Lower Salmon River
Lower Salmon River Gauge - Whitebird
The Nez Perce Indians called the Salmon River "Natsoh Koos," which means "Chinook Salmon Water," after the fish that once thrived there. Early explorers dubbed it the "River of No Return," due to the difficulties they experienced trying to transport wooden boats upstream through roaring rapids. Whatever it is called, the dynamic Salmon River and the land it nourishes are very special!
The 425-mile waterway is the longest in the lower 48 states and one of the few in the nation that contain no dams. The river begins at not much more than a trickle at an elevation of about 8,000 feet in the Sawtooth and Whitecloud Mountains of central Idaho. It gathers force as it makes its way northeast and then west, fed by snows from the Sawtooth and Salmon River Mountains in the south and the Clearwater and Bitterroot Mountains in the north.