The Elwha River flows down through the Olympic National Park before emptying into the Salish Sea’s Straits of Juan de Fuca. Over a century ago, two massive dams were built on the Elwha River, cutting off seventy miles of spawning habitat for salmon and steelhead. I photographed these two dams in 2008 as part of my project Sawdust Mountain. However in 2012, work was begun to remove both dams and reclaim the river. In 2022, I returned to photograph the Elwha wild once more on commission for the Sun Valley Art Museum. Since the dams’ removal, the river’s course and topography have dramatically shifted. Where once stood two man-made lakes, new forests and meadows now grow. Where there was once a National Park road, a torrent of rapids now flows. And where there were once impenetrable concrete walls, salmon now return to historic spawning grounds deep upstream.
