The Lewis River Hydroelectric Projects - PacifiCorp

Eagle Cliff Park—Local Welcome Sign
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Eagle Cliff Park
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Eagle Cliff Park
Welcome to Eagle Cliff Park. This facility is owned and operated by the
power company PacifiCorp, which provides public recreation
opportunities along the reservoirs of the Lewis River.
This park and day use area provides access to the Lewis River above the
uppermost hydroelectric reservoir, Swift Reservoir. You’re in the shadow
of Mt. St. Helens here, with many opportunities for backcountry
recreation.
Sidebar:
One of the oldest known travel routes through this region—the Klickitat
Trail—passed close by Eagle Cliff, following the North Fork of the Lewis
River from Chelatchie Prairie to Yakama country. This ancient trail
provided access to and from the high valleys of the Cascades for local
Indian tribes, and had been a long-established trade route by the time
railway surveyor George B. McClellan passed this way in 1853, noting
flatly that “...the valley of the Cathlapoot’l [Lewis]...is utterly worthless
for any purpose.”
McClellan’s dour description notwithstanding, the next century saw
increased use of the Lewis River route through the Cascades. Indians on
their way to and from trading fairs and horse races in the Indian Heaven
region... prospectors chasing rumors of gold in the mountain streams...
Homesteaders from the lower valley headed upriver to camp, hunt, and
fish... through the decades, travelers of all sorts passed by here on what
was then a dusty, muddy, and rugged trail.
By the 1910s, a wagon road from Woodland had reached the Cougar
region—but beyond that point, only bootprints and hoofprints marked
the way. The route (then called the Lewis River Trail) became the
responsibility of the newly-created US Forest Service. The agency
expanded, improved, and maintained the trail as access to remote
operations in the upper Lewis River and beyond. These operations
included fire prevention, fire detection (the trail was a critical access line
for regional fire lookouts), and recreational structures such as trail
shelters.
Sidebar
Caption:
Forest Service logo, or photo of Forest Service at work; map of FS sites upriver
Today, the Forest Service continues to be a player in the story of the
Lewis River. Much of the river’s upper watershed lies on National Forest
lands, and many recreationists are drawn to the region by the nearby Mt.
St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, administered by the Forest
Service.
Appendix 1: panel profiles Lewis River Draft I&E Plan page 50