NCNP 101 - A History Lesson: Thunder DAM??

Just imagine... the canyon of Thunder Creek where it met the Skagit had already been drowned under the Diablo reservoir, creating "Thunder Arm" and forever silencing the namesake thunder of the creek. Then in the early 60s, City Light and others were actively planning to raise Ross Dam and further flood the upper Skagit valley, drowning Big Beaver's ancient forest (more on that in a future post).

AND plans were underway to build a new dam on Thunder Creek, just upstream of where it meets the Diablo reservoir, drowning Thunder's ancient forest! In fact, it wasn't just going to be submerged, it would have been logged before the dam was built! (Brilliant, eh? "Cut and sell the trees, then dam up the valley!" Where have we heard this one before?)

Note the original photo caption below refers to it as "1,500 acres of commercial timberland." (Click photo for enlarged view.) This was the same treatment given to the upper Skagit for Ross Dam/Lake: "Cut it down, dam it up!"

The artist's conception published in the Federal Study Report of 1965 (left) shows what this disaster would have looked like. Thanks to N3C, this project, as well as High Ross, were stopped in their tracks.
Photo issustration above: The North Cascades Study Report, 1965, USGPO

BUT - look at the map below... the blue color of the National Park at Thunder Creek today (circled) still has a big "dip" where Ross Lake NRA is shown in purple, going around this phantom reservoir (and all of Ruby Mountain, too*)! Why is that boundary bump still there today? Does it matter? Well, you bet it does: NRA is NOT the same as National Park, and the ancient forest of Thunder Creek deserves National Park protection now as much as it ever did!

(Click the maps above for a closer look.)
Lower map courtesy DeLorme TopoUSA

American Alps will bring permanent National Park protection to lower Thunder Creek's ancient forest. Join us!

*Ruby Mountain was to have had an aerial tramway built on it, in the original, more developed National Park plan.

NCNP 101 - A History Lesson

Original Park Proposal Map Shows Founders Intended More Complete Protection

The Sierra Club published The Wild Cascades: Forgotten Parkland in 1964 (text by Harvey Manning, a lifetime member of N3C). It was an advocacy piece for the establishment of North Cascades National Park (NCNP), one of those large "exhibit format" books that Sierra Club published over the years, seen on many a coffee table.

In the back was a map supplement showing the proposed boundaries of the new Park. Here's a portion of that map, showing what became the area covered by the current National Park and National Recreation Areas:

(Click this thumbnail to see a larger image of it in a new window. Click your browser's BACK button to return here.)

There was no Ross Lake NRA in the proposal, so the protected Park boundaries go to the shore of Ross Lake. The protected area does open up below Diablo, presumably due to City Light's Skagit Hydro Project. At the time, City Light was looking at flooding more of the Skagit and its tributaries, but this is no longer the case, so the Park will come down to Ross Lake on the west side as part of American Alps.

Further south, the original Lake Chelan NRA proposal included a big buffer area up the east side of what is now NCNP's South Unit, and highway SR20 and the Granite Creek valley were inside the Park, up to the passes. The north end of Baker Lake and its eastern shore were entirely within the proposed protected area. All of these are in accordance with American Alps.

So you can see how many of the areas now proposed by the American Alps initiative to "expand" the Park and associated Wildnerness were really part of the original proposal. All the more reason to complete the Park, more in accordance with the vision of the founders!

For a detailed story of all the twists and turns on the road to NCNP, pick up a copy of Wilderness Alps: Conservation and Conflict in Washington's North Cascades by Harvey Manning, at the N3C Web Store.