By Floyd Wynne

From the Centennial Issue 1967 Klamath Echoes – 1867 --  Ferry to Freeway  --  1967  Part 1 Volume 1  Page 15 - 16

Reprinted from a clipping, date unknown (1962?) in the Herald and News

“ . . .  Linkville was not the first village upon the banks of Link River but when these other villages were started there is no recorded history.  At Fremont Bridge , the DAR has placed a bronze marker upon the site of another settlement of pre-pioneer days, known to the Indian as Eua-lona, Yulalona or Iulanoe depending upon just how the Indian name sounds to the individual attempting to put the work into written English.

“At the other end of Link River and where the location of Linkville was made there was another Indian village called I-uauna and the Indians called the settlement of Linkville by the same name.  The white man kept the name of this village and applied it to the lake at the mouth of Link River calling the lake that graced the edge of the village Ewauna.  While the name is now fastened to the area there is no marker present that tells the visitor to our community the story of Linkville and I-uauna.

“Much has been written about Link River , the ‘link’ that connects Upper Klamath Lake with Lake Ewauna , the headwaters of the Klamath River .  It is a short river, 8,000 feet in length and located within the city limits of Klamath Falls and the community boasts of it as being ‘the shortest river in the world within one municipality.’  The boast, however, ends at that point for the community apparently has little pride in the fact other than that the Link is a curiosity to boast about.  Down south in the land of superlatives whose northern border is a few miles to the south any community in the flatland would do more than boast about ‘the shortest river’ but would have it in a park that would be known the world over.

“The fabled river that regularly blew dry and from which Klamath Falls drew its name because of the low falls in the river is of something more than casual interest to any newcomer and visitor to the area but there is no sign to tell the story.  When people come to Klamath Falls the first question they ask is ‘where are the falls?’  Of course they visualize something like the falls of the Yellowstone perhaps but no such fall was possible here and to some there is amusement that the low falls of Link River should be designated as falls at all.  Before the construction of the diversion dam on Link River at the head of the cataract that formed the falls, Link River was noted for being the stream that heavy winds from the south could practically blow dry, leaving only a trickle of water flowing over the falls.  While the falls are now dry they still can take on their natural condition during times when a large flow of water is being released from Link River dam.

“The Indian name for the falls was ‘tiwishkeni’ which translated means ‘rush of falling waters place.’  Around this location enormous quantities of salmon, steel-head and mullet were taken each year by the Indians who dried them for their winter food supply.  The construction of the Copco Dams upon the Klamath in California stopped the annual migration of the salmon and steelhead, and the drying up of Lower Klamath Lake destroyed the enormous runs of mullet.  The Indian made good use of the opportunities afforded them when the river would occasionally blow dry and this is a story that some scientists apparently take to be a myth.  Thus we find a note in Spier’s ‘Klamath Ethnography’ – ‘Gatschet’s reference to the Indians scooping up fish from the dry bed of the stream when a strong south wind drives back the waters in the lake, seems like a purely mythical reference, but is confirmed by Clark.’  Had he taken the time to ask any old settler of pioneer days in Linkville and of Klamath Falls before the building of the dam he could have confirmed the story on the ground and even had evidence of the fact from existing photographs.

“At some early date, the Indians constructed a series of rock pens in the bed of the river below the falls.  These structures can be seen today at periods when the water level of the river is lowered.  They may have served as the base of fish traps when water was low or as good fishing holes when the water was high.  When water was low in the river the rock pens could serve as an easy place to net and spear fish.

“Early settlers in Klamath Falls remember the time when the Indians still fished in these ancient waterholes; had their fish drying racks and fishing camp on the west bank of the river near the present Fremont bridge at the head of Link River at the village Yulalona, a word that has been translated as meaning ‘receding and returning water’ and under such an interpretation the word makes note of the ability of the southern winds to blow the river dry.”

(The above article was evidently based on an article written by Kenneth McLeod Jr,. and printed in the Herald and News of October 3^rd, 1951 . – Editor)