Powder River (Oregon)

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title: "Powder River (Oregon)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["rivers-of-oregon", "wild-and-scenic-rivers-of-the-united-states", "tributaries-of-the-snake-river", "rivers-of-baker-county,-oregon", "rivers-of-union-county,-oregon"] topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powder_River_(Oregon)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox river"]

Field	Value
name	Powder River (Oregon)
native_name	chn
name_other	Port-pel-lah
image	Powder River, Oregon.jpg
image_caption	The Powder River at Baker City
image_size	300
map_size	300
pushpin_map	USA Oregon
pushpin_map_size	300
pushpin_map_caption	Location of the mouth of the Powder River in Oregon
subdivision_type1	Country
subdivision_name1	United States
subdivision_type2	State
subdivision_name2	Oregon
subdivision_type3	Region
subdivision_name3	Baker and Union counties
length	153 mi
discharge1_avg	534 cuft/s
source1	Confluence of McCully Fork and Cracker Creek
source1_location	Sumpter, Oregon, in the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area, Blue Mountains
source1_coordinates
source1_elevation	4400 ft
mouth	Brownlee Reservoir on the Snake River
mouth_location	10 mi east of Richland, Oregon
mouth_coordinates
mouth_elevation	2064 ft
basin_size	1603 sqmi
extra	{{Designation list
embed	yes
designation1	nwsr
designation1_type	Scenic
designation1_date	October 28, 1988
::

| name = Powder River (Oregon) | native_name = chn | name_other = Port-pel-lah | name_etymology = | image = Powder River, Oregon.jpg | image_caption = The Powder River at Baker City | image_size = 300 | map = | map_size = 300 | map_caption = | pushpin_map = USA Oregon | pushpin_map_size = 300 | pushpin_map_caption= Location of the mouth of the Powder River in Oregon | subdivision_type1 = Country | subdivision_name1 = United States | subdivision_type2 = State | subdivision_name2 = Oregon | subdivision_type3 = Region | subdivision_name3 = Baker and Union counties | subdivision_type4 = | subdivision_name4 = | subdivision_type5 = | subdivision_name5 = | length = 153 mi | width_min = | width_avg = | width_max = | depth_min = | depth_avg = | depth_max = | discharge1_location= | discharge1_min = | discharge1_avg = 534 cuft/s | discharge1_max = | source1 = Confluence of McCully Fork and Cracker Creek | source1_location = Sumpter, Oregon, in the Sumpter Valley Dredge State Heritage Area, Blue Mountains | source1_coordinates= | source1_elevation = 4400 ft | mouth = Brownlee Reservoir on the Snake River | mouth_location = 10 mi east of Richland, Oregon | mouth_coordinates = | mouth_elevation = 2064 ft | progression = | river_system = | basin_size = 1603 sqmi | tributaries_left = | tributaries_right = | custom_label = | custom_data = | extra = {{Designation list | embed = yes | designation1 = nwsr | designation1_type = Scenic | designation1_date = October 28, 1988 | designation1_number =

The Powder River is a tributary of the Snake River, approximately 153 mi long, in northeast Oregon in the United States. It drains an area of the Columbia Plateau on the eastern side of the Blue Mountains. It flows almost entirely within Baker County but downstream of the city of North Powder forms part of the border between Baker County and Union County.

Name

The name Powder River is first recorded in the journals of Peter Skene Ogden without notation of the origin of the name. Explorer Donald Mackenzie likely named the river. William C. McKay, grandson of John Jacob Astor's partner Alexander MacKay, says that the origin of the name is from the powdery and sandy soil along the shores of the river, from the Chinook Jargon polalle illahe. It appears on Lewis and Clark's maps as Port-pel-lah.

Course

The Powder River's tributaries arise in the southern Blue Mountains in the Umatilla National Forest. The river's main stem begins in Sumpter, where McCully Fork, Cracker Creek and several smaller tributaries join, and flows east-southeast through the tailings of past dredge mining and into Phillips Reservoir. After exiting Phillips Reservoir, the river continues east for about 7 mi before turning sharply north through the Bowen Valley and Baker City, Oregon. From here the river meanders the floor of the Baker Valley and passes by the cities of Haines and North Powder, where it is joined by the North Powder River. Here the river turns again sharply east-southeast, flowing through Thief Valley Reservoir, in a valley along the southern edge of the Wallowa Mountains. The river then transits the Lower Powder Valley and enters the Snake River on the Idaho–Oregon state line from the west, upstream from the Brownlee Dam at the Powder Arm of Brownlee Reservoir 11 mi downstream from Richland.

Tributaries

Major streams flowing into the Powder are Eagle Creek, Wolf Creek, Rock Creek and the North Powder River.

Watershed

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Powder_River.jpg" caption="The Wild and Scenic Powder River"] ::

The Powder River watershed drains 1603 sqmi of northeastern Oregon. There are three man-made reservoirs on the Powder River: Phillips Reservoir (behind Mason Dam), Thief Valley Reservoir, and also the Powder arm of Brownlee Reservoir at the Oregon–Idaho border at the confluence of the Powder and Snake Rivers.

In 1988, 11.7 mi of the Powder River was designated Wild and Scenic. Between the Thief Valley Dam and the Oregon Route 203 bridge, this stretch flows through a rugged canyon with spectacular geologic formations.

Flora and fauna

Beaver (Castor canadensis) populations are increasing along the river, with an excellent viewing area just off Oregon Route 7 below Mason Dam, about 14 mi from Baker City. There, a colony of beavers constructed a large dam easily viewed below the footbridge adjacent to the paved parking area. Recovered from near extirpation by the Hudson's Bay Company, who tried to create a "fur desert" to discourage Americans from coming to the far western states, benefits of beaver in arid eastern Oregon include creating ponds which along young salmonids to grow, raising the water table as their ponds recharge groundwater supplies and creating wetlands which trap sediment and pollutants.

The Powder River was once an important spawning stream for Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss) coming from the Pacific Ocean. Chinook salmon once migrated by the thousands to spawn in the Powder River and many of its tributaries from its headwaters to the lower end of the North Powder Valley, but that stopped when the Thief Valley Dam was built near North Powder in 1931. The building of two later dams in Hells Canyon on the Snake River – Hells Canyon Dam (1967) and Brownlee Dam also permanently block salmon passage. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife often release Chinook salmon on the Powder River for sportfishing at Mason Dam below Phillips Reservoir.

References

References

1. Palmer, Tim. (2014). "Field Guide to Oregon Rivers". Oregon State University Press.
2. {{gnis. 1164128. Powder River
3. "National Wild and Scenic Rivers System". National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.
4. U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. [http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ The National Map], accessed May 3, 2011
5. Lewis A. McArthur. (1927). "Oregon Geographic Names". Oregon Historical Quarterly.
6. "Powder River, Oregon". National Wild & Scenic Rivers.
7. Jacoby, Jayson. (September 19, 2010). "Beavers Make Their Presence Known". [[Baker City Herald]].
8. Nowak, M. Cathy. (May 28, 2004). "Powder River Subbasin Plan". Baker County.
9. (May 25, 2010). "Oregon Releasing Chinook in Powder River". The Spokesman Review.

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