Editing Hells Canyon (section)

===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>