The Elwha River tumbles over four thousand feet in forty-five miles, from alpine meadows into rock canyons and flood plains, until it meets the sea in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Rivers radiate from the center of the Olympic Peninsula, short and steep, born from deep snowpack at the heart of the range. The Elwha River begins in the Olympic Mountains, a rugged range encircled by ocean on three sides. That September day committed me to unraveling the river’s story, while dam removal raised enough questions to keep scientists engaged for years to come. I’ve spent a decade bearing witness to an unprecedented restoration experiment in Washington State. The rest of us stood in awe, watching the world’s largest dam removal to date, feeling time start to spin in reverse. Trees were the only spectators old enough to remember when the Elwha River ran free, a century earlier.
Below us, a waterfall raged through the first notch carved in the Lower Elwha Dam, as dust rose in the September sunshine, drifting over Douglas fir and cedar crowns. IN SEPTEMBER 2011, I stood on a river overlook with children from my daughter’s elementary school, all of us transfixed by a giant jackhammer pounding cement to rubble.
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