The ancient and beautiful Klamath River runs along the border of southern Oregon and Northern California. For millions of years, it was a fertile breeding ground for fish—one of the largest salmon runs in the country, in fact—a lifeline for wildlife and vegetation in the area, and more modernly, a source of food for local tribes.

But in the early 1900s, what was then known as the California Oregon Power Company (COPCO) built a series of hydroelectric dams that would harness the river’s power and turn it into electricity that could be sold. It decimated the area. The dams cut the salmon off completely from more than 400 miles of open river. They also degraded water quality and supported the growth of toxic algae.

On top of that, the hydropower dams were underperforming and causing more problems than they were worth. COPCO, now PacifiCorp, got only about 2% of its energy from the dams, and it simply wasn’t worth the investment to upgrade them to meet current standards.

Something had to be done.

Four dams were finally destroyed in 2024

Indigenous tribes in the area lobbied for years to have the dams removed. They’d used the river for food, trade, and everyday life for........

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