Tucannon River
| Tucannon River | |
 Confluence of the Tucannon with the Snake River
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| Name origin: Nez Perce place name for "digging", in this case the edible root of the camas | |
| Country | United States |
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| State | Washington |
| County | Columbia County, Garfield County |
| Source | near Diamond Peak |
| - location | Blue Mountains, Umatilla National Forest, Garfield County |
| - elevation | 6,189 ft (1,886 m) |
| - coordinates | 46°07′11″N 117°30′41″W / 46.11972°N 117.51139°W |
| Mouth | Snake River |
| - location | near Starbuck, Columbia County |
| - elevation | 541 ft (165 m) |
| - coordinates | 46°33′28″N 118°10′35″W / 46.55778°N 118.17639°WCoordinates: 46°33′28″N 118°10′35″W / 46.55778°N 118.17639°W |
| Length | 62.3 mi (100 km) |
| Basin | 502 sq mi (1,300 km2) |
| Discharge | for near Starbuck, 7.9 miles (12.7 km) from the mouth |
| - average | 170 cu ft/s (5 m3/s) |
| - max | 7,980 cu ft/s (226 m3/s) |
| - min | 15 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
  Location of the mouth of Tucannon River in Washington
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The Tucannon River is a tributary of the Snake River in the U.S. state of Washington. It flows generally northwest from headwaters in the Blue Mountains of southeastern Washington to meet the Snake 4 miles (6 km) upstream from Lyons Ferry Park and the mouth of the Palouse River. The Tucannon is about 62 miles (100 km) long. Part of the upper river flows through the Wenaha–Tucannon Wilderness.
The Tucannon basin of 502 square miles (1,300 km2) ranges in elevation from about 540 feet (165 m) above sea level at the mouth on the Snake River to about 6,400 feet (1,950 m) in the Umatilla National Forest of the Blue Mountains.
River flows in the Tucannon basin depend solely on precipitation and groundwater. Studies in the early 1990s suggested that these flows would not be able to meet all of the claims, public and private, on the water resources of the lower river. In particular, farm irrigation projects were competing with fisheries for limited water. The Washington Department of Ecology named the Tucannon basin a Watershed Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) and in 1995 began hearings about how to allocate the water.
The lower Snake River was home to bands of the Palouse and other Sahaptin-speaking people, including Nez Perce, Yakama, Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Wanapum. The Blue Mountains formed the western part of a 17,000,000-acre (69,000 km2) region traditional to the aboriginal Nimi'ipuu people, renamed Nez Perce by Lewis and Clark when they arrived in the region in 1805. The horse was central to the lives of both the Palouse and the Nez Perce.
The Nez Perce Trail followed part of the Touchet and Tucannon rivers, extending east from Wallula and reaching the Touchet below Waitsburg. From there it followed the southern bank of the Touchet River to present day Dayton. Here it crossed the river and followed Patit Creek northeast.
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Wikipedia