Cowlitz

A few months after the US Supreme Court cleared the way for the City of Tacoma to construct dams on the Cowlitz River, the Seattle Times featured a trip by the Washington Foldboat Club down the river canyons that was published on July 13th, 1958.

Dam now at the site of the former Cowlitz Falls. It was a class IV bigwater rapid.

Whitewater river map of the Cowlitz River drainage
published by the Washington Kayak Club (1965
edition). Recommended flows for each section are
circled numbers (in units of 1000 cfs). At the time
this edition of the map was published, Mayfield
Dam had been completed and construction of
Mossyrock Dam was underway. With the completion
of these dams and the construction of Cowlitz Falls
dam in 1994 42.4 miles of intermediate whitewater
through scenic class III canyons were lost.