving water.

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Power Plant cases: Turning Point

The power plant cases on the Rathdrum Prairie (2001–2003) were a major turning point for the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie (SVRP) Aquifer. Proposals to build large power plants requiring millions of gallons of water per day highlighted the vulnerability of the sole-source aquifer, sparked intense cross-border concern between Idaho and Washington, and resulted in legal and political actions that secured better protection for the aquifer. Idaho ruled against the power plants, but governments continue to exploit the aquifer.

Power Plant Cases: Turning Point

Exploiting the Aquifer

Boise and Olympia are distant from this watershed, an enduring legacy of 19th century state-making. Washington State issued massive "paper" water rights to the City of Spokane. Idaho continues to issue water rights. The result? More and more water is pumped from the aquifer. Because water flows underground through gravels deposited by the Missoula floods, the impacts are less likely to show in dropping aquifer levels. The real impacts are in the Spokane River: pump the aquifer, rob the river.

Both state governments exploit the Aquifer

Will a sovereign sue to protect the Aquifer, River?

One state suing another over water supply is a common practice handled by the U.S. Supreme Court through "equitable apportionment," treating water as a shared resource. The Supreme Court has original jurisdiction, settling disputes over interstate rivers and aquifers. Landmark cases include Kansas v. Colorado (1907) defining western water rights, Arizona v. California (1963) over the Colorado River, and recent conflicts like Florida v. Georgia (2021). Washington and Idaho have yet to act. Spokane River flows continue to decline: a dying river.

BNSF: Polluting the Aquifer

BNSF Railway built its train refueling facility atop the porous Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, supplying drinking water to over 500,000 people. Conservationists challenged the BNSF board of directors in Ft. Worth at BNSF's annual shareholder meeting, and brought legal action at the federal Surface Transportation Board. The RR corporation prevailed. From the day it opened, BNSF's touted "state-of-the-art" facility leaked diesel into the aquifer.

Protecting the Spokane River

Endangered

In 2004, American Rivers highlighted the Spokane River as one of America's most endangered rivers.

Water quality, Water quantity (flows): Spokane River

The Spokane River faces significant, long-term pollution and flow management challenges. This two-state river is listed as impaired for PCBs, heavy metals (lead, arsenic, zinc), and low dissolved oxygen, with excessive toxins creating fishing advisories. Flow issues include low water levels and seasonal dryness exacerbated by the climate crisis and dam management. (Bloomsday in Spokane with runners and walkers, Spokane River)

Phosphates

Spokane River pollution drove national decisions over phosphates in dishwasher detergents. In 2008–2010, Spokane County and Washington state enacted pioneering bans on phosphates in dishwasher detergents, driven by severe algae blooms in the Spokane River. This initiative served as a national model, causing a 17% drop in phosphorus at wastewater treatment plants, reducing algae blooms, and paving the way for nationwide adoption of phosphorus-free detergents to protect aquatic ecosystems.

Cleaning up PCBs

The 2021 Sierra Club settlement with the EPA (finalized via consent decree) was significant for compelling the federal government to establish a mandatory, legally binding Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) cleanup plan for PCB pollution in the Spokane River. It capped over a decade of litigation, forced action after decades of state inaction and neglect, and mandated strict pollution limits. Spokane Riverkeeper now leads the citizen oversight effortfor the river's PCB cleaup. The decades-old question remains: Will Washington State protect the Spokane River and act to clean up the pollution?

Protecting flowing water

The Sierra Club's legal challenges concerning Spokane River instream flows have yielded complex results rather than a single loss. Early legal action in 2019 was a victory for protecting river flows, but a subsequent state supreme court ruling empowered Washington State Department of Ecology to set a low river flow, favoring continued exploitation of a dying river. In essence, these legal battles involving state agencies and judges underscore that Manifest Destiny lives on: Washington State has yet to close its water-frontier policies and live within the limits of natural systems increasingly stressed by past exploitation and the accelerating climate crisis. Citizens must act.

Conserve water!

The Spokane River has critical low flows highlighting the need for water conservation. The river's health is directly linked to the Spokane Valley-Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, which is strained by climate change, drought, population growth, and water waste. Conservation efforts, including water reduction targets and progressively higher rates for higher usage, are needed to protect the river.

Restoring Spokane Falls

Spokane Falls are central to the Tribes, the city, and Expo '74. For a century of summers, the local utility, Avista Corp (formerly Washngton Water Power), dewatered these iconic waterfalls to generate power. Conservationists launched a legal challenge targeting Washington State and Avista to restore Spokane Falls. A 2009 settlement with Avista ensured year-round water over the falls, balancing aesthetic and cultural values, tourism, and environmental protection against hydropower production.

Restoring Spokane Falls

(Rachael Osborn and U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt)

Restoring Salmon

The Columbia River and its tributaries, including the Spokane River, were once among the earth's greatest salmon rivers. From time immemorial, salmon were at the center of life for Indigenous people: these are people of the salmon. The Upper Columbia United Tribes (UCUT) -- Colvilles, Spokanes, Kalispels, Coeur d'Alenes, and Kootenai Tribe of Idaho -- are leading efforts to restore salmon to the Spokane River.

Ethics

Climate Crisis

The climate crisis in the Inland Northwest signifies a rapid shift toward warmer, drier summers and milder, wetter winters, dramatically altering water availability, increasing wildfire severity, and stressing ecosystems. Key impacts include drastically reduced snowpack, earlier snowmelt, reduced summer streamflows, and increased forest disturbances, threatening agriculture, salmon habitat, and rural communities. Increasingly, the climate crisis is forcing humans to think globally and act locally.

Time and water

In the early 1990s, conservationists began the River History Tours to tell the stories of these lands , waters, and life -- human and nonhuman. In a single day, traveling from Spokane House to the Hecla Mine, it is possible to see and better understand the convergence of Manifest Destiny forces and the legacy of Expo '74. (Henry SiJohn, tribal elder, and John Osborn MD at the Cataldo Mission)

What we do to the earth, we do to ourselves

With 85,000 people gathered at Spokane Falls to open Expo '74, celebrity Danny Kaye stood at the microphone on a dock floating in the Spokane River and spoke these words: "We believe that the universe is a grand design in which man and nature are one . . . That man, in his growing wisdom, will renounce the age-old boast of conquering nature, lest nature conquer man. . . . That from this city of Spokane, there goes forth today to the world, this message, that the time of great environmental awakening is at hand."

These waters of life need you . . .

Protecting your watershed home is not a spectator sport. It requires you to inform yourself, network with others, and to act. The price of ethical integrity in decisions by government and corporations is constant vigilance. (The Rev. Tom Soeldner and Sierra Club volunteer leader, Carolyn Leon)

Know your watershed home

Margo Hill, JD, MURP, Spokane Tribal member, tribal attorney and judge, and EWU professor, speaks at a River History Tour, 50th anniversary of Expo '74.

ALL OUR RELATIONS

Recognizing the fragility of life on earth—the water planet—we recognize universal interconnection, acknowledging that all beings—humans, animals, plants, land, water, and ancestors—are connected, worthy of respect, and part of a whole. Our work begins at home, protecting the earth's life-support systems. Please get involved while there is still time.

Thank you

Thank you to presenters for the River History Tours (1992-present): John Allison, Felix Aripa, Dan Audet, Peter Campbell, Phil Cernera, Dave Crandall, Richard Eymann, Margo Hill, Bill Keenan, Ken Lustig, Caj Matheson, Barbara Miller, Stan Miller, Barry Moses, Jack Nesbit, Rachael Paschal Paschal Osborn, Barry Rosenberg, Warren Seyler, Henry SiJohn, Tom Soeldner, Mark Solomon, and Rebecca Stevens.

Thank you

Thanks also to Carolyn Leon of the Upper Columbia River Group / Sierra Club, the Inland Empire Public Lands Council staff and board, Eastern Washington University, and the Universities Consortium on Columbia River Governance for helping support this public education work over the decades. For more, go to the University of Idaho collections to view the journal, "Transitions", 1988-2000, edited by John Osborn MD and who has facilitated these tours.