Upper Colorado River Basin Area Report: A brief discussion of the past and future of the Green River sub-basin

Authors: Trina N. Hedrick

Year: 2008 (xl)

Abstract

The Colorado River basin was the last large, unexplored area of the western United States. Though numerous explorers throughout the 1800’s attempted to navigate the Green River beginning at Green River, Wyoming, most were thwarted by its wildness. Until the late 1860’s, no one had ever mapped where the Grand and Green rivers met; no one had braved the waters of these rivers or the river resulting from their confluence, the Colorado. Some early hunters/trappers and 49ers did make it through Red, Lodore, and Split Mountain canyons, only to change their minds based on advice from the Ute Indian Tribe that lived along the Uinta (Duchesne) River in northeastern Utah. Only John Wesley Powell and his expedition of 1869 braved the river from the transcontinental railroad in Wyoming through the Grand Canyon. From this expedition, the United States received its first detailed map of the Green River, the confluence of the Green and Grand rivers, and the path of the Colorado River as it flowed into the Arizona Territory. We also received a very wise notion from Powell based on observations from his numerous trips to the West that this area could not be settled as the eastern United States had been. Unlimited development could not be a reality due to water limitations; agricultural lands would always need irrigation water to be productive. And while many people respected and admired Powell after his Colorado River expeditions, this advice went essentially unheeded by a nation more interested in Manifest Destiny. Even before Powell’s expedition, water development within the Green River sub basin had already begun. Development of the tributaries continues today, mainly for municipal and agricultural uses, but increasingly for industrial uses as well. As we look to the future, two prospects weigh heavily on the river, the lifeblood of this region: the fact that not all of the Upper Colorado River Basin states currently receive their full allotment of Colorado River water and the potential for oil shale extraction, a water-intensive industry, to become viable. The Upper Colorado River Basin is unique in numerous ways and much of what makes it so unique is tied to the water within its rivers. A greater understanding of the history of this region may help us to understand and prepare for its future.