Trinity River (California) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Trinity River |
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Trinity River near Weaverville
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Map of the Trinity River and Klamath River watersheds. The Trinity River is shown in dark blue, with its watershed highlighted in dark yellow. The South Fork Trinity River extends southward, while the main Trinity River curves east then north.
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| Other name(s) | Hoopa River |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Main source | Scott Mountains Trinity County 5,557 ft (1,694 m) 41°19′53″N 122°33′9″W / 41.33139°N 122.55250°W |
| River mouth | Klamath River Weitchpec 190 ft (58 m) 41°11′5″N 123°42′31″W / 41.18472°N 123.70861°W |
| Length | 165 mi (266 km) |
| Basin features | |
| Basin size | 2,936 sq mi (7,600 km2) |
| Tributaries |
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| Type: | Wild, Scenic, Recreational |
| Designated: | January 19, 1981 |
The Trinity River is a big river in northwestern California, USA. It's the main branch of the Klamath River. The river flows for about 165 miles (266 km) through mountains and hills. Its watershed, the area of land that drains into it, is nearly 3,000 square miles (7,800 km2).
Native American tribes like the Yurok and Hupa people called it "Hoopa" or "hun'". They lived along the river for thousands of years. The river was famous for its many Chinook salmon and steelhead fish. These fish swim from the ocean to freshwater to lay eggs.
In the mid-1800s, the California Gold Rush brought many gold seekers to the area. Major Pierson B. Reading named the river "Trinity" in 1848. He thought it flowed into the Pacific Ocean at Trinidad Bay, but he was mistaken. The arrival of miners led to conflicts with Native American tribes. Logging, ranching, and mining also changed the river's environment. This caused fish populations to decline.
Today, the Trinity River provides water for farms and makes electricity. It's also a popular spot for fun activities like gold panning, fishing, and whitewater rafting. Since 1964, a dam has created Trinity Lake, a large man-made lake. A lot of the river's water is sent to farms in California's Central Valley. Rules were put in place in 1991 to release more water back into the Trinity River to help the fish. However, how much water the river gets is still a big discussion, especially when there's a drought.
Contents
Where Does the Trinity River Flow?
The Trinity River starts high up in the Scott Mountains in Trinity County. It flows south through a deep valley. It picks up water from Coffee Creek before reaching Trinity Lake. This big lake was made by the Trinity Dam. The East Fork and Stuart Fork also flow into this lake.
Below Trinity Dam is a smaller dam called Lewiston Dam. This dam sends some of the Trinity River's water through a power plant. This water then goes to the Sacramento River Basin. It helps provide water for farms in California's Central Valley.
After Lewiston Dam, the Trinity River flows past towns like Lewiston and Douglas City. It then turns west, near Weaverville, the main town in Trinity County. It continues northwest, past Junction City, and meets the North Fork Trinity River at Helena.
Further west, it goes through a deep canyon. This canyon is where Highway 299 runs. At Burnt Ranch, the New River joins it. At Salyer, the South Fork, its biggest branch, flows in. This nearly doubles the river's water.
The Trinity River then turns sharply north. It enters Humboldt County. It flows through the Hoopa Valley Reservation, past Willow Creek and Hoopa. Finally, it joins the Klamath River at Weitchpec. This is about 44 miles (71 km) from where the Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean.
How Does the River Flow?
The Trinity River gets most of its water from rain. The river flows fastest between December and April. It flows slowest from August to October. In winter, big storms can make the water level rise very quickly. In summer, there's little rain. So, the river's water comes mostly from melting snow in the mountains.
Since the 1960s, sending water to the Central Valley has reduced the river's total flow. However, dams must release a certain amount of water to protect fish. This means the river has more water in the dry season than it would naturally.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measures the river's flow at different points. At Hoopa, near the river's end, the average flow from 1964 to 2013 was 4,849 cubic feet per second (137.3 m3/s). Before the dams were built (1912–1960), the average flow was higher, at 5,618 cubic feet per second (159.1 m3/s). The highest flow ever recorded was 231,000 cubic feet per second (6,500 m3/s) during a huge flood in December 1964. The lowest was 162 cubic feet per second (4.6 m3/s) in October 1931.
What is the Trinity River Watershed Like?
The Trinity River's watershed covers 2,936 square miles (7,600 km2). It's a rugged, forested area in California's North Coast. The highest point is Sawtooth Peak, which is 8,888 feet (2,709 m) tall. The lowest point is 190 feet (58 m) where the Trinity meets the Klamath River. Most of the watershed is covered by mountains. There are only a few flat areas, like the Weaverville basin and the Hoopa, Hyampom, and Hayfork Valleys.
The climate here is Mediterranean. This means it has cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers. The watershed gets about 57 inches (1,400 mm) of rain each year. Heavy rainfall and steep mountains can cause floods in winter. These floods carry a lot of rocks and dirt, changing the river's shape. Human activities like mining and road building have increased this erosion. Dams, however, have stopped some natural sediment from reaching parts of the river. Both have changed the river's environment and fish homes.
Forests of fir, oak, and pine cover about 92 percent of the watershed. About 80 percent of the land is managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The rest is privately owned, often by logging companies.
Most of the Trinity River watershed is in Trinity County. In 2010, about 13,786 people lived there. This makes it one of the least crowded counties in California. A smaller part of the watershed is in Humboldt County. The Hoopa Valley Reservation is in this part and had 2,930 people in 2011. For a long time, the main jobs in the area were mining, logging, farming, and ranching. Now, tourism is becoming more important, especially since Trinity Lake was created in 1964.
How the Trinity River Area Was Formed
The land around the Trinity River started forming over 200 million years ago. This happened when different pieces of the Earth's crust crashed into the North American Plate. This pushed up the seafloor, creating mountains. Over millions of years, these mountains wore down and then reformed. This cycle created the mix of different rocks we see today. You can find rocks like granite, limestone, and serpentine. Gold was found in many of these rocks, making the area a key spot during the California Gold Rush.
The Klamath Mountains, in the eastern part of the watershed, are quite young. They are only 2 or 3 million years old. Underground volcanic activity helped shape these mountains. The higher mountains, like the Trinity Alps, were also shaped by glaciers during past Ice Ages. Glaciers carved out many lakes and sharp ridges. Some small glaciers still exist in the higher valleys.
The Coast Ranges, in the western part of the basin, are even younger. They have less stable rocks and soils that can easily break apart. Landslides are common here because of erosion and earthquakes.
History of the Trinity River
Native American Life
Archaeologists have found spear points dating back 3000–6000 BC along the Trinity River. This shows that people have lived here for a very long time. The Wintu people were one of the first known groups in the upper Trinity River area. They had many villages along the river, with up to 150 people in each. They traded with other tribes.
Since about 1000 A.D., the Hupa people have lived along the lower Trinity River. They called the river "hun'", meaning simply "river". The Hupa lived in the fertile Hoopa Valley and Hyampom Valley. These are some of the few flat areas in the mountainous region. They traded with coastal tribes like the Yurok and Karuk using canoes.
The Tsnungwe people, also called the South Fork Hupa, lived in the South Fork and Burnt Ranch areas. After the Gold Rush, many battles happened between tribes and miners. Most surviving Tsnungwe were moved to the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation. Today, the Tsnungwe Council is working to get their tribal status recognized by the federal government again.
The Chimariko people lived near the Trinity River canyon. They were enemies of the Hupa but friends with the Wintu. Their language was very different from other tribes in the area.
Fish like salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon were very important to all these Native American groups. Fishing was their main food source and something they traded. Before Europeans arrived, Native peoples caught as much as 2,000,000 pounds (910,000 kg) of salmon from the Trinity River each year. They also ate berries, seeds, and acorns, and hunted deer and elk.
The Wintu had more contact with early European explorers. Sadly, a malaria sickness in the 1830s greatly reduced their population. Later, conflicts with gold miners and settlers led to more deaths. By 1910, the Wintu population was much smaller than it had been. The Chimariko people also suffered greatly during the Gold Rush.
Because their homeland was isolated, the Hupa had less contact with early Europeans. They later had conflicts with miners. In 1876, they were given a reservation. Today, the Hoopa Valley Reservation is the largest and most populated reservation in California.
Early Explorers and Gold Rush
Jedediah Smith's group in 1828 were some of the first Europeans to explore the Trinity River area. They followed creeks and rivers, eventually reaching the Pacific Ocean. Smith traded with the Hupas and Yuroks. Early maps sometimes called the lower Trinity "Smith's River."
The Old Trinity Trail was used by Native Americans for many years. Fur trappers might have used it in the 1830s and 1840s. Major Pierson B. Reading explored the upper Trinity in 1845 and gave the river its modern name. He thought it flowed to Trinidad Bay, but he was wrong.
In July 1848, Major Reading found gold on the Trinity River. This discovery brought thousands of miners to the area. Towns like Douglas City and Weaverville grew quickly. Weaverville became a major trading center. At first, miners found gold in the river gravel. Many Chinese miners also came to the area.
The Trinity River gold rush was very productive for about 20 years. Miners used flumes and waterwheels to find gold. The Great Flood of 1862 destroyed many mining claims. This pushed miners further west. The New River was named because it was a "new" place to look for gold. By the 1870s, river gold was harder to find. But in the 1880s, gold was found in rocks in the mountains.
Another way to get gold was hydraulic mining. This started in the 1860s. Miners used powerful water jets to wash away hillsides to find gold. This caused huge changes to the landscape. It leveled forests and buried streambeds under tons of dirt. The La Grange Mine was the biggest hydraulic mine in California. It buried an entire town under a massive amount of sediment.
After the Gold Rush
In 1884, California banned hydraulic mining in some areas. But the Trinity mines were not included because the river was not considered "navigable." By the 1920s, most of the gold was gone. Mining towns were abandoned. Floating dredges were used to dig up river bottoms until 1959.
Even though most miners left, some stayed to work in ranching and logging. Some still looked for gold. Recreational gold panning is still popular today. The Webber family bought a ranch in 1922 and named the mountains the "Trinity Alps."
Logging increased a lot after World War II. But logging on steep mountains caused erosion and landslides. Environmental groups later sued the Forest Service to stop logging in risky areas. This led to fewer logging jobs.
The Central Valley Project
In the 1930s, California thought about moving water from the rainy north to dry farmlands in the south. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation took over this plan, called the Central Valley Project. In the 1950s, they decided to dam the Trinity River. This was to help with water shortages in other parts of California.
The Trinity River project was approved in 1953. Congress allowed 704,000 acre-feet (0.868 km3) of water to be sent away each year. This was about 56 percent of the river's total flow. They believed it would not harm the fish. Construction of Trinity Dam began in 1956 and finished in 1963. The lake behind it was first named "Clair Engle Lake" but was changed to Trinity Lake in 1997.
Trinity Dam is 538 feet (164 m) high. It was the tallest earth dam in the world when it was finished. Trinity Lake can hold a huge amount of water. Below Trinity Dam is the smaller Lewiston Dam. This is where the water is actually sent away. Water goes through a tunnel to Whiskeytown Lake and then to the Sacramento River. This water also generates a lot of electricity.
Building the dam flooded towns like Trinity Center. People living there were against the dam, but the government bought their land. The dam also blocked salmon from reaching 109 miles (175 km) of their habitat. This destroyed the local fishing economy. However, some people welcomed the dam for the new jobs it brought in hydropower and tourism.
Trinity River Ecosystem
Most of the Trinity River watershed is covered in forests. You can find trees like ponderosa pine, Douglas fir, and incense cedar. There are also hardwood forests with California black oak and bigleaf maple. Fir forests make up about 74 percent of the trees. Wildfires are common in the dry summers.
The Shasta-Trinity National Forest covers almost the entire watershed. Large animals like black bears, mountain lions, and elk live here. River otters are in most streams. You can also find ringtails, raccoons, and many types of squirrels. Bald eagles nest around Trinity Lake.
Beavers also live in the Trinity River watershed. Their numbers were much higher before fur trappers arrived.
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The Trinity River was once famous for its many anadromous fish runs. These included salmon, steelhead, and sturgeon. Before Europeans arrived, many thousands of fish returned to the river each year to lay eggs.
Human activities have greatly affected the forests and river. Logging has made mountain slopes more likely to erode. Even old logging roads can cause erosion. Livestock grazing has also damaged grasslands. This causes dirt to wash into the river, clogging channels. This harms salmon and steelhead because it buries the gravel beds where they lay their eggs.
After the dams were built, too much water was sent away from the river. Sometimes as much as 90 percent of the water was diverted. This greatly reduced the river's ability to wash away extra dirt. The number of chinook salmon returning to the river has dropped by almost 80 percent since the 1950s. In 2002, 65,000 salmon died in a fish kill on the lower Trinity and Klamath rivers.
The Trinity River water was also used to irrigate new farms in the San Joaquin Valley. This water runoff caused pollution in Kesterson Reservoir, harming birds and wildlife.
After Lewiston Dam was built, the Trinity River Fish Hatchery was created. This hatchery raises young steelhead, coho, and chinook salmon. Its goal is to make up for the fish habitat lost above the dam. The hatchery tries to produce many thousands of fish each year.
Restoring the River
In 1991, new rules required more water to be released into the Trinity River from Lewiston Dam. In 2000, the government officially decided to use some Central Valley Project water for environmental purposes. This means more water is now released into the Trinity River. Before this, only a small amount of water was released. Now, the minimum release is 368,600 acre-feet (0.4547 km3) each year, even in dry years. Even more water is released in wet years. These changes reduce the amount of water diverted from the Trinity River by about 28 percent. The project also releases large amounts of water sometimes. This helps to copy natural floods and move sediment.
| Water year type |
Trinity River release |
Trinity Release volume |
Max. CVP diversion |
Pct. flow released to river |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critically Dry | 509 ft3/s (14 m3/s) |
368,600 acre.ft (0.45 km3) |
85,400 acre.ft (0.11 km3) |
81% |
| Dry | 625 ft3/s (18 m3/s) |
452,600 acre.ft (0.56 km3) |
358,400 acre.ft<>(0.44 km3) | 56% |
| Normal | 892 ft3/s (25 m3/s) |
646,500 acre.ft (0.80 km3) |
459,100 acre.ft (0.56 km3) |
58% |
| Wet | 968 ft3/s (27 m3/s) |
701,000 acre.ft (0.86 km3) |
900,000 acre.ft (1.11 km3) |
44% |
| Extremely Wet | 1,125 ft3/s (32 m3/s) |
815,200 acre.ft (1.01 km3) |
1,525,800 acre.ft (1.88 km3) |
35% |
Crews have also worked to clean up the river channel below the dam. They remove mining debris and extra plants. However, some environmental groups think these efforts are too harsh. They say bulldozing the riverbanks can harm steelhead spawning grounds. It can also affect public access and spread unwanted plants.
Fun Activities on the Trinity River
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The Trinity River and its branches are part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System since 1981. This means they are protected for their natural beauty and recreation. The main river is protected from below Lewiston Dam to where it meets the Klamath River. The North Fork, New River, and South Fork are also protected.
Fishing for salmon and steelhead has improved in many parts of the river. The Trinity is known as one of the best steelhead streams in the western United States. It has both wild fish and fish from hatcheries.
The Trinity is also a popular river for whitewater rafting and kayaking. The dam releases for fish have also made more water available for boating all year. There are three main whitewater sections. The Pigeon Point section has easy to medium rapids. The Burnt Ranch Gorge has very difficult rapids. The lower Trinity, which flows through the Hoopa Valley Reservation, has gentler rapids.
Looking for gold is another popular activity along the Trinity. However, many streams are on private land or already claimed by miners. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) manages claims in the area. The BLM and Forest Service have 14 special spots for people to access the river.
