Colorado River: A Hardworking Waterway
Alright, let’s talk about the Colorado River. It’s not just some pretty stream; it’s a major player in the American Southwest and northern Mexico. This river has been carving its path across the land for over six million years! Imagine that – longer than any of us can even fathom.
From Rocky Mountain High to the Sea
The whole adventure starts way up high in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park. From there, the river takes a wild ride, dropping about 10,000 feet as it snakes its way down to the Gulf of California. Along the way, it’s like a super-highway for life, supporting all kinds of habitats and ecosystems, from mountain forests to desert landscapes.
Seriously, this river is a lifeline. In a part of the country where water is gold, the Colorado River is what keeps about 40 million people going. It’s not just people, either; endangered wildlife depend on it too. We’re talking about irrigation for farms, water for cities, and even the power that lights up our homes. But here’s the kicker: we might be loving this river a little too much. All that water we’re guzzling, plus some old-school management practices, are putting the Colorado River in danger.
From Grand Beginnings to "Reddish" Waters
Originally, folks knew it as the Grand River. It starts out as a chilly mountain stream, perfect for trout, but it quickly morphs into the classic Western river we all picture. Think jagged gorges and wide-open ranchlands, all part of its 1,450-mile journey.
The river and its tributaries run through parts of seven states – Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming – and also serve 30 tribal nations. It’s the fifth-longest river in the United States. The name "Colorado" comes from the Spanish word for "colored reddish," a nod to the river’s often muddy hue.
It carves through some of the most stunning landscapes on Earth – desert canyons, buttes, and mesas. But then, bam! It gets all bottled up and used up by farms and cities. In fact, the last 100 miles of the river have been dry as a bone since the 1960s. It hardly ever makes it to the sea anymore.
A River of Many Faces
The Colorado River’s drainage area is like a greatest hits album of natural environments. You’ve got alpine tundra, pine forests, semi-arid plateaus, canyons, and then those classic desert scenes with creosote bushes and cacti. And, of course, the animals change with the scenery. You’ll find elk, mountain sheep, and mountain lions up high, while beavers, muskrats, and bald eagles hang out near the water, especially where there are willows and cottonwood trees.
A History Etched in Stone and Water
Okay, let’s rewind a bit and talk about the people who’ve called this river home for ages.
Native Peoples: The Original Stewards
Native Americans have been living in the Colorado River Basin for thousands of years. The first were probably Paleo-Indians from the Clovis and Folsom cultures, showing up around 12,000 years ago. But it wasn’t until the Desert Archaic Culture came along (about 8,000 to 2,000 years ago) that we see more people in the area. These folks were nomads, moving around to find plants and hunt animals.
Then you’ve got the Ancient Puebloans (aka the Anasazi) in the Four Corners region. They were part of that Desert Archaic culture, and they first showed up around 1200 B.C. They were big in the San Juan River Basin, with their main hub in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. They built these incredible multi-story pueblos, or "great houses." Pueblo Bonito, the biggest, had over 600 rooms!
The Hohokam culture was chilling along the middle Gila River around 1 A.D. By 600 or 700 A.D., they were doing some serious irrigation, more than any other native group in the basin. They built a massive system of canals on the Gila and Salt Rivers, maybe 180 to 300 miles long, able to water 25,000 to 250,000 acres. At their peak, the Puebloans numbered between 6,000 and 15,000, and the Hohokam might have been anywhere from 30,000 to 200,000!
Another early group was the Fremont culture, around from 2,000 to 700 years ago. They might have been the first to grow crops and build stone houses. They also left behind a ton of rock art and petroglyphs, which is pretty cool.
The Navajo showed up around 1025 A.D., moving south from the north. They became the big dogs in the basin, spreading out over parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado – the original homelands of the Puebloans. The Navajo learned farming from the Puebloans before their civilization collapsed in the 14th century.
Of course, there were plenty of other tribes with a long-term connection to the river. The Mohave lived along the lower Colorado River, fishing and farming using the river’s floods. The Ute were in the northern basin for at least 2,000 years. And then you have the Apache, Cocopa, Havasupai, Hualapai, Maricopa, Pima, and Quechan, just to name a few.
These folks used the land, sometimes a lot. They cut down trees and used other resources. Building irrigation canals might have changed the rivers themselves. Rivers like the Gila and Salt used to be shallow streams with lots of plants and floodplains. But over time, floods started cutting into the canals, which then made the streams turn into deep ditches, making farming harder. They tried to fix it with dams, but when a big drought hit in the 14th century, the ancient civilizations just couldn’t hang on. Some Puebloans moved to the Rio Grande Valley, becoming the ancestors of the Hopi, Zuni, Laguna, and Acoma people. Many of the tribes that Europeans met were descended from these survivors, while others had been there for a long time or moved in from elsewhere.
European Exploration: The Hunt for Gold and More
In the 1500s, the Spanish started showing up, mapping and claiming the land. They were initially looking for the Seven Cities of Gold, or "Cibola," which turned out to be a myth. Francisco de Ulloa was probably the first European to see the Colorado River, sailing to the top of the Gulf of California in 1536.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado’s expedition (1540-1542) was also after Cibola. But when they heard about a big river to the west, he sent García López de Cárdenas to find it. With help from Hopi Indians, Cárdenas and his crew were the first outsiders to see the Grand Canyon. But Cárdenas wasn’t too impressed, thinking the river was only six feet wide and those huge rock formations were just the size of a man. They tried to get down to the river but failed and gave up.
Also in 1540, Hernando de Alarcón sailed up the river, maybe as far as the California-Arizona border, trying to bring supplies to Coronado. Coronado never made it to the Gulf, and Alarcón eventually left. Melchior Díaz reached the delta that same year, naming the river Rio del Tizon ("Firebrand River") after seeing the natives using fire to keep warm. The name "Tizon" stuck around for 200 years.
The Spanish introduced sheep and goats to the Navajo, who came to depend on them. By the mid-16th century, the Ute brought horses into the basin, which they got from the Spanish. Horses made hunting, travel, and warfare easier for the tribes.
From the 17th century on, Europeans changed the lives of Native Americans. Missionaries tried to convert them to Christianity. Father Eusebio Francisco Kino explored the Gila and Colorado Rivers to see if California was an island or a peninsula. Kino was the first to call the river the "Rio Colorado" ("Red River") on his maps, realizing that California was a peninsula in 1700-1702.
European and American Exploration: A New Wave of Change
As more Europeans and Americans moved in, things got tense, and many Native Americans were forced off their land. Jedediah Smith, a mountain man, reached the lower Colorado River in 1826. He called it the "Seedskeedee," believing it was a continuation of the Green River. John C. Frémont’s expedition in 1843 proved that there was no river crossing the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada.
Even after the U.S. took over most of the watershed in 1846, much of the river was still unknown. Several expeditions mapped the Colorado River in the mid-19th century, including John Wesley Powell’s, which was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon.
After the Mexican-American War, Kit Carson led U.S. military forces in forcing over 8,000 Navajo people from their homes in the Long Walk of the Navajo. They were marched to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and many died along the way. Four years later, the Navajo signed a treaty and moved to a reservation in the Four Corners region, now the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the U.S.
Until the mid-19th century, the Colorado and Green Rivers were largely unexplored due to their remote location and dangerous rapids. There were rumors of huge waterfalls, and Native American stories added to the mystery.
Between 1850 and 1854, the U.S. Army explored the lower Colorado River, looking for a cheaper way to supply Fort Yuma. They eventually decided that a shallow-draft steamboat was the way to go.
Lorenzo Sitgreaves led the first mission across northern Arizona to the Colorado River in 1851.
In 1852, George Alonzo Johnson and his partner brought supplies to the river’s mouth. They poled barges up the river, but one sank, and the other barely made it to Fort Yuma.
Finally, in 1852, the Uncle Sam, a steamboat, became the first on the Colorado River. It made many trips, proving that steamboats could solve Fort Yuma’s supply problem.
The second expedition across the Colorado River was the 1853-1854 Pacific Railroad Survey expedition.
George Alonzo Johnson and his partners then brought the General Jesup, a more powerful steamboat, to the river in 1854. This boat was successful, making round trips to Fort Yuma in just four or five days.
Mormon settlers were among the first to establish a permanent presence in the watershed in 1855-1856.
In 1857, Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives led an expedition to explore the Colorado River. They traveled up the river in the U.S.S. Explorer, but Ives declared that the river would forever be unvisited and undisturbed.
Steamboats quickly became the main way to communicate and trade along the river until railroads came along in the 1870s.
The Mohave were forced off their land after a series of conflicts in the late 1850s. In 1870, they were moved to a reservation at Fort Mojave. Some Mohave were also moved to the Colorado River Indian Reservation, which was later home to Hopi and Navajo people as well.
Mining was the main driver of economic development in the lower Colorado River region.
In 1860, Mormons established settlements to grow cotton along the Virgin River. Soon, gold and silver strikes drew prospectors to the upper Colorado River Basin.
From 1863 to 1865, Mormon colonists founded settlements on the Muddy and Virgin Rivers in present-day Nevada.
In 1864, Jacob Hamblin’s ferry began running across the Colorado River, making it easier for Mormons to colonize Arizona.
In 1866, the Esmeralda steamboat reached Callville, Nevada, which became the head of navigation on the Colorado River.
The first federally funded irrigation project in the U.S. was built on the Colorado River Indian Reservation in 1867.
In 1869, John Wesley Powell led an expedition to run the Colorado and Green Rivers.
John Doyle Lee established a more permanent ferry system in 1870, fleeing from Mormon leaders who blamed him for the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
Mormons founded settlements along the Duchesne River Valley in the 1870s and populated the Little Colorado River valley later in the century.
John Wesley Powell led a second expedition in 1871, naming many features along the rivers.
In 1875, more gold strikes were made along the Uncompahgre and San Miguel Rivers in Colorado.
In 1879, the Gila steamboat reached the mouth of the Virgin River, making Rioville, Nevada, the highwater Head of Navigation for steamboats.
Large-scale development of Colorado River water supplies started in the late 19th century.
The Grand Ditch, one of the earliest water diversions of the Colorado River, was completed in 1890.
Around the same time, the Colorado River region in Mexico became a popular place for Americans to invest in agriculture.
In 1900, the California Development Company planned to irrigate the Imperial Valley using water from the Colorado River.
In early 1905, flooding destroyed the intake gates, and water began to flow uncontrolled toward the Salton Sink, creating today’s Salton Sea.
The Grand Canyon wasn’t recognized as a national monument until 1908 and as a national park until 1919.
The 20th Century and Beyond: Managing a Precious Resource
Large-scale river management began in the early 1900s with the "Law of the River." In 1909, dams were built along the lower river. The U.S. federal government built most major dams and aqueducts between 1910 and 1970. During this time, the water rights of Native Americans were largely ignored.
In 1922, a 15-foot high wave swamped a ship, killing between 86 and 130 people.
That year, six U.S. states signed the Colorado River Compact, dividing the river’s flow between the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin.
In 1928, Lee’s Ferry sank, killing three men. Later that year, the Navajo Bridge was completed, making the ferry obsolete.
Construction on the Colorado River-Big Thompson Project began in the 1930s, delivering water from the Colorado River to cities north of Denver, Colorado.
In 1935, Hoover Dam was completed, forming Lake Mead, the largest artificial lake in the U.S. Hoover Dam stabilized the river, stored water, captured sediment, and controlled floods.
The Boulder Canyon Project Act also authorized the All-American Canal, which is the largest irrigation canal in the world.
By 1941, the Colorado River Aqueduct was completed, delivering water to Southern California.
In 1944, a treaty between the U.S. and Mexico allocated 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water to Mexico each year.
In 1948, the Upper Colorado River Basin Compact apportioned the Upper Basin’s water among Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.
By the 1950s, water demand was rapidly increasing in Utah’s Salt Lake City and the Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico.
In 1956, Congress authorized the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to construct the Colorado River Storage Project, which included several large reservoirs.
The controversy surrounding Glen Canyon Dam didn’t gain momentum until construction was well underway.
In addition to Glen Canyon Dam, the Colorado River Storage Project includes other dams and projects.
By the middle of the 20th century, planners were concerned that water demand would outstrip the available supply.
After exploring many potential projects, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposed diverting water from the northwestern United States into the Colorado River Basin in 1964.
In 1968, the Colorado River Basin Project Act authorized the Central Arizona Project.
The Central Arizona Project was constructed from 1973 to 1993, delivering water to Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.
The most severe drought, the southwestern North American megadrought, began in the early 21st century.
Since 2000, reservoir levels have fluctuated but have experienced a steady long-term decline.
In 2012, the U.S. and Mexico signed Minute 319, establishing new rules for sharing Colorado River water.
The idea of a Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan emerged in 2013.
Ten Native American tribes in the basin now hold or continue to claim water rights to the Colorado River.
In 2018, the Colorado River Basin Ten Tribes Partnership Tribal Water Study was released.
The water year 2018 had a much lower-than-average snowpack.
After six years of negotiations, the Drought Contingency Plan was signed into law in 2019.
In July 2021, Lake Powell fell below the previous low set in 2005.
On August 16, 2021, the Bureau of Reclamation declared a shortage for the first time.
On June 14, 2022, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said that additional cuts were required to stabilize reservoir levels.
In May 2023, the states finally reached a temporary agreement to prevent a dead pool.
Some experts predict that climate change will cause the Colorado River Basin to become drier and warmer.
The Colorado River and the neighboring Rio Grande are now among the world’s most controlled and litigated river systems. The Colorado River is also one of the world’s most heavily regulated and hardest-working rivers.
Recreation: A River for Fun
Recreation is a big deal on the Colorado River system. Millions of people come every year to raft, ski, and do all sorts of other activities.
The Colorado River is famous for its rapids and canyons, and the Grand Canyon section is the "granddaddy of rafting trips."
Several other sections of the river and its tributaries are popular whitewater runs.
Eleven U.S. national parks are in the watershed, in addition to many national forests, state parks, and recreation areas.
The Colorado River irrigates farmland and produces hydroelectricity.
The river fuels a $1.4 trillion annual economy, with recreation contributing about $26 billion alone.
The Colorado River has been, and will continue to be, an integral part of life in the American Southwest.