Before The Dalles Dam was built, the Columbia River plunged over Celilo Falls and through the Narrows or Five Mile Rapids, creating the region’s greatest fishing site despite the obstacles to navigation. For more than 10,000 years, Sahaptin and Chinookan peoples lined the shore and braved the currents to plunge dipnets into massive runs of fish. Consistent winds enabled them to wind-dry their catch. They filleted fish and hung them in plank-covered drying sheds, then pounded the dried fish, wrapped it in fish skins, packed it in baskets, and raised these into stacks covered with matting. Clark wrote that thus preserved, the fish could be kept sound and sweet several years. Indians living along the Columbia also tried to secure every piece of driftwood, which they needed to frame their lodges, fish-drying structures, and burial vaults, as well as for fuel. At Miller Island, near the mouth of the Deschutes River, William Clark wrote that large logs of wood must have been rafted down the To war-ne hi ooks, or Deschutes River. The expedition bartered hard for scraps of firewood.