Little Butte Creek | |
---|---|
![]() The north fork of Little Butte Creek | |
Etymology | Named after Snowy Butte (now Mount McLoughlin) |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | Oregon |
Counties | Jackson County, Klamath County |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | Near Lake Creek |
• location | Cascade Range, Jackson County, Oregon |
• coordinates | 42°25′11″N 122°37′08″W / 42.41972°N 122.61889°W[a] |
• elevation | 1,647 ft (502 m)[a] |
Mouth | Rogue River |
• location | about 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Eagle Point, Jackson County, Oregon |
• coordinates | 42°27′03″N 122°52′47″W / 42.45083°N 122.87972°W[1] |
• elevation | 1,204 ft (367 m)[1] |
Length | 17 mi (27 km)[3] |
Basin size | 373 sq mi (970 km2)[4][5] |
Discharge | |
• location | below Eagle Point[b] |
• average | 232.3 cu ft/s (6.58 m3/s)[b] |
• minimum | 5.8 cu ft/s (0.16 m3/s)(June 6, 1926)[7] |
• maximum | 10,000 cu ft/s (280 m3/s)(January 7, 1948)[8] |
Little Butte Creek is a 17-mile-long (27 km) tributary of the Rogue River in the U.S. state of Oregon. Its drainage basin consists of approximately 354 square miles (917 km2) of Jackson County and another 19 square miles (49 km2) of Klamath County. Its two forks, the North Fork and the South Fork, both begin high in the Cascade Range near Mount McLoughlin and Brown Mountain. They both flow generally west until they meet near Lake Creek. The main stem continues west, flowing through the communities of Brownsboro, Eagle Point, and White City, before finally emptying into the Rogue River about 3 miles (5 km) southwest of Eagle Point.
Little Butte Creek's watershed was originally settled by the Takelma, and possibly the Shasta tribes of Native Americans. In the Rogue River Wars of the 1850s, most of the Native Americans were either killed or forced onto Indian reservations. Early settlers named Little Butte Creek and nearby Big Butte Creek after their proximity to Mount McLoughlin, which was known as Snowy Butte. In the late 19th century, the watershed was primarily used for agriculture and lumber production. The city of Eagle Point was incorporated in 1911, and remains the only incorporated town within the watershed's boundaries.
Large amounts of water are diverted from Little Butte Creek for irrigation, water storage, and power generation. Canal systems deliver the water to nearby Howard Prairie Lake and the Klamath River watershed, Agate Lake, and the Rogue Valley.
Despite being moderately polluted, the creek is one of the best salmon-producing tributaries of the Rogue River. Coho and Chinook salmon migrate upstream each year; however, several dams hinder their progress. A fish ladder was built in 2005 to help fish swim past a dam constructed in Eagle Point in the 1880s, but was destroyed by flooding just three months later. It was rebuilt in 2008. Restoration of a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) artificially straightened section of the creek in the Denman Wildlife Area was completed in 2011.
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