Ghost of Summer Chinook

This past fall, I celebrated my birthday with a sculpture and piece of art. This salmon was built in a spot near the the end of an ancient migration route. I went back a few weeks ago, to see the process of the salmon, reintegrating back into the rocky banks of the Spokane River. David Abrams called salmon a kind of sacrament for the land and people and I agree. The Chinook and Steelhead no longer swim in this river. They no longer can reach this spot due to hydroelectric dams, like dominos, between here and the Pacific. The last nail in coffin and the last lock that bolted the door down, like locking them out of their own houses while they were away, was completion of the Grand Coulee dam in 1941. We knew better, but decided it was too much expense to build a ladder to allow the salmon to return home, as they had since the last ice age. I wonder what that first salmon return was like, the year after Grand Coulee sealed the river to upstream migrants. How long did the salmon wait to try and get back upstream? What did the Canadian officials think when their southern neighbors sent a letter - double-checking if it was ok if we just went ahead and blocked their salmon forever from getting back home British Columbia. I go back often and visit. Each time, the decay process has taken more and more away, but the visible shape on the landscape still remains. thanks to the @botanicalalchemists and DDir. JLGuyton