Fifteenmile Creek, Oregon

Fifteenmile Creek

Fifteenmile Creek originates at Senecal Springs on Lookout Mountain in Oregon's Cascade Range and flows toward the northeast eventually joining the Columbia River just below the Dalles Dam. Where the river flows through the Badger Creek Wilderness, it is classified as wild, descending from Senecal Springs, which is a series of large springs with unconfined braided stream channels in a sub-alpine forest. The braided channels soon come together as one confined channel flowing in a high gradient stream through a dense mixed conifer forest prior to ending at Badger Creek Wilderness boundary. The next stretch of river is classified as scenic and flows downriver from the Badger Creek Wilderness boundary near Fifteenmile Creek Campground to a location downriver of the confluence with Fret Creek. Multiple waterfalls are present in the river with the highest estimated at 51 feet high. Below the waterfalls Fifteenmile Creek flows through a floodplain located in a box canyon with mixed conifer and pine/oak forests. The last designated stretch of Fifteenmile Creek continues descending toward the Columbia River and is classified as scenic.

Fifteenmile Creek is confined in a high gradient stream channel, which flows through a mixed conifer forest type in a transition zone between the High Cascades and the Columbia Plateau with a diversity of vegetative types. The wild and scenic river corridor provides diverse wildlife habitat for American marten in the high elevations to gray squirrel in the pine/oak forests. Migratory birds are supported along the corridor because of the varied habitat types, although some bird populations such as blue grouse, olive-sided flycatcher, and brown creeper are declining. Beaver colonies are present in the watershed, which create even more habitat diversity within the river corridor. The eastern five miles of the river corridor provides winter range for deer and elk while the western 2.5 miles provide high quality calving/fawning habitat, and the entire corridor serves as an important migration route. The pine/oak portions of the corridor provide habitat for species including Lewis’ woodpecker, white-headed woodpecker, western bumblebee, deer, elk, wild turkey, and western gray squirrel. Most of the river corridor, aside from the pine/oak, provides habitat for northern spotted owl.

The river sustains multiple fish species, including steelhead, redband trout, and Pacific lamprey. All known year round human created barriers to fish passage have been removed up to the middle designated segment in Fifteenmile Creek. Multiple impassable waterfalls (10 to 51 foot height) are present higher in the river corridor. The headwaters of Fifteenmile Creek are some of the best fisheries habitat within the subwatershed for the mid-Columbia steelhead, one of the few remaining wild runs with little hatchery introgression. The steelhead in this subbasin are the easternmost run of wild winter steelhead in the Columbia Basin.

The river flows through the Fifteenmile National Recreation Area (part of the Mount Hood National Recreation Area), which was designated to provide protection, preservation, and enhancement of recreational, ecological, scenic, cultural, watershed, and fish and wildlife values, and is popular with mountain bikers. Visitors experience a variety of scenery along the river, from an alpine fir forest along the upper segment to a ponderosa pine and Oregon white oak forest as they move east. The Fifteenmile Creek Trail parallels Fifteenmile Creek for 5.7 miles, while the Fret Creek and Cedar Creek Trails intersect this main primitive travel route. Prominent exposures of columnar basalt along the Fifteenmile corridor add to the scenery. There are places where long distance views of Eastern Oregon’s Blue Mountains, the Columbia River Corridor, and Deschutes River Corridor can be seen. Most recreational use in the river corridor occurs in the summer and includes camping, hiking, mountain biking, climbing, horseback riding, mushrooming, hunting, berry picking, and paddling, while winter attracts Nordic skiers and snowmobilers. There is one campground in the corridor and the lack of development is a draw to this area. Fifteenmile Creek provides an opportunity to enjoy a quieter recreation experience than can be found along many river corridors on the Mt. Hood National Forest.

Cultural history in the area is connected to past Forest Service administration, homesteading, agriculture, timber harvest, transportation, and recreation. The corridor includes transportation routes that owe their location to the creek and may be spurs of the Historic Barlow Road. The Dufur to Lookout Mountain Trail played a prominent role in the early history and settlement of Wasco County. The drainage was first documented as Nansene Creek prior to the large immigration waves of the mid-nineteenth century, and archaeological evidence suggests the headwaters and travel corridor have been in use for more than 2,000 years. In 1852, the first permanent settlers, primarily stockmen, arrived in the Fifteenmile Creek drainage, homesteading near the current site of Dufur. By 1872, the Dufur brothers and others were grazing large herds of sheep and other livestock along this travel corridor and at High Prairie, near the Headwaters of Fifteenmile Creek. Several small sawmills operated along the upper extent of Fifteenmile Creek during this period to support the area’s fledgling communities and homesteads, the trail and waterway essential to growth. In 1893, the upper extent of Fifteenmile Creek became part of the Cascade Range Reserve. Fire prevention was a priority, and an extensive and well-maintained trail system was considered vital to that effort. During this period the first fire lookout on the eastern side of the Forest was constructed on Lookout Mountain; the peak considered one of the best vantage points in Oregon. Sometime prior to 1901, the Dufur to Lookout Mountain trail was extended to the southwest, over Bennett Pass, to link with the Barlow Road near Summit Creek. This would become an important cutoff from the Barlow Road, linking the communities from east and west. Much of this work was spearheaded by J.B. Senecal, the first Ranger in the northeastern portion of the Reserve. Within a decade recreational use of the trail increased greatly. To the east, the trail provided a grand view of eastern Oregon and the Blue Mountains. The unobstructed view of Mt. Hood, several miles to the west, was considered the best on the Forest. Planning was under way for the Mt. Hood Loop Highway during this period, and the Lookout Mountain Trail was a strong candidate for improvement as this scenic travel route. An alternate route prevailed, however, efforts to convert the trail to a road persisted. In 1933, Roy T. Johnson and a crew of sixty Civilian Conservation Corp men were charged with creation of the Bennett Pass Road. This road followed the trail alignment from High Prairie to the Barlow Road in the west, and Fifteenmile Campground in the east. The men camped at High Prairie, using the cabin built nearly three decades earlier by Senecal as a main office. The Dufur to Lookout Mountain Trail is associated with nearly every activity occurring in the drainage including grazing, timber harvest, recreation, and Forest Service administration. Fifteenmile Creek played a prominent role in each.