Uintah Basin
Encyclopedia
The Uintah Basin, also spelled Uinta Basin, is a physiographic section
of the larger Colorado Plateau
s province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus
physiographic division. It is also a geologic structural basin in eastern Utah
, east of the Wasatch Mountains and south of the Uinta Mountains
. The Uintah Basin is fed by creeks and rivers flowing south from the Uinta Mountains. Many of the principal rivers (Strawberry River, Currant Creek, Rock Creek, Lake Fork River, and Uinta River) flow into the Duchesne River which feeds the Green River
—a tributary of the Colorado River
. The Uinta Mountains forms the northern border of the Uintah Basin. They contain the highest point in Utah, Kings Peak
, with a summit 13,528 feet above sea level.
The climate of the Uintah Basin is semi-arid, with occasionally severe cold winter temperatures.
was established in 1861 by presidential decree. The United States opened the reservation for homesteading by non-Indians in 1905. During the early decades of the twentieth century, both Indian and non-Indian irrigation systems were constructed—the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project
, the Moon Lake Project
, and the Central Utah Project
.
. According to the U.S. Census, the community's population in 2000 was 7,714. Other communities in the Utah part of the region include Duchesne
, Roosevelt
, Altamont
, Tabiona
, and a number of small unincorporated communities. The Uintah Basin is also the location of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation
, home to the Ute Tribe of the Uinta and Ouray Agency (also known as the Northern Ute
Tribe). The Ute Tribe is the source of Utah's state name.
Local attractions include Dinosaur National Monument
, Starvation Reservoir State Park, Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area
, Raven Ridge
and Fantasy Canyon
.
The local economy, once based on agriculture and mining, has diversified, and energy extraction and tourism are now major industries as well. In addition, Utah State University
operates extension campuses at Vernal, and Roosevelt, expanding educational opportunities in a previously underserved region of Utah.
. Eastward in Colorado the two lines of cliffs are poorly distinguished. The Green River flows southward out of the Uinta Mountains to the north, crossing the Uintah Basin, and flows in a 5,000 ft deep gorge known as Desolation Canyon
. The Colorado River crosses the eastern portion of this section cutting off an area of some 40 miles in diameter in which are preserved fragments of a lofty lava cap forming Grand Mesa
and Battlement Mesa
.
Physiographic regions of the world
The physiographic regions of the world are a means of defining the Earth's landforms into distinct regions based upon classic 1916 three-tiered approach defining divisions, provinces, and sections...
of the larger Colorado Plateau
Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau, also called the Colorado Plateau Province, is a physiographic region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the southwestern United States. The province covers an area of 337,000 km2 within western Colorado, northwestern New Mexico,...
s province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus
Intermontane Plateaus
Physiographic regions of the U.S. InteriorSee:legendIn some places,high plateaus lie between the mountain ranges, for example,the plateau of Anatolia in Turkey and the plateau of Tibet.These are called "Intermontane plateaus"....
physiographic division. It is also a geologic structural basin in eastern Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, east of the Wasatch Mountains and south of the Uinta Mountains
Uinta Mountains
The Uinta Mountains are a high chain of mountains in northeastern Utah and extreme northwestern Colorado in the United States. A subrange of the Rocky Mountains, they are unusual for being the highest range in the contiguous United States running east to west, and lie approximately east of Salt...
. The Uintah Basin is fed by creeks and rivers flowing south from the Uinta Mountains. Many of the principal rivers (Strawberry River, Currant Creek, Rock Creek, Lake Fork River, and Uinta River) flow into the Duchesne River which feeds the Green River
Green River (Utah)
The Green River, located in the western United States, is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. The watershed of the river, known as the Green River Basin, covers parts of Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. The Green River is long, beginning in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming and flowing...
—a tributary of the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
. The Uinta Mountains forms the northern border of the Uintah Basin. They contain the highest point in Utah, Kings Peak
Kings Peak
For the mountain in Idaho, see Kings Peak .Kings Peak is the highest peak in the U.S. state of Utah,with an elevation of . It lies just south of the spine of the central Uinta Mountains, in the Ashley National Forest in northeastern Utah, in north-central Duchesne County. It is also located in the...
, with a summit 13,528 feet above sea level.
The climate of the Uintah Basin is semi-arid, with occasionally severe cold winter temperatures.
History
Father Escalante's expedition visited the Uintah Basin in September of 1776. The Northern Ute Indian ReservationIndian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
was established in 1861 by presidential decree. The United States opened the reservation for homesteading by non-Indians in 1905. During the early decades of the twentieth century, both Indian and non-Indian irrigation systems were constructed—the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project
Uinta Indian Irrigation Project
The Uinta Indian Irrigation Project is the principal Indian irrigation project in the Uintah Basin. The United States Bureau of Indian Affairs designed and constructed this project. By 1935, the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project was irrigating over of Indian land...
, the Moon Lake Project
Moon Lake Project
In the 1930s, the United States Bureau of Reclamation designed and constructed the Moon Lake Project on the Lake Fork River. The Moon Lake Water Users Association, a private irrigation company, operates and maintains the Moon Lake Project on behalf of the Bureau of Reclamation.-External links:*...
, and the Central Utah Project
Central Utah Project
The Central Utah Project is a United States federal water project. It was authorized for construction under the Colorado River Storage Project Act of April 11, 1956 as a participating project...
.
Communities
The largest community in the Utah part of the Uintah Basin is VernalVernal, Utah
Vernal, Uintah County's largest city, is located in eastern Utah near the Colorado State Line, and 175 miles east of Salt Lake City. It is bordered on the north by the Uinta Mountains, one of the few mountains ranges in the world which lie in an east-west rather than the usual north to south...
. According to the U.S. Census, the community's population in 2000 was 7,714. Other communities in the Utah part of the region include Duchesne
Duchesne, Utah
Duchesne is a city in and the county seat of Duchesne County, Utah, United States. The population was 1,690 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Duchesne city is located at . just west of the junction of the Strawberry and Duchesne rivers in the Uintah Basin of northeastern Utah...
, Roosevelt
Roosevelt, Utah
Roosevelt is a city in Duchesne County, Utah, United States. The population was 4,299 at the 2000 census.The proper pronunciation of the city's name is based on how President Theodore Roosevelt pronounced his name: according to the man himself, "pronounced as if it was spelled...
, Altamont
Altamont, Utah
Altamont is a town in Duchesne County, Utah, United States. The population was 178 at the 2000 census, an increase over the 1990 figure of 167.-History:...
, Tabiona
Tabiona, Utah
Tabiona is a town in Duchesne County, Utah, United States. The population was 149 at the 2000 census.-History:Tabiona was named for a Ute chief, Chief Tabby-To-Kwanah. The nearby town of Hanna was named after the first postmaster, William P. Hanna...
, and a number of small unincorporated communities. The Uintah Basin is also the location of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation
Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation
The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation is located in northeastern Utah, USA. It is the homeland of the Northern Ute Tribe, and is the largest of three Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Ute Tribe of Native Americans. It lies in parts of seven counties; in descending order of land area...
, home to the Ute Tribe of the Uinta and Ouray Agency (also known as the Northern Ute
Ute Tribe
The Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...
Tribe). The Ute Tribe is the source of Utah's state name.
Local attractions include Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument
Dinosaur National Monument is a National Monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers. Although most of the monument area is in Moffat County, Colorado, the Dinosaur Quarry is located in Utah...
, Starvation Reservoir State Park, Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area is a United States National Recreation Area located in the states of Wyoming and Utah. The centerpiece of the recreation area is the 91 mile long Flaming Gorge Reservoir, a reservoir created by the Flaming Gorge Dam along the Green River in 1964...
, Raven Ridge
Raven Ridge
Raven Ridge is a starkly visible sedimentary rock exposure on an ancient tributary of the Green River, located in Rio Blanco County, Colorado and Uintah County, Utah, USA. It is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The ridge contains a diverse selection of rare plants unique to the state of...
and Fantasy Canyon
Fantasy Canyon
Fantasy Canyon is a Bureau of Land Management-managed area located about south of Vernal, in Uintah County, Utah. Even though the area is only about in size, it contains some of the most unusual geologic features in the world...
.
The local economy, once based on agriculture and mining, has diversified, and energy extraction and tourism are now major industries as well. In addition, Utah State University
Utah State University
Utah State University is a public university located in Logan, Utah. It is a land-grant and space-grant institution and is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities....
operates extension campuses at Vernal, and Roosevelt, expanding educational opportunities in a previously underserved region of Utah.
Physiography
The Uintah Basin is the most northerly section of the Colorado Plateau sections. The basin is 5,000 to 10,000 ft above sea level and corresponding to this depression is a broad east-west strip of higher plateau that rises sharply above the denuded country to the south. On the south side of the plateau the descent of 3,000 ft, to the general level of eastern Utah on the south, is made in two steps. The first is the Roan Cliffs and the second, the Book CliffsBook Cliffs
The Book Cliffs are a series of mountains and cliffs in western Colorado and eastern Utah, in the western United States. They are so named because many of them have the triangular appearance of a book that has been opened up, then turned on its sides and set to rest on the open sides of the book,...
. Eastward in Colorado the two lines of cliffs are poorly distinguished. The Green River flows southward out of the Uinta Mountains to the north, crossing the Uintah Basin, and flows in a 5,000 ft deep gorge known as Desolation Canyon
Desolation Canyon (Utah)
Desolation Canyon is a remote canyon on the Green River in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Utah. It was traversed by John Wesley Powell in 1869 as part of an expedition that was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution....
. The Colorado River crosses the eastern portion of this section cutting off an area of some 40 miles in diameter in which are preserved fragments of a lofty lava cap forming Grand Mesa
Grand Mesa
The Grand Mesa is a large mesa in western Colorado in the United States. It has an area of about and stretches for about east of Grand Junction between the Colorado River and the Gunnison River, its tributary to the south. The north side of the mesa is drained largely by Plateau Creek, a...
and Battlement Mesa
Battlement Mesa
Battlement Mesa is a large prominent mesa in western Colorado in the United States. It sits along the Garfield-Mesa county line, between the Colorado River to the north and Plateau Creek to the south....
.