The river drains a vast arid and semiarid sector of the North American continent, and because of its intensive development it is often referred to as the “Lifeline of the Southwest.”. [273] Reservoir levels were low enough at the beginning of water year 2014 that the Bureau of Reclamation cut releases from Lake Powell by 750,000 acre feet (930,000,000 m3)—the first such reduction since the 1960s, when Lake Powell was being filled for the first time. Altogether, there are over 7,500 miles of creeks, streams, and rivers in our basin, and well over 2 mill… Central Arizona initially relied on the Gila River and its tributaries through projects such as the Theodore Roosevelt and Coolidge Dams – completed in 1911 and 1928, respectively. In 1540, Hernando de Alarcón sailed up the Colorado and Gila Rivers; maps drawn by his expedition show the river as the Miraflores or Brazos de la Miraflores. [297] Hiking, backpacking, camping, skiing, and fishing are among the multiple recreation opportunities offered by these areas. Running low on food he turned back. At over 800 miles long, the Texas Colorado River is one of the longest rivers to start and end in the same state. [139] Other water projects include the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, authorized in 1962 for the irrigation of lands in part of the Navajo Nation in north-central New Mexico. [147] The name Buenaventura was given to the Green River by Silvestre Vélez de Escalante as early as 1776, but Escalante did not know that the Green drained to the Colorado. [14], Arcing northwest, the Colorado begins to cut across the eponymous Colorado Plateau, a vast area of high desert centered at the Four Corners of the southwestern United States. [21] Here, the San Juan River, carrying runoff from the southern slope of Colorado's San Juan Mountains, joins the Colorado from the east. [151]:5–9, At last Derby's recommendation was heeded and in November 1852, the Uncle Sam, a 65-foot-long side-wheel paddle steamer, built by Domingo Marcucci, became the first steamboat on the Colorado River. Various estimates place the time it would take for Powell to completely fill with silt at 300 to 700 years. Brower strongly believed that he was personally responsible for the failure to prevent Glen Canyon's flooding, calling it his "greatest mistake, greatest sin".[228][229]. Cut off from the ocean, the portion of the gulf north of the delta eventually evaporated and formed the Salton Sink, which reached about 260 feet (79 m) below sea level. [27] Below the dam the river passes under the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge—which at nearly 900 feet (270 m) above the water is the highest concrete arch bridge in the Western Hemisphere[28]—and then turns due south towards Mexico, defining the Arizona–Nevada and Arizona–California borders. Further south, the Colorado River basin borders on the Rio Grande drainage, which along with the Mississippi flows to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a series of endorheic (closed) drainage basins in southwestern New Mexico and extreme southeastern Arizona. [137] The four tribes now form a geopolitical body known as the Colorado River Indian Tribes. [69] Below this point, the remaining flow is diverted to irrigate the Mexicali Valley, leaving a dry riverbed from Morelos Dam to the sea that is supplemented by intermittent flows of irrigation drainage water. The Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, with every drop of its water fully allocated. In a desperate gamble to close the breach, crews of the Southern Pacific Railroad, whose tracks ran through the valley, attempted to dam the Colorado above the canal, only to see their work demolished by a flash flood. [298] The Colorado's major reservoirs are also heavily traveled summer destinations. In the lower Colorado mining was the primary spur to economic development, copper mining in southwestern New Mexico Territory the 1850s then the Mohave War and a gold rush on the Gila River in 1859, the El Dorado Canyon Rush in 1860 and Colorado River Gold Rush in 1862. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not; Ah, well! The Colorado River is an approximately 862-mile long river in the U.S. state of Texas. The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River.It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.The river's source basin lies in the western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas River Valley, where the headwaters derive from the snowpack in the Sawatch and Mosquito mountain ranges. Coronado never reached the Gulf of California, and Alarcón eventually gave up and left. Ten Native American tribes in the basin now hold or continue to claim water rights to the Colorado River. Near Tucson, Arizona, "where now there is only powder-dry desert, the grass once reached as high as the head of a man on horse back". Whereas it once flowed into a large marshy area at the Gulf of California, today it literally disappears in the farmlands at the base of the Sierra de Juarez Mountains in Mexico. It turns south near Las Vegas, Nevada, forming the Arizona–Nevada border in Lake Mead and the Arizona–California border a few miles below D… Poling the barges up the Colorado, the first barge sank with its cargo a total loss. With a capacity of over 26,000 cubic feet per second (740 m3/s), the All-American is the largest irrigation canal in the world,[214] supplying water to 500,000 acres (2,000 km2) of California's Imperial Valley. Smith called the Colorado the "Seedskeedee", as the Green River in Wyoming was known to fur trappers, correctly believing it to be a continuation of the Green and not a separate river as others believed under the Buenaventura myth. [151] :16–17,19[157] As he returned he encountered Lieutenant Ives, Whipple's assistant, who was leading an expedition to explore the feasibility of using the Colorado River as a navigation route in the Southwest. The company largely escaped the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution (1910–20), but in the postrevolutionary period, the Mexican government expropriated the company's land to satisfy the demand for land reform. The Yellowstone River winds its way through Yellowstone National Park, including sections with crashing waterfalls and areas of calm, lazy flow. Dams trapping sediment not only pose damage to river habitat but also threaten future operations of the Colorado River reservoir system. [141], During the 16th century, the Spanish began to explore and colonize western North America. Southwest of there, the northern divide of the Colorado watershed skirts the edge of the Great Basin, bordering on the closed drainage basins of the Great Salt Lake and the Sevier River in central Utah, and other closed basins in southern Utah and Nevada. Powell’s account combines vivid descriptions of geologic formations, rapids, and Indian cultures. [242] In 2013, the Bureau of Reclamation estimated that around $32 million was spent each year to prevent around 1.2 million tons of salt from entering and damaging the Colorado River. [270] Despite above-average runoff in 2011 that raised the immense reservoir more than 30 feet (9.1 m),[271][272] record drought conditions returned in 2012 and 2013. Next morning he to steamed up through the rapids in Boulder Canyon to reach the mouth of the Virgin River at Rioville July 8, 1879. [106] Another notable early group was the Fremont culture, whose peoples inhabited the Colorado Plateau from 2,000 to 700 years ago. During the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, environmental organizations vowed to block any further development of the river, and a number of later dam and aqueduct proposals were defeated by citizen opposition. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. [148] John C. Frémont's 1843 Great Basin expedition proved that no river traversed the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada, officially debunking the Buenaventura myth. Physical features of western North America. In time, flash floods caused significant downcutting on irrigation canals, which in turn led to the entrenchment of the original streams into arroyos, making agriculture difficult. On August 28, 1869, three men deserted the expedition, convinced that they could not possibly survive the trip through the Grand Canyon. Evidence shows that humans began living in the Rockies sometime between 10,000 and 8,000 BCE. 2434x1405 … Also, in 1866, a steamboat landing was established at Callville, intended as an outlet to the Pacific Ocean via the Colorado River, for Mormon settlements in the Great Basin. There it was reassembled at a landing in the upper tidewater of the river and reached Fort Yuma, January 18, 1854. [97] As the Colorado Plateau continued to rise between 5 and 2.5 million years ago, the river maintained its ancestral course (as an antecedent stream) and began to cut the Grand Canyon. American explorers collected valuable information that was later used to develop the river for navigation and water supply. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [176], Gold strikes from the mid-19th to early 20th centuries played a major role in attracting settlers to the upper Colorado River basin. The Colorado River originates south of Lubbock, on the Llano Estacado near Lamesa.It flows generally southeast out of the Llano Estacado and through the Texas Hill Country, then through several reservoirs including Lake J.B. Thomas, E.V. The Colorado River Land Company, formed by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler, his father-in-law Harrison Gray Otis, and others, developed the Mexicali Valley in Baja California as a thriving land company. Agricultural and urban growth in Arizona eventually outstripped the capacity of local rivers; these concerns were reflected in the creation of a Pacific Southwest Water Plan in the 1950s, which aimed to build a project that would permit Arizona to fully utilize its 2.8-million-acre-foot (3.5 km3) allotment of the river. Large-scale settlement of the lower basin began in the mid- to late-19th century, with steamboats providing transportation from the Gulf of California to landings along the river that linked to wagon roads to the interior. [92], As recently as the Cretaceous period about 100 million years ago, much of western North America was still part of the Pacific Ocean. While our area is known for its family-oriented raft trip on the Fisher Towers section of the Colorado River (The Moab Daily), people also enjoy canoes, kayaks and paddle boards to explore the calm water segments of the Colorado. Up in central north Colorado rests North Park (Colorado basin), a valley ringed by 12,000 feet (3,700 m) mountains.The headwaters of the river is essentially all of Jackson County, Colorado whose boundaries are the continental divide on the west and south and the mountain drainage peaks on the east—the north boundary is the state of Wyoming boundary. Since John Wesley Powell’s epic exploratory voyage in 1869, the lore of the Colorado River has risen in a way that rivals the coursing current itself. [36] A large estuary is formed here before the Colorado empties into the Gulf about 75 miles (120 km) south of Yuma. 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