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147-644: Lees Ferry (also known as Lee's Ferry , Lee Ferry , Little Colorado Station and Saints Ferry ) is a site on the Colorado River in Coconino County, Arizona in the United States , about 7.5 miles (12.1 km) southwest of Page and 9 miles (14 km) south of the Utah –Arizona state line. Due to its unique geography – the only place in hundreds of miles from which one can easily access

294-501: A dismal failure, and Spencer left, broke, in 1912. The steamboat sank in 1921 and now lies in pieces along the Colorado from Glen Canyon to below Lees Ferry. The ferry continued to run until 1928. In 1929 the first Navajo Bridge was completed at a location 4 miles (6.4 km) downstream and allowed for far more efficient road travel between Utah and Arizona. Somewhat ironically, the ferry was instrumental in transporting materials for

441-464: 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

588-524: 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

735-466: A focal point of American Southwest water disputes, and has been called "both the physical and spiritual heart of water history in the arid West". From the 1940s onward, Colorado River flows were found to average significantly less than what was allocated under the two treaties, and 21st century studies have postulated that the actual sustainable flow past Lees Ferry is between 13.5 and 14.7 million acre feet (16.7–18.1 km), creating water supply issues for

882-577: 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

1029-752: 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

1176-540: A military outpost for 19th-century settlements in Utah , a center of limited gold seeking and since the 1920s the principal point at which river flow is measured to determine water allocations in the 246,000-square-mile (640,000 km) Colorado River basin. Lees Ferry demarcates the boundary between the Upper and Lower Basins of the Colorado River; the states which make up each basin are legally allocated one-half of

1323-694: 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

1470-528: A native of Valle de Carriedo, Cantabria, Spain, lived in Chihuahua before he moved to El Paso in 1743. From 1754–56 he lived in Santa Fe. Multi-talented, he was an army engineer, merchant, Indian fighter, government agent, rancher and artist. It was his experience as a cartographer that made the expedition historic when he produced several maps of the expedition around 1778 and a report on the expedition, which

1617-736: A report that was highly critical of the administration of the New Mexico missions. His views caused him to fall out of favor with the Franciscans in power, leading him to an assignment to an obscure post at a Sonoran Desert mission in the Sonora y Sinaloa Province in northern Mexico. In 1777, Domínguez returned to Mexico and was the chaplain of presidios in Nueva Vizcaya. In 1800, he was at Janos, Sonora, Mexico. He died between 1803 and 1805. Fray Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante

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1764-546: A result of not being able to sustain themselves in the valley. John D. Lee , for whom Lees Ferry is now named, came to the crossing in 1870 with the goal of setting up a permanent ferry service for Mormon settlers heading south to Arizona. In 1857, Lee had taken part in the Mountain Meadows Massacre , in which a group of Mormons and Native Americans attacked a passing non-Mormon wagon train from Arkansas , killing about 120 people. The ill-conceived attack

1911-481: 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

2058-490: 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

2205-474: 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

2352-457: A way to cross the Colorado River. Their Native American guides told them of two regional fords of the river, one at the site of Lees Ferry and the other at Glen Canyon. When the explorers arrived at Lees Ferry in October, they found the river too wide and deep and had no choice but to head for the second ford more than 40 miles (60 km) upstream. Almost two weeks later they successfully crossed

2499-637: Is also mentioned as one of the stops in the film Stagecoach (1939) . Scenes from the movie Into the Wild (based on the book by Jon Krakauer ) were shot on location in 2006 at the Lees Ferry National Park Service Station, which featured actors Emile Hirsch as Christopher McCandless and Steven Wiig as the Lees Ferry Ranger, Steve Koehler. In the second season of "Here's Lucy" episode four 'Lucy runs

2646-537: 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

2793-587: Is considered the northernmost end of Grand Canyon National Park . It lies 689 miles (1,109 km) upstream of the Colorado's mouth at the Gulf of California , at the approximate halfway mark of the river's length. The surrounding valley formed because of a swell in the underlying rock of the Colorado Plateau that caused the regional elevation to intersect the Chinle and Moenkopi Formations, deposited in

2940-476: 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

3087-746: Is included in Herbert E. Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness: The Story of the Escalante Expedition to the Interior Basin . He is also known for his artwork, including a painting of St. Michael on an altar screen in Santa Fe's chapel of San Miguel and statuettes that were in the Zuni church. Fathers Domínguez and Escalante named three Timpanogos/Ute Native Americans who joined the expedition as guides: Other men who began

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3234-796: 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

3381-758: 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

3528-589: 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

3675-571: 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

3822-544: 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

3969-735: 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

4116-585: 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

4263-606: 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

4410-611: 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

4557-659: 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

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4704-627: 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

4851-556: 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

4998-564: The Grand Canyon . Lees Ferry is located in northern Arizona, at the point where the Paria River joins the Colorado from the north. Lying in an open valley directly downstream from Glen Canyon and shortly above Marble Canyon (the uppermost section of the Grand Canyon ), it is the only place in more than 260 miles (420 km) where the Colorado is not hemmed in by sheer canyon walls. This made it an important crossing point before

5145-799: 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

5292-627: 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

5439-478: The Intermountain West . Intensive water consumption has dried up 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

5586-627: 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

5733-531: 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

5880-546: 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

6027-452: The Triassic about 208–245 million years ago. This area contains sandstone , siltstone , shale and limestone formed by the sediments on ancient seabeds and later alluvial deposits made by the Colorado and Paria Rivers. Because these are more easily eroded than the rock layers that lie above and below them, the Colorado Plateau gradually slopes down to river level at Lees Ferry through a series of flat benchlands. In pre-Columbian times,

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6174-418: 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

6321-520: The Utah Valley near present-day Salt Lake City , and were looking for additional land. Although the river at Lee's Ferry is too deep to ford for most of the year, its relatively calm current presented an attractive site for crossing by boat. Jacob Hamblin successfully crossed the river here in 1864, and during the next few years the Mormon presence swelled to the scale of a small military outpost (Lee's Ferry Fort) in order to defend against Navajo raids. However, these works eventually fell into disrepair as

6468-420: The "lush, mountainous land filled with game and timber, strange ruins of stone cities and villages, and rivers showing signs of precious metals." Santa Rosa de Abiquiú, July 30 Mesa Verde, August 10 Father Fray Francisco Atanasio [Domínguez] awoke troubled by rheumatic fever which he felt in his face and head since the day before, and it was desirable that we make camp here until he should be better, but

6615-442: The 1300s. Their descendants include tribes such as the Puebloans , while others including 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

6762-466: 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

6909-420: The 18th-century Domínguez–Escalante expedition , an attempt to find an overland route through the Southwest between Spanish settlements in present-day New Mexico and California , and in the process, to convert as many Southwestern Native Americans as possible to Christianity. In late 1776, the party ran out of supplies in what is now southern Utah and having decided to turn back towards Santa Fe , had to find

7056-562: 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

7203-410: 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

7350-435: 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

7497-401: 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

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7644-408: 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

7791-549: 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

7938-405: 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

8085-424: 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

8232-403: The Colorado River from both sides – it historically served as an important river crossing and starting in the mid-19th century was the site of a ferry operated by John Doyle Lee , for whom it is named. Boat service at Lees Ferry continued for over 55 years before being superseded by a bridge in the early 20th century, which allowed for much more efficient automobile travel. Lees Ferry served as

8379-425: 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

8526-482: The Colorado and the neighboring Rio Grande are now considered among 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

8673-485: 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,

8820-416: 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

8967-434: 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

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9114-405: The Colorado in the mid-19th century—one of which, led by John Wesley Powell , 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

9261-400: 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

9408-413: 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 ,

9555-454: 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

9702-412: 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

9849-412: 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

9996-414: The Lees Ferry area was inhabited first by Paleo-Indians , who populated the region beginning about 11,500 years ago, followed by the Archaic culture , which appeared on the Colorado Plateau about 8,000 years ago. The Anasazi , Paiute and Navajo peoples, who left more evidence of habitation in the valley, arrived only in the last 1,000 years or so. Evidence, including the discovery of two ruins nearby on

10143-412: 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

10290-460: 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 ,

10437-415: The Paria River that allowed travelers to avoid the infamous Lee's Backbone segment. However, this route could not be used in the summer months due to dangerous high water levels from snowmelt. In 1879, the LDS Church bought the ferry and transferred its operation to Warren Marshall Johnson and his family. In 1896 the ferry was transferred to Jim Emett, who installed a cable across the Colorado River to reduce

10584-668: The Paria River, suggests that the Anasazi utilized the area sometime in the 12th century A.D. Nonetheless, indigenous peoples generally did not make extensive use of the Lees Ferry area and other canyon stretches of the Colorado River, preferring the open plains above for hunting. However, Lees Ferry did later become a disputed territory between the Navajos and Paiutes, who recognized it as a valuable livestock watering point. The first Europeans who happened upon Lees Ferry were members of

10731-630: 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

10878-644: 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

11025-535: 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

11172-535: 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

11319-479: 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 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

11466-495: 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

11613-471: The U.S. government and tried for his role in the massacre. Found guilty, he was executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows on March 28, 1877. He was the only participant in the massacre to be tried and executed out of the over fifty men who had participated. After Lee's death, his wife Emma continued to operate the ferry for two years, in 1878 establishing an alternative ferry route below the confluence of

11760-625: 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

11907-643: 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

12054-405: The bridge until June 1928, when the ferryboat capsized, drowning three men and dumping a Ford Model T . The ferry was never replaced, and the bridge was completed seven months later, relegating Lees Ferry from a crowded transportation hub to a quiet backwater. Since August 1921, Lees Ferry has been the site of a stream gage operated by the U.S. Geological Survey and has since accumulated one of

12201-468: 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

12348-432: 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

12495-556: The coast of modern day central California. Domínguez, Vélez de Escalante, and Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco , acting as the expedition's cartographer , traveled with ten men from Santa Fe through many unexplored portions of the American West , including present-day western Colorado, Utah, and northern Arizona. Along part of the journey, they were aided by three indigenous guides of the Timpanogos tribe ( Ute people ). The land

12642-589: 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

12789-451: The construction of Navajo and Glen Canyon Bridges in the 20th century. Here, the Colorado River is also much smoother and calmer than the stretches that lie above and below. In the past, another crossing was the former Glen Canyon reach, but it is now flooded under Lake Powell , formed by Glen Canyon Dam 16 miles (26 km) upstream. Lees Ferry is designated within the southwesternmost extreme of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and

12936-540: The construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1966. The filling of the resulting Lake Powell of 24.3 million acre feet (30.0 km) inundated the Crossing of the Fathers, Charles Spencer's old mining operation, and other historic landmarks of the area. Flood control at Glen Canyon also smoothed out the seasonal flux of the Colorado River that so beleaguered the ferry operations at Lees Ferry in the past. Lees Ferry has long been

13083-459: The continuous rains, the inclemency of the weather, and the great dampness of the place forced us to leave it. Going north, and having traveled a little more than half a league , we turned to the northwest, went on a league and then swung west through valleys of very beautiful timber and abundant pasturage, roses, and various other flowers. After going two leagues we were again caught in a very heavy rain. Father Fray Francisco Atanasio became worse and

13230-454: 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

13377-540: 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

13524-658: 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

13671-583: The expedition in Santa Fe include: The Domínguez–Escalante expedition was undertaken in 1776 with the purpose of finding a route across the largely unexplored continental interior from Santa Fe, New Mexico , to Spanish missions in Las Californias , such as the Spanish presidio at Monterey . On July 29, 1776, Atanasio Domínguez led the expedition from Santa Fe with fellow friar Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and cartographer Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco (Miera). The initial part of their journey followed

13818-510: The expedition. He died at the age of 30 in April 1780 in Parral, Mexico, during his return journey to Mexico City for medical treatment. Vélez de Escalante was known for his journal, in which he described the expeditions he went on. Escalante namesakes include Escalante Desert , Escalante River , Escalante (town) , Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument . Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco ,

13965-575: 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.” Dom%C3%ADnguez%E2%80%93Escalante expedition The Domínguez–Escalante Expedition was a Spanish journey of exploration conducted in 1776 by two Franciscan priests, Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante , to find an overland route from Santa Fe, New Mexico , to their Roman Catholic mission in Monterey , on

14112-520: 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

14259-468: 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

14406-408: 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

14553-452: 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

14700-619: The first written descriptions of the geography and people in the area that would later become the state of Utah . Yampa Plateau, September 11 Uinta National Forest, September 20 Utah Lake, September 23 Payson, September 26 Beaver River Valley, October 5 Mojave Desert, northwestern Arizona, October 16 Paria River, October 22 Crossing of the Fathers, Colorado River, October 26 – November 7 Northeastern Arizona, November 8–12 Pueblo of Oraybi, November 16 Northwestern New Mexico and Santa Fe, November 17 – January 2, 1777 The maps and information resulting from

14847-582: 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,

14994-485: 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

15141-459: The individual "basins" divided by an imaginary line at Lees Ferry. Total allocations, including a later 1944 treaty with Mexico guaranteeing that country most of the remaining water in the river, ran up to 16.5 million acre feet (20.3 km), which was believed to be the natural flow of the Colorado River based on early observations at Lees Ferry and other gages along the river. To fully utilize these allocations and prevent water from "wasting" to

15288-536: 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

15435-753: 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

15582-609: The longest such formation in the U.S. outside of Utah. Fishing is an especially important part of the local recreational use of Lees Ferry drawing thousands of anglers a year seeking large trout. In given year there are possible world record fish available in the Glen Canyon Dam area. Irvin Willat and a cast and crew of 200 people used Lees Ferry during the filming of The Heritage of the Desert , released in 1924. Lee's Ferry

15729-513: 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

15876-565: 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

16023-495: 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

16170-453: The most extensive streamflow records ever made in the United States. The river flow here is the principal factor in allocating water to the seven U.S. and two Mexican states in the Colorado River basin. The Colorado River Compact of 1922 apportioned an equal portion of the river's flow to the Upper Basin (the U.S. states of Colorado , New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and northern Arizona) and the Lower Basin (Arizona, California and Nevada ), with

16317-415: The nearby Paria Riffle may be made without special permit (other than a day use boating fee) and users may travel 16 miles (26 km) upstream on calm waters to the foot of Glen Canyon Dam . This reach of the Colorado River is also well known for its status as a Blue Ribbon fishery , thanks to releases of cold, clear water from Glen Canyon Dam that make conditions ideal for introduced rainbow trout . While

16464-688: 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

16611-524: 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

16758-456: The ocean, the U.S. federal government constructed a number of large storage dams on the Colorado River system. The canyon country around Lees Ferry was considered for the site of the first dam, but was abandoned in favor of a site lower on the Colorado, where Hoover Dam was completed in 1936. In the 1960s, the area was again investigated as part of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation 's Colorado River Storage Project , and that assessment culminated in

16905-423: 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

17052-462: 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

17199-609: The rapids' filmed on location at Lee's Ferry. Colorado River The Colorado River ( Spanish : Río Colorado ) is one of the principal rivers (along with 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

17346-572: 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

17493-466: 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

17640-519: The risk of boats washing downstream during high water. During this time, Lees Ferry and the surrounding area attracted people because of a series of gold strikes in southern Utah, beginning with Cass Hite, a prospector who discovered gold in Glen Canyon in 1883. Gold seekers came to the area as early as 1889, when two Mormon prospectors by the names of Holladay and Huntington began to explore the surrounds of Lees Ferry. The most extravagant investment

17787-703: The river basin. Lees Ferry is considered the official beginning of Grand Canyon National Park on the Colorado River and is used as a fishing area and river rafting launch site. The main access is by Lees Ferry Road, which splits off from U.S. Route 89A at the hamlet of Marble Canyon, Arizona , on the west side of the Navajo Bridges. The Lonely Dell Ranch Historic District , listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and expanded to include Lees Ferry in 1997, features several buildings built during and after John D. Lee's brief tenure at

17934-484: The river here has been stocked with rainbows since 1964, the implementation of a more stable flow regime at Glen Canyon Dam in 1991 has somewhat reduced the average size of fish caught there due to the increased survival rate of young fish and the resulting competition. Lees Ferry is also the ending point for backpacking and canyoneering trips down the Paria River, which features historic petroglyphs , slot canyons, waterfalls and natural bridges including Wrather Arch ,

18081-454: 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 ,

18228-417: The river with most trips lasting from one week to ten days. Some trips travel all the way to Lake Mead , 277 miles (446 km) downstream, and can last several weeks. Permits for private trips are no longer backlogged on an extensive waiting list, but instead are now based on a lottery system. All but the most experienced rapid runners are discouraged from this potentially dangerous trip. Trips upstream from

18375-437: The river's natural flow. Glen Canyon Dam impounds the Colorado a short distance upstream and completely regulates the river flow past Lees Ferry. Lees Ferry has long been a focal point of American Southwest water disputes, and has been called "both the physical and spiritual heart of water history in the arid West". Today Lees Ferry is a well-known fishing and boat launching point, including for whitewater rafting trips through

18522-612: 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

18669-528: 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

18816-456: The river, and made it back to Santa Fe on January 2, 1777. This point, now submerged under Lake Powell, is named Crossing of the Fathers after Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante , the two Franciscan priests who headed the expedition. During the 19th century, Lees Ferry served as a gateway for the expansion of settlement from Utah south into Arizona. Most of the settlers were Mormons , who had been long established in

18963-573: 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

19110-525: The road impassable, and so, having traveled with great difficulty two more leagues to the west, we had to camp on the bank of the first of two little rivers which form the San Lázaro, otherwise called Río de los Mancos . The pasturage continues in great abundance. Today four and a half leagues. Escalante and Domínguez Pueblos, August 13 Nucla, August 23 Bowie, September 1–2 Rangely, September 10 The travel journal kept by Escalante provided

19257-466: The route taken by Juan Rivera eleven years earlier into the Ute country of southwestern Colorado. Three Timpanogos guides led them through Colorado and Utah. These Spanish colonists were the first European men to travel through much of the Colorado Plateau into Utah, and back through Arizona to New Mexico. During the course of their trip, they documented the route and provided detailed information about

19404-464: 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

19551-519: 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

19698-852: The site along with some remnants of the Charles H. Spencer . A small historical cemetery is located nearby. The area is managed by the National Park Service within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as a historical site. Lees Ferry is the principal starting point for whitewater rafting trips through the Grand Canyon , which are said to offer "a trip backwards through time" as the river cuts through progressively older strata . The majority of trips are run by commercial rafting enterprises using both paddle and motorized inflatable rafts to carry large parties of tourists (up to 24 passengers per raft) on

19845-506: 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

19992-515: 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 , 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

20139-532: The upper Colorado River basin. Large-scale river management began in the early 1900s, with major guidelines established in 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

20286-478: 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

20433-509: 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

20580-595: Was a full-scale mining operation led by Charles H. Spencer, head of the American Placer Company, who came to Lees Ferry in 1910 planning to extract gold from the Chinle Formation . Spencer brought in tons of equipment including a 92-foot (28 m) steamboat, the Charles H. Spencer , reputedly the largest vessel ever to float the Colorado River upstream of the Grand Canyon. The operation was

20727-539: 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

20874-919: Was born in Mexico City about 1740, and in 1757, at the age of 17, joined the Franciscan order. In October 1772, Domínguez was at the Convent of Veracruz as Commissary of the Third Order . He arrived in Santa Fe on March 22, 1776, in present-day New Mexico, of the Mexican province to inspect the Custody of the Conversion of St. Paul and investigate opening an overland route from Santa Fe to Monterey, California. Upon his return to Santa Fe and Mexico City, Domínguez submitted to his Franciscan superiors

21021-595: Was born in Treceño, Cantabria, Spain about 1750. When he was 17 he became a Franciscan in the Convento Grande in Mexico City. In 1774 he came to present-day New Mexico in the Mexican province; he was first stationed at Laguna pueblo and then in January 1775 assigned as a minister to the Zuni. In June 1776 he was summoned by Domínguez for the expedition to California and remained in New Mexico for two years following

21168-467: Was formally established in January 1873, with the launching of the Colorado , the first of many boats that would ply the treacherous and fluctuating river at this point. The location of the ferry upstream from the Paria River confluence required passengers to traverse a dangerous incline nicknamed "Lee's Backbone" on their ascent up the south wall of the valley. Four years later, Lee was finally arrested by

21315-470: Was harsh and unforgiving, and hardships encountered during travel forced the group to return to Santa Fe before reaching Las Californias . Maps and documentation produced by the expedition aided future travelers. The Domínguez–Escalante route eventually became an early template for the Old Spanish Trail , a trade route from Santa Fe to Pacific Coast settlements. Fray Francisco Atanasio Domínguez

21462-782: 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

21609-428: Was the result of several factors including hysteria surrounding the 1857 " Utah War " and animosity toward Arkansans after the murder of Mormon apostle Parley P. Pratt near Van Buren, Arkansas . Years after the massacre, Lee moved to the remote Colorado River crossing to take refuge from the law. Lee arrived in September with two of his wives and his children, and created a small settlement named Lonely Dell. The ferry

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