Feather
Feather is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. Oroville Dam stands on this watercourse and is written up below. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Dams Recorded
- 1
- Coordinates
- 39.63°, -121.29°
About Feather
The Feather River is the principal tributary of the Sacramento River, in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. The river's main stem is about 73 miles (117 km) long. Its length to its most distant headwater tributary is just over 210 miles (340 km). The main stem Feather River begins in Lake Oroville, where its four long tributary forks join—the South Fork, Middle Fork, North Fork, and West Branch Feather Rivers. These and other tributaries drain part of the northern Sierra Nevada, and the extreme southern Cascades, as well as a small portion of the Sacramento Valley. The total drainage basin is about 6,200 square miles (16,000 km2), with approximately 3,604 square miles (9,330 km2) above Lake Oroville.
The Feather River and its forks were a center of gold mining during the 19th century. Since the 1960s, the river has provided water to central and southern California, as the main source of water for the California State Water Project. Its water is also used for hydroelectricity generation. The average annual flow of the Feather River is more than 7 million acre-feet (8.6 km3).
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Feather River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Feather in Depth
Course
The river rises in four main forks in the Sierra Nevada which unite as arms of the Lake Oroville reservoir in the foothills 5 miles (8.0 km) northeast of Oroville in eastern Butte County. In terms of drainage area, the largest is the North Fork, which drains about 60% of the entire upper Feather River watershed. The Middle Fork is the second largest, draining about 32% of the upper basin. The South Fork and the West Branch are much smaller, each draining less than 5% of the upper basin. The main stem Feather River begins at Oroville Dam, the outlet of Lake Oroville. From there the river flows generally south across the Sacramento Valley, east of the Sutter Buttes, past Oroville and Yuba City–Marysville.
History
Historically, the Maidu were the main Native American inhabitants of the upper Feather River basin's American, Indian, and Sierra Valleys. Maidu villages were located in the Big Meadows area, now inundated by Lake Almanor, and in American Valley where Quincy is now located. The Maidu migrated to the Sierra Valley in the spring and summer, but did not stay during the harsh winters. The Washoe hunted in the upper Feather River basin, especially in Long Valley, Sierra Valley, and Mohawk Valley. There is evidence of Paiute and Washoe settlements in the Long Valley area.
In 1836, John Marsh, Jose Noriega and a company of men, went on an exploration of Northern California. They felled trees, made dugout canoes, and ascended the Sacramento River.
Ecology
The riparian area of the Feather River supports a rich biodiversity of native flora and fauna. The Sierra Nevada reaches have considerable wild river features and steep gradients. In lower reaches, after joining of the forks, there is also significant habitat; near Yuba City, for example, there are extents of the river with numerous valley oak trees with understory of wild grape.
The Feather River stonecrop (Sedum albomarginatum) is a rare plant endemic to the Feather River watershed.
The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has developed a safe eating advisory for the upper and lower sections of Feather River based on levels of mercury found in fish caught from this water body.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Feather River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Feather: Key Facts
| Length | 270 km |
|---|---|
| Drainage basin | 15,833 km² |
| Source | North Fork Feather River |
| Mouth | Sacramento River |
| Drainage system | Sacramento River basin |
| Tributaries | Yuba River, Bear River, Honcut Creek, North Fork Feather River, Indian Creek, Indian Creek |
Facts from Wikidata Q1399312 (CC0).
Oroville Dam
Oroville Dam
Earth-fill dam · California, USA
Oroville Dam is an earth-fill dam on the Feather in California, USA, standing 235 m (771 ft) high and completed in 1968. It carries an installed hydroelectric capacity of 819 MW. The structure impounds Lake Oroville, about 108 km² on the map.
Oroville Dam is an earthfill embankment dam on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley. At 770 feet (235 m) high, it is the tallest dam in the U.S. and serves mainly for water supply, hydroelectricity generation, and flood control. The dam impounds Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California, capable of storing more than 3.5 million acre-feet (1.1×10^12 US gal; 4.3×109 m3).
Built by the California Department of Water Resources, Oroville Dam is one of the key features of the California State Water Project (SWP), one of two major projects passed that set up California's statewide water system. Construction was initiated in 1961, and despite numerous difficulties encountered during its construction, including multiple floods and a major train wreck on the rail line used to transport materials to the dam site, the embankment was topped out in 1967 and the entire project was ready for use in 1968. The dam began to generate electricity shortly afterwards with completion of the Edward Hyatt Power Plant, then the country's largest underground power station.
Adapted from Wikipedia: Oroville Dam (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Dam type
- Earth-fill
- Structural height
- 235 m (771 ft)
- Installed capacity
- 819 MW
- Impounded river
- Feather
- Reservoir
- Lake Oroville
- Location
- California, USA
- Year completed
- 1968
- Height rank
- #11 of 115 indexed
- Output rank
- #55 of 102 indexed
- Coordinates
- 39.5378°, -121.4856°
Notable: Tallest dam in the United States (235 meters / 770 feet).
Among the 115 dams indexed in YearMaps, Oroville Dam ranks #11 by structural height, behind Jinping-I Dam (305 m). By installed generating capacity it ranks #55, behind Three Gorges Dam (22,500 MW).
Impounded reservoir: Lake Oroville (108 km², impounded 1968).
Nearest cities: Chico (37 km), Yuba City (46 km), Sacramento (107 km).
More about Oroville Dam
History
In 1935, work began on the Central Valley Project, a federal water project that would develop the Sacramento and San Joaquin River systems for irrigation of the highly fertile Central Valley. However, after the end of World War II in 1945, the state experienced an economic boom that led to rapid urban and commercial growth in the central and southern portions of the state, and it became clear that California's economy could not depend solely on a state water system geared primarily towards agriculture. A new study of California's water supplies by the Division of Water Resources (now California Department of Water Resources, DWR) was carried out under an act of the California State Legislature in 1945.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Oroville Dam (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Oroville Dam: Key Facts
| Crest length | 2,109 m |
|---|---|
| Officially opened | 1968 |
Facts from Wikidata Q1425594 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Feather: Quick Answers
- Where is Feather?
- Feather is located in United States, at 39.6259° N, 121.2884° W.
- Are there dams on the Feather?
- Yes. YearMaps records one dam on the Feather: Oroville Dam.
- How tall is Oroville Dam?
- Oroville Dam is 235 metres (771 ft) high and was completed in 1968.