From Washington To You
Remaining concrete of Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River during demolition in May 2013, with river water passing through the breach.
Photograph by Janis Burger, National Park Service, May 4, 2013. Public domain.

From Washington to you

Elwha River restoration

Elwha River · Clallam County · 2011–2014

The largest dam removal in U.S. history gave the Elwha back to salmon — and to the people who lived along it.

For millennia the Elwha ran from the Olympic Mountains to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Eleven varieties of salmon and trout spawned in it. Those fish were a food source for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe living along the banks.

Two dams went in during the early 1900s to power Port Angeles. The Elwha Dam stood 105 feet high at river mile 4.9 and was built in 1910–12. Glines Canyon Dam, 210 feet high at river mile 13.5, was built in 1927. Together they blocked salmon, trapped sediment, and flooded tribal homelands and cultural sites.

Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act in 1992. After two decades of planning, the largest dam removal in U.S. history began on September 17, 2011. Six months later the Elwha Dam was gone. Glines Canyon Dam followed in 2014. The river now runs free again from the mountains to the strait. The Tribe remains a partner in the restoration that followed.

  • Wildlife & Ecology
  • History
  • Indigenous History & Place

Sources (3)

Last reviewed: September 20, 2026

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