Green River (Colorado River)

Course of the Green River (turquoise)

Green River in Wyoming

Green River in Utah

The Green River (English for "Green River " ) is the largest tributary of the Colorado River in the Western United States. It has its source in Wyoming, flows through Utah, makes a short loop through the U.S. state of Colorado and flows after 1175 miles in Canyonlands National Park in the Colorado River. On his way there are several spectacular canyons.

The Green River flows from the Wind River Range in the Rocky Mountains and flows in western Wyoming to the south and joins the Big Sandy River. South of town Green River, WY is the reservoir of Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which extends into the northeastern corner of Utah. The reservoir is an important water source in the region and is used for energy. The construction of the dam was completed in 1963 controversial.

East of the Uinta Mountains of Green River runs in a loop through the Northwest Colorado and comes at Dinosaur National Monument back to Utah, where the White River empties into the river. Further south, runs through the Green River for a distance of 192 km the first Desolation Canyon and then the Gray Canyon before reaching the town of Green River, UT. It flows further south and take in Canyonlands National Park on the Colorado River.

History

Archaeological discoveries have shown that in the canyons of the Green River between the 7th and 13th centuries, people of the Fremont culture lived, who lived as semi - nomadic in pit houses and have left petroglyphs. In later centuries, hunters of Shoshone and Ute Indians settled in the valleys of the river.

The Spanish friars Dominguez and Escalante arrived in 1776 as the first White River, which they named Rio de San Buenaventura. When she later further west the Sevier River discovered they mistakenly identified him with the Buenaventura and its cartographer Bernardo de Miera drew the river in a southwesterly direction instead of the correct course to the south to the Colorado River. This mistake gave rise to the decades- long search for the legendary Buenaventura River, which was to connect the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. Named the real flow to the Colorado Spanish and Mexican explorers later in Rio Verde (Spanish for Green River ), maybe because of the color of water.

1819 were British trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company at the headwaters of the Green River. 1824 explored American fur trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company at William Ashley and Jedediah Smith River between the Uinta Mountains and the mouth of the White River. 1825 was the first so-called rendezvous of fur trappers and traders place on a tributary of the Green River. Fur traders established later near the mouth of several trading posts. In the 1840s, John C. Fremont explored several times in the region. He also stated that the Green River was not, as hitherto, the Great Salt Lake arises. John Wesley Powell charted in 1869 and 1871 the river and named many of the canyons, rapids and geographical features.

Vernal, the first permanent settlement on the Green River, was founded in 1878 by Mormons. Until the 1940s the area was used for agriculture. It was later discovered oil and gas. Much of the land along the river is part of the federal government. Tourism has become the main source of income in the region.

Ecosystems

The headwaters of the Green River is part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. It is dominated by the mountain ranges of the Wind River Range and the Gros Ventre Range. The upper valley is winter quarters for pronghorn and mule deer, pull each winter from Grand Teton National Park over the mountains to the Green River. With approximately 260 km it is the longest seasonal migration movement of land animals in North America. Between 2007 and 2012, agreements were reached with landowners and federal agencies through which the train route is permanently protected.

In Utah, the river reaches the Colorado Plateau, with its semi-desert and desert regions. Here is the canyon of the Green River as a corridor and water source of considerable importance for the regional climate, vegetation and wildlife.