Lewis and Clark's Columbia River
Lewis & Clark's Columbia River - "200 Years Later"
"Hardy Creek, Washington"
Includes ... Hardy Creek ...
Image, 2016, Hardy Creek, North Bonneville, Washington click to enlarge
Click image to enlarge 		Hardy Creek, North Bonneville, Washington. Image taken _____.

(to come)


Hardy Creek ...
Hardy Creek is located on the Washington side of the Columbia River. Upstream is North Bonneville and Hamilton Creek. Downstream is located Beacon Rock and Woodard Creek. Hardy Creek enters the Pierce National Wildlife Refuge at its north boundary where it then turns and flows southwest, merging with the Columbia River at Beacon Rock at Columbia River Mile (RM) 142.

Hardy Creek Drainage ...
The Hardy Creek watershed has a drainage fo 4.42 square miles. Hardy Creek itself is seven miles long, beginning at 3,000 feet elevation and ending at the Columbia River at 165 feet elevation.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Columbia River Fisheries Program's FY2000 Annual Report, most of the Hardy Creek watershed is public land with a small private holding bordering Washington State Route 14. The lower portion of the stream is in the Pierce National Wildlife Refuge. The entire watershed has been logged at least once, with existing forests being considered second growth and (now, in 2014, nearly 50 years old).


Chum Salmon ...
Hardy Creek supports one of the last remaining runs of chum salmon on the Columbia River. In addition to chum salmon, the creek also supports small remnant runs of Coho, steelhead and Chinook salmon as well as a variety of native species of freshwater fish. Chum salmon migrations in Hardy Creek are restricted to the lower portion of the steam, as a culvert, installed during the construction of the railroad, became an impassable barrier to the chum. Suitable habitat for spawning doesn't exist above the culvert anyways, as the stream transitions to a higher 2-10% gradient with a cobble bed.

The lower section of Hardy Creek was re-routed and dredged in the early 1900s, creating a relatively straight, entrenched channel. During periods of high water this lower section of Hardy Creek has fine sediments deposited, adversely affecting the spawning areas.

Nearby Hamilton Creek also supports a chum salmon run.


Early Hardy Creek ...
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office Records (GLO) database shows that on December 22, 1865, Ebenezer C. Hardy and Mary H. Hardy were granted title to 319.08 acres of T2N R6E, Section 25, and T2N R7E, Section 30 (1850 Oregon-Donation Act).


From the Journals of Lewis and Clark ...

Clark, October 31, 1805 ...



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*River Miles [RM] are approximate, in statute miles, and were determined from USGS topo maps, obtained from NOAA nautical charts, or obtained from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website, 2003

Sources:
  • U.S. Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office Records (GLO) database, 2014;
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife website, 2004;
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Columbia River Fisheries Program Office, 2000, "Evaluate Factors Limiting Columbia River Gorge Chum Salmon Populations", BPA Contract #2000-012, FY200 Annual Report;


All Lewis and Clark quotations from Gary Moulton editions of the Lewis and Clark Journals, University of Nebraska Press, all attempts have been made to type the quotations exactly as in the Moulton editions, however typing errors introduced by this web author cannot be ruled out; location interpretation from variety of sources, including this website author.
/Regions/Places/hardy_creek.html
June 2014