MUSEUM DISPLAY SHEDS LIGHT ON BYGONE SALMON RUNS

ONE NIGHT'S SALMON CATCH: A photo on display at the Union County Museum in Union depicts a string of about 25 salmon caught in Catherine Creek at the Green Ranch in 1916. (Photo/UNION COUNTY MUSEUM).

- Dick Mason

- The Observer

Rivers in the Grande Ronde Valley were once so filled with salmon that "passing schools darkened streams for minutes at a time,'' according to William O'Dell, who led a government survey team in Northeast Oregon in 1866-67.

A current display in the Union County Museum sheds light on salmon and the darkness O'Dell wrote about.

The display includes photographs of salmon caught in Grande Ronde Valley streams long ago. One shows a string of about 25 salmon caught in Catherine Creek at the Green Ranch in 1916.

The display also has a colorful model dry river bed made of rocks and sand which has a painted stream as a backdrop. Models of spawning salmon are propped up over the river bed.

Information on the life cycle of salmon in Northeast Oregon is provided. It includes information displays on spawning and habitat.

It is fitting that photos of salmon caught in Catherine Creek are in the display. A century ago it may have been the premier fishing stream in the Grande Ronde Valley. A story in the Sept. 28, 1906 Observer makes this claim. The article states that for beauty and fishing "Catherine Creek in Union County is the finest stream that flows.''

The article mentions that a week earlier two reporters using grasshoppers caught 34 rainbow trout in two hours. They were 9 to 13 inches long.''

The 1906 article mentions that trout fishing had become more popular than salmon fishing in the past half century because the Grande Ronde Valley had become more developed.

"In less than 50 years, it appears that it has become a basin rich in agricultural products. Salmon fishing for sustenance has been replaced by the past time of trout fishing,'' The Observer reported.

This description is one of many discovered by biologist Dan Guthrie while doing research on the history of fishing in Northeast Oregon. He presented a paper on this at EOU in 1991. Guthrie then lived in Corvallis.

Salmon numbers in Catherine Creek and throughout Northeast Oregon have of course fallen dramatically since the days of O'Dell, who was quoted by Guthrie.

The display at the Union County Museum addresses this and provides information on efforts to restore salmon runs in Northeast Oregon.

The Union County Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays.