Looking upstream from the Willamette River viewing platform Saturday at Albany Landing.
The Willamette River has been running kind of low lately. This is not unusual at this time in the summer, but the flow seems to be less than I remember in recent years.
On my bike ride Saturday evening, I stopped at the river viewpoint at the foot of Broadalbin Street to take a look around:
On Saturday the river was running at the rate of about 4,050 cubic feet per second. It was measured at about 2.65 feet on the Albany gauge.
The flow was below average for the date, but it was far from the lowest on record.
The record low for the date was reached in 1940, when the river trickled past Albany at the rate of 2,020 cubic feet per second, less than half what it was on Saturday.
That would have been before the dams were built. The first, at Fern Ridge, was completed in 1941.
I got the gauge information and flow rate in this story from the online site for the Willamette at Albany of the U.S. Geological Survey. You can keep track of it yourself here.
By the way, on the design for the Albany Waterfront Project, that viewpoint below Broadalbin Street is called Albany Landing.
Catchy name, I guess. Except there’s no place for boats to land. (hh)
Thank you Hasso ! You are the main man for Albany history intertwined with current events. We appreciate you immensely!!!!!
There was a ferry boat dock at the end of Broadalbin, where the “Landing” is today. I remember talk, back in the 70s – 80s, of bringing back a paddleboat on the river that would stop at Albany. I don’t think that ever happened. Even a flat bottom paddleboat would probably need more water depth on the river than right now. Here is a link to that old ferry landing: https://www.armuseum.com/articles/ferries
A paddle boat docked at Monteith Park fir several years in recent history , I believe it is the same one that now docks in salem.
Yes, that was the Willamette Queen, an 87-foot-long sternwheeler. It was berthed from March 1998 until November 1999 at a dock that has since been dismantled. The boat moved to Salem because the river near Albany was no longer navigable.
“…no place for boats to land.” Sadly, Hasso is proven correct. Albany is very unwelcoming vis a vis boats and their landing here. Sad!
Watching the video…remember the old saying…come to oregon , but, don’t stay & please go home…..oh my
I remember my mother telling g me about some ti.e in the 69s the river being low enough to walk all the way across.
I think there is about 9 dams on Willamette above Albany and connecting rivers like McKenzie and Long Tom rivers. Some people dislike dams and would like them removed. If we didn’t have dams we may not have the flow in Willamette we have now which also protects fish.. It would be interesting to see how low the dams are right now as we still have a couple of months of warm weather and low rainfall. I have lived by the Willamette since 1967 and don’t remember so many islands this time of year. The Willamette hasn’t been dredged since Hub City moved away from Bowman Park in the 1970’s.When they lowered the dams up river and filled the river with silt it also made the river more shallow I would have thought. We will see what happens this winter