User:Shannon1/Sandbox 6

The Baker River is a 33 mi long river in Whatcom County and Skagit County, northwestern Washington. It flows southwest from its headwaters in North Cascades National Park through the Mount Baker–Snoqualmie National Forest to Concrete, where it joins the Skagit River. The Baker River watershed includes many high peaks of the North Cascades, including the stratovolcano Mount Baker, with which the river shares its name. Geologically, the course of the river has been heavily influenced by Ice Age glaciations and previous eruptions of Mount Baker. Parts of the river valley are underlain by 500 ft of old lava and debris flows, while other sections flow over glacial deposits.

The Baker River was the site of an Upper Skagit village before entry of gold prospectors in the 1850s. Homesteaders arriving in the Skagit Valley discovered limestone deposits at the mouth of the river and founded settlements on either side of the Baker River at its confluence with the Skagit. These deposits were mined starting in the early 1900s and drove the settlement and naming of the town of Concrete, where large cement plants operated until the 1970s.

While the upper reaches of the river flow through wilderness, the lower part has two hydroelectric dams constructed in 1927 and 1959 and operated by Puget Sound Energy. Although the dams block natural fish migration, a fish trapping system has been in use since 1985 to transport salmon around the dams.

Course
The Baker River originates at Perfect Pass near Whatcom Peak in the northwest area of North Cascades National Park, on the west side of the Picket Range. It flows southwest through a deep, narrow glacial valley for about 10 mi, descending rapidly to Baker Lake, elevation 722 ft, in the Mount Baker–Snoqualmie National Forest. Above Baker Lake the river is joined by several significant tributaries, including Mineral, Pass, Crystal, Sulphide, and Lake Creeks from the west and Picket, Bald Eagle, Scramble, and Blum Creeks from the east. With the exception of Lake Creek and Blum Creek, all of these tributaries join within North Cascades National Park. There are a number of large waterfalls on the Baker's tributaries, including Sulphide Creek Falls, which at 2182 ft is one of the tallest waterfalls in North America.

At the head of Baker Lake, the valley widens, angling west towards the foot of Mount Baker before turning south. Baker Lake, a reservoir impounded by Upper Baker Dam, is approximately 9 mi long and covers 4800 acre when full. Shannon, Swift, Park, Little Park, Boulder, Little Sandy and Sandy Creeks flow into the west side of the lake, while Noisy, Silver, Ermine, Anderson, and Walker Creeks flow into the east side.

Directly below Upper Baker Dam the river flows into Lake Shannon, formed by Lower Baker Dam. Lake Shannon is 7 mi long, and covers 2190 acre when full. The river valley narrows again in this section, with the banks of Lake Shannon significantly steeper than those along Baker Lake. Tributaries flowing into Lake Shannon are Sulphur, Rocky, and Bear Creeks from the west, and Thunder and Threemile Creeks from the east. Downstream from Lower Baker Dam the river flows through a short, narrow canyon before entering the Skagit Valley at Concrete and emptying into the Skagit River, 56 mi upstream of Puget Sound and about 50 mi southeast of Bellingham.

Discharge
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has operated a stream gage on the Baker River at Concrete from 1910 to the present. The average annual discharge was 2662 cuft/s, with the highest annual mean of 3543 cuft/s occurring in 1974, and the lowest of 1712 cuft/s occurring in 1944. The flow of the Baker River at the mouth is heavily regulated for hydroelectric power generation and flood control.

Baker River monthly mean discharge at Concrete, WA (ft3/s)

Watershed
The Baker River drains an area of 297 mi2 and is the second largest tributary of the Skagit River by volume, contributing about 16 percent of its flow. The topography is dominated by high, rugged peaks of the North Cascades. The northern divide of the watershed is formed (from west to east) by Mount Baker (10765 ft), Mount Shuksan (9121 ft), Ruth Mountain (7103 ft), Mineral Mountain (6811 ft), Easy Peak (6621 ft), and Whatcom Peak (7592 ft). South of Perfect Pass the divide (from north to south) includes Mount Challenger (8229 ft), Crooked Thumb Peak (8150 ft), Phantom Peak (7996 ft), Mount Crowder (7100 ft), Mount Blum (7707 ft), Hagan Mountain (7054 ft), Bacon Peak (7008 ft), and Mount Watson (6175 ft).

The river has more than sixty significant tributaries, with a combined length of 315 mi. There are 39 lakes and ponds in the Baker River watershed, covering a total of 7466 acre. With the exception of Lake Shannon and Baker Lake, all are small, alpine lakes of less than 45 acre. Average precipitation ranges from 70 in at the mouth of the river to over 150 in in the high Cascades. About 56 percent of the watershed is administered by the U.S. Forest Service, while the U.S. National Park Service administers 30 percent. The remainder is a mix of state and private ownership. Approximately half the total land area is wilderness. The only urbanized areas are in the town of Concrete; however, large portions of the watershed have been altered by logging, mining, road-building, and hydropower development.

Geology and morphology
The Baker River watershed has been shaped by numerous Ice Age glaciations, starting about two million years before present. The most recent glaciation, from about 16,000–12,200 years ago, was the Vashon ice sheet which came down the Skagit Valley from the east and flowed northwards into the Baker River drainage. The ice dammed the Baker River and formed Glacial Lake Baker, which extended north about as far as the head of present-day Baker Lake reservoir. After the glacier retreated, the lake drained and left the Baker River channel deeply scoured about 400 to 500 ft below its present elevation.

The lower Baker River valley was further shaped by a series of eruptions from Mount Baker between 10,350–6,600 years ago, which sent lava flows, pyroclastic flows and mudflows which traveled down tributaries such as Sulphur Creek and Boulder Creek. The volcanic deposits forced the Baker River channel to the east side of the valley from Swift Creek all the way down to Sulphur Creek, and dammed the river to create a small natural lake, known historically as Baker Lake. The lake covered about 550 acre and would later be flooded when the Upper Baker Dam was built. The old channel of the Baker River was buried under several hundred feet of volcanic material.

Soils in the watershed are generally shallow and easily erodible, except for those found at lower elevations. At the head of modern-day Baker Lake, the Baker River valley becomes wider and is characterized by deep, stable soils of glacial till or glacial outwash origin deposited by the retreating Vashon glacier. Downstream of Upper Baker Dam are deep but unstable glacial and colluvial deposits which have been deeply incised by the river, forming narrow canyons. At the mouth of the canyon the Baker River forms an alluvial fan where sediments were historically deposited onto the Skagit River floodplain; there was also a side channel called the Little Baker River within the alluvial fan. In the 19th century this stretch was dredged and straightened as the town of Concrete developed around it, and in conjunction with dams trapping upriver sediment, the alluvial fan is no longer a site of active deposition.

In the present day, there are 63 glaciers covering approximately 11.5 mi2 to 13 mi2 in the Baker River watershed. Glacier melt contributes significantly to the summer flow of the river – about 16 percent between July 1 and October 1, with a peak of 24 percent in August. In dry years the contribution may reach 50 percent. Like many other areas in the North Cascades, the Baker River has been losing glacier cover since the 1980s. While spring runoff from snowmelt have increased, late summer flows from glacier melt have decreased.

Ecology
Before the start of construction at Lower Baker Dam in 1923, fish could freely pass between the Skagit River and natural (pre-dammed) Baker Lake. The annual sockeye run at that time was estimated to be approximately 20,000 fish. Although the dam blocked salmon migration up the river, a small resident sockeye population (kokanee) persisted in Lake Shannon. Artificial enhancement began in 1896 when the state of Washington constructed a hatchery on Baker Lake. This was the first establishment in the state for the hatching of sockeye salmon. The hatchery closed in 1933. The construction of Upper Baker Dam in 1959 inundated the natural Baker Lake and surrounding valley, including the spawning grounds of the Baker River sockeye. Artificial spawning beds were constructed at the upper end of the new Baker Lake. An additional spawning bed was built on Sulphur Creek in 1990. Because both dams on the Baker River are too high for fish ladders, all returning sockeye are trapped below Lower Baker Dam and transported to the artificial spawning beaches. In 2010 Puget Sound Energy built a new fish hatchery at Upper Baker Dam. The hatchery, along with the improved spawning beds, are expected to produce 11 million sockeye fry each year.

Today, Baker River sockeye are the only known sustaining sockeye population in the Skagit River basin. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) has determined the Baker River sockeye to be genetically distinct from other sockeye salmon. In 1985 only 92 adults were found to return to the river. In 1992 the condition of the population was listed as "critical". Since the 1990s, however, the population has recovered, in part due to improvements in the fish trapping and transportation system. 20,235 fish were counted in 2003 and since 2010, the numbers have been between 10,000–30,000 fish counted per year. In 2015, a record 52,243 fish returned to the river.

The Baker River also supports other anadromous salmonids such as coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch), chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha), and chum (Oncorhynchus keta) salmon, winter– and summer–run steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and sea-run cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki clarki).

History
Archeological excavations around Lake Shannon and Baker Lake have revealed lithic scatter and stone artifacts dating from 10,800–5,000 years ago. Lushootseed-speaking Native American bands lived in the Skagit and Baker River drainages for centuries prior to European settlement. Sustenance was based primarily on salmon fishing, as both rivers supported large salmon populations. Permanent winter villages of cedar longhouses were sited along tributary confluences with major rivers. The village of S'baliqw/Sabelxu was located near the junction of the Baker and Skagit Rivers. This was the largest and most influential village in the area due to its control of the rivers' confluence. Villages generally represented extended family units; from spring to fall family groups moved between seasonal camps for fishing, hunting and gathering. The 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott was an effort by the U.S. government to force Native Americans in the area to relinquish their lands, and after armed conflict with settlers in the Skagit valley, the natives were relocated to reservations further west. In 1915 the survivors of the Upper Skagit peoples were incorporated into the Upper Skagit Indian Tribe, whose reservation is in western Skagit County.

The river shares its name with Mount Baker, which was named by George Vancouver in 1792 for Royal Navy officer Joseph Baker. However, the river was not seen by Europeans until the 1850s, due to massive log jams preventing upstream boat travel in the Skagit. In 1858 following the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, a party led by Major John J. Van Bokkelen explored past the log jams hoping to find new gold deposits. Upon finding the Baker River, they explored as far north as Baker Lake, where they found "several camps of friendly Indians" but no gold. In 1870, a Northern Pacific Railroad survey crew camped near the mouth of the river while investigating the feasibility of constructing a railroad over Cascade Pass. D.C. Linsley recorded that the natives called the river Novcultum or Nuhcullum ("white water"). The name "Baker River" was first attached to the river in 1877 by prospector Otto Klement, who also named a tributary of the river, Thunder Creek. While Klement also failed to find gold on the Baker, he later discovered gold on nearby Ruby Creek, leading to a gold rush in 1879. Joe Morovits (nicknamed "Mighty Joe" or the "Hermit of Baker Lake") began homesteading on the Baker River in 1891. Morovits was the first person to study volcanic features along the river, correctly dating a lahar on what is now known as Morovitz Creek to the 1845 eruption of Mount Baker. He was also the first to describe what is now known as Kulshan Caldera, which he called an "earlier Mount Baker", at the headwaters of the Swift Creek tributary.

In 1875 Amasa Everett built a cabin on the east side of the Baker River at its confluence with the Skagit. After discovering significant clay and limestone deposits on his homestead he founded the Washington Portland Cement Company in 1892. Magnus Miller claimed land on the west side of the river in 1890 and platted the settlement of Baker City. Access improved when the U.S. government sent crews in 1876–1879 to remove the log jams on the Skagit and open the area to homesteaders, many of whom settled at the mouth of the Baker. The settlement of Concrete City grew across the river from Baker City. In 1901 a branch of the Great Northern Railway was extended to the mouth of the Baker River. A rail bridge across the river was completed in 1908 and was in use until 1925.

With the arrival of the railroad, the Baker River Lumber Company constructed a mill at the mouth of the river and began logging the river's watershed. The chief product was cedar shingles, made from the abundant western redcedar forests. Logs were driven down the Baker River and stored in nearby mill ponds. By 1912 the Sauk Timber Company, Burpee Lumber Company, and Grasmere Shingle Company also established logging operations in the Baker watershed. In 1905 the Washington Portland Cement Plant was constructed, followed by Superior's plant in 1908. In 1909 the towns of Baker City and Concrete City merged, adopting the present-day name of Concrete. In 1916 the Henry Thomson Bridge was built to connect the two sides of the river. At the time it was the longest single-span concrete bridge in the world. In 1917 the Puget Sound Power and Light Company (Puget Power, today owned by Puget Sound Energy) began considering the Baker River as the site for a hydroelectric dam to supply power to Bellingham. Work started on the dam in 1924 and was finished in 1927; at the time of its completion, it was the tallest dam in the world.

President Grover Cleveland signed the Washington Forest Reserve – covering more than 3.5 e6acre of the North Cascades – into law in 1897, placing much of the Baker River watershed under management of the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 1907 the area became a national forest under the U.S. Forest Service and was renamed Mount Baker National Forest in 1924. Recreational access to Baker Lake and the upper Baker River was greatly improved due to the roads constructed for the Lower Baker Dam project; previously, a rough 18 mi horse trail was the only way into the area. The Baker Lake Ranger and Guard Station operated from 1911 to 1932 on the south shore of Baker Lake. The Baker Lake Resort was founded nearby in 1935 and operated until 1959. In 1968, North Cascades National Park was created from a portion of the national forest. Commercial timber harvest continued on national forest lands until the 1990s, when new regulations under the Endangered Species Act made the area off-limits to logging. However, logging has continued on state and privately owned timberlands in the Baker River watershed.

After World War II the Puget Sound region experienced a population boom. To accommodate the increase in electricity demand, Puget Power planned to expand its hydroelectric facilities on the Baker River. In the early 1950s a new generator was installed in Lower Baker Dam. From 1956–1959 the Upper Baker Dam was constructed, raising the level of Baker Lake by about 300 ft. The reservoir submerged the sites of the old fish hatchery, ranger station and resort. In 1965 a landslide destroyed the Lower Baker Dam powerhouse, which was rebuilt in ????. The expansion of the Baker River hydroelectric project incited concerns from environmentalists, and was a factor leading to the creation of North Cascades National Park.

In 1973, the last cement plant in Concrete shut down.

Starting in 1975, volcanic activity at Mount Baker caused high loads of acidic and mineralized water to enter the river at Baker Lake. Water levels in Lake Shannon and Baker Lake were drawn down due to concerns about a potential eruption. Scientists feared that a collapse of Sherman Crater could send a lahar into Baker Lake, overtopping the dams on the Baker River and destroying the town of Concrete. Although volcanic activity subsided after 1976, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) installed an early warning system at Mount Baker which operated until about 2000. The USGS determined that if a larger event similar to 1975 were to occur, it could lead to fish kills in Baker Lake and weakening of the concrete structure at Upper Baker Dam.