Portal:Oregon/Selected article/105
The
California Gold Rush saw increasing numbers of miners working streams in the Klamath River region in search of gold. Steamboats operated briefly on the large lakes in the upper watershed before the establishment of agriculture in the 19th and 20th centuries. The growing industry in the upper basin led to the construction of many dams on the river, which have since caused water quality issues for the lower river. Environmentalists have raised petitions against the construction of more dams, and in support of removing the existing ones. Because the Klamath includes many of the longest free-flowing stretches of river in California as well as some of its better whitewater runs, it has become a popular recreational river. Its watershed includes large swathes of the Klamath National Forest and Six Rivers National Forest. For now, the lower Klamath remains undeveloped, although massive diversions were once proposed to reroute the river into the Central Valley
in order to supplement the region's water supply.