The nugget., April 04, 2018, Page 11, Image 11

Wednesday, April 4, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
11
Whispers from the past — Whychus Creek
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
Tourists traveling through
town may be unaware of the
little creek that runs under
Highway 20 at the east end of
town. Campers at Creekside
Park may know nothing of
the creek’s source or its rich
history in the settlement of
Sisters. How about those of
us who live here? Is the creek
anything more than a cool
respite on a hot August day?
Water was the life-blood
of early Sisters, and maps
of the irrigation ditches that
crisscrossed the area pro-
vide a glance into its his-
tory and early settlers. Uncle
John’s Ditch. Maxwell Ditch.
Claypool Ditch.
The majority of those irri-
gation diversions had as their
source glacier-fed Whychus
(Squaw) Creek, which begins
its journey high up on the
shoulders of the Three Sisters
Mountains. Carver Lake, the
largest of the moraine-dam
lakes left from the Little Ice
Age, sits at 7,800 feet eleva-
tion on the northeast slope of
the South Sister.
Water from the Carver
Lake outlet provides the
origin of Whychus Creek,
which tumbles for 21 miles
and down 4,600 feet in eleva-
tion to run past the Creekside
Campground and under the
Highway 20 bridge. It then
turns east around McKinney
Butte, through Camp Polk
Meadow and Whychus
Canyon, into the Crooked
River Grasslands and finally
empties into the Deschutes
River past Alder Springs.
Long before any Euro-
American explorers or set-
tlers discovered the lands east
of the Cascades, the Native
Americans relied on the
waters of Why-Chus Creek
for a ready supply of fish and
as a travel corridor. There is
evidence from 7,700 years ago
of First Americans moving
into Sisters Country. Tenino
and Northern Paiutes have
legends that support use of
these lands for huckleberries,
root and nut gathering, fish-
ing, and hunting.
The creek has been called
by different names over
time: Why-Chus, Sic-se-que,
Squaw, and in 2006 the name
was returned to the Native
American Whychus, meaning
“the place we cross the water,”
based on its strong historical
and legal usage.
On July 6, 1825, Peter
Skene Ogden of the Hudson’s
Bay Company, returning
from the Snake River coun-
try, camped by the creek two
miles west of the current
Squaw Flat. Captain John
C. Fremont camped on the
stream on December 2, 1843,
but gave it no name.
Lt. Henry Abbot of the
1855 Pacific Railroad survey
party mentioned finding a
paper on one of the trees near
“black butte” stating that “the
main party was in camp on
Why-Chus Creek about seven
miles to the south.” In 1865,
Camp Polk was established on
Sic-se-que Creek.
Beginning in 1869, settlers
started diverting water from
then Squaw Creek for use on
their individual farms. Squaw
Creek Irrigation Company
(SCIC) was incorporated on
February 21, 1891. SCIC was
formed to construct ditches,
canals, and flumes for general
irrigation purposes. To obtain
its water supply, the corpora-
tion appropriated and diverted
water from Squaw Creek.
In 1894, the Carey Act fur-
ther encouraged settlement of
the West. Settlers received 160
acres of land if they lived on it
and within 10 years converted
at least 20 acres to irrigated
agriculture.
For almost 100 years, 20
miles of Squaw Creek ran dry
during the summer irrigation
season. With no water, Squaw
Creek’s formerly healthy
steelhead and redband trout
populations virtually disap-
peared. Between 1960 and
1999, the creek ran dry, on
average, two out of every
three years.
The low summer water lev-
els could be deceiving to the
casual observer. Late spring
snows or unusual
periods of rain on
snow and warming
temperatures can
create heavy run-
off, which turns the
picturesque creek
into a raging river,
ripping trees from
its banks. In 1964,
Sisters experienced
a major flooding
of Squaw Creek,
knocking out the
Highway 20 bridge.
Following that
flood, the Army
Corps of Engineers
conducted a num-
ber of projects that
straightened out the
PHOTO PROVIDED
meandering creek Upper Squaw Creek 1930s.
with channelization.
In 1999, through the the release of 250,000 fry into
efforts of the Deschutes Land the creek. Chinook salmon
Trust, the Upper Deschutes fry and smolt were reintro-
Watershed Council, other duced in 2009. Last year,
conservation groups, irriga- there was rejoicing when the
tors, and government agen- first return of some of those
cies, work began to restore fish was noted at Camp Polk
riparian areas and remove Meadow.
After years of taking
barriers along the creek.
With the re-meandering Whychus Creek for granted,
of Whychus Creek through young and old have a new-
Camp Polk Meadow by the found appreciation for the
Deschutes Land Trust, a role played by the creek in the
major contribution was made history and the future of our
to restoring the health of the little mountain town. Though
creek. In the spring of 2007, its name has undergone
steelhead trout were reintro- change, its importance in the
duced in Whychus Creek with life of the region has not.
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PHOTO BY PHOTO PROVIDED
Squaw Creek bridge 1933.
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