Salt Caves

In 1978 Pacific Power and Light, (currently operating as PacifiCorp) worked with the City of Klamath Falls to file an application for the Salt Caves Dam that would have inundated the Klamath River between the J.C. Boyle and Copco dams and their associated reservoir. Today boaters float past the dam site marked by the bedrock wall on river left just past Bushwhaker The proposed earth-fill dam would have been 120 feet high and 380 feet wide at its crest. Pacific Power and Light ultimately backed away from the project although the City continued to pursue it. After a protracted battle, the proposal ultimately died in 1994 when an 11-mile stretch of the Upper Klamath was designated Wild and Scenic at the request of the State of Oregon under Section 2(a)(ii) of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.