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A Salmon of the Mountains
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The
Geographical Setting
The
Kootenay is a classic Rocky Mountain river, originating at the foot
of Castle Mountain, in British Columbia's Beaverfoot range,
The Kootenay rolls southward, slowing at Jaffray as it begins
to feel the effects of Libby dam, far downstream in Montana.
After Libby, it swings northward again, passing Bonner's
Ferry in Idaho before it re-enters British Columbia at Creston,
and spilling into the hundred-kilometer long fissure in the earth
that is Kootenay Lake, the result of an ancient geological fault.
The waters of Kootenay Lake are augmented at the north end
of the lake by the Duncan river, which has its own dam, the Duncan.
The outflow of the Lake is known as the West Arm, a body
of water which is part river, part lake.
In one thirty-kilometer stretch, the Kootenay/West Arm absorbs
the impact of four dams and one diversion canal, before it finally
joins the mother Columbia at Castlegar. |
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