Big Hole River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Big Hole River is a tributary of the Jefferson River, approximately 156 mi (250 km) long, in southwestern Montana in the United States. It rises in the Beaverhead National Forest in the Beaverhead Mountains of the Bitterroot Range at the continental divide along the Montana-Idaho border in western Beaverhead County. It flows northwest and north, past Wisdom and between the Anaconda Range to the northwest and the Pioneer Mountains to the east. It flows around the north end of the Pioneer Mountains, then southeast, past Wise River, where it is joined by the Wise River, and along the east side of the Pioneer Mountains. Near Glen, it turns northeast, joining the Jefferson just north of Twin Bridges.
The river is a popular destination for fly fishing, especially for trout. It is the last habitat in the contiguous United States for native fluvial arctic grayling [FWS 2004; Munday 2001]. The valley of the river is also used for raising livestock. Dewatering of the river by irrigators who grow hay has pushed the native Big Hole grayling toward extinction.
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[edit] History
At the time Lewis & Clark "discovered" the Big Hole River watershed, it was a buffer zone between several rival Native American tribes including the Nez Perce, Shoshone, Salish, and Blackfeet. Lewis & Clark considered navigating up the Big Hole River, but chose the slower-flowing Beaverhead River instead. Trappers from both the Hudson's Bay Company, the North West Company and the American Fur Company exploited the region from about 1810 to the 1840s. Miners and homesteaders settled the area between 1864 and the early 1900s.
In 1877 the U.S troops under John Gibbon fought the Nez Percé Indians along the Big Hole River, during the Nez Perce War.
The establishment of Butte, Montana as a mining center and the coming of the Northern Railroad in 1871 assured Big Hole ranchers and farmers of a steady market for their beef, horses, mules, hay and dairy products. As a great improvement for preserving the wild hay for winter feeding of cattle, Herbert S. Armitage and Dade J. Stephens patented the "Sunny Slope Slide Stacker" in 1909. This device, commonly known as a "beaverslide" remained popular until the 1990s, when it was largely displaced by mechanized equipment for producing large round bales.
In the early 1960s, the US Bureau of Reclamation proposed building the Reichle Dam near the town of Glen along the Big Hole River. Conservationist George F. Grant, Trout Unlimited and local ranchers combined forces to oppose the dam, successfully defeating the proposal in 1967.
Today, fewer than 2500 people inhabit the 2800 square mile Big Hole River watershed. Because of irrigation withdrawals by ranchers to grow hay, Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation declared the river chronically dewatered in 1994.
[edit] References
- FWS (2004). U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Species Assessment and Listing Priority Assignment Form for fluvial Arctic grayling (distinct population segment of the Upper Missouri River), commonly called Montana Arctic grayling. November 30, 2004.
- Pat Munday (2001). Montana's Last Best River: The Big Hole & its People (Guilford, CT: Lyons Press).
- Montana Department of Natural Resources & Conservation (1995). "Measuring Devices on the Big Hole River" (Helena, Montana: Department of Natural Resources & Conservation).
