Areas inundated by the dam include the Dalles des Morts or Death Rapids, which was the stretch of canyon just above the dam's location, and various small localities along the pre-inundation route of the Big Bend Highway, which was the original route of the Trans-Canada Highway until the building of its Rogers Pass section. Just below the dam was the location of La Porte, one of the boomtowns of the Big Bend Gold Rush and the head of river navigation via the Arrow Lakes and Columbia River from Marcus, Washington.