Before the days of irrigation water and hydroelectricity, Shoshone Falls was an amazing sight to behold, water plunging 212 feet over the rocks, with the roar of the falls heard up to ten miles away. The falls created an impassable barrier for the migrating steelhead and salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to spawn. In the spring, Indigenous people living throughout the Snake River Plain formed small bands to capture fish from the river and it remained an important area for Natives to gather, fish, and trade. Downstream, fish were plentiful and provided life-sustaining food and an important component of Shoshone culture and spirituality.
Archaeologists insist Shoshone Falls was formed over 14,500 years ago when Lake Bonneville catastrophically flooded during the Pleistocene Ice Age. A traditional Shoshone-Bannock story denotes a different story explaining the cosmology of the Shoshone/Snake River. Ejuba, a coyote, went fishing in the country of Yellowstone. On his way home, the fish and the water in his lined basket became too heavy to carry and he tripped and spilled the contents. Although he tried several times to build various rocky dams to contain the spilled water, it continually rushed over and created several waterfalls. The river that Ejuba created is known today as the Snake River. The first dam he built was Idaho Falls, the second was American Falls, and the third dam split into two parts to become Twin Falls. The last and largest dam Ejuba constructed was Shoshone Falls. Another Shoshone tale describes a maiden distraught over the separation from her lover who hurled herself into the Snake River canyon at a point near the edge of the falls, a fenced off area known as “Lover’s Leap.”
Shoshone Falls has undergone tremendous changes. The once roaring waters that were heard from miles away now dwindle to a stream. The demand for water to irrigate the land and the desire for clean hydroelectricity dictates the amount of water that plunges over the falls. When visiting the falls on such a day it is hard to imagine that a writer once compared Shoshone Falls to Niagara Falls saying, “Surely there must be a God above. . .who made these Western Falls, which soon shall mock the magic art of Eastern ones and sink them into insignificance.” Visit the falls in the early Spring if you hope to catch a glimpse of its original majesty at maximum flow.
]]>