Blacks Fork
Blacks Fork Blacks Fork of the Green River | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | Utah, Wyoming |
Cities | Green River, Wyoming, Lyman, Wyoming, Granger, Wyoming |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | |
• location | Uinta Mountains, Utah |
• coordinates | 40°56′25″N 110°35′19″W / 40.94028°N 110.58861°W[3] |
Mouth | Flaming Gorge Reservoir |
• location | Wyoming |
• coordinates | 41°17′42″N 109°32′06″W / 41.29500°N 109.53500°W[3] |
Discharge | |
• location | USGS gage #09224700 near Little America[1] |
• average | 292 cu ft/s (8.3 m3/s)[2] |
• minimum | 0 cu ft/s (0 m3/s) |
• maximum | 9,980 cu ft/s (283 m3/s) |
Blacks Fork (also referred to as Blacks Fork of the Green River) is a 175-mile-long (282 km)[4] tributary of the Green River in Utah and Wyoming. The river rises on the northern side of the Uinta Mountains as the combination of three streams draining the area around Tokewanna Peak near the Utah-Wyoming border. Right as the river crosses the Wyoming border, it flows into Meeks Cabin Reservoir which is used for irrigation and flood control.[5] From there the river flows through the town of Lyman before joining with the Smiths Fork (possibly named for Jedediah Smith[6]), which forms just east of the Blacks Fork in the Uintas, and parallels it for most of its course. The river continues northeast to Granger, where the river meets the Hams Fork from the north. Shortly thereafter the river makes a sharp turn south, eventually joining the Green River at Flaming Gorge Reservoir.
History
The river is named for Arthur Black,[7] who trapped in the area in 1824 as an employee of the Ashley/Henry Company.[8] In 1843, mountain man Jim Bridger and his partner Louis Vasquez constructed a trading post on the Blacks Fork, located near present-day Lyman, known later as Fort Bridger. The post soon became a popular stop along the Oregon and California trails and later marked the point at which the Mormon Trail left the other two and continued into Utah.
See also
References
- ^ "USGS Gage #9224700 on Blacks Fork near Little America, WY" (PDF). National Water Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. 1962–2013. Retrieved 2014-08-31.
- ^ "USGS Gage #9224700 on Blacks Fork near Little America, WY" (PDF). National Water Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. 1962–2013. Retrieved 2014-08-31.
- ^ a b "Blacks Fork". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior., USGS GNIS
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. "The National Map". Archived from the original on 2012-04-05., accessed March 18, 2011
- ^ "Lyman Project". Bureau of Reclamation. Archived from the original on 2008-05-14.
- ^ Morgan, Dale L; Wheat, Carl I (1954). Jedediah Smith and his Maps of the American West. San Francisco: California Historical Society. p. 51.
- ^ Bagley, Will (2014). South Pass: Gateway to a Continent. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 57. ISBN 0806145110.
- ^ http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/mormon_trail_series/070597.html
- Tributaries of the Green River (Colorado River tributary)
- Rivers of Utah
- Rivers of Wyoming
- Features of the Uinta Mountains
- Rivers of Daggett County, Utah
- Rivers of Sweetwater County, Wyoming
- Rivers of Uinta County, Wyoming
- Wasatch-Cache National Forest
- California Trail
- Mormon Trail
- Oregon Trail
- Tributaries of the Colorado River in Utah
- Tributaries of the Colorado River in Wyoming