| Green River Seeds-kee-dee-Agie | |
|---|---|
 The Green River nearCanyonlands National Park | |
 Green River watershed | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Wyoming,Colorado,Utah |
| Cities | Green River, Wyoming,Green River, Utah |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Wind River Range |
| • location | Wyoming |
| • coordinates | 43°09′13″N109°40′18″W / 43.15361°N 109.67167°W /43.15361; -109.67167[1] |
| Mouth | Colorado River |
• location | Canyonlands National Park,San Juan County,Utah |
• coordinates | 38°11′21″N109°53′07″W / 38.18917°N 109.88528°W /38.18917; -109.88528[1] |
| Length | 730 mi (1,170 km) |
| Basin size | 48,100 sq mi (125,000 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • location | Green River, Utah[2] |
| • average | 6,121 cu ft/s (173.3 m3/s)[2] |
| • minimum | 380 cu ft/s (11 m3/s) |
| • maximum | 68,100 cu ft/s (1,930 m3/s) |
| Basin features | |
| Tributaries | |
| • left | Blacks Fork,Henrys Fork,Duchesne River,Price River,San Rafael River |
| • right | New Fork River,Big Sandy River,Yampa River,White River |
| Type | Wild, Scenic, Recreational |
| Designated | March 12, 2019[3] |
TheGreen River, located in the western United States, is the chieftributary of theColorado River. Thewatershed of the river, known as theGreen River Basin, covers parts of the U.S. states ofWyoming,Utah, andColorado. The Green River is 730 miles (1,170 km) long, beginning in theWind River Range of Wyoming and flowing through Wyoming and Utah for most of its course, except for a short segment of 40 miles (64 km) in western Colorado. Much of the route traverses the aridColorado Plateau, where the river has carved some of the most spectacularcanyons in the United States. The Green is slightly smaller than Colorado when the two rivers merge but typically carries a larger load ofsilt. The average yearly mean flow of the river atGreen River, Utah is 6,121 cubic feet (173.3 m3) per second.[2]
The status of the Green River as a tributary of the Colorado River came about mainly for political reasons. In earlier nomenclature, the Colorado River began at its confluence with the Green River. Above the confluence, Colorado was called the Grand River. In 1921, U.S. RepresentativeEdward T. Taylor of Colorado petitioned theCongressional Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to rename the Grand River as the Colorado River. On July 25, 1921,PresidentWarren G. Harding signed House Joint Resolution 32 - To change the name of the Grand River in Colorado and Utah to the Colorado River,[4] over the objections of the congressional delegations of the states of Wyoming and Utah and theUnited States Geological Survey, which noted that the drainage basin of the Green River was more extensive than that of the Grand River,[5] although the Grand commonly carried a higher volume of water at its confluence with the Green.
The Green River is the subject of the song "Green River" byC.W. McCall.
Theheadwaters of the Green River is in western Wyoming, in northernSublette County, on the western side of theContinental Divide in theWind River Range and theBridger–Teton National Forest. 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 theBig Sandy River in westernSweetwater County. At the town of La Barge, it flows intoFontenelle Reservoir, formed by Fontenelle Dam. Below the dam, it flows through open sage-covered rolling prairie where it is crossed by theOregon,California andMormon emigration trails, and then further south past the town ofGreen River, Wyoming and into theFlaming Gorge Reservoir in southwestern Wyoming, formed by theFlaming Gorge Dam in northeastern Utah. Before the reservoir's creation, theBlacks Fork joined the Green River south of the town of Green River, but today the mouth of Blacks Fork is submerged by the reservoir.
South of the dam, it is forced to turn sharply eastward by the uplift of theUinta Mountains, looping around the eastern tip of the range as it travels from Utah into northwestern Colorado and throughBrowns Park before turning west and then south intoDinosaur National Monument, where it passes through theCanyon of the Lodore (otherwise known as the Gates of Lodore) and is joined by theYampa River atSteamboat Rock. It turns westward back into Utah along the southern edge of the Uintas inWhirlpool Canyon. In Utah, it meanders southwest across theYampa Plateau and through theUintah and Ouray Indian Reservation and theOuray National Wildlife Refuge. Two miles south ofOuray, Utah, it is joined by theDuchesne River, and three miles (5 km) farther downstream by theWhite River. Ten miles farther downstream, it is joined by theWillow River.
South of the plateau, it is joined byNine Mile Creek, then enters theRoan Cliffs where it flows south through the back-to-backDesolation andGray canyons, with a combined length of 120 mi (192 km). In Gray Canyon, it is joined by thePrice River. South of the canyon, it passes the town ofGreen River, Utah and is joined by theSan Rafael River in southernEmery County. In easternWayne County it meanders throughCanyonlands National Park, where it joins Colorado.[6]
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.
The Green is a large, deep, powerful river. It ranges from 100 to 300 feet (30 to 100 m) wide in the upper course and from 300 to 1,500 feet (91 to 457 m) wide in its lower course, and from 3 to 50 feet (0.91 to 15.24 m) in depth. It is navigable by small craft throughout its course and by large motorboats upstream to Flaming Gorge Dam. Near the areas where the Oregon Trail crosses the river, it is 400 to 500 feet (120 to 150 m) wide and averages about 20 feet (6.1 m) deep at normal flow.
Archaeological evidence indicates that the tributary canyons and sheltered areas in the river valley were home to theFremont Culture, which flourished from the 7th century to the 13th century. The Fremont were 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 theShoshone andUte peoples, both nomadic hunters. The Shoshone inhabited the river valley north of theUinta Mountains, whereas the Utes lived to the south. The current reservation of the Utes is in theUintah Basin. The Shoshone called the river theSeeds-kee-dee-Agie, meaning "Prairie Hen River."[7]
In 1776, the Spanish friarsSilvestre Vélez de Escalante andFrancisco Atanasio Domínguez crossed the river near present-day Jensen, naming it theRio de San Buenaventura. The map-maker of the expedition, CaptainBernardo Miera y Pacheco, erroneously indicated that the river flowed southwest to what is now known asSevier Lake. Later cartographers extended the error, representing the Buenaventura River as flowing into thePacific Ocean. At least one charted the Buenaventura as draining theGreat Salt Lake. Later, Spanish and Mexican explorers adopted the name Rio Verde, meaning "Green River" inSpanish. Exactly when the Spanish started using this name and why is unknown. Explanations of the name "Green" include ideas about the color of the water (though it is usually just as red as that of the Colorado), the color of soapstone along its banks, the color of the vegetation, and the name of a trapper. No explanation can be verified.[7] Wilson Hunt ofJohn Jacob Astor'sPacific Fur Company called it The Spanish River in 1811.[8] By that time it was clear to the trappers that Miera's map[9] (if they had seen it) was wrong, for they had learned from the Native Americans that the Green River drained to the Colorado River and theGulf of California. WhenJedediah Smith reached the lower Colorado in 1826, he first called it the Seedskeedee, as the Green/Colorado River was commonly known among the trappers. By the time of Bonneville's expedition in 1832, the names "Seeds-kee-dee", "Spanish River", "Green River", and even "Colorado River" were used interchangeably by the trappers and American explorers.[10]
While it was known that the Green River drained to Colorado, the exact course was not known. Miera's map showed the Colorado River branching into two major streams – the Nabajoo (San Juan) and the Zaguananas. It also showed the Zaguananas branching into four heads, including the Dolores and the Rafael (the latter of which Escalante's journal equates with Colorado per information from the Native Americans).[11] A map of 1847 redirects the course of the Rafael to the north and labels it as Green River.[12] It would be some time before the true confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers would be known.
TheOld Spanish Trail fromNew Mexico toCalifornia 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 disputedOregon Country. It was explored by trappers from theNorth West Company andHudson's Bay Company, such asDonald Mackenzie who pioneered the area from 1819. In 1825, the American William Ashley and a party of American explorers floated down the river from north of the Uintah Mountains to the mouth of theWhite River. The valley of the river became increasingly used as a wintering ground for American trappers in the next decades, with trading posts established at the mouth of the White nearWhiterocks, Utah, andBrowns Park. TheUpper Green River Rendezvous Site nearPinedale, Wyoming was a popular location for annualmountain manrendezvous during the 1820s and 1830s, with as many as 450 to 500 trappers attending during its heyday in the 1830s.
The region was explored byJohn C. Fremont on several of his expeditions in the 1840s. Fremont corrected the cartographic error of Miera, establishing firmly that the river did not drain the Great Salt Lake. In 1869, the river was surveyed and mapped byJohn 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. For example, "we sweep around another great bend to the left, making a circuit of nine miles, and come back to a point within 600 feet of the beginning of the bend. In the two circuits, we describe almost in figure 8. The men call it a `bowknot' of a river; so we name itBowknot Bend." (Powell, 1869)
From the 1840s through the 1860s, hundreds of thousands of emigrants made their way west along theOregon,California, andMormon emigration trails. Nearly all primary emigration routes had to cross the Green River. The main trail crossed near where theBig Sandy River joins the Green River in Wyoming. The river is too big and much too deep to ford at any time of the year and is the largest, most dangerous river crossed by the Oregon Trail. For that reason, ferries were commonly run on this stretch of the river. Some popular ferries included the Lombard and Robinson ferries at the main crossing and the Mormon, Mountain Man, and Names Hill ferries where the popularSublette-Greenwood cutoff crossed the river further upstream.
In 1878 the first permanent settlement in the river valley was founded atVernal by a party ofMormons led byJeremiah Hatch. The settlement survived adiphtheria epidemic its first winter, as well as a panic caused by theMeeker Massacre in Colorado.
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 valley's economy was based largely on ranching. Tourism has emerged as the dominant industry in the region in the last several decades.
A proposed nuclear power plant, theBlue Castle Project, is set to begin construction nearGreen River in 2023.[13] The plant will use 53,500 acre-feet (66,000,000 m3) of water annually from the Green River once both reactors are commissioned.
TheLa Barge oil field was discovered in 1924. Oil was produced fromTertiarysandstones (Wasatch Formation andGreen River Formation), within ananticline 600 to 1200 feet deep. TheBig Piney-La Barge complex has produced gas since 1956 and oil since 1960. Cumulative production by 1976 was 65 millionbbl of oil and over 1.2 Tcf (trillioncubic feet) of gas. Production includes theCretaceousMesaverde Formation andFrontier Formation.[14]
The discovery ofpetroleum at the Ashley Field afterWorld War II has led to the exploitation of oil andnatural gas in the region. The oil at Ashley Field is trapped in Aeolin deposits of "coversands and loess," while there is a larger deposit of oil shale in the Green River formation.[15][16] The Equity Oil Company currently has 17 wells in declining production of oil near Ashley Field and is looking to injectcarbon dioxide[17] into the Weber reservoir to increase the rate of oil flow through their pipelines.[18]
At the time of its discovery (2005), theGreen River Formation was said to have the world's largest fossil fuel deposits in the form of a solid rock resource called[19]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,[20] however; this estimated amount of recoverable oil in the form of kerogen is challenged, and in doubt, as currently there is no economically feasible technology to convert rock into a permeable oil. Kerogen is an uncooked form of hydrocarbon that nature did not convert into actual oil.[21]The cost of converting Green River oil shale into actual oil at the moment would be higher than what it could be sold for. The EROI for oil shale isvery low while having a very high destructive environmental impact.[22]
The Green River Basin contains the world's largest known deposit oftrona 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 the production of soda ash in the United States than the syntheticSolvay process, which predominates in the rest of the world.[citation needed]
The area has been mined foruranium.[citation needed]
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