The Homestead Wilderness Study Area is just to your left along miles 3 to 12. The area is approximately 10 miles in length and reaches a width of 5 miles at its broadest point, narrowing to 400 yards at its slimmest. Home to wildlife, including habitat for Bald Eagles, the Homestead Wilderness Study Area provides an important transition zone between the mountain zone and the laval plains. The flora in the area is varied, featuring a mix of bunchgrass, cheatgrass, and wheatgrass, along with big sagebrush, elderberry, hawthorne, poison ivy, snowberry, Douglas fir, white fir, and ponderosa pine. The land in the WSA is home to predominantly old-growth forests, which grow in the wetter and flatter regions of the steep draws. [Bureau of Land Management]

Oxbow, Oregon is the southern gateway to the Hells Canyon Recreation Area. It’s name reflects the U-shaped bend in the Snake River named after this agricultural implement. The present-day community of Oxbow was established in the early 1960s near the former site of Copperfield during the building of the Oxbow Dam by the Idaho Power Company. The Oxbow post office was established on May 1, 1965, after moving the office from Homestead six miles to the north.

The hatchery was constructed in 1962 by Idaho Power Company as part of its operating license for Brownlee, Oxbow, and Hells Canyon dams on the Snake River. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission requires Idaho Power to operate this facility to conserve fish runs that were impacted by the construction of the three dam complex. These dams were built without fish passage facilities with the idea that salmon and steelhead would be trapped and trucked around the dams. When this program failed, Idaho Power provided funds to build Oxbow Fish Hatchery. Idaho Power Co. is rebuilding the fish hatchery starting Spring of 2023. Work is expected to be completed the end of 2024.

In the late 1950s, the Oxbow area experienced a revival when Idaho Power constructed three major dams on the Snake River: Brownlee Dam (completed in 1959), Oxbow Dam (completed in 1961), and Hells Canyon Dam (completed in 1967). According to Idaho Power, “in a normal water year, the three plants provide approximately 70% of Idaho Power’s annual hydroelectric generation and approximately 30% of the total energy generated.” Unfortunately, the Hells Canyon Complex dams do not offer a passage for migrating salmon, resulting in the blockade of anadromous salmonids’ access to a section of the Snake River drainage basin extending from Hells Canyon Dam up to Shoshone Falls, known as the upper Snake River basin. [Wikipedia]

Despite having a marshal and a small jail with four cells, law enforcement in Copperfield was lenient. The second floor of the dance hall served as both the city hall and the jail. Saloons freely dispensed liquor on Sundays, and gambling was practiced without regard for Oregon’s prohibition laws. Organized brawls were commonplace, with competing groups of power-plant and railroad employees engaging in altercations that prohibited the use of knives or guns. Consequently, Governor Oswald West of Oregon ordered the imposition of martial law in Copperfield on January 2, 1914, by dispatching his private secretary (see this great video) and a team of five militiamen. This incident, known as the Copperfield Affair, garnered national attention. A year later, a massive fire destroyed most of Copperfield, and another blaze two years after that left only the post office and the schoolhouse standing. The post office shut down in 1927, the railroad ceased operations in 1931, and the school merged with Homestead in 1945. [Oregon Encyclopedia]

In 1906, the Northwestern Railroad Company was founded as a short-line railroad, laying tracks from Huntington, OR, along the Snake River. The preliminary work for this railroad spur included a 2,100-foot tunnel through the neck of the oxbow in the river. At the same time, the predecessor of Idaho Power Company began construction of the power plant that included a dam to divert water. In 1910 and 1911, the company was sold in two separate transactions to the OWR&N. It remains uncertain whether the 58-mile stretch of railway to Robinette, Brownlee, Copperfield, and Homestead was ever run independently or solely operated under the OWR&N. [National Railway Historic Society]

Homestead lies about 4 miles north of Oxbow. It was platted around 1898 along a Northwest Railway Company line that never developed. It thrived because of the patronage of the miners from the Iron Dyke Mine and because it was the railhead for local orchards. The community was named for the homestead claim of Frank E. Pearce. The Homestead post office operated until May 1, 1965 when it was relocated to Oxbow. Image circa 1915 – 1925. [Wikipedia]

The Snake River originates in Wyoming and runs 1,078 miles to the Columbia. The Hells Canyon region of the Snake River are the ancestral lands of the Shoshone and Nez Perce tribes. According to the Nez Perce tribe, Coyote created the Snake River Canyon in a single day to shield the people on the west side of the river from the Seven Devils, a group of malevolent spirits living in the mountain range to the east. In the late 1800s, the military forcibly removed the Native Americans, and settlers began ranching and mining in the canyon. Today, boaters can explore the area’s archaeological sites and historic homesteads, all of which contribute to the canyon’s colorful and fascinating history.[Rivers.gov]

For a bird’s eye view of Hells Canyon, turn right on FR-39 and head up to the Hells Canyon Overlook. Perched at the rim, you’re peering down into the deepest canyon in North America. Spoiler alert: You can’t see the Snake River from this viewpoint, but the gorge is stunning — more than a mile/1.6 kilometers deep and carved by eons of Snake River erosion. From some areas on the east rim, Hells Canyon plummets more than 8,000 feet/2,438 meters, dwarfing even the Grand Canyon. [Travel Oregon]

Across the Snake River and the Oregon/Idaho border lie the Seven Devils Mountains. An extinct volcanic range, the Seven Devils comprise the western most chain of the Rocky Mountains. With peaks as high as 9300 ft, the Seven Devils hold mountain goats, spectacular summer wildflower blooms, and over 90 alpine lakes. You can see these snow-capped peaks from the Hells Canyon Overlook. [US Forest Service]

Bull trout are a native Pacific Northwest migratory fish and are primarily found in high mountainous areas. The Four Cs – cold, clean, complex, and connected habitats – are crucial to the habitat requirements of bull trout. However, the construction of significant dams such as Brownlee and Oxbow on the Snake River has limited their distribution in the Hells Canyon Region and hindered connectivity between populations. Several segments of the bull trout population, including the Pine Creek population, are dwindling in numbers due to habitat degradation, resulting in the designation of bull trout as a Threatened species in the contiguous United States under the Endangered Species Act. [ODFW]