Paradise Lost: Copco Lake Residents Brace For Dam Removal

by Juliet Grable

The Copco Lake store has been closed for over a decade; still, it’s easy to imagine stopping in for some bait and sandwich fixings, or chatting with a neighbor in one of the mismatched rocking chairs on the front porch. The sidewalk in front of the store is cracked, but the building is tidy, and on a sunny day in late May, Francis Gill is mowing the lawn. Danny Fontaine, Gill’s husband, recalls a time when rafters, still breathless after riding in on the Klamath River’s Class 3 and 4 rapids, crowded the grass.

“It was really lively,” says Fontaine. “And so we’re thinking, well, that would be really cool to recreate that out here.”

Home to about 100 residents in Siskiyou County, California, Copco Lake is just 30 minutes from Interstate 5 and Yreka. The store, fire station and community center are clustered on the lake’s southeast end—what Fontaine calls “town.”

“I usually refer to it as Walton’s Mountain, because it’s such a tight community,” says Fontaine, who serves as deputy chief of the volunteer fire department under Gill. “Everybody knows everybody, and we’re all friends. If anybody needs help, or is in trouble, we’re there.”

The pair recently purchased the store and plan to reopen it, but for now the shelves are bare, the coolers empty.

“We’re going to hold off on this until we know what’s exactly going to happen,” says Fontaine.

The impending removal of four hydroelectric dams on the main stem of the Klamath River has thrown this normally tranquil community into turmoil. The smallest of the dams is scheduled to be deconstructed this year. The reservoirs behind the remaining three—Copco 1, Iron Gate, and J.C. Boyle—will be drawn down starting next January; by summer, it’s expected that the river will flow freely for the first time in over 100 years. And while many people are celebrating the removals and what they

Continued on page 11 top: Fontaine and Gill recently purchased the Copco Lake store with plans of reopening. They have decided to wait to see the effect of dam removal in the area. below: The southeast end of Copco Lake. The reservoir will be drained in early 2024 and make way for the free-flowing Klamath River after four hydroelectric dams are removed.