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The Columbia River is a river in the continent of North America. It is 1,243 miles long and runs from the Canadian province of British Columbia and the states of Washington and Oregon in the United States of America. It begins in Canadian Rockies located in the southern part of the province of British Columbia in the country of Canada and empties into the Pacific Ocean near Astoria, Oregon. It empties over the Columbia Bar, what is referred to as a shifting sandbar. Shifting sandbars are dangerous because they are unpredictable and difficult to pass through. Much of the Columbia River serves as the border between the states of Washington and Oregon of the United States of America.
In 1792 Robert Gray entered the Columbia River, trading for furs, on a ship named Columbia Rediviva. He only traveled 13 miles up the river but was given the honor of the first one to discover the river. He named the river after his ship. Later that same year George Vancouver sent his second in command, William Robert Broughton, up the river another 100 miles and found and named Mount Hood, the river and its watershed for the kingdom of Britain. Then explorer Gray further claimed the river for the United States and the Oregon country but this was also climbed by Russia, Great Britain and Spain among other nations. And this was just the beginning of the controversy of who owned the rights to the river it took years to sort out who actually owned the river.
There are 14 dams along the Columbia River providing about 60% of electricity for the western coast. The Grand Coulee Dam and the Chief Joseph Dam are the largest of the dams on the river. They are also the largest in the United States of America and the Grand Coulee is touted as the third largest in the entire world. |
