The River of No Return History
"The River of No Return" is a term that has long been associated with the roadless section of the Salmon River between the towns of Salmon and Riggins. It is at this point that the Salmon River flows through a canyon that is five thousand feet deep and more than two hundred miles long. When Lewis and Clark encountered this gorge, they turned back and followed an old Indian route around the area. Early fur trappers also avoided the Salmon canyon. In the 1860s, gold was discovered in the Salmon River country, and prospectors quickly explored the area. Most of the gravel bars of the Salmon River contained gold dust in small quantities too. Miners working a sluicebox along the high-water line, with an investment of a few boards, shovels, picks and crowbars, made a dollar a day up through the Depression years.
While this small-scale, subsistance mining was done throughout the Salmon River, there were hard-rock mines discovered in the 1880s within the upper end of the canyon, supporting a community of several hundred people called Shoup. Because the canyon was too rugged for wagon roads, access was by packhorses over difficult trails, or by river. Wooden, flat-bottomed boats, typically thirty feet long and eight or nine feet wide, with four-foot sides were developed to take supplies and mining machinery from the end of the road at Salmon into the canyon. These boats were operated with a long sweep on each end of the boat and were capable of carrying several tons in weight.
The Salmon River was too swift to bring these boats back up river for another trip, so they were dismantled, and the boards were used as lumber. Since these boats never came back to Salmon, the "River of No Return" as a term came into use around 1900.
In time roads did begin to penetrate the canyon from each end, but an 80-mile section remains roadless, within a designated wilderness area appropriately named the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. This section is commonly referred to by river runners today as the Main Salmon.
For More Information: Call 1-208-756-4167
