The Lyre River starts at the outlet of Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park and flows northwest for five miles (8 km) to Low Point on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, draining a watershed of 43,200 acres (17,482 ha), about 21 miles (34 km) southeast of Clallam Bay and 19 miles (31 km) west of Port Angeles, Washington state. The river was first named Rio de Cuesta in 1790 by Gonzalo López de Haro but was later charted as River Lyre by Captain Henry Kellett in 1847. Lake Crescent once drained toward the Elwha River, and it later found its present outlet over Lyre River Falls, which reshaped the valley’s drainage. The watershed is underlain mainly by basalt and marine sediments, overlain by glacial drift and river deposits, including delta sediment at the river’s mouth. Elevations reach 5,500 feet (1,676 m), and much of the watershed lies above 2,500 feet (762 m).

The Makah people at Neah Bay historically considered the river their eastern territorial boundary, though members of the Elwha Klallam tribe also settled along it, including at a fishing village called Kwahamish. By the early 1890s, John Hanson and his wife, Mary Laeger Hanson, had homesteaded near the river’s head. From 1889 through the 1920s, a settlement called Gettysburg stood on the east side of the river mouth, with a steamboat link to Puget Sound cities. The community was named after Robert N. Getty, a businessman in the lumber industry. Getty settled in the area and in 1891 built a hotel and several structures that served a local logging boom. The entire town burned to the ground in 1927, and reputedly the fire was started by a movie projector. By 1976, nothing remained but its name.

A waterfall about 2.7 miles (4.3 km) upstream from the mouth prevents anadromous fish from entering Lake Crescent, but the lower river provides habitat for chum, Chinook and coho salmon, that were fished historically by the Klallam people. Historical deforestation sharply reduced the salmon returning to the watershed, and warmer water now threatens the surviving runs. The Lyre Conservation Area protects 280 acres (113 ha) just east of the river on the strait, including its estuary, 20 acres (8 ha) of undisturbed tidelands, as well as 2,640 feet (805 m) of Nelson Creek and approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) of tributaries and upland forest. The North Olympic Land Trust bought the property in late 2014 and opened it to non-motorized day use on December 26, 2015. Motor vehicles are excluded. The estuary and shoreline serve as a migratory corridor for salmon and cutthroat trout. Read more here and here. Explore more of Lyre River and Low Point here: