The history of the Deschutes River estuary, 1895 to 1948

By | September 21, 2012

How the Deschutes River estuary came to be dammed in the 1950s has been a heated topic locally the last few years. A history of the local efforts to dam the estuary and create Capitol Lake is now available.

The history covers the time from just after statehood when the first dam was proposed to just after World War II when the funding for Capitol Lake became available. The piece refutes the position that the lake was entirely inspired by the “City Beautiful” design of Wilder and White in the 1911 proposal for the capitol campus.

History of the Deschutes Estuary, 1895 to 1948:
Google docs format
PDF format

Also available is the total works cited for the history
Works cited
Other related materials

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  • Linzey24

    we must save capital lake
     

  • Sup3rsp33d22

    Capitol Lake must be returned to an estuary. if we do this we will be one step closer to having a clean community.

  • Mel

    i totaly agree with both of you