The book, Clearwater Country characterizes Bruce's Eddy was a small backwater bay when the North Fork of the Clearwater still ran as a river. Nez Perce for centuries had fished for salmon and steelhead in the big eddy they called Te-mee-mup. The built a structure of poles wedged securely into the river rocks and extending across the river. The structure was a make shift dam. Shorter poles were together with cedar bark into wicker-like panels that allowed water to pass through, but held fish back. The men fashioned scaffolds and fishing platforms which projected over the water below the dam and fished with poles to which hand-made spears had been attached.

There was a large rock formation that ascended into the river at Bruce's Eddy (now the location of Dworshak Dam). There was a stone that had three horizontal lines carved into it which was used as a gauge to determine when to start building the trap or weir. The lines were about six to eight inches apart and about six to eight inches long, according to the book, Salmon and the People: Fish and Fishing in the Nez Perce Culture.

As part of Dworshak Dam's construction, Bruce's Eddy became an area for recreationists, particularly boaters accessing the lake from the ramp there.

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