EXPLORATIONS -July 31, 2002: The Columbia River
By Oliver Chanler
VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the
Columbia River that flows through the American Northwest.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
It is said by many that the Columbia River is the most
beautiful river in North America. It flows from the
Canadian province of British Columbia into the United
States through the northwestern state of Washington. It
is the fourth largest river in North America, and the
largest that empties into the Pacific Ocean.
The Columbia begins its two-thousand kilometer trip to the Pacific Ocean in Canada
at Columbia Lake. That is just west of the main part of the Rocky Mountains in
southeastern British Columbia. It flows mainly south into the northwestern United States until it makes a big turn
to begin flowing west. It is at this point that the Snake River enters the Columbia. As it flows west, the Columbia
forms much of the border between the states of Oregon and Washington before it reaches the Pacific Ocean.
VOICE TWO:
The great river flows through deep valleys and narrow places called canyons. It passes through two large series of
mountains
–
the Cascades and the Coast mountains --and it crosses desert areas and flows through lands of
great forests.
The Columbia and the rivers that flow into it gather water from a huge area of more than six-hundred-seventythousand
square kilometers. That is about the size of France.
VOICE ONE:
Large ocean going ships can sail up the lower Columbia River, as far as Vancouver, Washington. Smaller ships
can continue up the river about three-hundred kilometers from the Pacific Ocean. However, these ships must pass
through devices known as locks. Locks can change the level of the water. In a lock, a ship can be raised or
lowered to another level where it can sail on. Small boats can travel another two-hundred-twenty kilometers up
the river. There are locks for river traffic along this part of the river too. These locks and the many dams on the
river were built in the last century as part of development projects.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
The first white explorer to see the Columbia River was an American named Robert Gray. Seeking increased trade
for the new United States, he sailed from the eastern city of Boston in Seventeen-Eighty -Seven to the Pacific
Northwest. He found the river in Seventeen-Ninety-Two.
Robert Gray named the river after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva. On a second trip to the area, he explored the
(Photos -Bonneville Power
Administration)
lower parts of the river. Gray’s exploration of the river helped the United States claim what became known later
as the Oregon Territory.
VOICE ONE:
In Eighteen-Oh -Five, American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Columbia River area
by traveling across land from the east. They were the first explorers to do this. The two men had been sent to
explore what was called the Louisiana Territory. The United States had purchased the Louisiana Territory from
France in Eighteen-Oh-Three.
VOICE ONE(cont):
President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the territory. He hoped that the explorers would find
a river that could provide a direct waterway across the North American continent that could be used for trade and
business. The two-year trip probably is the most famous story of American exploration.
VOICE TWO:
When Lewis and Clark arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River at the Pacific Ocean in Eighteen-Oh-Five,
Americans were already living there. Fur traders such as David Thompson had settled there earlier. Thompson
was with a company dealing especially in animal skins used in making clothes in the eastern United States and in
Europe.
In Eighteen-Eleven, members of the Pacific Fur Company arrived in the area to establish their business. The
company was owned by John Jacob Astor. They established Fort Astoria on the edge of the Columbia River in
what later became the state of Oregon. The fort became the modern town of Astoria. It is the oldest American
settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.
VOICE ONE:
The Columbia River was at the center of the new American settlement in Pacific Northwestern territory, then
known as the Oregon Territory. For many early settlers it was known as the Oregon River or the River of the
West. However, the name given to the river in Seventeen-Ninety-Two became its final name
–
the Columbia.
((MUSIC BRIDGE))
VOICE TWO:
Native Americans had lived in the Columbia River area for an estimated ten-thousand years. To them, the river
represented the center of life for the surrounding land. The river provided these first Americans with their most
important food, fish known as the Pacific Salmon.
Salmon can grow to weigh as much as twenty-five kilograms. They spend most of their lives in the salt waters of
the northern oceans. But they are born in the fresh waters of rivers. When the huge fish are ready to reproduce,
they swim hundreds of kilometers from the ocean up the rivers to the places where they first knew life.
VOICE TWO(cont):
After laying their eggs at the end of this long trip, the salmon die, their circle of life completed. No one knows
how many thousands and thousands of years the salmon have been doing this.
VOICE ONE:
In Eighteen-Sixty-Six, the first salmon processing factory was built on the edge of the Columbia River. In less
than twenty years about thirty similar factories were supplying world markets with salmon caught on the river in
nets, traps, and wheels. In Eighteen-Eighty -Three, almost twenty-million kilograms of salmon were caught on the
river. By the Nineteen-Sixties, only two-million kilograms of Columbia River salmon was sent to markets.
The salmon population has been severely reduced because humans have blocked the flow of the river. The
salmon can no longer go back to the places of their birth on the Columbia and the other rivers that flow into it.
VOICE TWO:
In the Twentieth Century, huge dams were built on the Columbia. There are fourteen dams on the river. These
dams serve at least three purposes. They provide electric power. They provide river water to grow crops. And
they control flooding.
The largest of the dams on the Columbia is the Grand Coulee Dam. It is about halfway between the beginning
and the end of the river. It was completed in Nineteen-Forty-One. Before then, about twenty-five-thousand
salmon swam up the Columbia River into Canada to lay their eggs. Thousands of them would swim all the way to
Columbia Lake, where the river begins. When the dam was completed, the salmon could no longer swim up the
river.
VOICE ONE:
All the fourteen dams on the Columbia are not like the Grand Coulee Dam. Some of them were built with what
are called fish ladders. These ladders permit salmon to swim past the dams to go up the river. Many of the two-
hundred-fifty dams on the rivers that flow into the Columbia also have such devices built into them. Yet the dams
have changed the Columbia from a free flowing river to a series of lakes linked by the water that is permitted to
flow through.
The dams produce great amounts of electricity. The result is energy whose costs are lower for expanding
development in the Pacific Northwest. The lakes that remain behind the dams provide water for agriculture along
the river. This is especially true in what once were dry, desert areas in central Washington State. So, the
Columbia River and the dams are extremely important to the economy of the Pacific Northwest.
VOICE TWO:
There are many people who believe that dams are not good. Biologists, environmentalists, Indian tribes, and
fishermen argue that at least some of the dams should be removed or changed to permit water to flow as it once
did. They say that there is no longer a natural balance of the river. Opponents of the dams say humans should
make an effort to live together with other life forms on Earth. Supporters of the dams believe the river should be
controlled for human use even though other life forms may be harmed.
This argument is expected to last many years.
VOICE ONE:
Most of the great rivers of North America and the rest of the world have great cities on them. But not the
Columbia River. The Hudson River has New York City. The Mississippi River has a number of great cities along
it. The Seine has Paris. The Nile River has Cairo. Along the Columbia, however, the human population is spread
more thinly. And, most of the people who live along the beautiful Columbia River would not want to live
anywhere else.
((THEME))
VOICE TWO:
This VOA Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Shirley
Griffith.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of
America.
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