2005-3-8
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VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English
program, EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about the Columbia River that
flows through the American Northwest.
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VOICE ONE:
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| The Columbia River. (Picture - USGS) |
It is said by many that the
Columbia River is the most beautiful river in North America. It
flows from the Canadian province of British Columbia into the United
States through the northwestern state of Washington. It is the
fourth largest river in North America, and the largest that empties
into the Pacific Ocean.
The Columbia begins its two-thousand kilometer trip to the
Pacific Ocean in Canada at Columbia Lake. That is just west of the
main part of the Rocky Mountains in southeastern British Columbia.
It flows mainly south into the northwestern United States until it
makes a big turn to begin flowing west. It is at this point that the
Snake River enters the Columbia. As it flows west, the Columbia
forms much of the border between the states of Oregon and Washington
before it reaches the Pacific Ocean.
VOICE TWO:
The great river flows through deep valleys and narrow places
called canyons. It passes through two large series of mountains –
the Cascades and the Coast mountains -- and it crosses desert areas
and flows through lands of great forests.
The Columbia and the rivers that flow into it gather water from a
huge area of more than six-hundred-seventy-thousand square
kilometers. That is about the size of France.
VOICE ONE:
Large ocean going ships can sail up the lower Columbia River, as
far as Vancouver, Washington. Smaller ships can continue up the
river about three-hundred kilometers from the Pacific Ocean.
However, these ships must pass through devices known as locks. Locks
can change the level of the water. In a lock, a ship can be raised
or lowered to another level where it can sail on. Small boats can
travel another two-hundred-twenty kilometers up the river. There are
locks for river traffic along this part of the river too. These
locks and the many dams on the river were built in the last century
as part of development projects.
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VOICE TWO:
The first white explorer to see the Columbia River was an
American named Robert Gray. Seeking increased trade for the new
United States, he sailed from the eastern city of Boston in
Seventeen-Eighty-Seven to the Pacific Northwest. He found the river
in Seventeen-Ninety-Two.
Robert Gray named the river after his ship, the Columbia
Rediviva. On a second trip to the area, he explored the lower parts
of the river. Gray's exploration of the river helped the United
States claim what became known later as the Oregon Territory.
VOICE ONE:
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| Meriwether Lewis. (Picture - NPS) |
In Eighteen-Oh-Five, American
explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Columbia
River area by traveling across land from the east. They were the
first explorers to do this. The two men had been sent to explore
what was called the Louisiana Territory. The United States had
purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in Eighteen-Oh-Three.
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| William Clark. (Picture - NPS) |
President Thomas Jefferson sent
Lewis and Clark to explore the territory. He hoped that the
explorers would find a river that could provide a direct waterway
across the North American continent that could be used for trade and
business. The two-year trip probably is the most famous story of
American exploration.
VOICE TWO:
When Lewis and Clark arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River
at the Pacific Ocean in Eighteen-Oh-Five, Americans were already
living there. Fur traders such as David Thompson had settled there
earlier. Thompson was with a company dealing especially in animal
skins used in making clothes in the eastern United States and in
Europe.
In Eighteen-Eleven, members of the Pacific Fur Company arrived in
the area to establish their business. The company was owned by John
Jacob Astor. They established Fort Astoria on the edge of the
Columbia River in what later became the state of Oregon. The fort
became the modern town of Astoria. It is the oldest American
settlement west of the Rocky Mountains.
VOICE ONE:
The Columbia River was at the center of the new American
settlement in Pacific Northwestern territory, then known as the
Oregon Territory. For many early settlers it was known as the Oregon
River or the River of the West. However, the name given to the river
in Seventeen-Ninety-Two became its final name – the Columbia.
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VOICE TWO:
Native Americans had lived in the Columbia River area for an
estimated ten-thousand years. To them, the river represented the
center of life for the surrounding land. The river provided these
first Americans with their most important food, fish known as the
Pacific Salmon.
Salmon can grow to weigh as much as twenty-five kilograms. They
spend most of their lives in the salt waters of the northern oceans.
But they are born in the fresh waters of rivers. When the huge fish
are ready to reproduce, they swim hundreds of kilometers from the
ocean up the rivers to the places where they first knew life.
After laying their eggs at the end of this long trip, the salmon
die, their circle of life completed. No one knows how many thousands
and thousands of years the salmon have been doing this.
VOICE ONE:
In Eighteen-Sixty-Six, the first salmon processing factory was
built on the edge of the Columbia River. In less than twenty years
about thirty similar factories were supplying world markets with
salmon caught on the river in nets, traps, and wheels. In
Eighteen-Eighty-Three, almost twenty-million kilograms of salmon
were caught on the river. By the Nineteen-Sixties, only two-million
kilograms of Columbia River salmon was sent to markets.
The salmon population has been severely reduced because humans
have blocked the flow of the river. The salmon can no longer go back
to the places of their birth on the Columbia and the other rivers
that flow into it.
VOICE TWO:
In the Twentieth Century, huge dams were built on the Columbia.
There are fourteen dams on the river. These dams serve at least
three purposes. They provide electric power. They provide river
water to grow crops. And they control flooding.
The largest of the dams on the Columbia is the Grand Coulee Dam.
It is about halfway between the beginning and the end of the river.
It was completed in Nineteen-Forty-One. Before then, about
twenty-five-thousand salmon swam up the Columbia River into Canada
to lay their eggs. Thousands of them would swim all the way to
Columbia Lake, where the river begins. When the dam was completed,
the salmon could no longer swim up the river.
VOICE ONE:
All the fourteen dams on the Columbia are not like the Grand
Coulee Dam. Some of them were built with what are called fish
ladders. These ladders permit salmon to swim past the dams to go up
the river. Many of the two-hundred-fifty dams on the rivers that
flow into the Columbia also have such devices built into them. Yet
the dams have changed the Columbia from a free flowing river to a
series of lakes linked by the water that is permitted to flow
through.
The dams produce great amounts of electricity. The result is
energy whose costs are lower for expanding development in the
Pacific Northwest. The lakes that remain behind the dams provide
water for agriculture along the river. This is especially true in
what once were dry, desert areas in central Washington State. So,
the Columbia River and the dams are extremely important to the
economy of the Pacific Northwest.
VOICE TWO:
There are many people who believe that dams are not good.
Biologists, environmentalists, Indian tribes, and fishermen argue
that at least some of the dams should be removed or changed to
permit water to flow as it once did. They say that there is no
longer a natural balance of the river. Opponents of the dams say
humans should make an effort to live together with other life forms
on Earth. Supporters of the dams believe the river should be
controlled for human use even though other life forms may be harmed.
This argument is expected to last many years.
VOICE ONE:
Most of the great rivers of North America and the rest of the
world have great cities on them. But not the Columbia River. The
Hudson River has New York City. The Mississippi River has a number
of great cities along it. The Seine has Paris. The Nile River has
Cairo. Along the Columbia, however, the human population is spread
more thinly. And, most of the people who live along the beautiful
Columbia River would not want to live anywhere else.
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VOICE TWO:
This VOA Special English program was written by Oliver Chanler
and produced by Caty Weaver. This is Shirley Griffith.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another
EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.