Beware of the Rug: If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 572

Thursday, September 8, 2022

If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 572

Brownlee Reservoir, Hells Canyon, Baker Co., Oregon/Washington/Idaho

Brownlee Reservoir is the featured photograph on this Smith-Western, Inc. postcard. The photo is by Robert J. Franzese. There is a blurb at the upper left corner on the reverse: “The backwaters from Brownlee Dam reach nearly 60 miles upstream to Farewell Bend near Weiser, offering the fisherman and pleasure boater an unlimited playground. “ The code: ID-6295 is found under the blurb.

Brownlee Dam and Reservoir are named after John Brownlee who started a ferry service that crossed the Snake River between Idaho and Oregon, known as Brownlee’s Ferry. After the railroad was built a station was established at the ferry site and also named Brownlee. A post office operated here off and on between 1910 and 1965. The rail line was removed by the Oregon Short Line railway in 1934. The unincorporated community of Robinette was the terminus for the Union Pacific aka Oregon Short Line. The site of that former community was flooded when the reservoir filled in May 1958 and is today underwater.

Brownlee is a hydroelectric earth fill embankment dam on the Snake River at the Oregon and Idaho border. It is part of the Hells Canyon Project that also includes Hells Canyon Dam and Oxbow Dam, and is operated by the Idaho Power Company. The reservoir is 58 miles or 93 km long. The powerhouse has five generating units with a capacity of 585.4 megawatts.

There is no passageway for migrating salmon on this stretch of the Snake River from Hells Canyon Dam up to Shoshone Falls. Shoshone Falls is a natural barrier to fish passage to the upper Snake basin.