|
Indian legends say that many moons ago, the Great Spirit, Wahpecoomayow, told his fellow spirits that he was ready to shape the world. He decided to put people on earth and add water, rocks, trees, fish and animals. "You decide what you want to be." he told the spirits.
Spirit Oregos liked people so he decided to be a huge rock at the mouth of the Klamath River. His job each year was to tell the fish when they should leave the ocean and head upriver. And so, each year, Oregos guides the smelt known as candlefish, upriver where the Yurok people net them. They are so oil-rich that they can be burnt as a candle for light.
Then he sends up the cut-throat trout, in May the giant sturgeon, and in July he calls in napooie, the delicious king salmon. August is the steelhead run, followed by silver salmon. What a rock!
The Klamath river is the second largest river in California.... 263 miles long, draining a watershed of 8,000 square miles..to its source in Upper Klamath Lake in South Central Oregon.
|
|
|
