Editing Hells Canyon (section)

==History==
[[File:Hells Canyon Oregon.JPG|thumb|[[Snake River]] winding<br />through Hells Canyon]]

===Inhabitants===
The earliest known residents in Hells Canyon were the [[Nez Perce tribe|Nez Percé tribe]]. Others tribes visiting the area were the [[Shoshone-Bannock]], northern [[Northern Paiute|Paiute]] and [[Cayuse people|Cayuse]] Indians. The mild winters and ample plant and wildlife attracted human habitation. [[Pictograph]]s and [[petroglyph]]s on the walls of the canyon are a record of the Indian settlements.<ref name="human">{{cite web |url=http://www.fs.fed.us/hellscanyon/life_and_the_land/the_human_story/ |title=Hells Canyon National Recreation Area: The Human Story |department=Forest Service |publisher=U.S. Department of Agriculture |access-date=December 26, 2010}}</ref>

In 1806, three members of the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] entered the Hells Canyon region along the [[Salmon River (Idaho)|Salmon River]]. They turned back without seeing the deep parts of the canyon. It was not until 1811 that the [[W. Price Hunt|Wilson Price Hunt]] expedition explored Hells Canyon while seeking a shortcut to the [[Columbia River]]. Hunger and cold forced them to turn back, as also did many explorers who were defeated by the canyon's inaccessibility. There remains no evidence in the canyon of their attempts; their expedition journals are the only documentation.<ref name="human"/> Early explorers sometimes called this area Box Canyon or Snake River Canyon.

The early miners were next to follow. In the 1860s, [[gold]] was discovered in river bars near present-day Hells Canyon National Recreation Area, and miners soon penetrated Hells Canyon; however, gold mining there was not profitable. Evidence of their endeavors remains visible along the corridor of the Snake River. Later efforts concentrated on hard-rock mining, requiring complex facilities. Evidence of these developments is visible today, especially near the mouth of the [[Imnaha River]].<ref name="human"/>

In the 1880s there was a short-lived [[Homestead Act|homesteading]] boom, but the weather was unsuited to farming and ranching, and most settlers soon gave up.<ref name="human"/> However, some ranchers still operate within the boundaries of the National Recreation Area.<ref name="human"/>

In May&nbsp;1887, 34&nbsp;Chinese gold miners were ambushed and killed in the area, in an event known as the [[Hells Canyon Massacre]]. No one was held accountable. Groups of white men ambushed the Chinese gold miners because of an Anti-Chinese movement that made its way to Oregon.<ref name=uw>{{cite web |url=http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Pacific%20Northwest%20History/Lessons/Lesson%2015/15.html |title=Lesson Fifteen: Industrialization, Class, and Race: Chinese and the Anti-Chinese Movement in the Late 19th-Century Northwest |series=History of Washington State & the Pacific Northwest |department=Center for Study of the Pacific Northwest |publisher=University of Washington |access-date=12 March 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Nokes, R. Gregory |year=2009 |title=Massacred for Gold |place=Corvallis, Oregon |publisher=Oregon State University Press |pages=179–181}}</ref>

===Damming the Snake River===
After completion of large [[hydropower]] dams on the [[Columbia River]] in the 1930s through the 1950s, several entities sought approval from the [[Federal Power Commission]] to build dams on the Snake River, including a high dam in Hells Canyon.<ref name="Power Council"/> In 1955, the commission issued a license to the [[Idaho Power Company]] to build a three-dam complex in the canyon:

* The first of the three, [[Brownlee Dam]], at [[river mile]] (RM)&nbsp;285 or river kilometer (RK)&nbsp;459, was finished in 1960.<ref name = "Power Council"/> 
* [[Oxbow Dam]], {{convert|12|mi||round=5|spell=in}} downstream, was finished in 1972.
[[File:Hells-canyon-dam-id-us.jpg|thumb|[[Hells Canyon Dam]]]]
* [[Hells Canyon Dam]], {{convert|26|mi}} below Oxbow, was completed in 1967.<ref name="Power Council">{{cite web |title=Hells Canyon Dam |publisher=Northwest Power and Conservation Council |url=http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/HellsCanyon.asp |access-date=December 26, 2010 |archive-date=November 22, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081122103730/http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/HellsCanyon.asp |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The three dams have a combined generating capacity of 1,167 [[megawatt]]s (MW) of electricity.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hells Canyon|url=https://www.nwcouncil.org/reports/columbia-river-history/hellscanyon|access-date=2021-05-07|website=www.nwcouncil.org|language=en}}</ref> The complex, which provides about 70&nbsp;percent of Idaho's [[hydroelectricity]], blocks migration of [[salmon]] and other [[anadromous]] fish upstream of Hells Canyon Dam.<ref>{{cite web |title=Environmental Impact Statements (EISs): Executive Summary |publisher=Federal Energy Regulatory Commission |url=http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/OpenNat.asp?fileID=11438420 |format=PDF |pages=xxxv & xxxviii |access-date=26 December 2010}}</ref>

Two additional dams, Mountain Sheep and Pleasant Valley, were proposed in 1955 above the mouth of the Salmon River and below the Hells Canyon Dam. The [[National Wild and Scenic Rivers System|Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968]] held up progress, but with the energy crisis, they were revived in 1975; these projects were sponsored by consortiums Pacific Northwest Power Company and [[Energy Northwest|Washington Public Power Supply System]] (WPPSS).<ref name=pprev>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AqdYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=k_gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6462%2C1756149 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |place=(Washington) |last=Coe |first=Gordon H. |title=Power project plans revived |date=24 February 1975 |page=1}}</ref><ref name=dainpl>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=AqdYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=k_gDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7210%2C1791780 |newspaper=Spokane Daily Chronicle |place=(Washington) |last=Coe |first=Gordon H. |type=photos, maps |title=Dams are in plans along Middle Snake |date=24 February 1975 |page=8}}</ref> At the end of that year, [[President of the United States|President]] [[Gerald Ford]] signed legislation to create the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area and the projects {{nowrap|were terminated.<ref name=fsnrbi>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=67BfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4jIMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3012%2C353013 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |place=(Idaho) |agency=Associated Press |title=Ford signs NRA bill |date=2 January 1976 |page=16A}}</ref><ref name=fscbl>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fr4RAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dO0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6732%2C274098 |newspaper=Spokesman-Review |place=(Spokane, Washington) |agency=Associated Press |title=Ford signs canyon bill |date=2 January 1976 |page=1}}</ref><ref name=llhsk>{{cite magazine |url=https://1859oregonmagazine.com/think-oregon/history/hells-canyon/ |magazine=1859: Oregon's magazine |last=Husk |first=Lee Lewis |title=Hells Canyon Fifty-Year Anniversary |date=16 July 2018 |access-date=21 March 2019}}</ref>}}

The first river runners were on the canyon rapids by 1928.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Environmental encyclopedia |date=2011 |publisher=Gale/Cengage Learning |editor=Deirdre S. Blanchfield |isbn=978-1-4144-8739-7 |edition=4th |location=Detroit |oclc=720592930}}</ref>