HOW HELLS CANYON GOT ITS NAME

Snake River Adventures, LLC

Hells Canyon wasn’t always known by the name we use today.

Early explorers and river travelers used several names for the gorge, including Box Canyon and Snake River Canyon.

According to Carrey, Conley and Barton in their book Snake River of Hells Canyon, one of the earliest printed references to “Hells Canyon” appeared in an 1895 edition of McCurdy’s Marine History of the Pacific Northwest.

While describing the voyage of the steamboat Norma, the author wrote that the vessel swung into midstream and “shot into Hells Canyon.”

The name appeared again in a 1931 bulletin from the Mazama hiking club and became increasingly established during the following decades. Bailey’s book Hells Canyon was published in 1943, further establishing the name associated with the canyon today.