McArthur-Burney Falls: The Spring That Outlasted the Dams

Every river in this region was eventually dammed. The Sacramento. The Trinity. The Pit. The Klamath. Federal water projects reshaped the entire drainage system of northern California across the twentieth century.

Burney Falls is still here, unchanged, because it is not a river.

The waterfall drops one hundred twenty-nine feet over a volcanic shelf. What makes it unusual is that approximately half the water does not come from the top. Springs emerge directly from the face of the cliff, partway down, fed by an underground aquifer that recharges from snowmelt seeping through porous volcanic rock. Drought years and wet years barely register in the falls' flow rate. The volume has stayed roughly constant for as long as it has been measured.

Teddy Roosevelt reportedly called Burney Falls the eighth wonder of the world. The attribution appears in numerous accounts but has been difficult to pin to a specific verified document, so treat it as a possibility.

The Pit River people, whose traditional territory includes this area, have gathered at this reliable water source for generations. The springs that feed the falls are the same springs they have always been.

The rivers around Burney Falls were dammed. The aquifer that feeds these springs was not. Some things hold what they carry longer than the engineers expected.