Latah Creek
Encyclopedia
Latah Creek, also known as Hangman Creek, is a large stream in eastern
Washington and north central
Idaho
in the United States
. The creek flows northwest from the Rocky Mountains
to Spokane
, where it empties into the Spokane River
. It drains 673 mi2 in parts of Benewah
and Kootenai
counties in Idaho, Spokane County
and a small portion of Whitman County
in Washington, where over 64 percent of its watershed
resides. Some major tributaries of the approximately 60 miles (96.6 km) creek include Little Latah Creek (also known as Little Hangman Creek) and Rock Creek. The average flow of the creek can range from 20 cuft/s to 20000 cuft/s. Latah Creek (pron. ' ) receives its name from a Nez Perce
word likely meaning "fish". In 1854, the creek received another name, Hangman Creek, from a war between the Palouse Indians
and white soldiers, which resulted in several Palouse being hanged alongside the creek.
The Latah Creek watershed is dominated by agriculture
, which has diverted the creek and its tributaries for irrigation. This has caused the ruin of forests, riparian zones, and natural flow patterns. The creek has been channelized in some places, and meander
s, islands and natural channel formations have been destroyed. In response to these damaging factors, the water quality
overall in the Latah Creek basin is quite low, and "Washington State water quality standards for temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and fecal coliforms are routinely violated." The remaining third of the land in the watershed is mostly forest.
word meaning "a place of pines and sestles", or "fish". However, there are controversies that even stretch the truth as far as to say that "Latah" is not part of the native dialect. Nevertheless, "Latah" is believed to have been the creek's name for a very long period of time. The name "Hangman" originated from when 17 Palouse Indians
were hanged along the creek after a war. Washington State and Spokane County both approve Latah Creek as the official name, while the federal government
still identifies the creek is "Hangman". Arguments resulted over whether this name
Other variant names of the creek include Sin-sin-too-ooley, Camas Prairie Creek, Hangmans Creek, Hangman's Creek, Camass Prairie Creek, Hngosmn, Kamas Prairie Creek, Lah-Tah, Lah-taw, Lah-too, Lahtoo, Lartoo, Lau-taw Creek, Lautaw Creek, Ned-Wauld River, Nedlewhauld, Neduald, Nedwhauld River, and Sin-sin-too-aley.
When the Lewis and Clark Expedition
passed the area in 1805, they believed that the name was "Lau-taw". Later in a railroad survey, the name used on the small-scale maps was Camas Prairie Creek, while on the maps of larger scale, the name was Kamas Prairie Creek. Other derivatives, including Lahtoo and Kamass, arose from these names, but another name, Nedlwhauld Creek (or Nedwhauld River) was also documented. During a later road-building survey, the Nedlwhauld/Nedwhauld name was preferred over the others, but by 1861, the name had been changed to Hangman's. By 1959, the US Board on Geographic Names officially changed it to Hangman Creek. In 2001, Washington State proposed that the name be changed to Latah, to no avail.
, Idaho
. The headwaters
of the creek are in a small valley south of Charles Butte and Moses Mountain. A few miles after its headwaters, it receives the South Fork Latah Creek, which flows north. At the confluence, the creek turns north, flowing past the towns of Sanders and De Smet
, entering channeled scablands
that have been converted to farmland
. Still small, it runs northwest in a vegetation-choked gully for several miles, beginning to parallel Latah Creek Road. The creek then crosses the Idaho-Washington state border and flows through Tekoa
, where it is channelized and runs due north for a short distance. At this point, it has already picked up much agricultural runoff. At Tekoa, it also receives a large tributary, Little Latah Creek.
After meeting Little Latah Creek, Latah Creek continues northwards along State Route 27 to the town of Latah
, named for the creek. At Latah, it receives a short tributary, Cove Creek, on the right bank. The creek then bends west and runs north, then swings west again to run near the town of Waverly
, and north to pass the town of West Fairfield. (SR 27 breaks away from the creek before Waverly to run to the town of Fairfield
.) The creek then enters a steadily deepening, winding gorge that runs generally northwest. It then receives another large tributary, Rock Creek, on the right bank.
After having received Rock Creek, Latah Creek receives California Creek, a 8 miles (12.9 km), west-southwest tributary, also on the right bank. In its final few miles, California Creek also plunges down a narrow gorge into the Latah Creek canyon. Latah Creek then continues north, and begins to parallel U.S. Highway 195 as it winds through a widening gorge towards the urban area of Spokane
, which occupies the plain to the east of the Latah Creek gorge. As Highway 195 continues to parallel it on the left, High Drive winds along the canyon rim on the east (right) bank. With high bluffs rising on the east side and lower cliffs on the west, the creek receives Marshall Creek on the left bank, and its second-last named tributary, Spring Creek, also on the left bank, and crosses under bridges for U.S. Highway 395
, a railroad, and Sunset Boulevard. Its last named tributary, Indian Canyon Creek, enters on the left bank as the creek turns northeast to join the Spokane River
. The creek's mouth
is on the left bank of the Spokane, not too far downstream from Spokane Falls
.
, and its headwaters are near the ridge where north-flowing Plummer Creek also begins. U.S. Highway 95 crosses the creek very near the headwaters, and for its entire length, it follows Lovell Valley Road. Near the junction of Idaho State Route 60 and Washington State Route 274
, which is the continuation of Lovell Valley Road in Washington State, it receives Moctileme Creek, its largest tributary, on the left bank. Moctileme Creek is about 6 miles (9.7 km) long, flowing west from Windfall Pass and mostly paralleling State Route 60. At this point, Little Latah Creek has already grown large from agricultural runoff. The creek then bisects Tekoa, flows underneath Washington State Route 27, and enters Latah Creek.
. Like Little Latah Creek, it is in the vicinity of 10 miles (16.1 km) long. The creek turns west from its headwaters and begins to parallel its North Fork, which flows south then turns west from its headwaters at Plummer
. The North Fork is actually longer than the mainstream, although it carries only a slight amount of water when they join. The creek then crosses the state border and flows west of Rockford
, then turns west then north, crossing under State Route 27, entering a narrow gorge similar to that of Latah Creek. After meandering in the down cut gorge for a while, the creek straightens out and heads west-northwest, spilling into Latah Creek after turning sharply south just southwest of Duncan.
. In its headwaters, the creek flows through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains
, specifically in those of the Clearwater Mountains
. The topography here are steep ridges and peaks dissected by deep, forested close-to-bedrock valleys, drained by rocky and steep mountain streams, with a light covering of soil. After its mountainous headwaters, the creek passes through the much more rounded, older Palouse Hills. Below the deep loess
in the Palouse Hills, a basalt
layer separates the creek from groundwater
, which finally rises to meet stream elevation at the Washington-Idaho state border. Most of the creek from where it turns north at Sanders to about 20 miles (32.2 km) upstream of its mouth flows in a broad and shallow, arid valley atop several hundred feet of alluvial deposits. In the final 20 miles (32.2 km), the Latah Creek watershed intersects the Channeled Scablands
, which were formed by the Missoula Floods
that inundated the area after an ice dam on the Clark Fork Pend Oreille River
, during the last Ice Age
, was breached. The floods have deposited "terraces", otherwise known as "backflood deposits", which the creek has eroded through, creating steep and unstable gravel slopes topped by sheer cliffs. Near Spokane, the creek turns to the northwest in a nearly straight line; this is caused by a strike-slip fault named Latah Creek Fault.
, is located at the junction of Latah Creek and the Spokane River. Except for its upper headwaters and the canyon it flows through in its final few miles, the creek flows in an open plain surrounded by low hills, and originally would form meander
s and braided streams across this wide floodplain. The conversion of the floodplain to agricultural uses, however, forced the creek to flow in a straighter course. As a result, erosion
and turbidity
in the creek has increased, while water quality and habitat have decreased. At its mouth, Latah Creek has been known to contribute up to 90 percent of the flow of the downstream Spokane, and as low as 1 percent.
The small drainage divide on the east side of the watershed separates Latah Creek from streams draining into Coeur d'Alene Lake and the St. Joe River, including Plummer Creek. Tributaries flowing off this divide into Latah Creek (right-bank tributaries) include Little Latah Creek, Rattlers Run Creek, Rock Creek and California Creek. Left-bank tributaries include Marshall Creek and North Pine Creek. The watershed is bordered on the south by that of the Palouse River
, and on the west, Hole-In-The-Ground Creek, a tributary of the Palouse, and on the northwest, Deep Creek, a tributary of the Spokane. Roads paralleling Latah Creek include (from mouth to headwaters) U.S. Highway 195, Latah Creek Road, Spangle-Waverly Road, Washington State Route 27, and Idaho State Route 95. There are no dams on the mainstem of Latah Creek.
Agricultural land use covers 212880 acres (861.5 km²) of the Latah Creek watershed, followed by 119490 acres (483.6 km²) of forest. Urban areas within the Latah Creek basin cover only 12565 acres (50.8 km²). Because of its importance as a tributary to the Spokane, the pollution in Latah Creek directly affects the Spokane downstream of their confluence. The only Spokane River tributary larger or equal in size to Latah Creek is the Little Spokane River
, which joins about 10 miles (16.1 km) downstream of Latah Creek. Although there are larger tributaries upstream of Coeur d'Alene Lake, the source of the Spokane River (including the St. Joe River and the Coeur d'Alene River
) those do not directly feed the Spokane.
The highest recorded peak flow at the creek's mouth in Spokane was 21200 cuft/s on 1 January 1997, closely followed by a flow of 20600 cuft/s on 3 February 1963.
The lowest recorded peak flow was 395 cuft/s in 1994.
named Qualchan, discovered a cavalry
outpost while traveling alone. He was said to have prayed to the god of the mist to disarm the camp's sentries, and as a result, it began to snow, and when the snow had changed into a blizzard
, Qualchan led the whites'
horses out of the camp, and took them to his camp on the Columbia River
. The Indians later rediscovered the whites' camp, only to find that they had left. His war party was later discovered, and after a brief war, called the "George Wright War", "Spokane-Coeur d'Aléne War", or "Big Fight", Qualchan and six other Palouses were captured and hanged along Latah Creek, giving it its now more commonly used name, Hangman Creek. On 5 October of that year, four more Indians were hanged alongside the creek. In November, 33 Indian hostages were released, ending the war. In the aftermath, the Washington State government and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names
have frequently disagreed on the name of the creek. While Washington State, specifically Spokane County, claims and refers to the creek as Latah, the Board and local residents still refers to the creek as Hangman.
A single known bog
lay beside Latah Creek for many tens of thousands of years, dating from the previous Ice Age
. This bog was discovered in May 1876 by a homesteader, Benjamin Coplen, who found what seemed to be a gigantic bone in the peat
-covered water. Coplen then located a vertebra of similarly large scale, and a shoulder blade
. The bog was quickly drained, and an enormous quantity of bones were discovered. The shoulder blade and vertebra were later determined to be that of a woolly mammoth
. Nearby homesteaders William and Thomas Donahoe also drained a similar bog, and located more bones and a skull. These bones, along with those from the Coplen bog, were delivered first to other cities in Washington State for exhibition. The original mammoth skeleton was later delivered to the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and then the Field Museum of Natural History
of Chicago. It was later proposed that the Missoula Floods
were responsible for depositing a "bathtub ring" in the channeled scablands
of Washington and Idaho, including in this particular bog.
and whitefish
. Because of the aridity of its basin and the increasing pollution in Latah Creek and many of its tributaries, it is no longer a productive watershed for fishes and other aquatic species. Even as early as 1892, Latah Creek was described as
At the time of the 1892-93 sampling, there were two fishes that have apparently become extinct between then and 1974. The Bridgelip sucker
and Chiselmouth
have disappeared in that time period. In the inventory taken by Gilbert and Evermann (1892) there were many species of suckers, some of which are still present in the creek today. The Native American variant name Snt'ut'u'lmkhwkwe is known to mean "Suckers in the Water", which implies that the sucker are likely the primary fish of Latah Creek.
Eastern Washington
Eastern Washington is the portion of the U.S. state of Washington east of the Cascade Range. The region contains the city of Spokane , the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the fertile farmlands of the Yakima Valley and the...
Washington and north central
North Central Idaho
North Central Idaho is an area which spans the central part of the state of Idaho and borders Oregon, Montana, and Washington. It is the southern half of the Idaho Panhandle region and is rich in agriculture and natural resources. Lewis and Clark travelled throughout this area on their journey to...
Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The creek flows northwest from the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
to Spokane
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
, where it empties into the Spokane River
Spokane River
The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the city of Spokane, Washington.-Description:...
. It drains 673 mi2 in parts of Benewah
Benewah County, Idaho
Benewah County is a county located in the U.S. state of Idaho. Established on January 23, 1915, from sections of Kootenai County, it was named for a chief of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. As of the 2010 census the county had a population of 9,285. The county seat and largest city is St...
and Kootenai
Kootenai County, Idaho
Kootenai County is a county located in the U.S. state of Idaho. The county was established in 1864, named after Kootenai tribe. The entire county comprises the Coeur d'Alene, Idaho Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 138,494 at the 2010 census...
counties in Idaho, Spokane County
Spokane County, Washington
Spokane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington, named after the Spokane tribe. As of the 2010 census the population was 471,221, making it the fourth most populous county in Washington state. The largest city and county seat is Spokane, the second largest city in the state,...
and a small portion of Whitman County
Whitman County, Washington
Whitman County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2010 census, the population was 44,776, with the majority living in its largest city, Pullman, home to Washington State University, the state's land-grant university. The county seat is at Colfax.Whitman County was...
in Washington, where over 64 percent of its watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
resides. Some major tributaries of the approximately 60 miles (96.6 km) creek include Little Latah Creek (also known as Little Hangman Creek) and Rock Creek. The average flow of the creek can range from 20 cuft/s to 20000 cuft/s. Latah Creek (pron. ' ) receives its name from a Nez Perce
Nez Perce language
Nez Perce , also spelled Nez Percé, is a Sahaptian language related to the several dialects of Sahaptin . The Sahaptian sub-family is one of the branches of the Plateau Penutian family...
word likely meaning "fish". In 1854, the creek received another name, Hangman Creek, from a war between the Palouse Indians
Palus (tribe)
The Palus are a Sahaptin tribe recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the Yakamas . A variant spelling is Palouse, which was the source of the name for the fertile prairie of Washington and Idaho.- Ethnography :...
and white soldiers, which resulted in several Palouse being hanged alongside the creek.
The Latah Creek watershed is dominated by agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
, which has diverted the creek and its tributaries for irrigation. This has caused the ruin of forests, riparian zones, and natural flow patterns. The creek has been channelized in some places, and meander
Meander
A meander in general is a bend in a sinuous watercourse. A meander is formed when the moving water in a stream erodes the outer banks and widens its valley. A stream of any volume may assume a meandering course, alternately eroding sediments from the outside of a bend and depositing them on the...
s, islands and natural channel formations have been destroyed. In response to these damaging factors, the water quality
Water quality
Water quality is the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of water. It is a measure of the condition of water relative to the requirements of one or more biotic species and or to any human need or purpose. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which...
overall in the Latah Creek basin is quite low, and "Washington State water quality standards for temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, and fecal coliforms are routinely violated." The remaining third of the land in the watershed is mostly forest.
Name
The name "Latah" stems from a Nez PerceNez Perce language
Nez Perce , also spelled Nez Percé, is a Sahaptian language related to the several dialects of Sahaptin . The Sahaptian sub-family is one of the branches of the Plateau Penutian family...
word meaning "a place of pines and sestles", or "fish". However, there are controversies that even stretch the truth as far as to say that "Latah" is not part of the native dialect. Nevertheless, "Latah" is believed to have been the creek's name for a very long period of time. The name "Hangman" originated from when 17 Palouse Indians
Palus (tribe)
The Palus are a Sahaptin tribe recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the Yakamas . A variant spelling is Palouse, which was the source of the name for the fertile prairie of Washington and Idaho.- Ethnography :...
were hanged along the creek after a war. Washington State and Spokane County both approve Latah Creek as the official name, while the federal government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
still identifies the creek is "Hangman". Arguments resulted over whether this name
Other variant names of the creek include Sin-sin-too-ooley, Camas Prairie Creek, Hangmans Creek, Hangman's Creek, Camass Prairie Creek, Hngosmn, Kamas Prairie Creek, Lah-Tah, Lah-taw, Lah-too, Lahtoo, Lartoo, Lau-taw Creek, Lautaw Creek, Ned-Wauld River, Nedlewhauld, Neduald, Nedwhauld River, and Sin-sin-too-aley.
When the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Lewis and Clark Expedition
The Lewis and Clark Expedition, or ″Corps of Discovery Expedition" was the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific Coast by the United States. Commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson and led by two Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, Meriwether Lewis and William...
passed the area in 1805, they believed that the name was "Lau-taw". Later in a railroad survey, the name used on the small-scale maps was Camas Prairie Creek, while on the maps of larger scale, the name was Kamas Prairie Creek. Other derivatives, including Lahtoo and Kamass, arose from these names, but another name, Nedlwhauld Creek (or Nedwhauld River) was also documented. During a later road-building survey, the Nedlwhauld/Nedwhauld name was preferred over the others, but by 1861, the name had been changed to Hangman's. By 1959, the US Board on Geographic Names officially changed it to Hangman Creek. In 2001, Washington State proposed that the name be changed to Latah, to no avail.
Course
Latah Creek begins east of the town of Sanders, in Benewah CountyBenewah County, Idaho
Benewah County is a county located in the U.S. state of Idaho. Established on January 23, 1915, from sections of Kootenai County, it was named for a chief of the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. As of the 2010 census the county had a population of 9,285. The county seat and largest city is St...
, Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
. The headwaters
Source (river or stream)
The source or headwaters of a river or stream is the place from which the water in the river or stream originates.-Definition:There is no universally agreed upon definition for determining a stream's source...
of the creek are in a small valley south of Charles Butte and Moses Mountain. A few miles after its headwaters, it receives the South Fork Latah Creek, which flows north. At the confluence, the creek turns north, flowing past the towns of Sanders and De Smet
De Smet, Idaho
De Smet is an unincorporated census-designated place in Benewah County, Idaho, United States. De Smet is located near U.S. Route 95 south of Tensed. De Smet has a post office with ZIP code 83824. As of the 2010 census, its population was 175....
, entering channeled scablands
Channeled scablands
The Channeled Scablands are a unique geological erosion feature in the U.S. state of Washington. They were created by the cataclysmic Missoula Floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Plateau during the Pleistocene epoch. Geologist J Harlen Bretz coined...
that have been converted to farmland
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...
. Still small, it runs northwest in a vegetation-choked gully for several miles, beginning to parallel Latah Creek Road. The creek then crosses the Idaho-Washington state border and flows through Tekoa
Tekoa, Washington
Tekoa is a city in Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 778 at the 2010 census.-History:Tekoa was first settled in 1886 by David A. Huffman and George T. Huffman. The townsite was platted in 1888 and was named after the Biblical town.Tekoa was incorporated in 1889 with...
, where it is channelized and runs due north for a short distance. At this point, it has already picked up much agricultural runoff. At Tekoa, it also receives a large tributary, Little Latah Creek.
After meeting Little Latah Creek, Latah Creek continues northwards along State Route 27 to the town of Latah
Latah, Washington
Latah is a town in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The population was 183 at the 2010 census.-History:Latah was first settled in 1872 by Lewis Coplen...
, named for the creek. At Latah, it receives a short tributary, Cove Creek, on the right bank. The creek then bends west and runs north, then swings west again to run near the town of Waverly
Waverly, Washington
Waverly is a town in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The population was 121 at the 2000 census and decreased 12.4% to 106 in the 2010 census.-History:...
, and north to pass the town of West Fairfield. (SR 27 breaks away from the creek before Waverly to run to the town of Fairfield
Fairfield, Washington
Fairfield is a town in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The population was 612 at the 2010 census.-History:In 1888, E.H. Morrison named Fairfield after his wife's hometown. Fairfield was officially incorporated on March 3, 1905.-Events:...
.) The creek then enters a steadily deepening, winding gorge that runs generally northwest. It then receives another large tributary, Rock Creek, on the right bank.
After having received Rock Creek, Latah Creek receives California Creek, a 8 miles (12.9 km), west-southwest tributary, also on the right bank. In its final few miles, California Creek also plunges down a narrow gorge into the Latah Creek canyon. Latah Creek then continues north, and begins to parallel U.S. Highway 195 as it winds through a widening gorge towards the urban area of Spokane
Spokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
, which occupies the plain to the east of the Latah Creek gorge. As Highway 195 continues to parallel it on the left, High Drive winds along the canyon rim on the east (right) bank. With high bluffs rising on the east side and lower cliffs on the west, the creek receives Marshall Creek on the left bank, and its second-last named tributary, Spring Creek, also on the left bank, and crosses under bridges for U.S. Highway 395
U.S. Route 395 in Washington
In the U.S. state of Washington, U.S. Route 395 is a major state highway in two parts, separated by a long overlap with Interstate 90 between Ritzville and Spokane. The southern piece, from I-82 near the Tri-Cities to I-90 near Ritzville, is a high-speed four-lane divided highway...
, a railroad, and Sunset Boulevard. Its last named tributary, Indian Canyon Creek, enters on the left bank as the creek turns northeast to join the Spokane River
Spokane River
The Spokane River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a low mountainous area east of the Columbia, passing through the city of Spokane, Washington.-Description:...
. The creek's mouth
Mouth (water stream)
A river mouth or stream mouth is a part of a stream where it flows into another stream, river, lake, reservoir, sea, or ocean.* River delta* Estuary* Liman...
is on the left bank of the Spokane, not too far downstream from Spokane Falls
Spokane Falls
Spokane Falls is the name of the series of waterfalls and dams on the Spokane River in downtown Spokane, Washington.The Indian name for the Spokane Falls was "Stluputqu", meaning "swift water". The falls was once the site of a large Spokane people village....
.
Little Latah Creek
Little Latah Creek, about 10 miles (16.1 km) long, is a generally southwest-flowing stream, and at the confluence carries almost as much water as Latah Creek. The creek begins a few miles south of PlummerPlummer, Idaho
Plummer is a city in Benewah County, Idaho, United States. The population was 990 at the 2000 census. It is the largest city within the Coeur d'Alene Reservation.-Geography:Plummer is located at ....
, and its headwaters are near the ridge where north-flowing Plummer Creek also begins. U.S. Highway 95 crosses the creek very near the headwaters, and for its entire length, it follows Lovell Valley Road. Near the junction of Idaho State Route 60 and Washington State Route 274
Washington State Route 274
State Route 274 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Washington, running from SR 27 at Tekoa to ID-60 on the Idaho border near Tekoa.-Major intersections:* SR 27* ID-60...
, which is the continuation of Lovell Valley Road in Washington State, it receives Moctileme Creek, its largest tributary, on the left bank. Moctileme Creek is about 6 miles (9.7 km) long, flowing west from Windfall Pass and mostly paralleling State Route 60. At this point, Little Latah Creek has already grown large from agricultural runoff. The creek then bisects Tekoa, flows underneath Washington State Route 27, and enters Latah Creek.
Rock Creek
Rock Creek begins just about 1 miles (1.6 km) west-southwest of WorleyWorley, Idaho
Worley is a city in southwestern Kootenai County, Idaho, United States. The population was 223 at the 2000 census. The city is within the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation.-Geography:...
. Like Little Latah Creek, it is in the vicinity of 10 miles (16.1 km) long. The creek turns west from its headwaters and begins to parallel its North Fork, which flows south then turns west from its headwaters at Plummer
Plummer, Idaho
Plummer is a city in Benewah County, Idaho, United States. The population was 990 at the 2000 census. It is the largest city within the Coeur d'Alene Reservation.-Geography:Plummer is located at ....
. The North Fork is actually longer than the mainstream, although it carries only a slight amount of water when they join. The creek then crosses the state border and flows west of Rockford
Rockford, Washington
Rockford is a town in Spokane County, Washington, United States. The population was 470 at the 2010 census.-History:Rockford was first settled in 1878 by D.C. Farnsworth...
, then turns west then north, crossing under State Route 27, entering a narrow gorge similar to that of Latah Creek. After meandering in the down cut gorge for a while, the creek straightens out and heads west-northwest, spilling into Latah Creek after turning sharply south just southwest of Duncan.
Geology
Latah Creek can be divided into three distinct geological regions; these are a small section of its upper headwaters, a long and broad valley, and channeled scablandsChanneled scablands
The Channeled Scablands are a unique geological erosion feature in the U.S. state of Washington. They were created by the cataclysmic Missoula Floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Plateau during the Pleistocene epoch. Geologist J Harlen Bretz coined...
. In its headwaters, the creek flows through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
, specifically in those of the Clearwater Mountains
Clearwater Mountains
The Clearwater Mountains are part of the Rocky Mountains, located in the panhandle of Idaho in the Western United States. The mountains lie between the Salmon River and the Bitterroot Range and encompass an area of .- North Clearwater Mountains :...
. The topography here are steep ridges and peaks dissected by deep, forested close-to-bedrock valleys, drained by rocky and steep mountain streams, with a light covering of soil. After its mountainous headwaters, the creek passes through the much more rounded, older Palouse Hills. Below the deep loess
Loess
Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
in the Palouse Hills, a basalt
Basalt
Basalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey...
layer separates the creek from groundwater
Groundwater
Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. The depth at which soil pore spaces or fractures and voids in rock...
, which finally rises to meet stream elevation at the Washington-Idaho state border. Most of the creek from where it turns north at Sanders to about 20 miles (32.2 km) upstream of its mouth flows in a broad and shallow, arid valley atop several hundred feet of alluvial deposits. In the final 20 miles (32.2 km), the Latah Creek watershed intersects the Channeled Scablands
Channeled scablands
The Channeled Scablands are a unique geological erosion feature in the U.S. state of Washington. They were created by the cataclysmic Missoula Floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Plateau during the Pleistocene epoch. Geologist J Harlen Bretz coined...
, which were formed by the Missoula Floods
Missoula Floods
The Missoula Floods refer to the cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ice age. The glacial flood events have been researched since the 1920s...
that inundated the area after an ice dam on the Clark Fork Pend Oreille River
Pend Oreille River
The Pend Oreille River is a tributary of the Columbia River, approximately long, in northern Idaho and northeastern Washington in the United States, as well as southeastern British Columbia in Canada. In its passage through British Columbia its name is spelled Pend-d'Oreille River...
, during the last Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
, was breached. The floods have deposited "terraces", otherwise known as "backflood deposits", which the creek has eroded through, creating steep and unstable gravel slopes topped by sheer cliffs. Near Spokane, the creek turns to the northwest in a nearly straight line; this is caused by a strike-slip fault named Latah Creek Fault.
Watershed
The watershed of Latah Creek covers 673 mi2, stretching from southeast to northwest and straddling the Washington-Idaho state border. The mostly semiarid basin is divided mostly among forests and agriculture, with small towns spread along the length of the creek and its tributaries. The largest city, SpokaneSpokane, Washington
Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
, is located at the junction of Latah Creek and the Spokane River. Except for its upper headwaters and the canyon it flows through in its final few miles, the creek flows in an open plain surrounded by low hills, and originally would form meander
Meander
A meander in general is a bend in a sinuous watercourse. A meander is formed when the moving water in a stream erodes the outer banks and widens its valley. A stream of any volume may assume a meandering course, alternately eroding sediments from the outside of a bend and depositing them on the...
s and braided streams across this wide floodplain. The conversion of the floodplain to agricultural uses, however, forced the creek to flow in a straighter course. As a result, erosion
Erosion
Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...
and turbidity
Turbidity
Turbidity is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by individual particles that are generally invisible to the naked eye, similar to smoke in air. The measurement of turbidity is a key test of water quality....
in the creek has increased, while water quality and habitat have decreased. At its mouth, Latah Creek has been known to contribute up to 90 percent of the flow of the downstream Spokane, and as low as 1 percent.
The small drainage divide on the east side of the watershed separates Latah Creek from streams draining into Coeur d'Alene Lake and the St. Joe River, including Plummer Creek. Tributaries flowing off this divide into Latah Creek (right-bank tributaries) include Little Latah Creek, Rattlers Run Creek, Rock Creek and California Creek. Left-bank tributaries include Marshall Creek and North Pine Creek. The watershed is bordered on the south by that of the Palouse River
Palouse River
The Palouse River is a tributary of the Snake River located in the U.S. states of Washington and Idaho. It flows for southwestwards, primarily through the Palouse region of southeastern Washington...
, and on the west, Hole-In-The-Ground Creek, a tributary of the Palouse, and on the northwest, Deep Creek, a tributary of the Spokane. Roads paralleling Latah Creek include (from mouth to headwaters) U.S. Highway 195, Latah Creek Road, Spangle-Waverly Road, Washington State Route 27, and Idaho State Route 95. There are no dams on the mainstem of Latah Creek.
Agricultural land use covers 212880 acres (861.5 km²) of the Latah Creek watershed, followed by 119490 acres (483.6 km²) of forest. Urban areas within the Latah Creek basin cover only 12565 acres (50.8 km²). Because of its importance as a tributary to the Spokane, the pollution in Latah Creek directly affects the Spokane downstream of their confluence. The only Spokane River tributary larger or equal in size to Latah Creek is the Little Spokane River
Little Spokane River
The Little Spokane River is a major tributary of the Spokane River, approximately 35 mi long, in eastern Washington in the United States. It drains a rural area of forested foothills and a farming valley north of the city of Spokane along the Idaho-Washington border.It rises in southern Pend...
, which joins about 10 miles (16.1 km) downstream of Latah Creek. Although there are larger tributaries upstream of Coeur d'Alene Lake, the source of the Spokane River (including the St. Joe River and the Coeur d'Alene River
Coeur d'Alene River
The Coeur d'Alene River flows from the Silver Valley into Lake Coeur d'Alene in the U.S. state of Idaho. The stream continues out of Lake Coeur d'Alene as the Spokane River...
) those do not directly feed the Spokane.
Streamflow
Streamflow in Latah Creek is highly variable, with the creek tending to flood in the winter and spring, and diminishing to almost completely dry in the summer. The creek typically does not totally dry up, however, due to agricultural return flows. The monthly average is 242 cuft/s, while winter and spring peak flows top 7585 cuft/s on average.The highest recorded peak flow at the creek's mouth in Spokane was 21200 cuft/s on 1 January 1997, closely followed by a flow of 20600 cuft/s on 3 February 1963.
The lowest recorded peak flow was 395 cuft/s in 1994.
History
In 1854, Latah Creek received its other name, Hangman Creek, which stayed for over a century and a half. According to legend, a Palouse IndianPalus (tribe)
The Palus are a Sahaptin tribe recognized in the Treaty of 1855 with the Yakamas . A variant spelling is Palouse, which was the source of the name for the fertile prairie of Washington and Idaho.- Ethnography :...
named Qualchan, discovered a cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
outpost while traveling alone. He was said to have prayed to the god of the mist to disarm the camp's sentries, and as a result, it began to snow, and when the snow had changed into a blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
, Qualchan led the whites'
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
horses out of the camp, and took them to his camp on the Columbia River
Columbia River
The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
. The Indians later rediscovered the whites' camp, only to find that they had left. His war party was later discovered, and after a brief war, called the "George Wright War", "Spokane-Coeur d'Aléne War", or "Big Fight", Qualchan and six other Palouses were captured and hanged along Latah Creek, giving it its now more commonly used name, Hangman Creek. On 5 October of that year, four more Indians were hanged alongside the creek. In November, 33 Indian hostages were released, ending the war. In the aftermath, the Washington State government and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names
United States Board on Geographic Names
The United States Board on Geographic Names is a United States federal body whose purpose is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geographic names throughout the U.S. government.-Overview:...
have frequently disagreed on the name of the creek. While Washington State, specifically Spokane County, claims and refers to the creek as Latah, the Board and local residents still refers to the creek as Hangman.
A single known bog
Bog
A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....
lay beside Latah Creek for many tens of thousands of years, dating from the previous Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
. This bog was discovered in May 1876 by a homesteader, Benjamin Coplen, who found what seemed to be a gigantic bone in the peat
Peat
Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter or histosol. Peat forms in wetland bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and peat swamp forests. Peat is harvested as an important source of fuel in certain parts of the world...
-covered water. Coplen then located a vertebra of similarly large scale, and a shoulder blade
Scapula
In anatomy, the scapula , omo, or shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus with the clavicle ....
. The bog was quickly drained, and an enormous quantity of bones were discovered. The shoulder blade and vertebra were later determined to be that of a woolly mammoth
Woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth , also called the tundra mammoth, is a species of mammoth. This animal is known from bones and frozen carcasses from northern North America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia...
. Nearby homesteaders William and Thomas Donahoe also drained a similar bog, and located more bones and a skull. These bones, along with those from the Coplen bog, were delivered first to other cities in Washington State for exhibition. The original mammoth skeleton was later delivered to the Chicago Academy of Sciences, and then the Field Museum of Natural History
Field Museum of Natural History
The Field Museum of Natural History is located in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It sits on Lake Shore Drive next to Lake Michigan, part of a scenic complex known as the Museum Campus Chicago...
of Chicago. It was later proposed that the Missoula Floods
Missoula Floods
The Missoula Floods refer to the cataclysmic floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Gorge at the end of the last ice age. The glacial flood events have been researched since the 1920s...
were responsible for depositing a "bathtub ring" in the channeled scablands
Channeled scablands
The Channeled Scablands are a unique geological erosion feature in the U.S. state of Washington. They were created by the cataclysmic Missoula Floods that swept periodically across eastern Washington and down the Columbia River Plateau during the Pleistocene epoch. Geologist J Harlen Bretz coined...
of Washington and Idaho, including in this particular bog.
Fishes
It was said that in the early 19th century, Latah Creek was a clear and pristine stream that provided suitable habitat for anadromous fish. However, the creek was shallow and slow-moving naturally, and was not an important habitat for these fish. The primary fishes of Latah Creek were suckerCatostomidae
Catostomidae is the sucker family of the order Cypriniformes. There are 80 species in this family of freshwater fishes. Catostomidae are found in North America, east central China, and eastern Siberia...
and whitefish
Whitefish
Whitefish or white fish may refer to:In fishing terminology:* Whitefish , a fisheries term referring to the flesh of many types of fishIn fish species:...
. Because of the aridity of its basin and the increasing pollution in Latah Creek and many of its tributaries, it is no longer a productive watershed for fishes and other aquatic species. Even as early as 1892, Latah Creek was described as
At the time of the 1892-93 sampling, there were two fishes that have apparently become extinct between then and 1974. The Bridgelip sucker
Bridgelip Sucker
Bridgelip Sucker is a fish in the family Catostomidae....
and Chiselmouth
Chiselmouth
The chiselmouth is an unusual cyprinid fish of western North America. It is named for the sharp hard plate on its lower jaw, which is used to scrape rocks for algae...
have disappeared in that time period. In the inventory taken by Gilbert and Evermann (1892) there were many species of suckers, some of which are still present in the creek today. The Native American variant name Snt'ut'u'lmkhwkwe is known to mean "Suckers in the Water", which implies that the sucker are likely the primary fish of Latah Creek.
Works cited
- Ruby, Robert H.; Brown, John A (1988). Indians of the Pacific Northwest: A History. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-80612-113-0.
- Frey, Rodney (2001). Landscape traveled by coyote and crane: The world of the Schitsu'umsh (Coeur d'Aléne Indians). University of Washington. ISBN 0-29598-171-7.