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20-633: The post was located on the northeast shore of the lake on the Hope Peninsula, near the mouth of the Clark Fork river, just southeast of present-day Hope, Idaho . On the 11th of September 1809 we made a scaffold to secure the provisions and goods, helved our Tools Ready to commence building; our first care was a strong Log building for the Goods and Furrs, and fur trading with the Natives. ... On

40-888: A long valley at the base of the Cabinet Mountains and empties into Lake Pend Oreille in the Idaho Panhandle . The Pend Oreille River in Idaho, Washington , and British Columbia , Canada which drains the lake to the Columbia in Washington, is sometimes included as part of the Clark Fork, giving it a total length of 479 miles (771 km), with a drainage area of 25,820 square miles (66,900 km ). In its upper 20 miles (32 km) in Montana near Butte , it

60-466: A windstorm." The city of Kalispell , in nearby Montana, now bears a respelling of the name. Kullyspel was David Thompson's spelling of the name the local indigenous people called themselves. Today they are known as the Pend d'Oreilles tribe. 48°13′13″N 116°16′01″W  /  48.22037°N 116.26687°W  / 48.22037; -116.26687 Clark Fork (river) The Clark Fork , or

80-629: Is known as Silver Bow Creek . Interstate 90 follows much of the upper course of the river from Butte to Saint Regis . The highest point within the river's watershed is Mount Evans at 10,641 feet (3,243 m) in Deer Lodge County, Montana along the Continental Divide . The Clark Fork is a Class I river for recreational purposes in Montana from Warm Springs Creek to the Idaho border. It rises as Silver Bow Creek in southwestern Montana, less than 5 miles (8.0 km) from

100-618: The Clark Fork of the Columbia River , is a river in the U.S. states of Montana and Idaho , approximately 310 miles (500 km) long. It is named after William Clark of the 1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition . The largest river by volume in Montana, it drains an extensive region of the Rocky Mountains in western Montana and northern Idaho in the watershed of the Columbia River . The river flows northwest through

120-525: The Continental Divide near downtown Butte, from the confluence of Basin and Blacktail creeks. It flows northwest and north through a valley in the mountains, passing east of Anaconda , where it changes its name to the Clark Fork at the confluence with Warm Springs Creek, then northwest to Deer Lodge . Near Deer Lodge it receives the Little Blackfoot River . From Deer Lodge it flows generally northwest across western Montana, passing south of

140-745: The Garnet Range toward Missoula. Five miles east of Missoula, the river receives the Blackfoot River . Northwest of Missoula, the river continues through a long valley along the northeast flank of the Bitterroot Range , through the Lolo National Forest . It receives the Bitterroot River from the south-southwest approximately 5.5 miles (8.9 km) west of downtown Missoula. Along the Cabinet Mountains ,

160-716: The Missoula Floods , a series of catastrophic floods down the Clark Fork and Pend Oreille into the Columbia, which sculpted many of the geographic features of eastern Washington and the Willamette Valley of Oregon . In the 19th century, the Clark Fork Valley was inhabited by the Flathead tribe of Native Americans . It was explored by Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition during

180-573: The United States . Today, the Clark Fork watershed encompasses the largest Superfund site in America. As a mega-site, it includes three major sites: Butte, Anaconda, and Milltown Dam/Clark Fork River's Milltown Reservoir Superfund Site . Each of these major sites is split up into numerous sub-sites known as Operable Units. Milltown Dam was removed in 2008 at the junction of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot Rivers. Stimson Dam (an old log crib dam)

200-656: The 1806 return trip from the Pacific. The river is named for William Clark . A middle segment of the river in Montana was formerly known as the Missoula River. The river was also referred to as the Deer Lodge River by Granville Stuart . In 1809, David Thompson of the North West Company explored the region and founded several fur trading posts , including Kullyspell House at the mouth of

220-650: The 23rd we had finished the Store House. To make the roof as tight as possible, which was covered with small Logs, we cut long grass and work (ed) it up with mud, and filled up the intervals of the small logs which answered tolerable well for Rain, but the Snow in melting found many a passage; in this manner we also builded our dwelling House; and roofed it, the floors were of split Logs, with the round side downwards ... our Chimneys were made of stone and mud rudely worked for about six feet in height and eighteen inches thick ...

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240-560: The Clark Fork River wound through the valley where cattle had replaced bison . This was when Conrad Kohrs purchased a ranch from Johnny Grant that is now called the Grant-Kohrs Ranch, a National Historic Site and Federal Park. For a history of the river and the people, see Grant-Kohrs family and history of Clark Fork River region. The Clark Fork and the Blackfoot River experienced a record flood in 1908. Since

260-500: The Clark Fork, and Saleesh House on the river near the present-day site of Thompson Falls, Montana . Thompson used the name Saleesh River for the entire Flathead-Clark Fork-Pend Oreille river system. For most of the first half of the 19th century the Clark Fork river and surrounding region was controlled by the British-Canadian North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company . In the mid-19th century,

280-598: The falls in 1915. Next, at Noxon, Montana , along the Cabinet Mountains and the northern end of the Bitterroots near the Idaho border, the river is impounded by the Noxon Rapids Dam , completed in 1959 and forming a 20-mile-long (32 km) reservoir. It crosses into eastern Bonner County in north Idaho between the towns of Heron, Montana and the town of Cabinet, Idaho . In Idaho, just before

300-402: The fireplace is raised a little, and three to four feet in width. Soon after establishing Kullyspell House Thompson set up two other trading posts in the region, Saleesh House and Spokane House . Being off the main line of travel between these posts, Kullyspell House was abandoned in 1811. One source states that the two stone chimneys "remained standing for 87 years until they were toppled by

320-475: The last ice age , from approximately 20,000 years ago, the Clark Fork Valley lay along the southern edge of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet covering western North America . The encroachment of the ice sheet formed an ice dam on the river, creating Glacial Lake Missoula , which stretched through the Clark Fork Valley across central Montana. The periodic rupturing and rebuilding of the ice dam released

340-528: The late 19th century many areas in the watershed of the river have been extensively mined for minerals, resulting in an ongoing stream pollution problem. Most pollution has come from the copper mines in Butte and the smelter in Anaconda. Many of the most polluted areas have been designated as Superfund sites. Nevertheless, the river and its tributaries are among the most popular destinations for fly fishing in

360-606: The river receives the Flathead River from the east near Paradise . It receives the Thompson River from the north near Thompson Falls in southern Sanders County . There are three dams on the lower Clark Fork River. At Thompson Falls, about 100 mi (160 km) northwest of Missoula, the Thompson Falls Dam , actually a series of four dams that bridge between islands in the river, was built atop

380-600: The town of Cabinet, the Clark Fork River is dammed again at the Cabinet Gorge Dam . The Cabinet Gorge Dam was completed in the early 1950s, and its reservoir extends eastwards into Montana. After passing the Cabinet Gorge Dam, the river enters the northeastern end of Lake Pend Oreille , approximately 8 miles (13 km) west of the Idaho–Montana border, near the town of Clark Fork, Idaho . During

400-624: Was removed in 2007 just upstream of the Milltown Dam on the Blackfoot River. Stimson Dam was normally under water due to the Milltown Dam. The area that used to be under Milltown Lake has recently become a State Park. Continued remediation and/or restoration of these sites is ongoing. Garnet Range Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

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