Crab Creek
Crab Creek | |
---|---|
Washington | |
County | Grant County, Adams County, Lincoln County |
City | Moses Lake |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Near Gettys Butte |
• location | Lincoln County |
• coordinates | 47°42′42″N 117°54′24″W / 47.71167°N 117.90667°W[2][3] |
• elevation | 2,730 ft (830 m) |
Mouth | Columbia River |
• location | Grant County |
• coordinates | 46°48′55″N 119°55′19″W / 46.81528°N 119.92194°W[1] |
• elevation | 489 ft (149 m)[4] |
Length | 163 mi (262 km)[3][1] |
Basin size | 5,097 sq mi (13,200 km2)[5] |
Discharge | |
• average | 201 cu ft/s (5.7 m3/s)[6] |
• minimum | 10 cu ft/s (0.28 m3/s) |
• maximum | 936 cu ft/s (26.5 m3/s) |
Basin features | |
Tributaries | |
• left | Rocky Ford Creek |
• right | Coal Creek, Canniwai Creek, Wilson Creek, Red Rock Coulee |
Crab Creek is a stream in the
Crab Creek is 163 miles (262 km) long
Course
Crab Creek is sometimes separated into Upper Crab Creek, which runs from the creek's source to Potholes Reservoir, and Lower Crab Creek, which runs from Potholes Reservoir to the Columbia River.[3][1] Sometimes the stream is divided into three parts—Upper Crab Creek, from its source to Brook Lake, Middle Crab Creek, from Brook Lake to and including Potholes Reservoir; and Lower Crab Creek, from below Potholes Reservoir to the Columbia River.[5]
Upper Crab Creek was dry before the CBP and remains intermittent today. From its source near Reardan it flows generally southwest then west, collecting tributaries including Rock Creek, Coal Creek, Duck Creek, Canniwai Creek, and Wilson Creek. It empties into Brook Lake, located just south of
Crab Creek turns southward after Brook Lake. The CBP's East Low Canal, one of the projects main irrigation canals, crosses but does not mix waters with Crab Creek. At the city of Moses Lake Crab Creek empties into the Parker Horn arm of Moses Lake. Just before reaching the lake Crab Creek receives the waters of Rocky Coulee Wasteway, a mix of the intermittent Rocky Coulee Creek and irrigation runoff from the East Low Canal. Before the CBP there was no perennial flow between Brook Lake and Moses Lake. Only during periods of high water did Crab Creek flow through this area.[5]
Moses Lake empties into Potholes Reservoir, which feeds irrigation canals to the south. Below O'Sullivan Dam several springs renew Crab Creek, which flows southwest, then west. Below the community of Smyrna, Crab Creek meanders across a two mile-wide canyon, bounded on the south by Saddle Mountains and on the north by the Royal Slope and containing portions of the Columbia National Wildlife Refuge, before emptying into the Columbia River.
Lakes
Before 1904, drifting sand dunes blocked Crab Creek below Moses Lake, the largest natural lake on the creek. The creek's water did not reach the Columbia River. A large flood in 1904 washed through the dunes, lowering the lake by eight feet. Before the 1904 flood Crab Creek and Moses Lake's connection to the Columbia was intermittent. Fish native to Moses Lake indicate some periods of connection before 1904. It is possible that sand dunes created Moses Lake by blocking Crab Creek.[5]
The Columbia Basin Project in central Washington changed the character of Crab Creek substantially. The Crab Creek irrigation-return drainage basin covers an irrigated area of 296 mi2 (767 km2). A large
History
Since it is one of the few creeks in the region with reliable water,
Prior to establishing irrigation, most of the areas along Upper Crab Creek were bunchgrass prairie, which was suited to range cattle and sheep. Crab Creek and tributary creeks provided water for the herds. Although a handful of ranchers ran herds, shipping their bunchgrass-fed beef to Montana by rail from towns like Sprague, settlement remained extremely sparse. One such example was George Lucas, an Irish emigrant, who was Adams County's first permanent white settler. He established a way-station and raised cattle and horses at Cow Creek along the road to Fort Colville in 1869.[10]
Lower Crab Creek provided the only available water in that
When the Bureau of Reclamation located district offices in Othello in 1947 and built the Columbia Irrigation Project, the nature of the until then sparsely populated country changed dramatically.[10]
Geologic history
The
During this period the Missoula Floods periodically discharged large volumes of water, some of which reached Upper Crab Creek by overtopping the divide between the Columbia drainage and the Crab Creek drainage, and some diverted into the Columbia River to enter Crab Creek at Moses Lake. As a result, substantial coulees and scablands were created in the Upper Crab Creek drainage, and the drainage below the Potholes Reservoir is overlarge (i.e., the channel sizes could contain a substantially larger river than currently flows there).[11]
Recreation
There are five wildlife areas found along Crab Creek:[15]
- Crab Creek Wildlife Area runs from the Columbia River east along the north face of the Saddle Mountains until Othello, Washington.
- Seep Lakes Wildlife Area is colocated with Drumheller Channels National Natural Landmark.
- Potholes Wildlife Area is adjacent to Potholes Reservoir.
- Gloyd Seeps Wildlife Area is north of Moses Lake.
- North Columbia Basin Wildlife Area - Gloyd Seeps is north of Gloyd Seeps Wildlife Area
See also
- List of rivers of Washington
- Tributaries of the Columbia River
References
- ^ a b c d U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Lower Crab Creek
- ^ Source elevation derived from Google Earth search using GNIS source coordinates.
- ^ a b c d U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Crab Creek
- ^ Mouth elevation derived from Google Earth search using GNIS mouth coordinates.
- ^ a b c d e f Crab Subbasin Plan Archived 2007-12-16 at the Wayback Machine, Northwest Power and Conservation Council
- ^ Crab Creek Basin and the Columbia River from Rock Island Dam to Richland, Water Resources Data-Washington Water Year 2005
- ISBN 978-0-918664-00-6.
- ^ Columbia Basin Project Archived 2006-09-22 at the Wayback Machine, Bureau of Reclamation History Program Research on Historic Reclamation Projects
- ^ "Stratford, Washington > Photo Gallery > History of Stratford Area Sign". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2006-11-23. Washington history
- ^ a b c Adams County -- Thumbnail History
- ^ ISBN 0-89301-206-8.
- ISBN 0-87842-415-6.
- ISBN 978-1-879628-27-4.
- ^ J Harlen Bretz, (1923), The Channeled Scabland of the Columbia Plateau. Journal of Geology, v.31, p.617-649
- ISBN 0-929591-53-4.