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148-917: The history of the Colorado River District is described in Water Wranglers: The 75-Year History of the Colorado River District: A Story about the Embattled Colorado River and the Growth of the West. The book details the often contentious nature of water development in Colorado. It is a familiar story that has been told throughout the arid west: those needing water supplies often resorted to water exporting project that moved water great distances from

296-479: A division of Pueblo peoples into two groups based on culture. The Hopi , Zuni , Keres and Jemez each have matrilineal kinship systems: children are considered born into their mother's clan and must marry a spouse outside it, an exogamous practice. They maintain multiple kivas for sacred ceremonies. Their creation story tells that humans emerged from the underground. They emphasize four or six cardinal directions as part of their sacred cosmology, beginning in

444-464: A few decades before collapsing or being washed away. Failure of the lava dams caused by erosion, leaks and cavitation caused catastrophic floods, which may have been some of the largest ever to occur in North America, rivaling the late- Pleistocene Missoula Floods of the northwestern United States. Mapping of flood deposits indicate that crests as high as 700 feet (210 m) passed through

592-524: A few notable exceptions, such as the Blackrocks reach where the river is nearly 100 feet (30 m) deep. In a few areas, such as the marshy Kawuneeche Valley near the headwaters and the Grand Valley, it exhibits braided characteristics. From Grand Junction, the Colorado turns northwest before cutting southwest across the eponymous Colorado Plateau , a vast area of high desert centered at

740-456: A form of prayer, and strict rules of conduct apply to those who wish to attend one (e.g. no clapping or walking across the dance area or between the dancers, singers, or drummers). Since time immemorial, Pueblo communities have celebrated seasonal cycles through prayer, song, and dance. These dances connect us to our ancestors, community, and traditions while honoring gifts from our Creator. They ensure that life continues and that connections to

888-516: A headwaters state and the responsibilities that come with it. In particular, the unequal distribution of water resources and population across the state and especially across the great continental divide was publicized. Since that time, drought and increasing competition for limited water resources has led to a critical public policy debate and raised the profile of the River District. In other words, because of geographical twist of fate, most of

1036-577: A large system of irrigation canals making use of the Salt River . Both civilizations supported large populations at their height, with 6,000–15,000 in Chaco Canyon and as many as 30,000–200,000 Hohokam. Puebloan and Hohokam settlements were abruptly abandoned in the 1400s CE, due both to over-exploitation of natural resources such as timber, and severe drought that made it impossible to maintain irrigation systems. Many Puebloans migrated east to

1184-659: A major archaeological dig in the 1990s in the Tucson Basin , along the Santa Cruz River , identified a culture and people that were ancestors of the Hohokam who might have occupied southern Arizona as early as 2000 BCE. This prehistoric group from the Early Agricultural Period grew corn, lived year-round in sedentary villages, and developed sophisticated irrigation canals from the beginning of

1332-752: A military advantage over Goshutes and Southern Paiutes that were slower to adopt horses. The Navajo also adopted a culture of livestock herding as they acquired sheep and goats from the Spanish. Juan Bautista de Anza in 1774 was the first Spaniard to reach Yuma Crossing, where he established friendly relations with the Quechan people and opened the Anza trail between Arizona and the California coast. The Spanish soon founded Mission Puerto de Purisima Concepcion and Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner along

1480-694: A mountain-building episode known as the Laramide orogeny . The Colorado River first formed as a west-flowing stream draining the southwestern portion of the range, and the uplift also diverted the Green River, once a tributary of the Mississippi River , west towards the Colorado. About 30 to 20 million years ago, volcanic activity related to the orogeny led to the Mid-Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up , which created smaller formations such as

1628-481: A route for a proposed railroad through the canyon, which was never built. We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats, tied to a common stake, are chafing each other, as they are tossed by the fretful river. They ride high and buoyant, for their loads are lighter than we could desire. We have but a month's rations remaining… The lighting of the boats has this advantage: they will ride

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1776-475: A series of international and US interstate treaties known as the " Law of the River ". The US federal government constructed most of the major dams and aqueducts between 1910 and 1970; the largest, Hoover Dam , was completed in 1935. Numerous water projects have also involved state and local governments. With all of their waters fully allocated, both the Colorado and the neighboring Rio Grande are now considered among

1924-490: A short run south, the river turns west below Grand Lake , the largest natural lake in the state. For the first 250 miles (400 km) of its course, the Colorado carves its way through the mountainous Western Slope , a sparsely populated region defined by the portion of the state west of the Continental Divide . As it flows southwest, it gains strength from many small tributaries, as well as larger ones including

2072-474: A significant distance from the river. The Puebloan people built many multi-story pueblos or "great houses", and developed complex distribution systems to supply drinking and irrigation water in Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico and Mesa Verde in southwest Colorado. The Hohokam , present in the modern Phoenix area since about 0 CE, experienced prolific growth around 600-700 CE as they constructed

2220-420: A unique name in each of the different languages spoken in the area. The names used by each Pueblo to refer to their village ( endonyms ) usually differ from those given to them by outsiders (their exonyms ), including by speakers of other Puebloan languages. Centuries of trade and intermarriages between the groups are reflected in the names given to the same Pueblo in each of the languages. The table below contains

2368-629: A vast outlying region hundreds of miles away linked by transportation roadways. By about 700 to 900 CE, the Puebloans began to move away from ancient pit houses dug in cliffs and to construct connected rectangular rooms arranged in apartment-like structures made of adobe and adapted to sites. By 1050, they had developed planned villages composed of large terraced buildings, each with many rooms. These apartment-house villages were often constructed on defensive sites: on ledges of massive rock, on flat summits, or on steep-sided mesas, locations that would afford

2516-601: Is at Imperial Dam , where over 90 percent of the river's flow is moved into the Gila Gravity Canal and Yuma Area Project, and the much bigger All-American Canal to irrigate California's Imperial Valley , the most productive winter agricultural region in the United States. Below Imperial Dam, only a small portion of the Colorado River makes it beyond Yuma, Arizona , and the confluence with

2664-476: Is estimated at 14.7 million acre-feet (18.1 km ), or an annualized discharge of 20,300 cu ft/s (570 m /s), for the 1906–2023 period. River flows at the Lees Ferry stream gauge, about halfway along the length of the Colorado and 16 miles (26 km) below Glen Canyon Dam, are used to determine water allocations in the Colorado River basin. Flows originating above Lees Ferry represent

2812-541: Is evidence that maize was initially cultivated in the Southwest during a climatic period when precipitation was relatively high. The various Pueblo communities have different traditions regarding the making and decoration of pottery artifacts. Present-day archaeologists date the use of pottery by Puebloans dating back the early centuries of the Common Era. In Native communities of the Southwest's belief system,

2960-456: Is known for the stone and earth dwellings its people built along cliff walls, particularly during the Pueblo II and Pueblo III eras, from about 900 to 1350 CE in total. The best-preserved examples of the stone dwellings are now protected within United States' national parks , such as Navajo National Monument , Chaco Culture National Historical Park , Mesa Verde National Park , Canyons of

3108-608: Is laborious and time-consuming, every-day style of dress for working around the villages has been sparer. The men often wore breechcloths. Corn is the most readily recognizable staple food for Pueblo peoples. Although it is possible that different groups may have grown local plants such as gourds and chenopods at very early dates, the first evidence of maize cultivation in the Southwest dates from about 2100 BCE. Small, fairly undomesticated maize cobs have been found at five different sites in New Mexico and Arizona. Maize reached

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3256-796: Is now known as the Long Walk and while enduring appalling conditions at Fort Sumner. After the failure of the Army to maintain the reservation there, the Treaty of Bosque Redondo established the Navajo Nation in the Four Corners, where the Navajo were allowed to return in 1868. Gold and silver were also discovered in the Upper Basin, beginning with the 1859 Blue River strike that led to

3404-758: Is only 2–3 percent of the entire basin. Urban areas cover less than 1 percent. Climate in the Colorado River Basin ranges from subtropical hot desert at southern, lower elevations to alpine in the Rocky Mountains. Mean monthly high temperatures are 25.3 °C (77.5 °F) in the Upper Basin and 33.4 °C (92.1 °F) in the Lower Basin, and lows average −3.6 and 8.9 °C (25.5 and 48.0 °F), respectively. Annual precipitation averages 6.5 inches (164 mm), ranging from over 60 inches (1,500 mm) in some areas of

3552-589: Is owned by Union Pacific . As late as 1921, the Colorado River upstream from the confluence with the Green River in Utah was still known as the Grand River. For over a decade, U.S. Representative Edward T. Taylor of Colorado had petitioned the Congressional Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to rename the Grand River as the Colorado River. Representatives from Wyoming, Utah, and

3700-571: Is significantly more pronounced in the Lower Basin, where it has a strong impact on monsoonal rainfall. Runoff patterns across the Colorado River Basin reflect this; most of the perennial tributaries originate in the Upper Basin, while tributaries in the Lower Basin are either ephemeral (such as the Little Colorado River) or highly seasonal (such as the Gila and Salt rivers). As of 2010, approximately 13 million people lived within

3848-544: Is the second longest and drains a greater area than the Green, but has a significantly lower flow because of a more arid climate and larger diversions for irrigation and cities. Both the Gunnison and San Juan rivers, which derive most of their water from Rocky Mountains snowmelt, contribute more water than the Gila contributed naturally. The Colorado River Basin consists of 246,000 square miles (640,000 km ), making it

3996-735: Is unknown. The Grand River above the confluence with the Gunnison River was also called the Bunkara River, the Blue River, or the North Fork of the Grand River until the 1870s. By the early 1900s the name "Grand River" had been attached to the entire stream as far as Grand Lake, which was then considered its official source. Although the Grand River was renamed the Colorado in 1921, its name survives in numerous places such as Grand County and Grand Junction, Colorado. In 1848

4144-585: The Baja California – Sonora border. Since 1960, the stretch of the Colorado between here and the Gulf of California has been dry or a trickle formed by irrigation return flows. The Hardy River provides most of the flow into the Colorado River Delta , a vast alluvial floodplain covering about 3,000 square miles (7,800 km ) of northwestern Mexico. A large estuary is formed here before

4292-606: The Blue , Eagle and Roaring Fork rivers. After passing through De Beque Canyon , the Colorado emerges from the Rockies into the Grand Valley , a major farming and ranching region where it meets one of its largest tributaries, the Gunnison River , at Grand Junction . Most of the upper river is a swift whitewater stream ranging from 200 to 500 feet (60 to 150 m) wide, the depth ranging from 6 to 30 feet (2 to 9 m), with

4440-535: The Chaco Canyon and Mesa Verde regions of the Four Corners area. Archeological evidence suggests that people partaking in the Mogollon culture /moʊɡəˈjoʊn/ were initially foragers who augmented their subsistence through the development of farming. Around the first millennium CE farming became the main means to obtain food. Water control features are common among Mimbres branch sites which date from

4588-611: The Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona and deposited massive amounts of volcanic ash and debris over the watershed. The Colorado Plateau first began to rise during the Eocene , between about 55 and 34 million years ago, but did not attain its present height until about 5 million years ago, about when the Colorado River established its present course into the Gulf of California. The time scale and sequence over which

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4736-652: The Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona – Nevada border, where it turns south toward the international border . After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora . Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven U.S. National Parks ,

4884-659: The Colorado River Indian Tribes . As the American frontier expanded into the Colorado Plateau, an effort to expel the Navajo from the Four Corners region was begun by General James Henry Carleton , who in 1864 enlisted mountain man Kit Carson to lead a campaign against the Navajo. Carson, with the help of the Navajo's Ute enemies, captured more than 8,000 Navajo and forcibly marched them to Fort Sumner , New Mexico. Hundreds died during what

5032-658: The Coronado Expedition in 1540–41, which temporarily halted Spanish advances in present-day New Mexico. The 17th century's revolt was a direct consequence of growing discontent among the Northern Pueblos against the abuses by the Spaniards, which finally brewed into a large organized uprising against European colonizers. The events that led to the Pueblo Revolt go back at least a decade before

5180-567: The Four Corners of the southwestern United States. Here, the climate becomes significantly drier than that in the Rocky Mountains, and the river becomes entrenched in progressively deeper gorges of bare rock, beginning with Ruby Canyon and then Westwater Canyon as it enters Utah , now once again heading southwest. Farther downstream it receives the Dolores River and defines the southern border of Arches National Park , before passing Moab and flowing through "The Portal", where it exits

5328-556: The Fremont culture period (0–1300 CE). The Ancient Puebloan culture, also known as Anasazi or Hisatsinom, were descended from the Desert Archaic culture and became established in the Four Corners region around 1000 CE. While there is much evidence of ancient habitation along the Colorado River, including stone dwellings, petroglyphs and pottery in places such as Glen Canyon, the first major agriculture-based societies arose

5476-799: The Grand Mesa ; the Weenuchiu lived along the San Juan River, and the Parianuche and Yamparika lived in the Yampa, White and Duchesne River valleys. The Ute ranged as far as the river’s headwaters; one Ute story recounts a battle with the Arapaho at Grand Lake, which they believe still hosts the spirits of the deceased. Starting in the 1500s, the Spanish began to explore and colonize western North America. Francisco de Ulloa may have been

5624-627: The Great Salt Lake and Sevier Lake watersheds. To the south, the Colorado River Basin borders several watersheds in Mexico draining into the Gulf of California, including the Sonoyta , Concepción , and Yaqui rivers. Much of the basin is at high elevation; the mean elevation is 5,500 feet (1,700 m). Lees Ferry, more than halfway along the Colorado River from its source, is 3,150 feet (960 m) above sea level. The highest point in

5772-627: The Mogollon Rim in central Arizona. These high plateaus and escarpments, often exceeding 9,000 feet (2,700 m) in elevation, form the northern and southern edges of the Colorado Plateau geological province. Developed land use in the basin is mostly irrigated agriculture, chiefly in the Grand Valley , the Lower Colorado River Valley , and the Salt River Valley , but the total area of crop and pasture land

5920-531: The Monterey submarine canyon . Crustal extension in the Basin and Range Province began about 20 million years ago and the modern Sierra Nevada began forming about 10 million years ago, eventually diverting the Colorado southwards towards the Gulf. 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

6068-551: The Navajo settled in the Colorado Basin after the 1000s. In the 1500s, Spanish explorers began mapping and claiming the watershed, which became part of Mexico upon winning its independence from Spain in 1821. Even after most of the watershed became US territory in 1846, much of the river's course remained unknown. Several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century—one of which, led by John Wesley Powell ,

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6216-465: The Rio Grande ) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico . The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river, the 5th longest in the United States , drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states. The name Colorado derives from the Spanish language for "colored reddish" due to its heavy silt load. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado , it flows generally southwest across

6364-427: The Southern Paiute ) and the Kumeyaay inhabited the desert to the river’s west. Those living along the lower Colorado River depended more on fishing and floodplain agriculture than on irrigation, and mostly did not live in permanent settlements. The site of modern-day Yuma has been an important river crossing since ancient times, as the channel here is much narrower compared to the expansive, swampy river bottoms to

6512-418: The United States Geological Survey objected, noting that the Green River was longer and drained a larger area. Taylor argued that the Grand River should be considered the main stream, as it carried the larger volume of water. Taylor felt “slighted” that the Colorado River, as named, did not begin in the state of Colorado, and “he wasn’t going to let Utah or Wyoming lay claim to the river’s headwaters, despite

6660-529: The ancestral Puebloans . The term Anasazi is sometimes used to refer to ancestral Pueblo people, but it is now largely avoided. Anasazi is a Navajo word that means Ancient Ones or Ancient Enemy , hence Pueblo peoples' rejection of it (see exonym ). Pueblo is a Spanish term for "village". When Spanish conquest of the Americas began in the 16th-century with the founding of Nuevo México , they came across complex, multistory villages built of adobe , stone and other local materials. New Mexico contains

6808-455: The archetypal deities appear as visionary beings who bring blessings and receive love. A vast collection of religious stories explore the relationships among people and nature, including plants and animals. Spider Grandmother and kachina spirits figure prominently in some myths. Puebloan peoples in the 16th century believed in Katsina spirits. Katsinas are supernatural beings who are representatives of Pueblo ancestors. They live for half

6956-520: The 10th through 12th centuries CE. The nature and density of Mogollon residential villages changed through time; the earliest Mogollon villages were small hamlets composed of several pithouses , houses excavated into the ground surface with a stick and thatch roofs supported by a network of posts and beams, and faced on the exterior with earth. Village sizes increased over time so that by the 11th century CE villages composed of ground level dwellings of rock and earth walls and wooden beam-supported roofs were

7104-441: The 13th century, Puebloans used turkey feather blankets for warmth. Most of the Pueblos hold annual sacred ceremonies, some of which are now open to the public. Religious ceremonies usually feature traditional dances that are held outdoors in the large common areas and courtyards, which are accompanied by singing and drumming. Unlike kiva ceremonies, traditional dances may be open to non-Puebloans. Traditional dances are considered

7252-466: The 1500s. Navajo Mountain and Rainbow Bridge in the Glen Canyon area came to hold particular religious significance for the Navajo, and the nearby confluence of the Colorado and San Juan River is regarded as the birthplace of clouds and rain. The Ute also became established in the Colorado Plateau around 1500 CE, although they had inhabited more northerly parts of the Colorado basin (modern Wyoming and northern Colorado) since at least 0 CE. They are

7400-404: The 21st century, some 75,000 Pueblo people live predominantly in New Mexico and Arizona, but also in Texas and elsewhere. Despite various similarities in cultural and religious practices, scholars have proposed divisions of contemporary Pueblos into smaller groups based on linguistic and individual manifestations of the broader Puebloan culture. The clearest division between Puebloans relates to

7548-509: The Ancients National Monument , Aztec Ruins National Monument , Bandelier National Monument , Hovenweep National Monument , and Canyon de Chelly National Monument . These villages were accessible only by rope or through rock climbing. However, the first Ancestral Puebloan homes and villages were based on the pit-house, a common feature in the Basketmaker periods. Villages consisted of apartment-like complexes and structures made from stone, adobe mud, and other local materials, or were carved into

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7696-428: The Apache, Governor Treviño was forced to release the prisoners. Among those released was an Ohkay Owingeh Tewa man named Popé . After being released, Popé took up residence in Taos Pueblo far from the capital of Santa Fe and spent the next five years seeking support for a revolt among the 46 Pueblo villages. He was able to gain the support of the Northern Tiwa , Tewa , Towa , Tano , and Keres -speaking Pueblos of

7844-562: The Arizona–Nevada and Arizona– California borders. After leaving the confines of the Black Canyon , the river emerges from the Colorado Plateau into the Lower Colorado River Valley (LCRV), a desert region dependent on irrigation agriculture and tourism and also home to several major Indian reservations . The river widens here to a broad, moderately deep waterway averaging 500 to 1,000 feet (150 to 300 m) wide and reaching up to 0.25 miles (400 m) across, with depths ranging from 8 to 60 feet (2 to 20 m). Before channelization of

7992-410: The Army had driven out the remaining pockets of Ute resistance on the Western Slope, officially opening the Grand River country to settlement, and the town of Grand Junction was incorporated a year later. The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) quickly expanded into this area to serve mining boomtowns, crossing the Rockies to the south via the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River . By 1883

8140-435: The Colorado River Basin is 14,321-foot (4,365 m) Uncompahgre Peak in Colorado's San Juan Mountains , while some water from the river drains via irrigation run-off into California's Salton Sea , 236 feet (72 m) below sea level. About 72 percent of the Colorado River Basin is classified as arid, with the Sonoran and Mojave deserts covering the southern portion and the Colorado Plateau encompassing much of

8288-401: The Colorado River Basin. Other significant cities include Tucson, Arizona , St. George, Utah and Flagstaff, Arizona . Due to the rugged and inhospitable topography through which the river flows, there are only a few major towns along the Colorado River itself, including Grand Junction, Colorado and Yuma, Arizona . The unimpaired annual runoff of the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, Arizona

8436-408: The Colorado River Delta almost entirely dry except for small amounts of agricultural wastewater. As recently as the Cretaceous period about 100 million years ago, much of western North America was still part of the Pacific Ocean . Tectonic forces from the collision of the Farallon Plate with the North American Plate pushed up the Rocky Mountains between 50 and 75 million years ago in

8584-549: The Colorado River Delta prior to the early 20th century. Up to 90 percent of the river's flow originates as snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains and other smaller mountain ranges of the Colorado Plateau. Natural seasonal flows at its mouth varied widely, often exceeding 100,000 cu ft/s (2,800 m /s) in the spring melt and falling as low as 2,500 cu ft/s (71 m /s) in winter. Snowmelt typically begins in April, peaks in May or June, and can extend into August in wet years. Monsoon rainstorms often occur in

8732-405: The Colorado River Delta, the basin extends into Sonora at a few locations further east, including the headwaters of the Santa Cruz River and San Pedro River (both tributaries of the Gila River). For hydrological management purposes, the Colorado River Basin is divided into the Upper Basin (the drainage area above Lees Ferry), and the Lower Basin . The Upper Basin covers only 45 percent of

8880-419: The Colorado River and its tributaries are a vital source of water for 40 million people. An extensive system of dams , reservoirs, and aqueducts divert almost its entire flow for agricultural irrigation and urban water supply. Its large flow and steep gradient are used to generate hydroelectricity , meeting peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West . Intensive water consumption has dried up

9028-424: The Colorado River basin, while about 40 million people live in areas supplied by Colorado River water. Colorado River basin states are among the fastest-growing in the US; the population of Nevada alone increased by about 66 percent between 1990 and 2000 as Arizona grew by some 40 percent. Phoenix, Arizona , Las Vegas, Nevada and Mexicali, Baja California are the largest cities by population within

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9176-425: The Colorado River near the junction with the Dolores River , naming the larger river “Rio San Rafael”. They later forded the Colorado in southeastern Utah at Crossing of the Fathers , now submerged in Lake Powell. In the 1820s, American fur trappers along the upper Green River in Wyoming (known to them as the "Seedskeedee" or variants thereof), seeking a route to export furs to the coast, surmised that this and what

9324-485: The Colorado empties into the Gulf about 75 miles (120 km) south of Yuma. Occasionally the International Boundary and Water Commission allows a springtime pulse flow to recharge the delta. Before 20th-century development dewatered the lower Colorado, a major tidal bore was present in the delta and estuary; the first historical record was made by the Croatian missionary in Spanish service Father Ferdinand Konščak on July 18, 1746. During spring tide conditions,

9472-416: The Colorado enters Cataract Canyon , named for its dangerous rapids, and then Glen Canyon , known for its arches and erosion-sculpted Navajo sandstone formations. Here, the San Juan River , carrying runoff from the southern slope of Colorado's San Juan Mountains , joins the Colorado from the east. The Colorado then enters northern Arizona , where since the 1960s Glen Canyon Dam near Page has flooded

9620-434: The Colorado in the 20th century, the lower river was subject to frequent course changes caused by seasonal flow variations. Joseph C. Ives , who surveyed the lower river in 1861, wrote that "the shifting of the channel, the banks, the islands, the bars is so continual and rapid that a detailed description, derived from the experiences of one trip, would be found incorrect, not only during the subsequent year, but perhaps in

9768-400: The Continental Divide, but ran out of money before even reaching Utah. In 1931 the D&RGW completed the "Dotsero Cutoff" linking Glenwood Springs to the D&SL route at Bond, Colorado , finally completing the direct Denver–Salt Lake link with its acquisition of the bankrupt D&SL. The Gunnison River route was eventually abandoned in favor of the shorter Colorado River route, which today

9916-413: The Glen Canyon reach of the river, forming Lake Powell for hydroelectricity generation. In Arizona, the river passes Lee's Ferry , an important crossing for early explorers and settlers and since the early 20th century the principal point where Colorado River flows are measured for apportionment to the seven U.S. and two Mexican states in the basin. Downstream, the river enters Marble Canyon ,

10064-454: The Grand Canyon, reaching peak discharges as great as 17 million cubic feet per second (480,000 m /s). Small numbers of Paleo-Indians of the Clovis and Folsom cultures inhabited the Colorado Plateau as early as 10,000 BCE, with populations beginning to increase in the Desert Archaic period (6000 BCE–0 CE). While most early inhabitants were hunter-gatherers, evidence of agriculture, masonry dwellings and petroglyphs begins with

10212-412: The Grand Canyon. Antecedence played a major part in shaping other peculiar geographic features in the watershed, including the Dolores River's bisection of Paradox Valley in Colorado and the Green River's cut through the Uinta Mountains in Utah. Sediments carried from the plateau by the Colorado River created a vast delta made of more than 10,000 cubic miles (42,000 km ) of material that walled off

10360-412: The Grand Canyon. At least 13 lava dams were formed, the largest of which was more than 2,300 feet (700 m) high, backing the river up for nearly 500 miles (800 km) to present-day Moab, Utah. The lack of associated sediment deposits along this stretch of the Colorado River, which would have accumulated in the impounded lakes over time, suggests that most of these dams did not survive for more than

10508-412: The Lower Basin from August through October, contributing much of the flow in tributaries below Lees Ferry and often causing flash flooding . Since the initial closure of Hoover Dam in 1934, lower Colorado River flows have been greatly moderated, with monthly means below the dam ranging from 16,400 cu ft/s (460 m /s) in May to 11,200 cu ft/s (320 m /s) in October. Upstream of

10656-657: The Moab Valley between a pair of 1,000-foot (300 m) sandstone cliffs. In Utah, the Colorado flows primarily through the " slickrock " country, which is characterized by its narrow canyons and unique "folds" created by the tilting of sedimentary rock layers along faults. This is one of the most inaccessible regions of the continental United States. Below the confluence with the Green River , its largest tributary, in Canyonlands National Park ,

10804-645: The Pueblo Revolt, was unveiled in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. The statue was the second commissioned by the state of New Mexico for the National Statuary Hall Collection ; it was the 100th and last to be added to the collection. It was created by Cliff Fragua , a Puebloan from Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico . It is the only statue in the collection to be created by a Native American. In 1844 Josiah Gregg described

10952-523: The Puebloans protection from raiding parties originating from the north, such as the Comanche and Navajo . The largest of these villages, Pueblo Bonito in Chaco Canyon , New Mexico, contained around 700 rooms in five stories; it may have housed as many as 1000 persons. Pueblo buildings are constructed as complex apartments with numerous rooms, often built in strategic defensive positions. The most highly developed were large villages or pueblos situated at

11100-465: The Pueblos sent a knotted rope carried by a runner to the next Pueblo; the number of knots signified the number of days to wait before beginning the uprising. Finally, on 21 August, 2,500 Puebloan warriors took the colony's capital Santa Fe from Spanish control, killing many colonizers, the remainder of whom were successfully expelled. On 22 September 2005, the statue of Po'pay ( Popé ), the leader of

11248-575: The Rio Grande Valley, while others persisted in smaller settlements on the Colorado Plateau. Puebloan descendants include the Hopi , Zuni , Laguna and Acoma peoples of modern Arizona and New Mexico. O'odham peoples, including the Akimel O'odham (Pima) and Maricopa who continue to live in southern Arizona, are believed to be descended from the Hohokam. The lower Colorado River valley

11396-554: The Rio Grande Valley. The Pecos Pueblo, 50 miles east of the Rio Grande pledged its participation in the revolt as did the Zuni and Hopi , 120 and 200 miles respectively west of the Rio Grande. At the time, the Spanish population was of about 2,400 colonists, including mixed-blood mestizos , and Indian servants and retainers, who were scattered thinly throughout the region. Starting early on 10 August 1680, Popé and leaders of each of

11544-644: The Rockies to less than 4 inches (100 mm) in dry desert valleys. The Upper Basin generally receives snow and rain during the winter and early spring, while precipitation in the Lower Basin falls mainly during intense but infrequent summer thunderstorms brought on by the North American Monsoon . Precipitation is influenced by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) with El Niño being associated with wetter conditions and La Niña with drier conditions. The effect of ENSO

11692-535: The Rockies. Water diversions have effectively removed some tributaries entirely, including the Gila River, once the Colorado's largest tributary below Lees Ferry. Most Colorado River water is diverted in the United States, with only about 2.8 million acre-feet (3.5 km ) per year reaching Mexico since 1950. At Morelos Dam, the remaining flow is diverted to irrigate the Mexicali Valley, leaving

11840-535: The Spanish called the Colorado were in fact connected. William H. Ashley made an unsuccessful attempt to navigate from the Green River to the Colorado's mouth in 1825. In 1826, Jedediah Smith arrived at the lower Colorado River, referring to it as the Seedskeedee, and proceeded upstream, exploring as far as Black Canyon. During the 1830s, various fur trappers from Wyoming made it as far downstream as Cataract Canyon and Glen Canyon, but none were able to navigate

11988-495: The U.S. Army established Fort Yuma , creating the first permanent U.S. settlement along the river. This served as a military garrison and supply point for settlers headed to California along the Southern Emigrant Trail . Due to the arduous task of ferrying supplies overland, the schooner Invincible attempted to bring supplies up the river but was thwarted by the delta’s strong tides. Steamboats were brought to

12136-625: The Virgin River, enabled shipping of their produce by wagon to gold mining districts further south. Although the Mormons abandoned St. Thomas in 1871, a salt-mining industry persisted here, and steamboats operated up to nearby Rioville into the 1880s. In 1879 a group of Mormon settlers made their way to southeastern Utah, blasting the precarious Hole in the Rock Trail to cross the Colorado River at Glen Canyon, subsequently establishing

12284-643: The beginning of the Grand Canyon , passing under the Navajo Bridges on a now southward course. Below the confluence with the Little Colorado River , the river swings west into Granite Gorge, the most dramatic portion of the Grand Canyon, where the river cuts up to one mile (1.6 km) into the Colorado Plateau, exposing some of the oldest visible rocks on Earth, dating as long ago as 2 billion years. The 277 miles (446 km) of

12432-468: The central portion. The Colorado Plateau is home to most of the major canyon systems formed by the Colorado River and its tributaries, particularly those of the Green and San Juan rivers. About 23 percent of the basin is forest, with the largest area in the Rocky Mountains; other significant forested areas include the Kaibab , Aquarius , and Markagunt plateaus in southern Utah and northern Arizona, and

12580-432: The channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not; Ah, well! we may conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever; jests are bandied about freely this morning; but to me the cheer is somber and the jests are ghastly. In 1858, gold was discovered on the Gila River east of Yuma, then along the Colorado River at El Dorado Canyon, Nevada and La Paz, Arizona . As prospectors and settlers entered

12728-776: The common era to about the middle of the 15th century. Within a larger context, the Hohokam culture area inhabited a central trade position between the Patayan situated along with the Lower Colorado River and in southern California; the Trincheras of Sonora , Mexico; the Mogollon culture in eastern Arizona, southwest New Mexico, and northwest Chihuahua , Mexico; and the Ancestral Puebloans in northern Arizona, northern New Mexico, southwest Colorado, and southern Utah . The Ancestral Puebloan culture

12876-589: The community of Bluff . Due to the dry climate, these settlements depended heavily on irrigation. In central Arizona, settlers uncovered and re-established canals previously used by the Hohokam. Following tensions between Mormon settlers and the U.S. government in the Utah War , a local militia including John D. Lee perpetrated the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre , in which 120 non-Mormon settlers were killed. Fearing retribution, Lee moved in 1870 to

13024-454: The course of a week, or even a day." The LCRV is one of the most densely populated areas along the river, and there are numerous towns including Bullhead City, Arizona , Needles, California , and Lake Havasu City, Arizona . Here, several large diversions draw from the river, providing water for both local uses and distant regions including the Salt River Valley of Arizona and metropolitan Southern California . The last major U.S. diversion

13172-498: The currently inhabited Pueblos , Taos , San Ildefonso , Acoma , Zuni , and Hopi are some of the most commonly known. Pueblo people speak languages from four different language families , and each Pueblo is further divided culturally by kinship systems and agricultural practices, although all cultivate varieties of corn (maize). Pueblo peoples have lived in the American Southwest for millennia and descend from

13320-540: The dam is an integral component for management of the Colorado River, controlling floods and storing water for farms and cities in the lower Colorado River basin. 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 —and then turns due south towards Mexico, defining

13468-658: The east side of the divide drain into the Mississippi River and Rio Grande , while nearby areas north of the Wind River Range drain into the Columbia River . The western boundary of the Colorado River Basin is formed by various ranges and plateaus that border the Great Basin , including the Uinta Mountains and Wasatch Range . Major Great Basin watersheds bordering the Colorado River Basin are

13616-629: The emergence of people from underwater. They use five directions, beginning in the west. Their ritual numbers are based on multiples of three. Puebloan societies contain elements of three major cultures that dominated the Southwest United States region before European contact: the Mogollon culture , whose adherents occupied an area near Gila Wilderness ; the Hohokam culture ; and the Ancestral Pueblo culture who occupied

13764-668: The entire Rio Grande Pueblo area. The Spaniards had learned from the Pueblo Revolt and were gentler in their demands in the next century and a half. However, the Pueblos had learned as well and maintained their ceremonial life out of the view of the Spaniards, while adopting a veneer of Roman Catholicism. The public observances may also include a Roman Catholic Mass and processions on the Pueblo's feast day. Some Pueblos also hold sacred ceremonies around Christmas and at other Christian holidays. Although most present-day pueblos are known by their Spanish or anglicized Spanish name, each Pueblo has

13912-504: The fact that the Green River is the larger drainage basin.” On July 25, 1921, President Warren G. Harding signed House Joint Resolution 32 - “To change the name of the Grand River in Colorado and Utah to the Colorado River.” Puebloans The Puebloans , or Pueblo peoples , are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Among

14060-520: The ferry obsolete. The Denver and Salt Lake Railway (D&SL), incorporated in 1902, sought to provide a more direct connection between Denver and Salt Lake City than either the transcontinental railroad through Wyoming or the D&;RGW’s route via Black Canyon and Durango. The D&SL completed a rail line into the upper headwaters of the Colorado River and blasted the Moffat Tunnel under

14208-468: The first European to see the river, when in 1536 he sailed to the head of the Gulf of California. In 1540 García López de Cárdenas became the first European to see the Grand Canyon, during Coronado 's expedition to find the Seven Cities of Gold ("Cibola"). Cárdenas was apparently unimpressed with the canyon, greatly underestimating its size, and left in disappointment with no gold to be found. In

14356-408: The first known inhabitants of this part of the Rocky Mountains, and made use of an extensive network of trails crisscrossing the mountains to move between summer and winter camps. The Ute were divided into numerous bands with separate territories but shared a common language and customs. The Uncompahgre or Tabeguache lived around the confluence of the upper Colorado and Gunnison Rivers, an area including

14504-452: The first part of non-natives to travel the length of the Grand Canyon, and the first to successfully travel by boat from the upper Green River to the lower Colorado. Powell led a second expedition in 1871, with financial backing from the U.S. government, and continued to conduct geographical and botanical surveys across the region until the 1890s. Another Grand Canyon river expedition was led in 1889-1890 by Robert Brewster Stanton to survey

14652-576: The formal uprising began. In the 1670s, severe drought swept the region, which caused both a famine among the Pueblo and increased the frequency of raids by the Apache . Neither Spanish nor Pueblo soldiers were able to prevent the attacks by the Apache raiding parties. The unrest among the Pueblos came to a head in 1675, when Governor Juan Francisco Treviño ordered the arrest of forty-seven Pueblo medicine men and accused them of practicing sorcery . Four of

14800-582: The founding of Breckenridge, Colorado . Up until the 1860s, southwestern Colorado had remained relatively untouched by U.S. westward expansion, as the Americans had recognized Ute sovereignty by treaty. Following the 1861 carving out of Colorado Territory and further mineral strikes including Ouray and Telluride , Ute leaders were coerced into signing the 1873 Brunot Agreement , in which they lost rights to most of their land. A flood of mineral prospecting and settlement ensued in western Colorado. By 1881,

14948-485: The full length of the river. In 1843 John C. Frémont explored the Great Basin and conclusively determined no Buenaventura River flowed west to California; thus, the direction of river flow must be southwest. By the early 19th century, the stretch of the Colorado above the confluence of the Green River at Cataract Canyon , Utah, became known to fur trappers as the "Grand River", though the exact origin of this name

15096-481: The historic Pueblo people in The journal of a Santa Fé trader as follows: When these regions were first discovered it appears that the inhabitants lived in comfortable houses and cultivated the soil, as they have continued to do up to the present time. Indeed, they are now considered the best horticulturists in the country, furnishing most of the fruits and a large portion of the vegetable supplies that are to be found in

15244-536: The intermittent Gila River —which carries runoff from western New Mexico and most of Arizona–before defining 24 miles (39 km) of the Mexico–United States border . At Morelos Dam , the entire remaining flow of the Colorado is diverted to irrigate the Mexicali Valley , among Mexico's most fertile agricultural lands. Below San Luis Río Colorado , the Colorado passes entirely into Mexico, defining

15392-753: The land area of the Colorado River Basin, but contributes 92 percent of the runoff. The entire eastern boundary of the Colorado River Basin runs along the North American Continental Divide and is defined largely by the Rocky Mountains and the Rio Grande Basin . The Wind River Range in Wyoming marks the northern extent of the basin, and is separated from the Colorado Rockies by the endorheic Great Divide Basin in southwestern Wyoming. Streams that are nearby

15540-530: The languages they speak. Pueblo peoples speak languages from four distinct language families , which means these languages are completely different in vocabulary , grammar , and most other linguistic aspects. As a result, each Pueblo language is not easily understood by speakers of the other languages, with English now working as the lingua franca of the region. Anthropologists have studied Pueblo peoples extensively and published various classifications of their subdivisions. In 1950, Fred Russell Eggan contrasted

15688-654: The largest number of federally recognized Pueblo communities, though some Pueblo communities also live in Arizona and Texas and along the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers and their tributaries . Pueblo nations have maintained much of their traditional cultures, which center around agricultural practices, a tight-knit community revolving around family clans, and respect for tradition. Puebloans have been remarkably adept at preserving their culture and core religious beliefs, including developing syncretic Pueblo Christianity. Exact numbers of Pueblo peoples are unknown but, in

15836-491: The lower 100 miles (160 km) of the river, which has rarely reached the sea since the 1960s. Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years. Starting around 1 CE, large agriculture-based societies were established, but a combination of drought and poor land use practices led to their collapse in the 1300s. Their descendants include tribes such as the Puebloans , while others including

15984-513: The lower Colorado River. However, Spanish attempts to control the crossing led to the 1781 Yuma revolt, in which over 100 soldiers and colonists were killed, and the settlements were abandoned. The Quechan blocked foreigners’ use of the crossing until the arrival of American mountain men and fur trappers in the 1820s. The name Rio Colorado first appears in 1701, on the map "Paso por Tierra a la California" published by missionary Eusebio Kino , who also determined during that time that Baja California

16132-565: The majority of Colorado River runoff. Tributaries between there and Imperial Dam near the US–Mexico border contribute a further 1.1 million acre-feet (1.4 km ), and the Gila– Salt River system historically accounted for another 1.7 million acre-feet (2.1 km ). While much of this water was lost to evaporation in the deserts of the Lower Basin, anywhere from 10 to 20 million acre-feet (12 to 25 km ) per year reached

16280-486: The markets. They were until very lately the only people in New Mexico who cultivated the grape. They also maintain at the present time considerable herds of cattle, horses, etc. They are, in short, a remarkably sober and industrious race, conspicuous for morality and honesty, and very little given to quarreling or dissipation ... The Puebloans are traditional weavers of cloth and have used textiles, natural fibers , and animal hide in their cloth-making. Since woven clothing

16428-495: The massive Hoover and Glen Canyon Dams, inflows to Lake Powell still experience distinct spring highs and winter lows, though overall volumes have been reduced due to Upper Basin water diversions. Flow regimes in a few Upper Basin tributaries, such as the Yampa River , remain almost completely unaltered. By the 1950s, the Colorado delta was regularly drying up in fall and winter, though spring high flows often still made it to

16576-410: The medicine men were sentenced to death by hanging; three of those sentences were carried out, while the fourth prisoner committed suicide. The remaining men were publicly whipped and sentenced to prison. When the news of the killings and public humiliation reached Pueblo leaders, they moved in force to Santa Fe , where the prisoners were held. Because a large number of Spanish soldiers were away fighting

16724-569: The most controlled and litigated river systems in the world. Since 2000, extended drought has conflicted with increasing demands for Colorado River water, and the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy. The Colorado begins at La Poudre Pass in the Never Summer Mountains in Rocky Mountain National Park , 10,184 ft (3,104 m) above sea level. After

16872-500: The names of the New Mexican pueblos and Hopi using the official or practical orthographies of the languages. Despite not being a Puebloan language, Navajo names are also included due to prolonged contact between them and the several Pueblos. With the exception of Zuni, all Puebloan languages, as well as Navajo, are tonal . However, the tone is not usually shown in the spelling of these languages save for Navajo, Towa, and Tewa. In

17020-421: The norm. Cliff-dwellings became common during the 13th and 14th centuries. Hohokam is a term borrowed from the O'odham language , used to define an archaeological culture that relied on irrigation canals to water their crops since as early as the 9th century CE. Their irrigation system techniques allowed for its adherents to expand into the largest population in the Southwest by 1300. Archaeologists working at

17168-631: The north and south, and enabled the expansion of trade to the Pima and Maricopa in the east and coastal California tribes in the west. The Navajo (Diné) began migrating into the Colorado River Basin around 1000-1500 CE, and eventually exercised influence over much of the Colorado Plateau. Originally hunter-gatherers, they acquired knowledge of farming from the Puebloans and adopted a more sedentary lifestyle over time, making extensive use of irrigation in their settlements. The Navajo gradually displaced Hopi settlements as they expanded into northern Arizona after

17316-489: The north. Four and seven are numbers considered significant in their rituals and symbolism. In contrast, the Tanoan -speaking Puebloans (other than Jemez) have a patrilineal kinship system, with children considered born into their father's clan. They practice endogamy , or marriage within the clan. They have two kivas or two groups of kivas in their pueblos. Their belief system is based in dualism . Their creation story recounts

17464-524: The northernmost part of the gulf in approximately 1 million years. 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. Since then the river has changed course into the Salton Sink at least three times, transforming it into Lake Cahuilla , which at maximum size flooded up

17612-423: The ocean. After the initial closure of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963, these seasonal flows were almost completely eliminated, with the exception of a few very wet years, such as 1983–1987. In 1984, 16.5 million acre-feet (20.4 km ) of excess runoff reached the ocean. Flows have further declined due to evaporation from reservoirs and, particularly after 2000, reduced snowpack with warming winter temperatures in

17760-498: The past and future are reinforced. Traditionally, all outside visitors to a public dance would be offered a meal afterward in a Pueblo home. Because of the numerous outside tourists who have attended these dances in the pueblos since the late 20th century, such meals are now open to outsiders by personal invitation only. Private sacred ceremonies are conducted inside the kivas and only tribal members may participate according to specific rules pertaining to each Pueblo's religion. One of

17908-415: The people's existing traditional ceremonies. About the imposition of Christianity, Alfonso Ortiz , an Ohkay Owingeh anthropologist and Pueblo specialist states: The Spanish government demanded labor and tribute from the Pueblos and vigorously attempted to suppress native religion. (...) In that year [1692] Diego de Vargas re-entered Pueblo territory, though it was not until 1696 that he gained control over

18056-519: The peoples of the Eastern and Western Pueblos, based largely on their subsistence farming techniques. The Western or Desert Pueblos of the Zuni and Hopi specialize in dry farming , compared to the irrigation farmers of the Eastern or River Pueblos. Both groups cultivate mostly corn (maize), but squash and beans have also been staple Pueblo foods all around the region. In 1954, Paul Kirchhoff published

18204-461: The present-day Southwest via an unknown route from Mesoamerica (i.e., present-day Mexico) and was rapidly adopted by peoples in the region. One theory states that maize cultivation was carried northward from central Mexico by migrating farmers, most likely speakers of a Uto-Aztecan language. Another theory, more accepted among scholars, is that between 4300 BCE and 2100 BCE maize was diffused northward from group to group rather than by migrants. There

18352-584: The primary goals of Spanish colonists in the 17th century was to convert the Natives in New Spain to Christianity. Franciscan priests had prepared for a long process of conversion, building churches and missions all around Pueblo country. Some of the Pueblos' feast days are a product of that process. Feast days are held on the day sacred to its Roman Catholic patron saint , assigned by Spanish missionaries so that each Pueblo's feast day would coincide with one of

18500-462: The railroad had reached Grand Junction, and a spur up the Colorado to Glenwood Springs was completed in 1887. In Arizona and Utah Territories , many early settlers were Mormons fleeing religious persecution in the Midwest. Mormons founded agricultural colonies at Fort Santa Clara in 1855 and St. Thomas , now flooded under Lake Mead, in 1865. Stone's Ferry , crossing the Colorado at the mouth of

18648-572: The region, they became involved in skirmishes with the Mohave, spurring U.S. Army expeditions that culminated in the 1859 Battle of the Colorado River which concluded the Mohave War . In the 1870s the Mohave were moved to the Fort Mohave and Colorado River reservations. Chemehuevi and later some Hopi and Navajo peoples were also moved to the Colorado River reservation, where they today form

18796-466: The remote Pahreah Crossing in Arizona, where he took over a ferry first established in 1864 by Jacob Hamblin . This, the only river crossing for hundreds of miles not hemmed in by vertical canyon walls, became known as Lee's Ferry . While Lee was tried and subsequently executed in 1877, the ferry remained a major transportation link until the Navajo Bridge was completed nearby in 1928, rendering

18944-607: The revenue the tax hike generates will go towards keeping water on the Western Slope , protecting Western Slope ranchers' and farmers' water supply , protecting drinking water , and protecting fish, wildlife, and recreation. The agency is based in Glenwood Springs, Colorado . Colorado River Basin The Colorado River ( Spanish : Río Colorado ) is one of the principal rivers (along with

19092-454: The river that flow through the Grand Canyon are largely encompassed by Grand Canyon National Park and are known for their difficult whitewater, separated by pools that reach up to 110 feet (34 m) in depth. At the lower end of Grand Canyon, the Colorado widens into Lake Mead , the largest reservoir in the continental United States, formed by Hoover Dam on the border of Arizona and Nevada . Situated southeast of metropolitan Las Vegas ,

19240-612: The river's present course and the Grand Canyon were formed is uncertain. Before the Gulf of California was formed around 12 to 5 million years ago by faulting processes along the boundary of the North American and Pacific plates, the Colorado flowed west to an outlet on the Pacific Ocean—possibly Monterey Bay on the Central California coast, and may have played a role in the formation of

19388-528: The river's suitability as a navigation route, Ives remarked: "Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. It seems intended by nature that the Colorado River, along the greater portion of its lonely and majestic way, shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed." The last part of the Colorado River to be surveyed was the Grand Canyon itself. In 1869, John Wesley Powell with nine men set out on an expedition from Green River Station, Wyoming . They were

19536-573: The river, starting in 1852 with the sidewheeler Uncle Sam , whose first voyage from the Gulf to Yuma took fifteen days. Exploration by steamboat soon advanced upriver. In 1857, George A. Johnson in the General Jesup was able to reach Pyramid Canyon , over 300 miles (480 km) north of Fort Yuma. He was followed by Lt. Joseph Christmas Ives who used a specially built shallow-draft steamboat, Explorer , to reach Black Canyon , where Hoover Dam stands today. Having set out to determine

19684-464: The same year Melchior Díaz explored the Colorado River's delta and named it Rio del Tizon ("fire brand river"), after seeing a practice used by the local people for warming themselves. By the late 1500s or early 1600s, the Utes had acquired horses from the Spanish, and their use for hunting, trade and warfare soon became widespread among Utes and Navajo in the Colorado River basin. This conferred them

19832-519: The seventh largest drainage basin in North America. About 238,600 square miles (618,000 km ), or 97 percent of the basin, is in the United States. The basin extends into western Colorado and New Mexico, southwestern Wyoming , eastern and southern Utah, southeastern Nevada and California, and most of Arizona. The areas drained within Baja California and Sonora in Mexico are very small and do not contribute significant runoff. Aside from

19980-452: The sides of canyon walls. Design details from Ancestral Puebloan villages contain elements from cultures as far away as present-day Mexico. In their day, these ancient towns and cities were usually multistoried and multi-purposed buildings surrounding open plazas and viewsheds . They were occupied by hundreds to thousands of Ancestral Pueblo peoples. These population complexes hosted cultural and civic events and infrastructure that supported

20128-539: The source in the headwaters of the Colorado River Basin to feed farms and growing cities in the east, leaving less developed areas to the west with diminished water supplies. In 2012, Colorado water users marked the 75th anniversary of the River District (as well as Northern Water and the CWCB) and a public education campaign was initiated to raise public awareness about the critical importance of Colorado as

20276-405: The state's precipitation falls (generally as snow) high on the west side of the Continental Divide , and unfortunately the demand for those water resources come from the more populated areas on the drier, east side of the divide. In 2020, voters in the 15 counties that make up the district passed a property-tax increase to further support the district's operations. According to the district, 86% of

20424-586: The table above, a low tone is left unmarked in the orthography. Vowel nasalisation is shown by an ogonek diacritic below the vowel; ejective consonants are transcribed with an apostrophe following the consonant. Vowel length is shown either by doubling of the character or, in Zuni, by adding a colon. Pre-contact population size of the Puebloans was possibly as high as up to 313,000 people spread across at least 110 towns (pueblos), according to authors and sources such as Antonio de Espejo , Alonso de Benavides , Relacion del Suceso and Agustín de Vetancurt . By

20572-506: The tidal bore—locally called El Burro —formed in the estuary about Montague Island in Baja California and propagated upstream. The Colorado is joined by over 25 significant tributaries, of which the Green River is the largest by both length and discharge. The Green River takes drainage from the Wind River Range of west-central Wyoming, from Utah's Uinta Mountains , and from the Rockies of northwestern Colorado. The Gila River

20720-475: The town by sprinkling a handful of meal as he uttered a blessing. After the 1692 re-conquest, the Spanish were prevented from entering one town when they were met by a handful of men who uttered imprecations and cast a single pinch of a sacred substance. The Pueblo peoples used ritual 'prayer sticks', which were colorfully decorated with beads, fur, and feathers. These prayer sticks (or 'talking sticks') were similar to those used by other Native American nations. By

20868-478: The valley to present-day Indio, California . The lake took about 50 years to evaporate after the Colorado resumed flowing to the Gulf. The present-day Salton Sea can be considered the most recent incarnation of Lake Cahuilla, though on a much smaller scale. Between 1.8 million and 10,000 years ago, massive flows of basalt from the Uinkaret volcanic field in northern Arizona dammed the Colorado River within

21016-556: The very top of the mesas , the rocky tablelands typical to the Southwest. Before 1598, Spanish exploration of the present-day Pueblo areas was limited to several transitory groups. A group of colonizers led by Juan de Oñate arrived at the end of the 16th century as part of an apostolic mission to convert the Natives. Despite initial peaceful contact, Spain's attempts to dispose of the Pueblo religion and replace it with Catholicism became increasingly more aggressive, and were met with great resistance by Puebloans, whose governmental structure

21164-509: The waves better, and we shall have little to carry when we make a portage. We are three-quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks into insignificance, as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs, that rise to the world above; they are but puny ripples, and we but pigmies, running up and down the sands, or lost among the boulders. We have an unknown distance yet to run; an unknown river yet to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset

21312-420: The year in the underworld with the gods and spend the rest of the year with their descendants on earth. Katsinas have the power to take the form of clouds and bring rain for agricultural fields. They heal disease and also cause disease. Pueblo prayer included substances as well as words; one common prayer material was ground-up maize – white cornmeal . A man might bless his son, or some land, or

21460-539: Was a peninsula, not an island as previously believed. In the 1700s and early 1800s many Spanish and American explorers believed in the existence of a Buenaventura River that ran from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. In 1776, Silvestre Vélez de Escalante attached this name to the upper Green River, and a number of later maps showed this connecting to Lake Timpanogos (now Utah Lake ) and flowing west to California. The Dominguez–Escalante expedition first reached

21608-443: Was based around the figure of the cacique , a theocratic leader for both material and spiritual matters. Over the years, Spaniards' methods grew harsher, leading to a series of revolts by the Puebloans. The Pueblo Revolt that started in 1680 was the first led by a Native American group to successfully expel colonists from North America for a considerable number of years. It followed the successful Tiguex War led by Tiwas against

21756-783: Was inhabited for thousands of years by numerous tribes of the Patayan cultures, many of which belong to the Yuman-Cochimi language group . These include the Walapai , Havasupai and Yavapai in the Grand Canyon region; the Mohave , Halchidhoma , Quechan , and Halyikwamai along the Colorado River between Black Canyon and the Mexican border, and the Cocopah around the Colorado River Delta. The Chemehuevi (a branch of

21904-446: Was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. Large-scale settlement of the lower basin began in the mid- to late-1800s, with steamboats sailing from the Gulf of California to landings along the river that linked to wagon roads to the interior. Starting in the 1860s, gold and silver strikes drew prospectors to the upper Colorado River basin. Large-scale river management began in the early 1900s, with major guidelines established in

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