Everything about Green River Utah totally explained
The
Green River, located in the western
United States, is the chief tributary of the
Colorado River. The Green River itself is 730 mi (1,175 km) long. The
Green River Basin covers parts of
Wyoming,
Utah, and
Colorado. The
headwater of the river begins in the
Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, and flows through Utah for much of its course, draining the northeastern portion of the state while looping for 40 mi (64 km) into western
Colorado. Much of its route is through the
Colorado Plateau, some of the most spectacular
canyons in the
United States. It is only slightly smaller than the Colorado when the two rivers merge, but typically carries a larger load of silt. The average yearly mean flow of the river at
Green River, Utah is per second.
Description
It rises in western Wyoming, in northern
Sublette County, on the western side of the
continental divide in the
Bridger-Teton National Forest in the
Wind River Range. It flows south through Sublette County and western Wyoming in an area known as the Upper Green River Valley, then southwest and is joined by the
Big Sandy River in western
Sweetwater County. At the town of La Barge, it flows into Fontanelle Reservoir, formed by Fontanelle Dam. Below there, it flows through open sage covered rolling prairie where it's crossed by the old
Mormon Trail and then further south until it flows past the town of
Green River and into the
Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Southwestern Wyoming, formed by the
Flaming Gorge Dam in northeastern Utah.
South of the dam it flows eastward, looping around the eastern tip of the
Uinta Mountains going from Utah into northwestern Colorado and through
Browns Park before turning west and then south into
Dinosaur National Monument where it passes through the
Canyon of the Lodore (Otherwise known as the Gates of Lodore) and is joined by the
Yampa River at Steamboat Rock. It turns westward back into Utah along the southern edge of the Uintas in
Whirlpool Canyon. In Utah it meanders southwest across the
Yampa Plateau and through the
Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation and the
Ouray National Wildlife Refuge. Two miles south of
Ouray, Utah, it's joined by
Duchesne River, and three miles (5 km) downstream by the
White River. Ten miles farther downstream it's joined by the
Willow River.
South of the plateau, it's joined by the
Nine Mile River, then enters the
Roan Cliffs where it flows south through the back-to-back
Desolation and
Gray Canyons, with a combined length of 120 mi (192 km). In Gray Canyon, it's joined by the
Price River. South of the canyon it passes the town of
Green River, Utah and is joined by the
San Rafael River in southern
Emery County. In eastern
Wayne County it meanders through
Canyonlands National Park where it joins the Colorado.
The Flaming Gorge Dam in Utah is a significant regional source of water for irrigation and mining, as well as for hydroelectric power. Begun in the 1950s and finished in 1963, it was highly controversial and opposed by conservationists. Originally, a dam was to be built in
Whirlpool Canyon, but the conservationist movement traded the Flaming Gorge dam for halting that proposal. Apocryphally, the
Sierra Club, a not-for-profit environmental organization, lost its tax-exempt status for opposing the proposed dam.
The Green is a large, deep, powerful river. It ranges from 100 to 300 feet (30 to 100 m) wide in the upper course to 300 to wide in its lower course and ranges from 3 to 50 feet (1 to 15 m) in depth. It is navigable by small craft throughout its course and by large motorboats upstream to Flaming Gorge Dam.
History
Archaeological evidence indicates that the in the tributary canyons and in sheltered areas river valley were home to the
Fremont Culture, which flourished from the 7th century to the 13th century. The Fremont were a semi-nomadic people who lived in pithouses and are best known for the rock art on canyon walls and in sheltered overhangs.
In later centuries, the river basin was home to the
Shoshone and
Ute peoples, both nomadic hunters. The Shoshone inhabited the river valley the north of the Uintah Mountains, whereas the Utes lived to the south. The current reservation of the Utes is in the Uinta Basin. The
Shoshone called the river the
Seeds-kee-dee-Agie, meaning "Prairie Hen River."
In 1776, the Spanish friars
Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and
Francisco Atanasio Domínguez crossed the river, naming it the
Rio de San Buenaventura. The map-maker of the expedition, Captain
Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, erroneously indicated that the river drained the
Great Salt Lake into the
Pacific Ocean. Later Spanish and Mexican explorers adopted the Rio Verde, meaning "Green River" in
Spanish. The origin of the name "Green" is obscure but perhaps is based on the color of the water. The
Old Spanish Trail from
New Mexico to
California crossed the river just above the present-day town of Green River, Utah.
In the early 19th century, the upper river in Wyoming was part of the disputed
Oregon Country. It was explored by trappers from the
Hudson's Bay Company in 1819. In 1825, the American William Ashley and party of American explorers floated down the river from north of the Uintah Mountains to the mouth of the
White River. The valley of the river became increasing used as a wintering ground for American trappers in the next decades, with trading posts established at the mouth of the White near
Whiterocks, Utah, and in
Browns Park.
The region was explored by
John C. Fremont on several of his expeditions in the 1840s. Fremont corrected the cartographic error of Miera, establishing firmly that the river didn't drain the Great Salt Lake. In 1869, the river was surveyed and mapped by
John Wesley Powell as part of the first of his two expeditions to the region. During his two voyages in 1869 and 1871, he and his men gave most of the current names of the canyons, geographic features, and rapids along the river.
In 1878 the first permanent settlement in the river valley was founded at
Vernal by a party of
Mormons led by
Jeremiah Hatch. The settlement survived a
diphtheria epidemic its first winter, as well as a panic caused by the
Meeker Massacre in Colorado. The town is currently the largest in the Green River Valley.
Most of the land in the valley of the river today is owned and controlled by the federal government. Private holdings are largely limited to bottoms. Until the 1940s, the economy of valley was based largely on ranching. Tourism has emerged as the dominant industry in the region in the last several decades.
Natural resources
The discovery of
petroleum at the
Ashley Field after
World War II has led to the exploitation of oil and
natural gas in the region. The Green River Basin is said to have the largest fossil fuel deposits in the world, in the form of
oil shale. There is estimated to be between 500 billion and 1.1 trillion barrels (80 and 175 km³) of potentially recoverable oil in the basin.
The Green River Basin contains the world's largest known deposit of
trona ore near Green River, Wyoming.
Soda ash mining from trona veins 900 and 1600 feet (300 and 500 m) deep is a major industrial activity in the area, employing over 2000 persons at four mines. The mining operation is less expensive for production of soda ash in the United States than the synthetic
Solvay process, which predominates in the rest of the world.
The area has been mined for
uranium.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Green River Utah'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://green_river__utah.totallyexplained.com">Green River (Utah) Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
