Willamette Falls

The Willamette Falls is a natural waterfall in the northwestern United States, located on the Willamette River between Oregon City and West Linn, Oregon. The largest waterfall in the Northwest U.S. by volume, it is the seventeenth widest in the world. Horseshoe in shape, it is 1,500 feet (455 m) wide and forty feet (12 m) high, with a flow rate of 30,850 cu ft/s (874 m/s). Located 26 miles (42 km) upriver from the Willamette's mouth at Portland, Willamette Falls is a culturally significant site for many tribal communities in the region. Opened in 1873 and closed since 2011, the Willamette Falls Locks allowed boat traffic on the Willamette to pass into the main Willamette Valley. Native American oral history taught that the falls were placed there by the ancient hero T'allapus (Coyote) so that their people would have fish to eat all winter.· Willamette Falls was once the home to the Charcowah village of the Clowewalla band of Tumwaters or Willamette Band of Tumwaters, an upper Chinookan speaking people. These lands were ceded to the United States Government under the Willamette Valley Treaty of 1855 (signed on January 22, 1855; ratified on March 3, 1855). Tribal members were then removed from these ancestral lands to the Grand Ronde Reservation and the Siletz Indian Reservation. Willamette Falls is an important location for many tribes. The abundance of salmon brought tribal communities from all over to fish, trade, and interact at the falls - creating an economic and cultural hub for the region.