%1 http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/ en Coal Mining in Colorado http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/coal-mining-colorado <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Coal Mining in Colorado</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-02-16T13:06:10-07:00" title="Tuesday, February 16, 2021 - 13:06" class="datetime">Tue, 02/16/2021 - 13:06</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/coal-mining-colorado" data-a2a-title="Coal Mining in Colorado"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fcoal-mining-colorado&amp;title=Coal%20Mining%20in%20Colorado"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, coal mining was the most important industry in Colorado. Coal mines served as the crucibles of empire, churning out the fuel needed to power the railroads, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/precious-metal-mining-colorado"><strong>precious-metal mines</strong></a>, and smelters that helped develop the region. They were also contested sites of worker resistance and rebellion where the power dynamics of industrial capitalism were acted out in tragic ways.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Although it is no longer mined in Colorado at the rates it once was, coal has maintained its relative importance to the state’s energy economy through the present. Today, coal mining remains an important industry in the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/moffat-county"><strong>Moffat County</strong></a>, and coal-fueled power plants provide electricity to hundreds of thousands of residents along the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a>. These coal mines and power plants are sources of air and water pollution, and the industries coal helped fuel are equally pollutive.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Formation of Coal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>About 70 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous Period, much of Colorado was covered by a shallow, tropical sea. When the uplift of the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rocky-mountains"><strong>Rocky Mountains</strong></a> began about a million years later, it pushed up the inundated land, giving rise to many swampy bogs. It was in these bogs that Colorado’s coal began to form as millions of years of the sun’s energy became trapped in vegetation that died and decomposed on top of itself. The plant material was gradually compressed into a primordial muck that eventually hardened into coal.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>When engineer <strong>Ferdinand V. Hayden</strong> surveyed the geology of Colorado in the late 1860s and early 1870s, he identified several areas that held vast coal reserves. These included the Raton Basin in southern Colorado, whose coal Hayden described as being “inexhaustible and of excellent quality,” as well as the northwest part of what was then <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>The Advent of Industrial Coal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The earliest coal mining in Colorado took place in the late 1850s near the fledgling town of <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a>, but industrial development of the state’s coal resources awaited the arrival of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/william-jackson-palmer"><strong>William Jackson Palmer</strong></a> in the late 1860s. Over the next two decades, Palmer turned coal into Colorado’s most important commodity. In addition to founding the tourist town of <a href="/article/colorado-springs"><strong>Colorado Springs</strong></a> in 1871, Palmer opened dozens of new coal mines in southern Colorado, and his <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad</strong> (D&amp;RG) brought that coal to market in Denver. To manage his new coal empire, Palmer started Colorado Coal &amp; Iron, which eventually became <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-fuel-iron"><strong>Colorado Fuel and Iron</strong></a> (CF&amp;I), arguably the state’s most powerful coal company. The southern Colorado towns of <strong>Trinidad</strong> and <strong>Walsenburg</strong> became important hubs of coal mining and transport, with the latter known as “The City Built on Coal.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Coke and Industry</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Coal mining in Colorado developed alongside precious-metal mining. In addition to providing the fuel needed to transport gold and silver ore, coal also warmed the homes of residents in Denver and other mushrooming Front Range cities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By the 1860s, as gold and silver miners left behind panned-out streambeds and began extracting more metal-bearing ore from the mountains, it became apparent that extreme heat was needed to separate gold and silver from the rock that held it. Coal would provide that heat, but not just any coal would do. Smelters, the heat-driven facilities that melted gold and silver ore to extract the metals, required coal that would burn hot enough to melt rock. This type of coal, a densely layered type called <em>coking coal</em>, was formed by the supercompression of underground coal seams. When heated without oxygen, coking coal turns into <em>coke</em>, a fuel that burns hot enough to melt rock and forge steel.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1880s, coke became even more essential in Colorado, as it fueled William Jackson Palmer’s <strong>steel mill</strong> in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a>. Coking coal was most commonly found in Colorado’s southern coalfields, making those fields even more important to the state’s industrial economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Major Coal Mining Locations</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As Palmer’s southern coalfields coalesced in <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/las-animas-county"><strong>Las Animas</strong></a> and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/huerfano-county"><strong>Huerfano</strong></a> Counties, railroad expansion allowed other parts of the state to become major coal producers as well. In 1881 the D&amp;RG reached <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/crested-butte"><strong>Crested Butte</strong></a>, in northern <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/gunnison-county"><strong>Gunnison County</strong></a>, which would contain some of the most productive mines in the state; it was also the site of the grisly <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/jokerville-mine-explosion"><strong>Jokerville Mine Explosion</strong></a> that killed fifty-nine workers in 1884. Toward the end of that decade miners began tapping coalfields in <a href="/article/boulder-county"><strong>Boulder County</strong></a>, which fueled the growth of towns such as <strong>Louisville</strong> and <strong>Lafayette</strong> in the 1890s.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/garfield-county"><strong>Garfield County</strong></a> in western Colorado also held productive mines, including the volatile Vulcan Mine, which suffered <strong>three deadly explosions</strong> between 1896 and 1918. In the early 1900s, thanks to the completion of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-northwestern-pacific-railway-hill-route-moffat-road"><strong>Moffat Road</strong></a> rail line, a relatively smaller coal industry developed in <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/routt-county"><strong>Routt County</strong></a> in the northwest part of the state. After the Moffat Road reached Craig in 1913, the coal beds of Moffat County could be tapped, too.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1917 Colorado had 238 coal mines operating throughout the state, most of which were divided between three companies: CF&amp;I, <strong>Rocky Mountain Fuel Company</strong>, and <strong>Victor American Fuel Company</strong>. That year, the state’s coal mines produced a total of some 12.5 million tons of coal, an increase of nearly 2 million tons from the previous year.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Even as it gradually lost market share to oil and natural gas, coal mining continued throughout the twentieth century in Colorado. In Moffat County, for instance, production reached more than 100,000 tons annually between 1943 and 1951. Mining in the state also shifted during this period from deep mining, the kind that sent miners far belowground, to open-pit mining, where heavy machinery is used to excavate shallower coal seams. By the 1960s, coal production had dwindled to the point where the industry had only a small fraction of its earlier power and influence.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Work in the Coal Mines</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Working in coal mines was dirty and dangerous, and labor conditions were dismal and underregulated. Most coal mines grouped together men from more than a dozen different nations and backgrounds, including Austria, Britain, Greece, Italy, Mexico, Poland, and the United States. In the 1880s, coal miners worked from fourteen to sixteen hours per day for paltry wages that were often paid in scrip, a kind of currency that could be used only at company stores. Since many coal camps were remote, these stores were often the sole local source of food and supplies, keeping miners tethered to the company. Moreover, coal companies such as CF&amp;I often built whole company towns, where workers paid rent to live. Along with company stores, company housing ensured that most wages were returned to the company.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the mines, workers inhaled coal dust all day long, which led to the devastating respiratory disease known as black lung. Mine shafts could collapse or flood. Rock slides and fires were also common; in 1917 the state mine inspector reported that sixty-six miners died from routine accidents, including “falls of rock, falls of coal, mine cars and motors, explosives,” and “electricity.” In addition, methane and other flammable gases released from coal beds often built up in the mines, and each morning an inspector had to check the air quality before work could begin. Employed since the early 1800s, safety lamps, whose flames burned differently when held close to flammable gases, helped determine whether a mine’s air quality was safe. Davy lamps with longer wicks were also used to burn off harmful gases.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Most mines employed inspectors to monitor safety conditions, but even a slight mistake could spell instant death for dozens of miners. This was the case in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/hastings-mine-explosion"><strong>Hastings Mine Explosion</strong></a>, Colorado’s deadliest mining disaster, which occurred north of Trinidad in 1917. For unknown reasons, the mine inspector took apart his safety lamp and attempted to relight it with a match, triggering a gas-fueled explosion that killed 121 workers. In addition, some mines exploded despite being declared safe; this occurred in the Jokerville Mine blast of 1884, which killed fifty-nine miners. A total of eighty-five workers perished during the three explosions of the Vulcan Mine between 1896 and 1918. These disasters reflected the troubling trend of Colorado miners dying at a rate of twice the national average between 1884 and 1912.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Labor Strife</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Coal miners were victims of owner exploitation and hazardous working conditions, and they often tried to improve their lot. As early as the 1870s, they organized strikes and walkouts, and later they joined unions such as the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/united-mine-workers-america"><strong>United Mine Workers of America</strong></a> (UMWA), formed in 1890. The first UMWA local in Colorado was formed in the Boulder County town of Erie that year, and the union organized its <strong>first major strike</strong> during the <strong><a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/panic-1893">financial calamity</a> </strong>of 1893-94. Thousands of coal miners across the state walked off the job, hoping to produce a coal shortage that would force owners to meet their demands of abolishing company stores and paying workers in cash. In the end, however, there were not enough walkouts to produce a shortage, so miners went back to work under prestrike conditions. By 1900 similar actions had earned some hard-won improvements, including a state law mandating an eight-hour workday, but coal miners had to pressure companies such as CF&amp;I to follow the laws.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Recognizing the power of strikes, mine owners and companies took them seriously, employing both economic oppression and violence to stop them. Owners fired striking workers and hired strikebreakers to work for lower wages than strikers were demanding, hoping to end the strikes. When these approaches failed, mine owners and companies raised citizen militias or petitioned the state to call in the National Guard to force miners back to work.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In Colorado the UMWA was most active in the early twentieth century, with thousands of members joining strikes in the southern coalfields of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fremont-county"><strong>Fremont</strong></a>, Huerfano, and Las Animas Counties. A <strong>strike in 1903–4</strong> again called for the abolition of scrip and company stores, as well as implementation of the state’s eight-hour workday law. The failure of that strike led to rising tensions that exploded again in the spring of 1913. The UMWA led a strike in the southern coalfields that involved about 90 percent of the state’s coal workers and resulted in the <a href="/article/ludlow-massacre"><strong>Ludlow Massacre</strong></a> when National Guard members fired on striking miners and set the strikers’ tent colony on fire. It was the deadliest labor conflict in state history.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Coal mining conditions were hardly improved for miners by the time another major conflict broke out in the late 1920s. In 1927, during a strike in the northern coalfields of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/weld-county"><strong>Weld County</strong></a>, the Colorado State Police (then known as the Colorado Rangers) <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/columbine-mine-massacre-0"><strong>opened fire on strikers</strong></a> and their wives at the Rocky Mountain Fuel company town of Serene, killing six and wounding twenty.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Strikes and labor conflict became less common after the passage of the federal Wagner Act in 1935, which recognized workers’ rights to unionize. Still, there remained periods of strife, such as in 1978, when miners at the Allen and Maxwell Mines in Las Animas County walked off the job for three months as part of a national strike organized by the United Mine Workers.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Environmental Effects</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In addition to the injuries and health hazards to workers, coal mining has produced a number of negative environmental effects that Coloradans continue to deal with today. Air pollution is the largest environmental cost of coal production. To make the air in coal mines breathable, methane and other harmful gases are vented out into the atmosphere, contributing to local smog and global climate change. The West Elk Mine in Gunnison County is the largest methane emitter in Colorado, belching out emissions in 2017 that equaled those of 98,000 cars. Abandoned coal mines also release methane. Nationwide, coal mines account for almost 10 percent of all methane emissions.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In addition, mines often need to be expanded to maintain their profitability, which leads to deforestation and other forms of habitat destruction. As such, environmental groups often take the coal industry to court over mine expansion as well as pollution. At the West Elk Mine, for example, a proposed expansion into a designated roadless forest resulted in years of litigation before it was ultimately blocked in 2020—but only after the company illegally bulldozed a road through the area.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Coal-fueled power plants are another major source of pollution. In 2020 <strong><em>The Denver Post</em></strong> named Colorado’s six coal-fired power plants among the state’s top ten greenhouse gas emitters. Coal-fired power can contaminate water sources, too; in 2019 an investigation by the <strong>Platte River Power Authority </strong>found that groundwater near the Rawhide Energy Station in <a href="/article/larimer-county"><strong>Larimer County</strong></a> was contaminated with selenium, a chemical that can harm both humans and wildlife. Aware of coal’s ongoing potential to harm air and water quality and wildlife, environmental groups such as the <strong>Sierra Club</strong> and <strong>WildEarth Guardians</strong> have repeatedly sued to stop the expansion of the coal industry in the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Despite its environmental effects, coal mining continues in Colorado today. In Moffat County, coal still underwrites the local economy. As much as 46 percent of the total property value in the county is generated from its two major coal mines, the Colowyo and Trapper Mines. The Craig Station power plant, completed in the early 1980s and operated by the <strong>Westminster</strong>-based Tri-State Generation and Transmission company, provides hundreds of jobs in Moffat County and supplies power to some 250,000 square miles in Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming. Despite its importance to local economies in places like Craig, Tri-State has decided to shut down the company’s coal-fired plants in Colorado and New Mexico by 2030.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Even though production has declined almost every year since 2012, Colorado remains the eleventh-largest producer of coal in the country, with nearly one-quarter of its coal exported to other countries. The West Elk Mine remains one of the state’s largest, employing around 220 people and producing nearly 4 million tons of coal in 2016. Coal from within and beyond the state provides more than half of Colorado’s net electricity generation. This means that coal will play a part in Colorado’s economy for at least the next decade, even as state and industry leaders move toward less pollutive and renewable energy sources.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal-mining" hreflang="en">coal mining</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal-mining-colorado" hreflang="en">coal mining in colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal-miners" hreflang="en">coal miners</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal" hreflang="en">coal</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal-mines" hreflang="en">coal mines</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/moffat-county" hreflang="en">Moffat County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/craig" hreflang="en">Craig</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/energy" hreflang="en">energy</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/smelter" hreflang="en">smelter</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/railroads" hreflang="en">railroads</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colowyo" hreflang="en">colowyo</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/routt-county" hreflang="en">routt county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/west-elk-mine" hreflang="en">west elk mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/crested-butte" hreflang="en">crested butte</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/jokerville-mine" hreflang="en">jokerville mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/garfield-county" hreflang="en">Garfield County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/vulcan-mine" hreflang="en">vulcan mine</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/hastings-mine-explosion" hreflang="en">hastings mine explosion</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/boulder-county" hreflang="en">boulder county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/weld-county" hreflang="en">weld county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/las-animas-county" hreflang="en">Las Animas County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ludlow-massacre" hreflang="en">Ludlow Massacre</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ludlow" hreflang="en">ludlow</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/colorado-fuel-iron" hreflang="en">colorado fuel &amp; iron</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/pueblo" hreflang="en">pueblo</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coking-coal" hreflang="en">coking coal</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/huerfano-county" hreflang="en">huerfano county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/walsenburg" hreflang="en">walsenburg</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/lafayette" hreflang="en">Lafayette</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/louisville" hreflang="en">louisville</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/strike" hreflang="en">Strike</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/labor-history" hreflang="en">labor history</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/united-mineworkers-america" hreflang="en">united mineworkers of america</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/umwa" hreflang="en">umwa</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/unions" hreflang="en">unions</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/columbine-mine-massacre" hreflang="en">columbine mine massacre</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>John Aguilar, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/06/18/west-elk-mine-court-ruling-poania/">State Orders Coal Company to Cease Expansion of West Elk Mine Into Roadless Area Near Paonia</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, June 18, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Thomas G. Andrews, <em>Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War </em>(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Aspire Mining Limited, “<a href="https://aspiremininglimited.com/what-is-coking-coal/">What Is Coking Coal</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Allen Best, “Amid the Pandemic, Can Colorado Still Lead on a Just Transition From Coal?” <em>Energy News Network</em>, August 5, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sam Brasch, “<a href="https://www.cpr.org/2020/03/05/craig-colorado-believes-in-coal-now-it-needs-a-plan-to-reinvent-itself/">Craig, Colorado Believes in Coal. Now It Needs a Plan to Reinvent Itself</a>,” <em>Colorado Public Radio</em>, March 5, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Center for Biological Diversity, “<a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-launched-over-illegal-air-pollution-colorado-coal-mine-2019-12-17/">Lawsuit Launched Over Illegal Air Pollution at Colorado Coal Mine</a>,” December 17, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Tessa Cheek, “<a href="https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2015/05/14/environmentalists-are-targeting-colorado-coal-successfully/">Environmentalists Are Targeting Colorado Coal, Successfully</a>,” <em>Colorado Independent</em>, May 14, 2015.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Tamara Chuang, “<a href="https://coloradosun.com/2019/03/19/colorado-coal-ash-water-contamination/">Chemical Contamination From 7 Colorado Coal-Fired Power Plants Found During Groundwater Monitoring</a>,” <em>Colorado Sun</em>, March 19, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>City of Lafayette, Colorado, “<a href="https://www.lafayetteco.gov/DocumentCenter/View/152/Coal-Mining-Heritage-of-Lafayette?bidId=">The Coal Mining Heritage of Lafayette</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.craigdailypress.com/news/craig-station-works-to-supply-the-demand/">Craig Station Works to Supply the Demand</a>,” <em>Craig Press</em>, October 14, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>James Dalrymple, <a href="https://spl.cde.state.co.us/artemis/nrserials/nr930010internet/nr9300101917internet.pdf"><em>Fifth Annual Report of the State Inspector of Coal Mines—1917</em></a> (Denver: Eames Brothers, 1917).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2017/09/08/feds-approve-west-elk-mine-expansion/">Feds Approve Expansion of West Elk Mine in Western Colorado Against Environmental Group Objections</a>,” <em>Grand Junction Daily Sentinel</em> (via <em>The Denver Post</em>), September 8, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ferdinand V. Hayden, <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2003/0384/report.pdf"><em>Preliminary Field Report of the United States Geological Survey of Colorado and New Mexico</em></a> (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1869).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bruce Finley, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/01/19/colorado-air-pollution/">What’s Polluting Colorado’s Air? 125 million Tons a Year of Heat-Trapping and Hazardous Gases</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, January 19, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Mark Jaffe, “<a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2015/05/11/colorado-mine-approvals-failed-to-look-at-environmental-impacts/">Colorado Mine Approvals Failed to Look at Environmental Impacts</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, May 11, 2015.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/05/lawsuit-targets-arch-coal-s-illegal-air-pollution-colorado-coal-mine">Lawsuit Targets Arch Coal’s Illegal Air Pollution at Colorado Coal Mine</a>,” Sierra Club, May 14, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Noré V. Winter et al., <a href="https://www.treadofpioneers.org/pdf/Routt_County_Historic_Context_1994.pdf"><em>Historic Context of Routt County</em></a> (Boulder, CO: Winter and Company, 1994).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Kelsey Ray, “<a href="https://www.coloradoindependent.com/2016/05/03/colorados-worst-methane-polluter-is-an-arch-coal-mine-west-elk-john-hickenlooper/">Colorado’s Worst Methane Polluter Is an Arch Coal Mine</a>,” <em>Colorado Independent</em>, May 3, 2016.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Christopher J. Schreck, “<a href="https://scalar.usc.edu/works/the-colorado-fuel-and-iron-company/strikes-and-other-labor-disputes">Strikes and Other Labor Disputes</a>,” Labor Relations in the Industrial West, updated December 14, 2016.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Brian K. Trembath, “<a href="https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/remembering-colorados-coal-warsand-coal-miners">Remembering Colorado’s Coal Wars  . . . And Coal Miners</a>,” Denver Public Library Western History and Genealogy Department, September 2, 2015.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>University of Denver, “<a href="https://www.du.edu/ludlow/cfhist.html">A History of the Colorado Coal Field War</a>,” Colorado Coal Field War Project, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Energy Information Administration, “<a href="https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/coal/mining-and-transportation.php">Coal Explained: Mining and Transportation of Coal</a>,” updated October 28, 2019.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Energy Information Administration, “<a href="https://www.eia.gov/state/analysis.php?sid=CO">Colorado: Profile Analysis</a>,” updated March 19, 2020.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Environmental Protection Agency, “<a href="https://www.epa.gov/cmop/sources-coal-mine-methane">Coal Mine Methane Sources</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Bian Zhengfu et al., “Environmental Issues From Coal Mining and Their Solutions,” <em>Mining Science and Technology </em>20 (2010).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Earthjustice.org, “<a href="https://earthjustice.org/features/colorado-forests-and-coal">Coal’s Toll on Colorado’s Forests</a>,” updated June 8, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ferdinand V. Hayden, <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70038931"><em>Seventh Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, embracing Colorado</em></a> (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1873).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Fawn-Amber Montoya, ed., <em>Making an American Workforce: The Rockefellers and the Legacy of Ludlow</em> (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2014).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>F. Darrell Munsell, <em>From Redstone to Ludlow: John Cleveland Osgood’s Struggle Against the United Mine Workers of America </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2009).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Randall H. McGuire and Paul Reckner, “<a href="https://users.clas.ufl.edu/davidson/Historical%20archaeology%20fall%202015/Week%204/McGuire%20&amp;amp;%20Reckner%202003.pdf">Building a Working-Class Archaeology: The Colorado Coal Field War Project</a>,” <em>Industrial Archaeology Review</em> 25, no. 2 (2003).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jonathan H. Rees, <em>Representation and Rebellion: The Rockefeller Plan at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, 1914–1942 </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2010).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Tue, 16 Feb 2021 20:06:10 +0000 yongli 3536 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Sagebrush http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sagebrush <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Sagebrush</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--3526--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--3526.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/sagebrush"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Artemisia_tridentata_sagebrush_bush_0_0.jpg?itok=VTkPjVp-" width="1090" height="792" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/sagebrush" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Sagebrush</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>One of the most recognizable symbols of the arid American West, sagebrush (genus Artemisia) is a short, woody shrub that grows across thirty-nine Colorado counties and anchors a culturally and ecologically significant landscape.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2021-02-08T15:37:22-07:00" title="Monday, February 8, 2021 - 15:37" class="datetime">Mon, 02/08/2021 - 15:37</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sagebrush" data-a2a-title="Sagebrush"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fsagebrush&amp;title=Sagebrush"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Sagebrush (genus <em>Artemisia</em>) is one of the most common and recognizable plants on Colorado’s <a href="/article/western-slope"><strong>Western Slope</strong></a> and arid <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado%E2%80%99s-great-plains"><strong>Great Plains</strong></a>. A woody, fragrant, faded-green bush, sagebrush is ubiquitous throughout drier parts of the American West, covering some 106 million acres of the region. This makes sagebrush a keystone species that anchors the largest interconnected wildlife habitat in the United States.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sagebrush is an important part of Indigenous culture and spirituality. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the stubborn bush gave white immigrants fits as they tried to till the soil in arid places such as <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/moffat-county"><strong>Moffat County</strong></a>. Today, Colorado’s sagebrush ecosystem and the creatures that depend on it, including the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/sage-grouse"><strong>sage grouse</strong></a>, face threats from invasive species, development, and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/wildfire"><strong>wildfire</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Description</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Several different types of sagebrush occur in Colorado. The most common are subspecies of the big sagebrush (<em>Artemisia tridentata</em>), which typically grow between two and four feet tall but can reach heights of up to fifteen feet, depending on available moisture. They have woody stems that grow dozens of small branches. As with many other species of <em>Artemisia</em>, big sagebrush has thin, silvery-green leaves whose tips are shaped like tiny, three-fingered mittens. A big sagebrush can live between 100 and 150 years, far longer than other similarly sized shrubs. The plant produces small, pale yellow flowers that bloom in late summer.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Other sagebrush varieties in the state include the low sagebrush (<em>A. arbuscula</em>), which in Colorado is found only in Moffat and <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/saguache-county"><strong>Saguache</strong></a> Counties; the fringe sage (<em>A. frigida</em>), a more common variety found across the state; and the sand sage (<em>A. filifolia</em>), which is common in the southern and plains counties.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>To survive in harsh, arid environments, the sagebrush plant has two root systems: a sprawling set of roots branches laterally through the soil, while a tap root searches for deeper water sources. This robust root structure is what made plowing up large fields of sagebrush such a difficult task in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Ecology</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In Colorado, sagebrush covers thirty-nine contiguous <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/place/counties"><strong>counties</strong></a> in the western half of the state, representing about 5 percent of the total sagebrush land in the West. It is also present on the eastern plains, especially in the southern and southeast parts of the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The relatively high protein content of <em>Artemisia </em>leaves makes sagebrush an excellent forage shrub for browsers such as <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/mule-deer"><strong>deer</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rocky-mountain-elk"><strong>elk</strong></a>, <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/bighorn-sheep"><strong>bighorn sheep</strong></a>, and <strong>jackrabbits</strong>. Some ranchers feed it to cattle as winter forage. Sagebrush helps chipmunks and other small creatures hide from predators, and it provides habitat for more than 100 species of birds, including the Sage grouse, which has been the focus of extensive conservation efforts in Colorado. In addition, sagebrush ecosystems support more than 130 other types of plants, including several species of Indian paintbrush, a bright red <strong>wildflower</strong> that taps into sagebrush roots. Grasses—including wheatgrass, bluegrass, and needlegrass—fill in the gaps between sagebrush.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Indigenous Culture</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Sagebrush was and remains an important part of Indigenous culture. Historically, the Paiute people in Utah fashioned clothing and snowshoes as well as several different types of seasonal shelters from sagebrush. Today the Paiute still include the plant in coming-of-age and other ceremonies and boil the leaves to make a medicinal tea. Navajo people use sagebrush to treat rheumatism and postpartum pain. The Ute people use the plant in similar ways and incorporate it in many stories. One story, recorded in the <em>Southern Ute Drum</em> in 2019, involves a young boy traveling through a “sagebrush forest” where he learns how his people used sage smoke to help communicate with restless ancestral spirits.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>American Culture</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The US Army and white colonists forced most of the Ute population out of the state by 1882. To white immigrants who moved to western Colorado, sagebrush became a widely recognized symbol of the frontier that was, like Indigenous people, an obstacle to civilization. “The sagebrush is the outward symbol of the real United States West,” proclaimed Colorado’s <em>Great Divide </em>in 1918. That symbol may once have been “the buffalo or the Red Indian,” the newspaper claimed, “but all of these are numbered with the things of the past, or are slowly vanishing, while the sagebrush remains.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>White immigrants much preferred the fertile prairies of the eastern slope to the dry sagebrush country over the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/great-divide"><strong>Continental Divide</strong></a>. In 1875 the <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain </em>mocked the perceived infertility of sagebrush country, inviting those who tired of <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/pueblo"><strong>Pueblo</strong></a>’s “grand and lovely” scenery to “take a stroll over the hills, and see how much sagebrush, cactus and cobblestones an acre of Colorado ‘adobe’ soil will produce.” In places where sagebrush dominated, like Moffat County, the bush was to be removed so that civilization’s standards could be met; the <em>Craig Empire </em>opined in 1916 that “getting rid of this sagebrush will be a good start” toward “beautifying Craig.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Not all whites saw the sagebrush as a symbol of wilderness or unsettlement. The plant was considered such a routine sight that the town of <strong>Kit Carson</strong> adopted it as the mascot for its baseball team in the early 1870s. In those days, the plant was also an important fuel source for American cowboys. Sheep and sometimes even cattle grazed the tops of the hardy plants. By 1907—as more towns, farms, and ranches sprang up in sagebrush country across the state—some Coloradans were nostalgic for the “vanishing sagebrush.” As one newspaper put it, the plant’s “aroma” was one that “hint[ed] of the wild, free life of the range that will be no more.”</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Plowing Sagebrush Country</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>However, immigrants to the relatively new town of <strong>Craig</strong>, drawn by the promise of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-northwestern-pacific-railway-hill-route-moffat-road"><strong>Moffat Road</strong></a> rail line, might have scoffed at the idea that sagebrush was vanishing. Owing to the plant’s strong root system, farmers around Craig had a tough time removing sagebrush until around 1915. That year, blacksmith Morgan C. French invented a “sage brush plow” that could tackle entire lots of the stubborn bush, making way for alfalfa and other traditional crops, as well as <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/irrigation-colorado"><strong>irrigation</strong></a> ditches. The invention weighed more than typical plows and used rotating, toothed disks to cut soil away from the sagebrush roots while sweeping the plants aside into the prongs of a metal rake, which left them neatly piled for collection or burning.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The <em>Craig Empire </em>considered French’s invention to be “one of the greatest Colorado has ever known.” However, most farmers eventually shifted to ranching, as they realized that the grasses growing in the sagebrush ecosystem made for excellent forage.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Management and Threats</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As time went on, more Coloradans became aware of sagebrush’s importance to both ranching and the broader ecosystem. After the turn of the twentieth century, ranchers overgrazed on sagebrush range, depleting the natural supply of grasses and causing sagebrush to run rampant. Communities tried several solutions to reinvigorate the range. A 1931 article in the <em>Craig Empire Courier </em>urged locals to “burn sagebrush now to improve native ranges”—a recognition of fire’s ability to clear overgrown sage and make room for more grass.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>After <strong>World War II</strong>, as chemicals became a major part of modern agriculture, the <strong>Bureau of Land Management</strong> sprayed 2, 4-D, a toxic herbicide, on overgrown sagebrush in Moffat County. The chemical killed the sagebrush and ushered in robust growth of wheatgrass, with unknown other ecological effects. Later, in 1961, researchers at the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/agricultural-extension-service"><strong>Colorado State University Extension</strong></a> recommended that ranchers spray or burn sagebrush in order to triple beef production on the range. More recent studies, however, recommend against complete removal of sagebrush because it reduces biodiversity and may ultimately result in poor production of forage grasses.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Today, Colorado’s sagebrush ecosystem is managed by a variety of local and federal agencies, including <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-parks-and-wildlife"><strong>Colorado Parks and Wildlife</strong></a>, the <strong>US Fish and Wildlife Service</strong>, the Bureau of Land Management, the <a href="http://www.coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/us-forest-service-colorado"><strong>US Forest Service</strong></a><strong>,</strong> and the <strong>National Park Service</strong>. In addition to researching and protecting the plants and animals of sagebrush country, these agencies work with local ranchers to promote ecological balance on the range, using methods such as prescribed burns and restricted access to keep both sagebrush and forage plants available. The <strong>Southern Ute Tribe</strong> also has a Range Division that helps maintain its sagebrush.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sagebrush country currently faces a number of human-wrought threats, including development, invasive species, and wildfire. Oil and gas pads, for instance, have been found to reduce local mule deer populations and other sagebrush species through noise pollution and habitat fragmentation. Still, a 2005 report from Colorado Parks and Wildlife named invasive herbaceous plants as the largest threat to the state’s sagebrush ecosystems. One of the most troublesome invaders is cheatgrass, which outgrows other grasses to dominate an area. Cheatgrass grows tall and is extremely flammable, making fire another premier threat to sagebrush country today.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/sagebrush" hreflang="en">sagebrush</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/moffat-county" hreflang="en">Moffat County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/artemisia" hreflang="en">artemisia</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ute" hreflang="en">ute</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/paiute" hreflang="en">paiute</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/navajo" hreflang="en">navajo</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>James P. Blaisdell, Robert B. Murray, and E. Durant McArthur, “<a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_int/int_gtr134.pdf">Managing Intermountain Rangelands—Sagebrush-Grass Ranges</a>,” US Forest Service, October 1982.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=STP19610720.2.35&amp;srpos=1&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22+%22range%22-------0-----">Beef Production Can Be Tripled By Improving Sage Brush Ranges</a>,” <em>Steamboat Pilot</em>, July 20, 1961.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Stephen A. Boyle and Dawn R. Reeder, “<a href="https://cpw.state.co.us/Documents/WildlifeSpecies/Sagebrush/CHAPTER0contentsfrontmatter.pdf">Colorado Sagebrush: A Conservation Assessment and Strategy</a>,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife, September 2005.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CEC19311021-01.2.54&amp;srpos=3&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22-------0-----">Burn Sagebrush Now to Improve Native Ranges</a>,” <em>Craig Empire Courier</em>, October 21, 1931.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CRE19170124-01.2.4&amp;srpos=7&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-sage+brush+plow+french-------0-----">French Sage Brush Plow Has Solved Farming Difficulty</a>,” <em>Craig Empire</em>, January 24, 1917.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CRE19160614-01.2.31&amp;srpos=11&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22+%22craig%22-------0-----">How About It?</a>” (“sagebrush grubbing”), <em>Craig Empire</em>, June 14, 1916.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=STP19490811.2.2&amp;srpos=3&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22+%22range%22-------0-----">Increased Forage Thru Sagebrush Killing Foreseen</a>,” <em>Steamboat Pilot</em>, August 11, 1949.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Natural History Museum of Utah, “<a href="https://nhmu.utah.edu/native-plants/plant/Big%20Sagebrush">Big Sagebrush</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT18751010.2.57&amp;srpos=16&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22-------0-----">Pueblo, Col., Sept. 24, 1875</a>,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, October 10, 1875.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT18770215-01.2.22&amp;srpos=17&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22-------0-----">Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties</a>,” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, February 15, 1877.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Terry Ryan, “<a href="https://www.montananaturalist.org/blog-post/sagebrush-icon-of-the-west/">Sagebrush: Icon of the West</a>,” Montana Natural History Center, December 13, 2015.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CRE19151110-01.2.4&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA--------0-----">Sage Brush Plow Is Proving Successful</a>,” <em>Craig Empire</em>, November 10, 1915.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Hall Sawyer et al., “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gcb.13711">Mule Deer and Energy Development—Long-Term Trends of Habitation and Abundance</a>,” <em>Global Change Biology </em>23, no. 11, April 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jeremy Wade Shockley, “<a href="https://www.sudrum.com/news/2013/05/16/fencing-project-breathes-new-life-into-tribal-rangelands/">Fencing Project Breathes New Life Into Tribal Rangelands</a>,” <em>Southern Ute Drum</em>, May 16, 2013.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=CFT18720726.2.52&amp;srpos=4&amp;e=-------en-20--1-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22-------0-----">There Will Be a Match Game of Baseball …</a>” <em>Colorado Daily Chieftain</em>, July 26, 1872.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=SPH19071213-01.2.40&amp;srpos=1&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22-------0-----">The Vanishing Sagebrush</a>,” <em>Springfield </em>(CO)<em> Herald</em>, via the <em>Denver Republican</em>, December 13, 1907.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Department of Agriculture, “<a href="https://plants.usda.gov/plantguide/pdf/pg_artr2.pdf">Big Sagebrush</a>,” Plant Guide, Natural Resources Conservation Service, n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Fish and Wildlife Service, “<a href="https://www.fws.gov/sagebrush/index.html#:~:text=The%20sagebrush%20ecosystem%20is%20the%20largest%20interconnected%20habitat%20type%20in%20America.&amp;text=The%20spread%20of%20non%2Dnative,Learn%20more%20about%20the%20threats.">The Sagebrush Ecosystem</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Fish and Wildlife Service, “<a href="https://www.fws.gov/sagebrush/threats-to-wildlife/development/index.html">The Sagebrush Ecosystem: Development</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=GRD19180724-01.2.37&amp;srpos=2&amp;e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22+%22civilization%22-------0-----">What Boston Thinks of Sagebrush</a>,” <em>Great Divide</em>, July 24, 1918.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ron Yellowbird, “<a href="https://www.sudrum.com/culture/2019/04/26/i-am-water-part-1-of-2/">I Am Water, Part 1 of 2</a>,” <em>Southern Ute Drum</em>, April 26, 2019.</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=MCC19110601-01.2.7&amp;srpos=65&amp;e=-------en-20--61-byDA-img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-%22sagebrush%22+%22craig%22-------0-----">Dry Farmers Active</a>,” <em>Moffat County Courier</em>, June 1, 1911.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sage Grouse Initiative, “<a href="https://www.wlfw.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/SGI_Sagebrush_PocketGuide_Nov12.pdf">Pocket Guide to Sagebrush</a>.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&amp;d=GRD19180814-01.2.76&amp;srpos=25&amp;e=-------en-20--21--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA-sage+brush+plow-------0-----">The Song of the Sagebrush</a>,” <em>Great Divide</em>, August 14, 1918.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Forest Service, “<a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/rm/boise/research/shrub/Links/SageID.pdf">Sagebrush Identification Guide</a>.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Utah State University, “<a href="https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/sagestep_reports/">Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project: Reports</a>.”</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 08 Feb 2021 22:37:22 +0000 yongli 3527 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Yampa River http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/yampa-river <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Yampa River</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--2308--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--2308.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/early-yampa-river"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Yampa-River-1_0.jpg?itok=_bNyeRO5" width="1000" height="676" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/early-yampa-river" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The Early Yampa River </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>“Panoramic view of frame and log houses, churches and commercial buildings on Lincoln Avenue in Steamboat Springs (Routt County), Colorado. Shows the Yampa River in a valley and snow on mountains in the distance.”</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-02-02T16:41:52-07:00" title="Thursday, February 2, 2017 - 16:41" class="datetime">Thu, 02/02/2017 - 16:41</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/yampa-river" data-a2a-title="Yampa River"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fyampa-river&amp;title=Yampa%20River"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>The Yampa River snakes 250 miles across northwestern Colorado, primarily in <strong><a href="/article/routt-county">Routt</a> </strong>and <a href="/article/moffat-county"><strong>Moffat</strong></a> Counties. Its watershed encompasses approximately 8,000 square miles in Colorado and Wyoming; in Colorado, the river flows through <strong>Craig</strong>, <strong>Hayden</strong>, <strong>Milner</strong>, and <strong>Steamboat Springs</strong>, among other communities. The explorer <a href="/article/john-c-fr%C3%A9mont"><strong>John C. Frémont</strong></a> coined the name Yampa in 1844, after Snake Indians in the region provided him yampah root, or <em>Perideridia gairdneri</em>, for food.</p> <p>The Yampa is regionally important for <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/irrigation-colorado"><strong>irrigation</strong></a>, recreation, and sustaining adjacent ecosystems. It is home to rare and endangered fish species. Compared to many other rivers in the American West, much of the Yampa River’s natural ecosystem remains relatively undisturbed, both biologically and hydrologically. Flow alterations and human modification of the environment along its banks has nonetheless resulted in some degradation. Protection of the river’s biodiversity and ecosystems will help ensure that the Yampa remains a healthy aquatic resource for future generations.</p> <h2>Features</h2> <p>The Yampa River starts high in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/trappers-lake-and-flat-tops-wilderness"><strong>Flat Tops</strong></a> and the <strong>Gore Range</strong> of the <a href="/article/rocky-mountains"><strong>Rocky Mountains</strong></a>, with its headwater streams originating at roughly 11,000 feet. At 7,833 feet, the Bear River and Phillips Creek join near the town of Yampa to form the Yampa River. Running north through Steamboat Springs, the Yampa then turns west and rolls down to Craig in Moffat County. Its major tributaries include the Elk River, the Williams Fork, and its largest branch stream, the Little Snake River. The mouth of the Yampa opens in <a href="/article/echo-park-dam-controversy"><strong>Echo Park</strong></a> in <a href="/article/dinosaur-national-monument"><strong>Dinosaur National Monument</strong></a>, where it joins the <strong>Green River</strong>, a tributary of the <a href="/article/colorado-river"><strong>Colorado</strong></a>.</p> <p>The Yampa’s flow shifts seasonally, depending on precipitation and the previous winter’s <a href="/article/snow"><strong>snowpack</strong></a>. Snowmelt fills its channels in the spring, typically peaking in May. Water levels drop through the summer and into the fall, reaching annual lows between August and October. Streamflow in May 2015 beat the previous record held in 1920; under the Fifth Street Bridge in Steamboat Springs, the stream ran at 2,970 cubic feet per second (CFS). The Yampa is the only stream of its size in the Upper Colorado River Basin whose seasonal flow levels so closely resemble those of its predevelopment period. With upward of 80 percent of the state’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/water-colorado"><strong>water</strong></a> coming from snowmelt, warmer weather and drought may potentially impact the water supply.</p> <h2>Riverine Ecosystem</h2> <p>The Yampa’s natural movement shapes its riverine ecosystems, which support a variety of aquatic and <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/wetlands-and-riparian-areas"><strong>riparian</strong></a> plant communities and wildlife, including the Colorado pikeminnow (<em>Ptychocheilus lucius</em>), the humpback chub (<em>Gila cypha</em>), the bonytail chub (<em>Gila elegans</em>), and the razorback sucker (<em>Xyrauchen texanus</em>), all of which are listed as endangered species. The Colorado River cutthroat trout (<em>Oncorhynchus clarki pleuriticus</em>), a possible addition to the federally endangered species list, also swims the Yampa’s waters.</p> <p>Even though <a href="/article/wetlands-and-riparian-areas"><strong>riparian areas</strong></a> occupy only a small portion of the Colorado landscape, they sustain a large portion of the state’s wildlife. <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/conifers"><strong>Pine and fir</strong></a> forests line the upper reaches of the Yampa, while <strong>cottonwoods</strong> and willow trees dot its lower reaches. Migratory sandhill cranes, nesting blue herons, bald eagles, and other birds are found near the river, as well as <a href="/article/rocky-mountain-elk"><strong>elk</strong></a>, <strong>deer</strong>, antelope, and other big game species. <a href="/article/beaver"><strong>Beaver</strong></a> colonize many parts of the watershed as well.</p> <h2>Water Source</h2> <p>The Yampa River has historically provided water to Native Americans as well as farmers and ranchers. The Snake people—which includes the Bannock and Shoshone tribes—and the White River <a href="/search/google/ute"><strong>Ute</strong></a>, comprised of Parianuche and Yampa (Yamparika, Yampatika) Utes, drank from the river, hunted in the Yampa valley, and gathered food and raw materials for shelter. In the early nineteenth century, fur trappers significantly reduced the area’s <a href="/article/beaver"><strong>beaver</strong></a> populations. The first white settlers in the watershed were the <a href="/article/homestead"><strong>homesteaders</strong></a> and ranchers who founded Steamboat Springs in 1874. Ranching flourished over the next half-century, soon joined by coal mining and tourism. Today, ranching, tourism, and coal mining are still major enterprises in the valley, along with agriculture (beans, beets, corn, lettuce, onions, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, and tomatoes).</p> <p>Commercial use of the river includes tubing, rafting, canoeing, fishing, stand up paddle boarding, and kayaking. While these activities bring in a significant amount of tourism revenue, they are often accompanied by littering, air pollution from vehicles, the introduction of exotic species or sport fishes, and habitat destruction. Agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, as well as pollution from industrial activities such coal mining and oil and gas development also threaten the river’s health. As the Yampa is the lifeblood of the regional economy, federal, state, and local organizations have overseen many conservation measures since the mid-twentieth century.</p> <h2>Conservation Efforts</h2> <p>In the early 1950s, the <a href="/article/bureau-reclamation-colorado"><strong>Bureau of Reclamation</strong></a> proposed two dams within Dinosaur National Monument, one of which would have been constructed immediately downstream at the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers in Echo Park. The <a href="/article/echo-park-dam-controversy"><strong>Echo Park Dam Controversy</strong></a> pitted those who wanted the river canyons of Dinosaur preserved as wilderness and for whitewater recreation against those who wanted to develop hydropower on the rivers of the American West. The proposed dam was defeated by a coalition of conservation groups—most notably the Sierra Club—along with local river runners and concerned citizens across the country, and has been widely recognized as a major milestone in the development of the modern environmental movement.</p> <p>In 1966 the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District was created to undertake water conservation projects to ensure that the river provides enough water to farmers and ranchers. The district built two major water storage facilities: Yamcolo Reservoir and Stagecoach Reservoir. Yamcolo Reservoir was completed in 1980 and stands 109 feet high; the <a href="/article/us-forest-service-colorado"><strong>US Forest Service</strong></a> manages its recreation area. Stagecoach Reservoir, completed in 1988 and standing 145 feet high, generates 800 kilowatts of power; <a href="/article/colorado-parks-and-wildlife"><strong>Colorado Parks &amp; Wildlife</strong></a> manages Stagecoach State Park. The water serves irrigation, municipal, ranching, and industrial uses downstream. These water projects store runoff from winter snows, discharging the water into the stream to augment the Yampa’s low late-season flows. These water projects don’t necessarily alter the overall annual average flow of the river, but they even it out so that there is rarely too little or too much water in the river for agricultural purposes. The riparian ecosystems that depend on seasonal <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/flooding-colorado"><strong>flooding</strong></a>, however, are damaged by the absence of seasonally high water.</p> <p>On a floodplain seventeen miles west of Steamboat Springs, <strong>The Nature Conservancy</strong>’s Yampa River Preserve protects 8,800 acres of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/wetlands-and-riparian-areas"><strong>wetlands</strong></a> along a ten-mile stretch of the river. Under natural conditions, floods erode the riverbanks and deposit new sediments, causing the Yampa to shift to new channels. Channel shifting distributes soil, nutrients, and water to broad swaths of wetlands along the banks and provides food and habitat to plants and animals. The preserve ensures that this historic flood process will continue, thereby protecting the adjacent riparian ecosystem, which depends on these floods. The long-term goal of the Conservancy is to provide conservation-based alternatives to traditional land management practices. It pursues this through conservation easements, assistance with management plans, and cooperative stewardship groups such as <strong>Friends of the Yampa</strong>.</p> <h2>Today</h2> <p>Though the river remains undammed, the Yampa’s water continues to be a desirable resource for thirsty communities on Colorado’s Eastern Slope. The Yampa Pumpback project, a proposal developed by the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, would store 2,000 cubic feet of the Yampa’s annual flow near Maybell. This water would then be pumped 250 miles to <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a> and other cities to support agriculture and the growing population along Colorado’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a>. Environmentalists oppose the authorization of the Yampa Pumpback project because it would negatively affect the free-flowing character of the Yampa, as well as wildlife habitat and recreation. Residents of Colorado’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-slope"><strong>Western Slope</strong></a> also oppose the project; they would prefer to keep the Yampa’s water for further economic development west of the Divide, making the Yampa a site of continuing political controversy in the twenty-first century.</p> <p>As the debate over the pumpback project illustrates, the great number of purposes the Yampa serves jeopardizes its ability to serve any one of them. The river’s many users must work together to ensure that people and the environment continue to benefit from a river so vital to northwest Colorado.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/moore-molly" hreflang="und">Moore, Molly</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/porterfield-sara" hreflang="und">Porterfield, Sara</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/yampa-river" hreflang="en">Yampa River</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/northwest-colorado" hreflang="en">northwest colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/routt-county" hreflang="en">routt county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/moffat-county" hreflang="en">Moffat County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/craig" hreflang="en">Craig</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/echo-park" hreflang="en">echo park</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dinosaur-national-monument" hreflang="en">Dinosaur National Monument</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/steamboat-springs" hreflang="en">Steamboat Springs</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/rafting" hreflang="en">rafting</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/water" hreflang="en">water</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/water-storage" hreflang="en">water storage</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Stewart W. Breck, Kenneth R. Wilson, and Douglas C. Anderson, “Beaver Herbivory of Willow Under Two Flow Regimes: A Comparative Study on the Green and Yampa Rivers,” <em>Western North American Naturalist</em> 63, no. 4 (2003).</p> <p>Susan Bruce, “<a href="https://coloradowatertrust.org/newsroom/colorados-water-demands-conflict-with-efforts-to-preserve-the-yampa-river">Colorado Water Demands Conflict with Efforts to Preserve the Yampa River</a>,” <em>The Denver Post</em>, August 1, 2013.</p> <p>Colorado Parks &amp; Wildlife, “<a href="https://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/parks/YampaRiver">Yampa River</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Colorado State University Extension: Routt County, “Vegetables,” 2007.</p> <p>Kurt Culbertson, Derri Turner, and Judy Kolberg, “Toward a Definition of Sustainable Development in the Yampa Valley of Colorado,” <em>Mountain Research Development </em>13, no. 4 (1993).</p> <p>John Charles Frémont, <em>Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842, And to Oregon and North California in the Years 1843–44</em> (Washington, DC: Blair and Rives, 1845).</p> <p>Friends of the Yampa, “<a href="http://friendsoftheyampa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Yampa-River-Watershed-Planning-Concept-Paper_08_12_11.pdf">Watershed Planning on the Yampa River</a>,” August 12, 2011.</p> <p>Friends of the Yampa, “<a href="https://friendsoftheyampa.com/item/yampa-river-pumpback/">Yampa River Pumpback</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Mark Harvey, <em>A Symbol of Wilderness: Echo Park and the American Environmental Movement</em> (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994).</p> <p>The Nature Conservancy, “<a href="https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/yampa-river-preserve/?redirect=https-301">Colorado: Yampa River Preserve</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>Brian D. Richter and Holly E. Richter, “Prescribing Flood Regimes to Sustain Riparian Ecosystems along Meandering Rivers,” <em>Society for Conservation Biology</em> 14, no. 5 (2000).</p> <p>G. W. Roehm, “<a href="https://coloradoriverrecovery.org/documents-publications/technical-reports/isf/yampa/YampaPlan.pdf">Management Plan for Endangered Fishes in the Yampa River Basin and Environmental Assessment</a>” (Denver: US Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region, 2004).</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&amp;d=CEC19300702-01.2.35">General Fremont’s Trip Thru Routt and Moffat Counties</a>,” <em>Craig Empire Courier</em> (Craig, CO), July 2, 1930.</p> <p>Randall S. Rosenberger and Richard G. Walsh, “Non-Market Value of Western Valley Ranchland Using Contingent Valuation,” <em>Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics </em>22, no. 2 (1997).</p> <p>“<a href="https://www.lenntech.com/rivers-pollution-quality.htm">River Water Quality and Pollution</a>,” Lenntech BV, last modified 2016.</p> <p>Southern Ute Indian Tribe, “<a href="https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/history/">History of the Southern Ute</a>,” 2016.</p> <p>Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program, “<a href="https://coloradoriverrecovery.org/events-news/news/NNF-Q&amp;amp;amp;A-CO-2012.pdf">Nonnative Fish Management</a>,” 2012.</p> <p>Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District, “<a href="https://www.upperyampawater.com/about-us/">About the Upper Yampa Water Conservancy District</a>,” n.d.</p> <p>US Geological Survey, “<a href="https://waterdata.usgs.gov/co/nwis/uv?site_no=09239500">USGS 09239500 Yampa River at Steamboat Springs, CO</a>,” last modified 2016.</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>American Whitewater, “<a href="https://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/River/search/state/rgWT/level/run/atleast/I/atmost/V%252B/sr/1/">What’s Running?</a>”</p> <p>John Fielder and Patrick Tierney, <em>Colorado’s Yampa River: Free Flowing and Wild from the Flat Tops to the Green </em>(N.L: John Fielder Publishing, 2015).</p> <p>Sam T. Finney, “Colorado Pikeminnow (<em>Ptychocheilus lucius</em>) Upstream of Critical Habitat in the Yampa River, Colorado,” <em>Southwestern Association of Naturalists</em> 51, no. 2 (2006).</p> <p>Scott Franz, “<a href="https://www.steamboatpilot.com/explore-steamboat/after-success-of-2013-summer-season-on-the-yampa-river-some-wonder-how-much-usage-is-too-much/">After Success of 2013 Summer Season on the Yampa River, Some Wonder How Much Usage is Too Much</a>,” <em>Steamboat Today</em>, March 13, 2014.</p> <p>Dunbar Hardy, <em>Paddling Colorado: A Guide to the State’s Best Paddling Routes </em>(Guilford, CT: Falcon Guides, 2009).</p> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Thu, 02 Feb 2017 23:41:52 +0000 yongli 2307 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Western Slope http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-slope <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Western Slope</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--uid--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--uid.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--uid.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'username' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> <span lang="" about="/users/yongli" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="">yongli</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/user/username.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--uid.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--created--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--created.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field--created.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'time' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> <time datetime="2017-01-23T16:14:24-07:00" title="Monday, January 23, 2017 - 16:14" class="datetime">Mon, 01/23/2017 - 16:14</time> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/time.html.twig' --> </span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--created.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'addtoany_standard' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * addtoany-standard--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * addtoany-standard--node.html.twig x addtoany-standard.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <span class="a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list" data-a2a-url="http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/western-slope" data-a2a-title="Western Slope"><a class="a2a_dd addtoany_share" href="https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=http%3A%2F%2Fcoloradoencyclopedia.org%2Farticle%2Fwestern-slope&amp;title=Western%20Slope"></a><a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a><a class="a2a_button_email"></a></span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>“A Fantasy land,” “a mystique,” “a state of mind”—these are only some of the expressions used to describe the Western Slope of Colorado, commonly defined as the roughly one-third of the state that lies west of the <a href="/article/great-divide"><strong>Continental Divide</strong></a>. The serpentine divide forms the region’s eastern boundary, running 276 miles from the Wyoming border to New Mexico and separating the Western Slope from Colorado’s more populous <a href="/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a> and the broad <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/san-luis-valley"><strong>San Luis Valley</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Though it is home to 10 percent of Colorado’s residents, the Western Slope contains 33 percent of the state’s land, some of the state’s most popular tourist and recreation areas, and about 70 percent of its <a href="/article/water-colorado"><strong>water</strong></a>. The fact that most of the state’s natural resources lie on Colorado’s west side while most of its residents live in the east has led to tension and conflict, especially over the topic of water diversion.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Those who live west of the divide might say that they feel different from other Coloradans due, in part, to their unique relationship with the area’s rugged terrain, numbing cold, heavy <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/snow"><strong>snow</strong></a>, and stark isolation. Some residents of the Western Slope feel as though their needs and desires are overlooked by a distant state government that does not understand their needs and concerns. Yet, Coloradans are increasingly linked together by shared economic interests as well as a common desire to conserve the landscapes and resources that make the state such a special place to live.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early History</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The Western Slope has been inhabited for more than 10,000 years. From <a href="/article/paleo-indian-period"><strong>Paleo-Indian</strong></a> occupation around 12,000 BC to the era of the <a href="/search/google/Ute"><strong>Ute people</strong></a> (c. AD 1300–1880), the area’s early inhabitants were mostly nomadic hunter-gatherers, who followed large game on seasonal routes between the region’s many elevation zones. Evidence at the <a href="/article/mountaineer-archaeological-site"><strong>Mountaineer Archaeological Site</strong></a> near <strong>Gunnison</strong> indicates that Paleo-Indian peoples occupied the Western Slope as early as 12,000 BC. During the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/archaic-period-colorado"><strong>Archaic Period</strong></a> (6,500 BC–AD 200), <a href="/article/ancestral-puebloans-four-corners-region"><strong>Ancestral Puebloan</strong></a> peoples occupied parts of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-river"><strong>Colorado</strong></a> and <a href="/article/gunnison-river"><strong>Gunnison River</strong></a> basins. Perhaps the most well-known of the Western Slope’s early inhabitants were the Ancestral Puebloan peoples, who lived in the <a href="/article/mesa-verde-national-park-archaeology-and-history"><strong>Mesa Verde</strong></a> and the Four Corners regions from about 350 BC until approximately AD 1300.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Ancestral Puebloans were the first of many farmers in Colorado, relying on crops of maize to supplement their hunting and gathering economies. Their extensive use of <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/irrigation-colorado"><strong>irrigation</strong></a> showed an awareness and understanding of the challenges of farming in an arid environment, but in the late thirteenth century, a period of crippling drought appears to have dealt the decisive blow to a society already suffering from violence due to religious, economic, and political strife. Nevertheless, the lessons these people learned about living in an arid and isolated land would prove instructive to those who followed, particularly the Ute people who moved to the Western Slope after AD 1300.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Utes came to western Colorado from the Great Basin, in what is now eastern California and southern Nevada. Unlike the Ancestral Puebloans, who inherited a rich agricultural tradition, the Utes brought with them to Colorado the hunting-and-gathering way of life known as the Mountain Tradition. As it turned out, that way of life suited them well in the arid parts of the Western Slope, and especially well in the Rocky Mountains’ resource-rich river valleys. Ute people hunted buffalo, <a href="/article/mule-deer"><strong>mule deer</strong></a>, jackrabbit, and <a href="/article/rocky-mountain-elk"><strong>elk</strong></a>, and collected a wide assortment of seeds, nuts, roots, and berries from the landscape. Over centuries they carved well-worn trails throughout the mountains, many of which later became the routes of stage lines, railroads, and highways. Many of the Utes’ favored wintering grounds featuring hot springs, including the areas of present-day <strong>Glenwood Springs</strong>, <a href="/article/pagosa-springs"><strong>Pagosa Springs</strong></a>, and <strong>Steamboat Springs</strong>. Over time, Colorado became home to nine distinct bands of Utes, each of which laid claim to various parts of the state.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Utes held dominion over much of western Colorado until 1880, when most were expelled by the United States government. The <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ute-treaty-1868"><strong>Treaty of 1868</strong></a> left the Utes most of their land west of the Continental Divide in exchange for land along the Front Range and in the San Luis Valley. But several years later, significant gold discoveries in the <a href="/article/san-juan-mountains"><strong>San Juan Mountains</strong></a> compelled the federal government to negotiate the <a href="/article/brunot-agreement"><strong>Brunot Agreement</strong></a>, which brought the San Juans under the jurisdiction of the Colorado Territory. Many Utes were displeased with both agreements, as they were signed by leaders who did not necessarily represent the wishes of each band. In 1879 Utes at the <a href="/article/white-river-ute-indian-agency"><strong>White River Agency</strong></a> near present-day <a href="/article/meeker-0"><strong>Meeker</strong></a> revolted against <a href="/article/indian-agencies-and-agents"><strong>Indian Agent</strong></a> <a href="/article/nathaniel-meeker"><strong>Nathan Meeker</strong></a>, who had attempted to force them into an agricultural life. The incident prompted calls for the Utes’ removal across the state, and in 1880 the government forced the <a href="/article/northern-ute-people-uintah-and-ouray-reservation"><strong>Northern Ute</strong></a> bands to a new reservation in Utah. The <strong>Southern</strong> and <a href="/article/ute-history-and-ute-mountain-ute-tribe"><strong>Ute Mountain Utes</strong></a>, who did not participate in the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/meeker-incident"><strong>Meeker Incident</strong></a>, retained a narrow strip of land near the New Mexico border, where they live today.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Exploration and Fur Trade</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The first Europeans to visit Colorado’s Western Slope were the <a href="/article/spanish-exploration-western-colorado"><strong>Spanish explorers</strong></a> of the mid-eighteenth century, beginning with <a href="/article/juan-antonio-mar%C3%ADa-de-rivera"><strong>Juan de Rivera</strong></a> in 1765 and Fathers Silvestre Escalante and Francisco Domínguez in 1776. The Spanish never made a concerted effort to extend their dominion very far into the Ute homeland, but they did leave a legacy on the Western Slope, including the name for the ruddy river that drained and formed large swathes of the region—the “Rio <a href="/article/colorado-river"><strong>Colorado</strong></a>.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The next wave of foreigners to venture into the Ute lands of western Colorado consisted of European, Canadian, and Anglo-American fur trappers. With thousands of <a href="/article/beaver"><strong>beaver</strong></a> living along the many streams that flowed out of the high mountains, western Colorado offered a bonanza for mountain men during the second quarter of the nineteenth century. In 1828 the St. Louis trapper <strong>Antoine Robidoux</strong> built <a href="/article/fort-uncompahgre"><strong>Fort Uncompahgre</strong></a>, a <a href="/article/nineteenth-century-trading-posts"><strong>trading post</strong></a> near the confluence of the Gunnison and <strong>Uncompahgre</strong> Rivers. The fort was the first of its kind on the Western Slope and served as a supply and trading center for fur trappers in the vicinity. It was also a link between Santa Fé to the south and the beaver-rich country around the Green River to the north.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The center of the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fur-trade-colorado"><strong>fur trade</strong></a> on the Western Slope, however, was <strong>Brown’s Hole</strong> in the extreme northwestern corner of Colorado. The valley got little snow compared to surrounding areas, so it was lush with grass and aspen stands and made a perfect place for suppliers and fur trappers to conduct business in Colorado’s short summers. From the late 1820s to 1840, the annual rendezvous at Brown’s Hole was the scene of extensive trading. In 1836 three trappers built <a href="/article/fort-davy-crockett"><strong>Fort Davy Crockett</strong></a> on the Green River in Brown’s Hole. Isolated and constantly threatened by Native Americans, the fort was referred to as “Fort Misery” by those who traded there. By the early 1840s, the fur trade was all but finished in Western Colorado, due in part to the over-trapping of beaver and a change in fashion tastes abroad. Both Fort Uncompahgre and Fort Davy Crockett were abandoned, marking the end of one of the most colorful eras in Western Colorado’s history.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Early American Era</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Though the fur trade era in this part of Colorado was relatively brief, the trappers who participated in it were among the first Anglo-Americans to truly become familiar with the Western Slope. <strong>Jim Bridger</strong>, <a href="/article/kit-carson"><strong>Kit Carson</strong></a>, and other former trappers later served as guides for official US expeditions into the region, such as those led by <a href="/article/john-c-frémont"><strong>John C. Frémont</strong></a> (1843–53), <a href="/article/john-w-gunnison"><strong>John W. Gunnison</strong></a> (1853), and <strong>John Wesley Powell</strong> (1869).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Collectively, the expeditions of the mid-nineteenth century demonstrated that the terrain of western Colorado was simply far too rugged to allow for a transcontinental railroad route, but each venture helped shed light on major natural features and resources. The <strong>Hayden expedition</strong> of 1872–73 proved especially useful in that regard. Working with telescopes, barometers, and glass-plate cameras, Hayden’s team peered into nearly every nook and cranny of the Western Slope. The maps produced by these surveying expeditions would soon lure mining engineers, road and railroad builders, cattle barons, investors, town builders, and loggers—the drivers of industrialized, expansionist America—to western Colorado.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The <a href="/article/colorado-gold-rush"><strong>Colorado Gold Rush</strong></a> along the Front Range in 1858–59 prompted the organization of <a href="/article/colorado-territory"><strong>Colorado Territory</strong></a> in 1861. Around this time, several Western Slope areas became hotbeds of placer mining—a process that involves sifting out gold from gravel, mostly in streambeds. <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/breckenridge-historic-district"><strong>Breckenridge</strong></a> became one of the great mining towns in western Colorado history, while other mining districts sprang up in the Elk Mountains near present-day <a href="/article/crested-butte"><strong>Crested Butte</strong></a>, in the Gunnison River Valley, and in the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado. These deposits were quickly panned out, but new discoveries over the next several decades would make mining a hallmark industry of the Western Slope.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Unlike the earliest discoveries, most of the gold found on the Western Slope in the 1870s did not lie conveniently at the bottom of streams but was lodged deep within the earth, bonded to quartz and other rock. Nonetheless, as the Ute Indians continued to cede territory in western Colorado, thousands of miners filtered into the <strong>Sawatch</strong>, <strong>Elk</strong>, and San Juan Mountains. Seemingly overnight, mining camps such as <strong>Ouray</strong>, <a href="/article/telluride"><strong>Telluride</strong></a>, <a href="/article/lake-city-0"><strong>Lake City</strong></a>, and <a href="/article/silverton"><strong>Silverton</strong></a> became boom towns. The Gunnison country caught gold fever in 1879, with Crested Butte, Irwin, <strong>Tin Cup</strong>, Gothic, White Pine, and Pitkin becoming booming mining camps. <a href="/article/aspen"><strong>Aspen</strong></a> on the <strong>Roaring Fork River</strong> became one of the greatest silver camps in the United States, while <a href="/article/summit-county"><strong>Summit County</strong></a> continued to churn out both gold and silver.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Booms and Busts in Mining Country</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As Colorado’s early miners found out, cycles of boom and bust have been a fact of life on the Western Slope since the area became part of the United States. Of the subsequent mining booms, coal lasted the longest, as the fuel provided essential energy for other industries, as well as heat, bricks, and electricity for Colorado’s growing towns. Hardy miners, many of them immigrants from southeastern Europe, worked in company towns throughout western Colorado. The work was hard and dangerous, and there was not much value placed on human life. These conditions led to labor strikes and tragic disasters, such as the 1884<strong> Jokerville coal mine</strong> <strong>explosion</strong> near Crested Butte that killed sixty miners. Labor unrest plagued mining areas from the start, and the economic crisis that came with the collapse of silver markets in the early twentieth century hit the San Juan Mountain camps especially hard. In addition to gold, silver, and coal, other minerals had their day in Western Colorado. This included zinc from southeast <a href="/article/eagle-county"><strong>Eagle County</strong></a> and molybdenum, a steel-hardening element, from the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/climax-molybdenum-mine"><strong>Climax Mine</strong></a> north of Leadville.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Compared to the earlier mining booms and the bloody labor disputes that accompanied them, the <a href="/article/uranium-mining"><strong>uranium</strong></a> boom of the mid-twentieth century might seem rather mundane, but it was certainly no less dangerous. An industry unique to the Western Slope, uranium mining was centered in the <strong>Paradox Valley</strong> near the town of <strong>Nucla</strong> in <a href="/article/montrose-county"><strong>Montrose County</strong></a>. Uranium, an essential element in nuclear weapons, was found in the valley during the late nineteenth century, and North America’s first radioactive metals mill was built on La Sal Creek in 1900. This boom peaked in the 1950s, when nuclear energy was considered by many to be a savior in a world seeking cheaper, more efficient fuel. As the uranium mining industry declined in the 1960s and 1970s, evidence of radioactive contamination in the bodies of industry workers and in the environments of former mine and mill sites began to mount. Today, many places in western Colorado still grapple with the environmental and health effects of uranium mining.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>In the 1970s, another brief boom period began when the federal government and private companies took steps to develop massive oil shale deposits in western Colorado. The deposits were located in the Piceance Basin near Meeker. In 1969 and 1973, as part of its <strong>Operation Plowshare</strong> program, the federal Atomic Energy Commission oversaw the subterranean detonation of nuclear devices near Rifle in an attempt to free deposits of oil and gas from surrounding rock. The blasts failed to free sufficient amounts of the resources, so no significant extraction occurred afterward. In general, extracting oil from subterranean rock proved to be more expensive than expected, and by the early 1980s world events and a drop in oil prices brought an abrupt end to the boom. Exxon and other oil companies pulled out of the region, taking thousands of jobs with them.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Agriculture and Tourism</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Following Ute removal in the early 1880s, farmers and ranchers joined miners on the Western Slope. <a href="/article/grand-junction"><strong>Grand Junction</strong></a>, <strong>Delta</strong>, and <strong>Montrose</strong> sprang up in 1881 and 1882, as did <strong>Glenwood Springs</strong> at the junction of the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers. Above the Colorado River, northwestern Colorado remained unsettled except for ranchers. Here and there, small towns sprang up for a variety of reasons. Steamboat Springs, <strong>Craig</strong>, <strong>Gunnison</strong>, and <strong>Yampa </strong>became cattle towns, while to the south, <strong>Durango</strong> prospered as a center for transportation, ore smelting, and agriculture.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Irrigation was critical to the success of many towns on the Western Slope. Colorado’s aridity hampered farming and ranching from the outset, so farmers around Grand Junction, Montrose, and other early agricultural communities dug ditches to water their crops. By the turn of the century, the newly created federal <a href="/article/bureau-reclamation-colorado"><strong>Bureau of Reclamation</strong></a> greatly expanded the amount of irrigated land on the Western Slope. The bureau’s Uncompahgre Project was the first major reclamation effort in Colorado and one of the earliest in the American West. In 1909 the bureau completed the project’s linchpin, the <strong>Gunnison Tunnel</strong>, a six-mile underground cavern that diverted Gunnison River water underneath Vernal Mesa to the Uncompahgre Valley near Montrose. With the help of irrigation, western Colorado soon became well known for its produce. The fruit industry—centering around <strong>Fruita</strong>, <strong>Palisade</strong>, <strong>Paonia</strong>, Cedaredge, and Hotchkiss—became world famous.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Unlike the early years of agriculture, the early years of ranching on the Western Slope were contentious as conflict between the region’s cattle and sheep ranchers broke out in the northwest part of the state over which livestock could feed on the best grazing territory. Ranchers in southwest Colorado, meanwhile, complained of Ute Indians leaving the Southern and Ute Mountain Ute Reservations to butcher cattle. Tensions between cattlemen and Utes who left the reservation sometimes flared into violence, as demonstrated by the <a href="/article/beaver-creek-massacre"><strong>Beaver Creek Massacre</strong></a> in 1885. Changes came to the region’s cattle industry in the twentieth century. In 1905 much of the land on the western slope came under the protection of the <a href="/article/us-forest-service-colorado"><strong>US Forest Service</strong></a>, which began charging grazing fees for cattle and sheep on the federal range. The furious stockmen fought the government to no avail, and in 1934 the <strong>Taylor Grazing Act</strong>, which later evolved into the <strong>Bureau of Land Management</strong>, further curtailed grazing on the public range. The involvement of the federal government proved to be an omen of things to come, as federal regulations ensured better conservation of federal lands even as it irked many ranchers.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Along with the removal of the Utes and the arrival of irrigation, there was one more ingredient needed to ensure the economic success of the Western Slope. In 1881 the <strong>Denver &amp; Rio Grande Railroad </strong>arrived in Durango and Gunnison, followed in 1882 by <a href="/article/john-evans"><strong>John Evan</strong><strong>s</strong></a>’s Denver, South Park &amp; Pacific railroad, facilitating the transport of mineral ores and supplies. The railroads also brought tourists who flocked to the Western Slope during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Tourist dollars allowed former mining towns such as Aspen, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, and Telluride to rebuild their economies and evolve into the cultural and recreational hubs we know today. The advent of the automobile and the construction of high-quality paved roads during the mid-twentieth century made Western Slope mountain towns more accessible than ever, propelling the growth of Colorado’s <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ski-industry"><strong>ski industry</strong></a>.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Water Wars</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>The ski industry and other recreational activities in western Colorado greatly depend on the region’s water supply. The Western Slope holds the source of the <a href="/article/yampa-river"><strong>Yampa</strong></a>, <strong>White</strong>, <strong>Dolores</strong>, <strong>San Juan</strong>, Gunnison, Eagle, Roaring Fork, Animas and Uncompahgre Rivers. Yet, as important as all these rivers are to their local environments and communities, they are all tributaries to the mighty Colorado River, the most important river in the southwestern United States. That designation has come at a high cost to the river; even though 70 percent of its water originates in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, much of that water has been diverted to support urban growth and agriculture on Colorado’s Front Range as well as in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Tensions between water users run high in the western United States, but perhaps nowhere do they run higher than in Colorado. Most of the state’s water is in the Western Slope, but the majority of the population lives on the eastern side of the mountains, so Coloradans have built major diversions projects such as the <strong>Moffat Tunnel</strong>, Roberts Tunnel, Fryingpan-Arkansas Project, and the <a href="/article/colorado%e2%80%93big-thompson-project"><strong>Colorado–Big Thompson Project</strong> </a>to move water underneath the Continental Divide to Boulder, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fort-collins"><strong>Fort Collins</strong></a>, Denver, and other cities. These and other transmountain diversion projects have been met with anger by residents of the Western Slope. They not only question the ecological wisdom of draining their watersheds but are also troubled by the fact that the economically and politically dominant urban corridor along the Front Range has unfairly used its influence to obtain the lion’s share of Colorado’s water.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>As author and photographer David Lavender wrote in his 1976 book <em>Colorado</em>, the Western Slope “is a human as well as a physiographic entity,” and residents “like to think that while shaping the land, they have been shaped by it: by its long vistas, its angularity, even its stubbornness.” Perhaps nowhere else in the state is the convergence of human culture and landscape more apparent than on Colorado’s Western Slope. As Coloradans continue to grapple with the unpredictable economic and ecological effects of a changing <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-climate"><strong>climate</strong></a>, the rugged heartiness of the Western Slope’s residents will certainly be tested. Yet, the region’s traditions of innovation and determination will serve it well, and its residents will continue to take pride in the good things they have managed to wrest from the land.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>This article is an abbreviated and updated version of the author’s essay “A Land Apart,” distributed in 2006 as part of <strong>Colorado Humanities</strong>’ “Five States of Colorado” educational resource kit.</em></p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/vandenbusche-duane" hreflang="und">Vandenbusche, Duane</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/river" hreflang="en">river</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/bureau-reclamation" hreflang="en">bureau of reclamation</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/glenwood-springs" hreflang="en">Glenwood Springs</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/garfield-county" hreflang="en">Garfield County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/rio-blanco-county" hreflang="en">rio blanco county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/moffat-county" hreflang="en">Moffat County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/aspen" hreflang="en">Aspen</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/breckenridge" hreflang="en">Breckenridge</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/summit-county" hreflang="en">Summit County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/eagle-county" hreflang="en">eagle county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/san-juan-county" hreflang="en">san juan county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/silverton" hreflang="en">Silverton</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/telluride" hreflang="en">Telluride</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/durango" hreflang="en">Durango</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/la-plata-county" hreflang="en">la plata county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/montezuma-county" hreflang="en">montezuma county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/gunnison-county" hreflang="en">gunnison county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/ouray-county" hreflang="en">ouray county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dolores-county" hreflang="en">dolores county</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/uranium" hreflang="en">uranium</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/exxon" hreflang="en">exxon</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/oil-shale" hreflang="en">oil shale</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/coal" hreflang="en">coal</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/craig" hreflang="en">Craig</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/meeker" hreflang="en">meeker</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Arthur Chapman, <em>The Story of Colorado: Out Where the West Begins</em> (Chicago, New York: Rand, McNally and Company, 1924).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>David Lavender, <em>David Lavender’s Colorado</em> (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Department of Energy, “<a href="http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph241/powell1/docs/rioblanco.pdf">Rio Blanco, Colorado Site Fact Sheet</a>,” 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Department of Energy, “<a href="http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph241/powell1/docs/rulison.pdf">Rulison, Colorado Site Fact Sheet</a>,” 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Duane Vandenbusche, <em>The Gunnison Country </em>(Gunnison, CO: B&amp;B Printers, 1980).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Duane Vandenbusche and Duane Smith, <em>A Land Alone: Colorado’s Western Slope </em>(Boulder, CO: Pruett, 1981).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Greg Abbott, Stephen J. Leonard, and David McComb, <em>Colorado: A History of the Centennial State</em>, 5th ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2013).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado.com Staff, "<a href="https://www.colorado.com/articles/10-western-colorado-fly-fishing-spots">10 Western Colorado Fly-Fishing Spots</a>," Colorado Tourism, 2017.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Peter McBride and Jonathan Waterman, <em>The Colorado River: Flowing through Conflict </em>(Boulder, CO: Westcliffe, 2010).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Jonathan Waterman, <em>Running Dry: A Journey from Source to Sea down the Colorado River </em>(Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2010).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Mon, 23 Jan 2017 23:14:24 +0000 yongli 2210 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org Moffat County http://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/moffat-county <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--encyclopedia-article.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Moffat County</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: x field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-article-image.html.twig * field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-article-image.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--field-article-image--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div id="carouselEncyclopediaArticle" class="carousel slide" data-bs-ride="true"> <div class="carousel-inner"> <div class="carousel-item active"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--1126--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--1126.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/moffat-county"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Moffat_0.png?itok=YB1NjE36" width="1090" height="789" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/moffat-county" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Moffat County</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--image.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--body.html.twig x field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Moffat County, formed in 1911, is named for railroad mogul David Moffat.</p> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--text-with-summary.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--938--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--938.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/tiger-wall-yampa-canyon-dinosaur-national-monument-colorado"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/Tiger-Wall-Yampa-Canyon-Dinosaur-National-Monument-Colorado-John-Fielder_0.jpg?itok=zx6Lj1cv" width="1090" height="818" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/tiger-wall-yampa-canyon-dinosaur-national-monument-colorado" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--title.html.twig * field--string.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Tiger Wall, Yampa Canyon, Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado</span> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field--node--title.html.twig' --> </a></h5> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> </div> <div class="carousel-item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * node--695--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--695.html.twig x node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig * node--image.html.twig * node--article-detail-image.html.twig * node.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/content/node--image--article-detail-image.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image--image.html.twig * field--node--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * field--field-encyclopedia-image.html.twig * field--image.html.twig x field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-encyclopedia-image field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_formatter' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> <a href="/image/detail-dinosaur-wall"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image_style' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'image' --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <img loading="lazy" src="/sites/default/files/styles/wide/public/4bc0eb68871a0c3f4c162a104ede6d5a_0.jpg?itok=d5QGFkib" width="800" height="600" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-wide" /> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-style.html.twig' --> </a> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/image-formatter.html.twig' --> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/field/field.html.twig' --> <div class="carousel-caption d-none d-md-block"> <h5><a href="/image/detail-dinosaur-wall" rel="bookmark"> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--title--image.html.twig x field--node--title.html.twig * field--node--image.html.twig * 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'modules/contrib/addtoany/templates/addtoany-standard.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--body--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--body.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--body.html.twig * field--text-with-summary.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item" id="id-body"><p>Moffat County, named for <a href="/article/denver"><strong>Denver</strong></a> mining and railroad mogul <a href="/article/david-h-moffat"><strong>David Moffat</strong></a>, covers 4,751 square miles of Colorado’s northwest corner. It sits on the northern edge of the <strong>Colorado Plateau</strong> and is bordered by the state of Wyoming to the north, <a href="/article/routt-county"><strong>Routt County</strong></a> to the east, <strong><a href="/article/rio-blanco-county">Rio Blanco County</a> </strong>to the south, and the state of Utah to the west. The <a href="/article/yampa-river"><strong>Yampa River</strong></a> flows west through the county seat of <strong>Craig</strong> and meets the Green River in <strong><a href="/article/dinosaur-national-monument">Dinosaur National Monument</a> </strong>near the Utah border. The county is the second-largest in Colorado and has a population of 14,000.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>US Route 40 and State Highway 13 are the only major highways; US 40 runs east-west from Craig into Utah, and Highway 13 runs north-south from <a href="/article/meeker-0"><strong>Meeker</strong></a>, through Craig, and into Wyoming. The county economy is mostly supported by energy development, including coal mining and natural gas drilling, although ranching and agriculture also contribute.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Native Americans</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>From about the mid-sixteenth through the late nineteenth century, the area of present-day Moffat County was primarily inhabited by a band of <a href="/article/northern-ute-people-uintah-and-ouray-reservation"><strong>Utes</strong></a> called the Yampa, or “root eaters.” Two other Ute bands, the Uintah in present-day Utah and the Parianuche of the White River Valley, also ranged into the Moffat County area. The Yampa Utes occupied the Yampa and White River valleys, and ranged south into the Flattop Mountains and north along the Little Snake River into southern Wyoming.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>All three Ute bands fished and hunted <a href="/article/rocky-mountain-elk"><strong>elk</strong></a>, <a href="/article/mule-deer"><strong>deer</strong></a>, and other mountain game. They also gathered a wide assortment of roots, including the versatile yucca root, and wild berries. They were seasonal nomads, following game such as elk and <a href="/article/mule-deer"><strong>mule deer</strong></a> into the high mountain parks in the summer and returning to lower elevations for the winter.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Trappers, Surveyors, and Ranchers</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>From the 1820s to the early 1840s, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/fur-trade-colorado"><strong>fur</strong></a> trappers frequented the Green River valley in what is now northwestern Moffat County, trading at <strong>Antoine </strong><strong>Robidoux</strong>’s Fort Uintah in Utah. After 1848, prospectors used the valley and nearby Browns Park as wintering grounds for cattle herds on the way to the California gold fields. A bit of gold was found in the Moffat County area in the early 1860s, but the lack of transportation and the lure of richer lodes along the <a href="/article/front-range"><strong>Front Range</strong></a> prevented the formation of an industry. Cattle ranchers, the first permanent settlers, arrived in 1870.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Colorado joined the Union in 1876. Around the same time, the <strong>Hayden Surveys</strong> confirmed the lack of gold and other minerals in the Moffat County area, but noted the rich coal beds in the southeastern section. At this time, the county’s area formed the westernmost part of a very large <a href="/article/grand-county"><strong>Grand County</strong></a>, which stretched northwest from the <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/great-divide"><strong>Continental Divide</strong></a> to Utah. Building on the legacy of the transient gold seekers, cattle ranchers dominated the Moffat County region from the 1880s through the early 1900s. By the 1910s, however, their grazing lands were infringed on by <a href="/article/homestead"><strong>homesteaders</strong></a> lured by the prospects of dry-land farming and by regulations that favored sheep ranchers. Most Moffat County ranchers today raise some combination of cattle, sheep, and crops.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Ute Removal</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In <a href="/article/ute-treaty-1868"><strong>1868 a treaty</strong></a> granted the Utes a reservation that encompassed almost the entire western third of Colorado, with its northern boundary located just south of today’s Moffat County. The treaty was not signed by all of Colorado’s Ute bands, and many Utes continued to travel extensively across the state to hunt and trade. But the expansion of mining and railroads across the Rockies meant that the Utes increasingly found their winter campsites, including the Yampa valley, occupied by whites. The Utes were pushed closer to a breaking point as their resources dwindled and supplies promised by the US government rarely arrived on time or at all.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The breaking point finally arrived in the fall 1879, when Utes at the <a href="/article/white-river-ute-indian-agency"><strong>White River Indian Agency</strong></a> in present-day Rio Blanco County rebelled against Indian Agent <a href="/article/nathaniel-meeker"><strong>Nathan C. Meeker</strong></a>, killing him and ten other agency employees. The <a href="/article/meeker-incident"><strong>Meeker Incident</strong></a> terrified whites all over Colorado and prompted swift retaliation by the US government. A new treaty in 1880 arranged for the Utes to leave western Colorado, and by 1882 the army gradually shunted those remaining onto a new reservation in eastern Utah.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Utes' expulsion led to the establishment of many towns in northwest Colorado, including Craig, the future seat of Moffat County, in 1889.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>County Development</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>By 1893 the Western Slope Congress, an organization that pushed for economic growth in western Colorado, complained that coal beds in the northwest part of the state were still undeveloped. Lack of transportation remained the major obstacle. In 1902 David Moffat, a Denver entrepreneur worth some $25 million, financed a rail line that would run through the Yampa valley and link Denver with Salt Lake City. Moffat’s plan hinged on getting the line, nicknamed the “<a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/denver-northwestern-pacific-railway-hill-route-moffat-road"><strong>Moffat Road</strong></a>,” to the Yampa valley so he could tap the coal reserves that would fund the line’s completion.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Construction began in 1903. Settlers flocked to present-day Routt and Moffat Counties in anticipation of the railroad’s arrival. It stalled at <strong>Steamboat Springs</strong> in 1909, after Moffat and his investors ran out of money. Under new leadership, it reached Craig in 1913. The road had reached the coalfields of the upper Yampa, but the mines were in the early stages of development and did not generate the revenue needed to push the railroad westward. Nevertheless, the line to Craig opened the Yampa valley to the rest of the state, and the town became an important cattle-shipping hub.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Moffat died poor in 1911, having spent his entire fortune on his dream of a railroad fueled by northwest Colorado coal. That year, his name was given to the lands his railroad helped open; state legislators carved Moffat County from the western two-thirds of Routt County. The town of Craig, incorporated in 1908, was designated the county seat.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Agriculture</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>In the decade after the Moffat Road arrived in Craig, eastern Moffat County experienced an agricultural boom. Homesteaders moved into the area, hoping to provision ranchers and coal miners with wheat and other crops. The first farmers worked tirelessly to clear the land of stubborn native <a href="/article/sagebrush"><strong>sagebrush</strong></a>. By 1914 they had planted 5,000 acres of dry (non-irrigated) farmland, an amount that increased to 131,000 by 1925.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The Great Divide Homestead Colony northwest of Craig represents the high hopes and disappointment that came with this and nearly every other boom period in Moffat County. Dry-land farming booster Volney T. Hoggatt secured some 275,000 acres for the colony, and the first settlers arrived in 1916. They had some initial success but were eventually plagued by poor soil quality and lack of water. Although it survived into the 1930s, the colony never became the large, productive farming community that many hoped it would.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This disappointment was not limited to farmers at Hoggatt’s colony; it soon became clear that the railroad and coal industry were not going to produce the kind of population explosion that many expected, and by the early 1930s most homesteaders had either abandoned their farmland or turned it back into pasture. Agriculture continued to struggle in the county over the next few decades until wheat prices rose during the 1970s.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Dinosaur National Monument</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As the area’s first farms were being set up, a major paleontological discovery was made in western Moffat County. In 1909, on a fossil hunt funded by the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, paleontologist Earl Douglass noticed eight dinosaur backbones sticking out of a hill in eastern Utah. The bones belonged to <em>Apatosaurus</em>, a long-necked leaf eater that lived during the Jurassic Period some 150 million years ago. Six years later, the most complete<em> Apatosaurus </em>skeleton ever found was on display at the Carnegie Museum, and President Woodrow Wilson declared Douglass’s quarry site a national monument. By the time the museum decided its collection was complete in 1922, the site had expanded into Moffat County and sent more than 700,000 tons of fossil material.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Visitors to the site can also view <a href="/article/rock-art-colorado"><strong>petroglyphs</strong></a> drawn by the <a href="/article/fremont-culture"><strong>Fremont</strong> <strong>culture</strong></a>, a people who lived in the Colorado and Utah area nearly 1,000 years ago. On account of its large fossil collection, <a href="https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/rock-art-colorado"><strong>rock art</strong></a>, and natural beauty, Dinosaur National Monument remains one of the most popular tourist destinations in Colorado. It is accessible via US Route 40, which was completed in the early 1920s.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Coal Mining</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>Moffat County’s rich geology held more than just dinosaur bones. With the arrival of the Moffat Road in 1913, the coal beds in southeast Moffat County could finally be tapped. Between 1922 and 1955, Moffat County mines produced more than 1.8 million tons of coal, including a peak period of more than 100,000 tons annually between 1943 and 1951. Increasing energy demand throughout the 1960s spurred another coal boom in eastern Moffat County during the 1970s. The Colorado-Ute Electric Association built a power plant in Craig, and the town’s population grew from 4,205 in 1970 to 7,715 in 1978.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Statewide coal production hit its peak at 40 million tons in 2004, but has been steadily declining since. Moffat County’s three remaining coal mines—the Deserado near Dinosaur, Colowyo Mine southwest of the tiny town of Hamilton, and Trapper Mining’s surface mine near Craig—have not escaped this downward trend. In 2013 production declined about 19 percent from the year before. Coal mining remains the most important part of the Moffat County economy, even as health care and retail have joined it as the top three local industries.</p>&#13; &#13; <h2>Today</h2>&#13; &#13; <p>As coal production has slowed, oil and natural gas developments have diversified Moffat County’s energy economy. Oil production increased from from 20,000 barrels in 2005 to 40,000 in 2013. In 2013 natural gas production in Moffat County held steady compared to previous years, turning out an average of 1.3 billion cubic feet per month. Now operating under Tri-State Generation &amp; Transmission, Craig’s power plant employs about 300 people and generates 653 megawatts of electricity, powering hundreds of thousands of homes.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>The county’s nearly 2 million acres of public lands have also drawn more tourists over the past few years, helping to support the lodging and retail industries. About 6,000 more people visited Moffat County in 2013 than in 2012. In the future, tourism will likely play a more important role in the county’s economy, as the energy industry continues to be susceptible to market fluctuations.</p>&#13; </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-author--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-author.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-author.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-author field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-author"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-author">Author</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-author"><a href="/author/encyclopedia-staff" hreflang="und">Encyclopedia Staff</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-keyword--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-keyword.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-keyword.html.twig * field--entity-reference.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-keyword field--type-entity-reference field--label-above" id="id-field-keyword"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-keyword">Keywords</div> <div class='field__items'> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/moffat-county" hreflang="en">Moffat County</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/craig" hreflang="en">Craig</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/dinosaur-national-monument" hreflang="en">Dinosaur National Monument</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/northwest-colorado" hreflang="en">northwest colorado</a></div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-keyword"><a href="/keyword/david-moffat" hreflang="en">david moffat</a></div> </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'links__node' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * links--node.html.twig x links--inline.html.twig * links--node.html.twig * links.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/contrib/bootstrap_barrio/templates/navigation/links--inline.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-references-html--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-references-html.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-references-html.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-references-html field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-references-html"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-references-html">References</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-references-html"><p>Carl Abbott, Stephen J. Leonard, and Dave McComb, <em>Colorado: A History of the Centennial State </em>3rd ed. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 1994).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Frederic J. Athearn, <em>An Isolated Empire: A History of Northwestern Colorado </em>(Denver: Bureau of Land Management, 1982).</p>&#13; &#13; <p> “Moffat County,” <em>Colorado County Histories Notebook </em>(Denver: History Colorado, 1994).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Steven F. Mehls, and Carol Drake Mehls, <em>Routt and Moffat Counties, Colorado, Coal Mining Historic Context </em>(Lafayette, CO: Western Historical Studies, 1991).</p>&#13; &#13; <p>National Park Service, “<a href="https://www.nps.gov/dino/learn/historyculture/douglass.htm">Earl Douglass</a>,” n.d.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Stephanie Paige Ogburn, “<a href="https://www.kunc.org/business/2014-10-31/after-more-mine-layoffs-pondering-whats-next-for-colorado-coal-country">After More Mine Layoffs, Pondering What’s Next For Colorado Coal Country</a>,” <em>KUNC, </em>October 31, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Noelle Leavitt Riley, “<a href="https://www.craigdailypress.com/news/economic-indicator-report-shows-diversity-in-routt-and-moffat-counties/">Economic Indicator Report Shows Diversity in Routt and Moffat Counties</a>,” <em>Craig Daily Press</em>, April 23, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Noelle Leavitt Riley, “<a href="https://www.craigdailypress.com/news/moffat-countys-lodging-industry-suffers-during-1st-quarter-of-2014/">Moffat County’s Lodging Industry Suffers During 1st Quarter of 2014</a>,” <em>Craig Daily News</em>, July 19, 2014.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Virginia McConnell Simmons, <em>The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico </em>(Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2000).</p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <!-- THEME DEBUG --> <!-- THEME HOOK: 'field' --> <!-- FILE NAME SUGGESTIONS: * field--node--field-additional-information-htm--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--node--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig x field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig * field--field-additional-information-htm.html.twig * field--text-long.html.twig * field.html.twig --> <!-- BEGIN OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> <div class="field field--name-field-additional-information-htm field--type-text-long field--label-above" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"> <div class="field__label" id="id-field-additional-information-htm">Additional Information</div> <div class="field__item" id="id-field-additional-information-htm"><p>Colorado Mining Association, “<a href="https://www.coloradomining.org/mining-in-colorado/">Mining in Colorado</a>.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="https://www.craig-chamber.com/">Craig Chamber of Commerce</a></p>&#13; &#13; <p>Museum of Northwest Colorado, “<a href="https://museumnwco.org/oral_histories_">Moffat County Oral Histories</a>.”  </p>&#13; &#13; <p>National Park Service, “<a href="https://www.nps.gov/dino/learn/historyculture/index.htm">History and Culture: Dinosaur National Monument</a>.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p><a href="http://nwcoloradoheritagetravel.org/">Northwest Colorado Cultural Heritage</a></p>&#13; </div> </div> <!-- END OUTPUT from 'themes/custom/encyclopedia/templates/field/field--node--encyclopedia-article.html.twig' --> Wed, 24 Feb 2016 22:54:06 +0000 yongli 1125 at http://coloradoencyclopedia.org