After 100 Years, the Elwha River Came Back to Life

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The Elwha begins deep inside Olympic National Park, high in Washington State's Olympic Mountains, and travels roughly 45 miles down to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Most of its watershed sits inside protected federal land, which meant that for most of the twentieth century, the upper river stayed almost untouched — no logging roads, no farm runoff, no pollution. That combination, a pristine upper watershed feeding a short, steep run to the sea, made the Elwha one of the most productive salmon systems on the entire Olympic Peninsula.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Elwha once supported all ten runs of Pacific salmon and searun trout native to the region — spring, summer, and fall Chinook, coho, chum, pink, sockeye, and both winter and summer steelhead, alongside bull trout and resident cutthroat. Historical accounts describe Elwha Chinook salmon growing to nearly 100 pounds, among the largest ever recorded on the West Coast. Biologists have estimated that before development, as many as 380,000 adult salmon and steelhead returned to the river each year.

Then, in the early 1900s, a businessman named Thomas Aldwell arrived with a different vision for the canyon.