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📘 The lakes are gone

You are over a river that used to wear lakes. From the window the Klamath is a thin green-brown thread in a forested canyon, and beside it sit pale empty benches — the floors of Iron Gate Reservoir and Copco Lake, drained in the winter of 2

4
lessons
~20 min
to learn
Adults
level
Start the course →

What you’ll learn

  1. Lakes removedStart at Lake Ewauna and the superimposed westward cut through the Cascades.Desert lake source and forest-fed lower basin define the basin split.
  2. Salmon and 2002Connect salmon collapse, 2002 kill and tribal advocacy to dam politics.Four main-stem dams blocked hundreds of miles of habitat for a century.
  3. Dam removalFollow 2023–2024 drawdown, removal and first returning Chinook.Largest U.S. dam removal reopened channel and exposed reservoir mud for restoration.
  4. Canyon to PacificTrace Highway 96 canyon and the Wild and Scenic mouth at Requa.Keno Dam remains upstream; the lower river runs free to the Pacific.

Questions this course answers

How many main-stem hydroelectric dams were removed from the Klamath?

USGS and NOAA describe removal of J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gate between 2022 and 2024.

What made the 2002 fish kill politically decisive?

USFWS counted more than 33,000 salmonids dead in September 2002, mostly fall-run Chinook.

Which dam still blocks salmon upstream of Lake Ewauna?

Keno Dam at river mile 236 was not part of the four removals and remains the first wall below the upper basin.

Grounded in trusted sources

  • USGS Western Fisheries Research Center, 4 Aug 2026 — largest dam removal in U.S. history; four dams (J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2, Iron Gate) removed 2022–2024; more than 400 stream miles reopened; 2,200 acres of formerly submerged land being restored; Keno Dam 1967; river unimpeded below Keno for the first time in 102 years
  • USGS EROS Earthshots, Klamath River Dam Removal — four hydroelectric dams built 1918–1962; 420 miles of salmon habitat blocked; salmon population had dropped to 5% of pre-dam levels; PacifiCorp produced less than 2% of its energy from the dams; Copco No. 2 removed Sept 2023; on 28 Aug 2024 a lengthy stretch began to flow freely for the first time in more than a century; project completed 2 Oct 2024
  • NOAA Fisheries, 23 Jul 2024 — world's largest dam removal; 420 miles of habitat; Klamath once produced the third-largest salmon run in the lower 48; dams for power not storage; 2002 kill estimated 30,000–70,000 fish; Yurok Tribe investigation after 2002; Keno at river mile 236.4; nearly 350 additional miles above Keno
  • Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife news release, 17 Oct 2024 — on 16 Oct 2024 a fall-run Chinook identified in a Klamath tributary above the former J.C. Boyle Dam, first salmon in Oregon's Klamath Basin since 1912
  • Klamath River Renewal Corporation — Copco No. 2 removed Nov 2023; Iron Gate, Copco No. 1 and J.C. Boyle removed Oct 2024; more than 400 stream miles of habitat
  • USGS National Hydrography Dataset — Klamath River length 257 mi (414 km); source Lake Ewauna at Klamath Falls; mouth Requa, California
  • USGS Hydrologic Unit Code — basin about 15,500 sq mi (40,000 km²)
  • USGS — Klamath is the third-largest river flowing into the Pacific from the contiguous United States

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

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