Crab Creek

This article describes the creek in the United States. For the creek of the same name in the archipelago of the South Shetland Islands see Crab Creek (King George Island) .

Crab Creek
Lower Crab Creek above its confluence with Red Rock Coulee
Data
location	Grant County / Adams County / Lincoln County , Washington , USA
River system	Columbia River
Drain over	Columbia River  → Pacific
source	near Gettys Butte in Lincoln County, 47 ° 42 ′ 42 "  N , 117 ° 54 ′ 24"  W
Source height	832  m
muzzle	Columbia River in Grant County Coordinates: 46 ° 48 ′ 55 "  N , 119 ° 55 ′ 19"  W 46 ° 48 ′ 55 "  N , 119 ° 55 ′ 19"  W.
Mouth height	149  m
Height difference	683 m
Bottom slope	2.6 ‰
length	262 km
Catchment area	13,201 km²
Drain at the level?	NNQ MNQ MHQ	283 l / s 6 m³ / s 27 m³ / s
Left tributaries	Rocky Ford Creek
Right tributaries	Coal Creek, Canniwai Creek, Wilson Creek, Red Rock Coulee
Medium-sized cities	Moses Lake

The Crab Creek is a stream in County Grant , Adams and Lincoln in the State of Washington . Named after the occurrence of crabs, it is one of the few permanently water-bearing streams in the Columbia River catchment area in central Washington. It flows from the northeast Columbia River Plateau about 8 km east of Reardan in a west-southwest direction to the confluence with the Columbia River near the small town of Beverly . Its course brings to light many examples of the erosive forces of the massive glacial Missoula floods in the late Pleistocene that inundated the region. In addition, Crab Creek and its environs were reshaped by the extensive irrigation of the United States Bureau of Reclamation's Columbia Basin Project (CBP) , which raised water tables, significantly increased the length of Crab Creek, and created new lakes and creeks.

Crab Creek is 262 km long and drains a drainage basin in East Washington of 13,200 square kilometers. It is sometimes called the "longest ephemeral stream in North America".

course

The Crab Creek is occasionally divided into the Upper Crab Creek, which runs from the source to the Potholes Reservoir , and the Lower (German: Lower) Crab Creek, which runs from the Potholes Reservoir to the Columbia River . The creek is also sometimes divided into three parts - Upper Crab Creek (from the source to Brook Lake), Middle Crab Creek (from Brook Lake to and including Potholes Reservoir), and Lower Crab Creek (from below Potholes Reservoir to to the Columbia River).

Upper Crab Creek was dry before the CBP began and now flows sporadically. From the source near Reardan it flows generally southwest, later west and receives the tributaries Rock Creek, Coal Creek, Duck Creek, Canniwai Creek and Wilson Creek. It flows into Brook Lake, which is south of Billy Clapp Lake, an equalization basin of the CBP dammed by the Pinto Dam .

Crab Creek turns south after leaving Brook Lake. The CBP's East Low Canal, one of the main irrigation canals, crosses Crab Creek without mixing the water. In the town of Moses Lake, Crab Creek flows into the Parker Horn Arm of Moses Lake . Just before Crab Creek reaches the lake, the Rocky Coulee Wasteway, a mixture of the sporadic Rocky Coulee Creek with irrigation water from the East Low Canal, flows out. Before the CBP, there was no permanent flow of water between Brook Lake and Moses Lake. Crab Creek only flowed through this area during flood periods.

Moses Lake flows into the Potholes Reservoir, which feeds the irrigation canals to the south. Below the O'Sullivan Dam, numerous springs renew the Crab Creek, which flows south-west and later west. Below the parish of Smyrna, Crab Creek meanders through a two-mile (3.2 km) wide canyon bounded by the Saddle Mountains to the south and the Royal Slope to the north, and which also contains parts of the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge before it flows into the Columbia River.

Lakes

Before 1904, shifting dunes blocked Crab Creek below Moses Lake, the largest natural lake on the creek. The stream's water did not reach the Columbia River. In 1904, a severe flood broke through the dunes and lowered the lake's water level by eight feet. Before the flood, the connection between Crab Creek and Moses Lake and the Columbia River was sporadic. Fishes native to Moses Lake suggest periods of connection prior to 1904. It is also possible that Moses Lake was created by the blockade of Crab Creek by sand dunes.

The Columbia Basin Project in central Washington changed the character of Crab Creek fundamentally. The irrigated catchment area at Crab Creek covers an area of ​​767 square kilometers. A large earth dam , the O'Sullivan Dam (also known as Potholes Dam ) was built from 1947 to 1949 and formed the Potholes Reservoir, which was the central point for the storage of irrigation water, the natural runoff and the return of the irrigation -Water in the southern project area of ​​the CBP. Water flows from the Potholes Reservoir through canals; it has no permanent drain into Lower Crab Creek. The water in Lower Crab Creek comes from seepage from Potholes Reservoir and from irrigation, from the Goose Lake Wasteway and from tributaries below O'Sullivan Dam. The water level in this section is variable, but generally high due to the low altitude and the recirculated irrigation water. Many lakes such as Merry Lake, Lenice Lake, and Nunally Lake drain into Crab Creek.

history

Lower Crab Creek 8 miles above its confluence with the Columbia River, looking east. The Saddle Mountains are on the right of the picture.

Since it became one of the few streams with reliable water flow, the tribes of the Spokane and Palouse Indians have used the area around Crab Creek to collect roots and other food there. A main Indian trail through the region ran along the stream. Lieutenant Symons crossed the area on central Crab Creek when he established the Military Wagon Road from Fort Walla Walla to Camp Chelan in 1879 . The Old Wagon Road was established between Waterville and Ritzville in 1888 .

Before irrigation was introduced, most of the Upper Crab Creek area consisted of a tussock prairie used for cattle and sheep breeding. Crab Creek and its tributaries provided water for the herds. Although a handful of ranchers owned herds that were brought as meat by rail from towns like Sprague to Montana, settlement remained extremely sparse. One of these ranchers was George Lucas, an immigrant from Ireland who is believed to be the first permanent white settler in Adams County . He started an inn in 1869 and raised cattle and horses on Cow Creek on the road to Fort Colville .

The Lower Crab Creek offered the only available water in this shrub-steppe region and thus became the starting point for settlement. Ben and Sam Hutchinson built the first documented cabin on Lower Crab Creek in 1884. Tom McManamon, a rancher, arrived in the area shortly thereafter; other settlers came in 1901 and founded the city of Othello in 1904 .

When the Bureau of Reclamation moved into district offices in Othello in 1947 and began setting up the Columbia Irrigation Project, the previously sparsely populated region experienced a dramatic change in natural conditions.

geology

A flood through Crab Creek Coulee with basalt columns in the background. The actual creek is behind the viewer.

The Okanogan rag of the Cordilleras Ice Sheet pushed down the Okanogan River Valley and blocked the primordial course of the Columbia River . The backwater created Lake Spokane. As the Okanogan Lobe grew, the Columbia River was diverted into the Grand Coulee . As it flowed through what is now the Grand Coulee Dry Falls region, the Ice Age Columbia reached the Quincy Basin near Quincy and merged with Crab Creek at Moses Lake, followed the course of Crab Creek south and passed the Frenchman Hills, turned then to the west and ran on the north side of the Saddle Mountains and thus reached the earlier (before the blockade) and today's course of the Columbia River just above the main breakthrough valley in the Saddle Mountains, the Sentinel Gap .

During the time of the Missoula Floods, large amounts of water were periodically drained, part of which reached Upper Crab Creek by crossing the watershed between the Columbia River and Crab Creek basins, while another part flowed over the Columbia River and Crab Creek reached at Moses Lake. As a result, significant flows were and wastes (ger .: scablands (the cross section d. H. Could result in a much greater flow than it actually does)) created in the catchment area of the Upper Crab Creek and the outflow below the Potholes Reservoir oversized.

recreation

The Crab Creek in the Drumheller Channels.

Potholes State Park is a 260 acre park on the banks of the Potholes Reservoir. It provides access to the Drumheller Channels National Natural Landmark , which is just below the O'Sullivan Dam. This National Natural Landmark is a heavily eroded landscape, the Channeled Scablands , which are characterized by hundreds of isolated, steep hills (English: buttes ), which are surrounded by an intertwined network of numerous canals. All but the channel through which Crab Creek flows are currently dry. It is a classic example of the tremendous erosive forces of extreme flood currents such as the glacial Missoula floods that reshaped the volcanic terrain of the Columbia Plateau in the late Pleistocene .

The Sentinel Gap in the Saddle Mountains seen from the north. Crab Creek flows along the front of the Saddle Mountains from the left and reaches the Columbia River above the breakthrough.

There are five sanctuaries along Crab Creek:

• The Crab Creek Wildlife Area consists of the Columbia River eastwards along the northern front of the Saddle Mountains to Othello.
• The Seep Lakes Wildlife Area coincides with the Drumheller Channels National Natural Landmark.
• The Potholes Wildlife Area is adjacent to the Potholes Reservoir.
• The Gloyd Seeps Wildlife Area is north of Moses Lake.
• The North Columbia Basin Wildlife Area - Gloyd Seeps is located north of the Gloyd Seeps Wildlife Area

See also

• List of rivers in Washington
• Tributaries of the Columbia River (at Wikipedia)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Source height from the Google Earth search using the GNIS coordinates for the source.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Crab Creek in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey - source coordinates
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Lower Crab Creek in the Geographic Names Information System of the United States Geological Survey - mouth coordinates
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Crab Subbasin Plan ( Memento of the original from December 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Northwest Power and Conservation Council 
5. ^ Crab Creek Basin and the Columbia River from Rock Island Dam to Richland , Water Resources Data-Washington Water Year 2005
6. ↑ Harry M. Majors: Exploring Washington . Van Winkle Publishing Co, 1975, ISBN 978-0-918664-00-6 , p. 103.
7. ↑ Columbia Basin Project ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Bureau of Reclamation History Program Research on Historic Reclamation Projects 
8. ↑ Archived copy . Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved November 23, 2006. Washington history
9. ^ ^{A b c} Adams County Brief History
10. ↑ ^{a b c} Ted and Marge Mueller: Fire, Faults & Floods . University of Idaho Press, Moscow, Idaho, 1997, ISBN 0-89301-206-8 .
11. ↑ David Alt: Glacial Lake Missoula & its Humongous Floods . Mountain Press Publishing Company, 2001, ISBN 0-87842-415-6 .
12. ↑ Bjornstad, Bruce: On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: A Geological Guide to the Mid-Columbia Basin . Keokee Books; San Point, Idaho, 2006, ISBN 978-1-879628-27-4 .
13. ^ J Harlen Bretz, (1923), The Channeled Scabland of the Columbia Plateau. Journal of Geology , v.31, pp. 617-649
14. ^ Washington Road and Recreation Atlas . Benchmark Maps, Medford, Oregon 2002, ISBN 0-929591-53-4 .