The "pipeline" in Pipeline Rapid

Pipeline rapid was a broad rocky shoal with a mining artifact running across the bottom that had a wicked, boat-ripping – you had to run a very specific line through the rocks which got you very close to the fitting – nice little attention grabber after Dubois Pool and coming into Duck Bar, which Pipeline was immediately above. I rowed and empty boat up the eddy on river left and then wedged my boat on the bottom rocks to get this picture of the pipe. But “Pipeline” was a misnomer – miners helped create the riffle, to divert water out of the channel to mine the riverbed. They laid the long metal rod (the ‘pipe’) to reinforce their diversion. The long iron rod would have been used earlier to to convert piston power to rotary motion to drive other devices.