Dams in the American West have long been a symbol of power and control, the taming of the rivers was the taming of the West. But these days many of the old dams of the Pacific Northwest are being seen as nuisances, and more importantly, killers of salmon. Thus the movement to tear some of the dams down. The latest to fall, the Savage Rapids Dam on Oregon’s Rogue River.

For years, the water stored by the Savage Rapids Dam has nurtured the green bean fields and grazing pastures of southern Oregon, turning them into a lush region of bounty.

But there has been a price – the death of thousands of fish, which slammed themselves into the concrete wall of the dam in a futile effort to head upstream.

That picture now resembles a faded sepia-tone photograph. Many of the big farms have turned into 10-acre hobby ranches. The salmon are in danger of disappearing. And even the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that harnessed rivers and irrigated the West, began saying a few years ago it would be better to just tear down the aging dam once and for all.

So they did.

On Friday, a platoon of bulldozers and earthmovers tore away at the last of the temporary earthen berms holding water behind the dam. The Rogue River rushed free, flowing through its historic channel for the first time since 1921.

For this one, fly fishermen tamed with environmentalists to pursue the deal that brought the dam down and that will, it’s hoped, turn the Rogue River once again into one of the best salmon fishing rivers in the West.