Following a typhoid outbreak due to the pollution of the Willamette River in 1913, the towns of Oregon City and West Linn were searching for a clean source of drinking water for their area. They found a suitable source nearly 30 miles away in the South Fork Clackamas River, and began constructing pipeline to carry water back to Oregon City in 1915. The project, which required blasting tunnels into the canyon walls, would originally start at the confluence of Melamoose Creek and South Fork Clackamas River but in the late 1930s it was expanded to reach to the top of Clackamas Falls. This required more tunneling and the construction of 2 bridges, and resulted in increased water pressure for the system overall. In 1985 the project was officially decommissioned, and has since been reclaimed by the forest. In 2013 a forest fire caused further damage to the area, resulting in burned trees and landslides.

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