The Columbia

  I live in Beaverton, Oregon. Not far from my home is a stream (I have another project involving this stream, but more on that later). This stream raises during the winter, lowers during the summer and flows in a roughly north eastern direction. What I know now is that this same stream water will eventually join the Pacific Ocean, in that same direction, about 75 miles away. From this valley, this water will descend little more than a hundred feet in getting there.

  But it takes a detour, because between this stream and the ocean is the Northern Oregon Coast Range. It's thirty-five miles by one hundred, and climbs more than three thousand feet into the air. This little stream will have to find a way around.. To the north and east lie the Tualatin Mountains. So the only escape is to the south. There the stream will join with many others as they drain this once swampy area into the Tualatin River.
This river heads west under the tip of the mountains and joins the Willamette just before it gets to Portland. A major arm of the Columbia, the Willamette travels north to join the largest river in the Pacific Northwest.

  Already the water from my stream has traveled in four directions, an outward spiral that will take it to the sea. Just north of Portland the Willamette joins the Columbia at the border with Washington state. These waters continue to divide the two states both east and west, forming most of the edge between the two.

  Because my stream traveled in a circle, it is not a part of my work. It does not touch the border that I am marking out. But thinking about what my stream does got me wondering about other neighborhoods and the fates of their waters. So I chose the Columbia as the river basin I wanted to map, to create a family tree for my little stream. I wanted to trace all of the connections, all of the waters that this stream will join and will join it.

  And what an impressive basin it is. It's drains an area roughly equal to France. It takes waters from about half of Oregon, three-quarters of Washington. Small bits of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana. Almost the entirety of Idaho. And a healthy chunk of two Canadian Provinces: Alberta and British Columbia. It's largest tributary, the Snake, reaches out fingers toward the Great Salt Lake and Yellowstone National Park. It is by these waters that Lewis and Clark finally completed their journey to the Pacific.It's dams produce more electricity than any other river in North America. There is much that has happened in and around this basin, oth historically and geologically.

  Before we get started with this tour though, I wanted to use one more blog to talk about my canvas, Google Earth, and the tools and techniques I use to create this map.

Happy hunting,
Brett