Little Colorado River

Little Colorado River
Tółchíʼíkooh (Navajo) Colorado Chiquito (Spanish)
The Little Colorado River carves a deep canyon just above its confluence with the Colorado
Country	United States
States	Arizona, New Mexico
Region	Apache County
Part of	Colorado River
Tributaries
- left	Silver Creek
- right	Zuni River, Puerco River
Primary source	West Fork Little Colorado River
- location	Mount Baldy, White Mountains
- elevation	10,000 ft (3,048 m)
Secondary source	East Fork Little Colorado River
Source confluence
- location	Greer
- elevation	8,359 ft (2,548 m)
- coordinates	34°00′15″N 109°27′24″W / 34.00417°N 109.45667°W / 34.00417; -109.45667
Mouth	Colorado River
- location	Grand Canyon, Coconino County
- elevation	2,700 ft (823 m)
- coordinates	36°11′28″N 111°48′14″W / 36.19111°N 111.80389°W / 36.19111; -111.80389Coordinates: 36°11′28″N 111°48′14″W / 36.19111°N 111.80389°W / 36.19111; -111.80389
Length	338 mi (544 km) [1]
Basin	26,500 sq mi (68,635 km2)
Discharge
- average	405 cu ft/s (11 m3/s)
- max	120,000 cu ft/s (3,398 m3/s)
- min	150 cu ft/s (4 m3/s)
Map showing the Little Colorado River basin. The Little Colorado River flows northwest through eastern Arizona to join the Colorado north of Flagstaff.

The Little Colorado River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. state of Arizona,^[2] providing the principal drainage from the Painted Desert region. Together with its major tributary, the Puerco River, it drains an area of about 26,500 square miles (69,000 km²) in eastern Arizona and western New Mexico. Although it stretches almost 340 miles (550 km),^[1] only the headwaters and the lowermost reaches flow year-round. Between St. Johns and Cameron, most of the river is a wide, braided wash, only containing water after heavy snowmelt or flash flooding.

The lower 40 miles (64 km) of the Little Colorado forms one of the largest arms of the Grand Canyon, at over 3,000 feet (910 m) deep where it joins the Colorado near Desert View in Grand Canyon National Park.

Course

The river rises as two forks in the White Mountains of mid-eastern Arizona, in Apache County. The West Fork starts in a valley on the north flank of Mount Baldy at an elevation of nearly 10,000 feet (3,000 m), while the East Fork starts nearby. The forks meet in a canyon near the town of Greer, forming the main Little Colorado River. It flows into River Reservoir, then leaves the canyon near Eagar. The river then turns north, meandering through Richville Valley, before emptying into Lyman Lake, impounded by an irrigation dam built in 1912.^[3] From there the river continues north, past the town of St. Johns. Shortly afterwards, the river transforms from a perennial stream to an ephemeral wash as it travels northwestwards through Hunt Valley, where it receives the Zuni River, then receiving Silver Creek and the Puerco River—its main tributaries—near the town of Holbrook as it flows into the Painted Desert.^[4]

The Little Colorado River in its canyon

The Grand Falls of the Little Colorado River, seen at peak flow in April

The Little Colorado passes Joseph City and crosses the Southern Transcon route of the BNSF Railway (originally the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad), now winding north into Coconino County. The river enters the Navajo Indian Reservation, and drops over the 185-foot (56 m) Grand Falls of the Little Colorado shortly after. Below Grand Falls, the river flows through a short but rugged canyon for about 15 miles (24 km). Emerging into the desert again, the Little Colorado skirts the eastern edge of Wupakti National Monument and passes the town of Cameron, where it is bridged by U.S. Highway 89.

From Cameron, the Little Colorado River carves an extremely steep and narrow gorge into the Colorado Plateau, eventually achieving a maximum depth of about 3,200 feet (980 m). The depth of the canyon is such that groundwater is forced to the surface, forming numerous springs that restore a perennial river flow. It joins Colorado deep inside the Grand Canyon, miles from any major settlement.^[4] The confluence marks the end of the Marble Canyon segment of the Grand Canyon and the beginning of Upper Granite Gorge.^[5]

Discharge

The Little Colorado River is one of the two major tributaries of the Colorado River in Arizona.^[6] Runoff typically peaks twice a year, first in the early spring (February–April) from snow melt and highland rain; and in the summer (July–September) from monsoon storms. The annual runoff is extremely variable with the possibility of no flow occurring due to a weak snow pack or lack of summer rain. Conversely, years such as 1949, 1973, 1979, 1983 and 1993 have seen massive volumes of spring snowmelt while large monsoon runoff has occurred in 1955, 1964, 1984 and 2006. Monthly average flows in the springtime average several hundred cfs and can reach 2,000 to 3,000 cubic feet per second (57 to 85 m³/s). Only the upper reaches of the river above St. Johns, and the lowermost stretch below Cameron, flow year round; the middle section is basically a huge arroyo that carries water only during the wet seasons.

According to a streamflow gauge near Cameron, before the river enters the Grand Canyon, the river's average annual flow was 367.2 cubic feet per second (10.40 m³/s) from 1948 to present. The highest annual average was 1,127 cubic feet per second (31.9 m³/s) in 1973, and the lowest was 14.1 cubic feet per second (0.40 m³/s) in 2000.^[7] The river's peak flows can be far higher than its average flow, because of quick desert runoff from cloudbursts. At the same gauge, peak flows were recorded from 1923 to 2008, with spotty data from 1924 to 1947. The highest recorded peak was 120,000 cubic feet per second (3,400 m³/s) on September 20, 1923, while the lowest was 1,590 cubic feet per second (45 m³/s) in 1974.^[8]

History

Human activity in the Little Colorado River watershed dates back to the early Holocene epoch, in the last glacial period. Nomadic hunter-gatherers inhabited the relatively water-rich and diverse upper basin of the Little Colorado for almost 8,000 years before the Navajo, Apache and Hopi tribes populated the area. Many of these people practiced small-scale irrigation in riverside villages, located in sheltered canyons and cliffs that provided defense.^[9]

Early Spanish explorers exploring the Grand Canyon area were most likely the first Europeans to see the Little Colorado River. They called it Colorado Chiquito, the Little Colorado.^[10] Other than fur trappers and mountain men, one of the first organized expeditions into the area of the Little Colorado River was led by Amiel Weeks Whipple in 1853–54^[11] during one of the expeditions to map out a route for a transcontinental railroad. Called The Great Railroad Expeditions, or Pacific Railroad Surveys, Whipple's expedition consisted of several teams going roughly along the 35th parallel from Albuquerque to the Pacific, following the Santa Fe Trail route.

The Little Colorado River (right)'s confluence with the Colorado River (center). Note that the Little Colorado is a light brown color caused by recent cloudbursts, while the Colorado is an emerald green. When Powell and his crew arrived here in 1869, it was this color of the river that they saw, while the Colorado's green color is caused by Glen Canyon Dam trapping sediment.

The Little Colorado River, also known as the Flax River, and the first Rio Chiquito, is depicted and labelled as such on a map compiled by Lt. Joseph C. Ives and published in the official volumes of those expeditions. Ives would again return to the area in 1858 after navigating a steamboat named the Explorer up the Colorado from south of Yuma northwards to Black Canyon, at which point his party went ashore and attempted to go up into the Grand Canyon until the sheer cliffs prevented them from doing so. Leaving the canyon they proceeded overland and someplace in the vicinity of the Grand Falls (also known as the Chocolate Falls) on the Little Colorado, picked up the Whipple trail from four years prior.^[12]

The Powell Geographic Expedition, on August 10, 1869, was one of the first American parties to sight the Little Colorado River.^[13] Powell and some of his crew explored a segment of the Little Colorado River canyon, although they mainly found it impassable. In diary entries, they recorded its name as "Flax River", for the flax that makes up much of the river's riparian zone^[14]—and "Colorado Chiquito"—so, presumably they already knew about the river before they had come on the expedition.^[15]

This was in fact an inaccurate depiction of the Little Colorado, as the muddy flow they observed was the result of a rare flash flood. The river is normally a bright blue color caused by dissolved travertine and limestone in the water, similar to Havasu Creek, another major tributary of the Colorado within the Grand Canyon.^[13]

In the 1870s, Mormon colonists migrated southwards from Salt Lake City and settled in the lower part of the Little Colorado River valley.^[16] Expeditions had been sent into the basin about five years before to determine the qualities of the area. The Mormons founded Joseph City near the confluence with the Puerco River, and four others nearby, although Joseph City is the only one that still exists. Settlers continued traveling into the area through 1876, although many of them had great difficulty in crossing the Little Colorado. Although shallow and slow-flowing, the river flows through soft sand and in some places, even quicksand, creating non-ideal conditions for their wagons.^[17]

There were two primary crossings of the Little Colorado—one at the Grand Falls, and one at Black Falls, a smaller waterfall some 10 miles (16 km) downstream. It was easier to ford the river at the two waterfalls because at that point, it flows over hard bedrock, making the crossing much easier. The Mormons also made many attempts to construct dams on the river to provide irrigation water—as far upstream as the confluence of the river's forks and as far downstream as below Grand Falls—but most of them failed because of the Little Colorado's fickle variations in discharge.^[18] Finally, they managed to construct one at Joseph City that lasted for 29 years. Despite the continued hardships, the Mormons persisted, successfully established their colonies, and survived in the region for many decades.^[18][19] Later, Hispanics began to move into the Little Colorado River watershed from the Rio Grande area, establishing St. Johns and Concho. American ranchers from New Mexico also began to colonize the region, creating Eagar and Springerville.^[20] For many years, Mormons were the primary group living in the watershed until the 1960s, when their independent towns and farms were absorbed into the growing Arizonan economy.^[9]

River modifications

Because of its isolation, most of the Little Colorado has remained free of human development. However, near its headwaters, the river is dammed twice, first in River Reservoir, then in Lyman Lake, where its water is stored for irrigation. Another reservoir downstream of Springerville, where Mormon colonists dammed the river in 1905 to form Zion Reservoir, is now completely silted in. Many other earthen and masonry dams originally built along the river by the Mormons no longer exist. At very few points is the river confined by levees, with the exception of a 2,300-foot (700 m) floodwall near Holbrook. There are also few bridges for a river of its length.

In one of the worst radioactive spills in the U.S. history, on July 16, 1979, 100 million US gallons (380,000,000 l; 83,000,000 imp gal) of radioactive water containing uranium tailings breached into the North Fork of the Puerco River from a tailing pond of a uranium mine owned by Kerr-McGee Company and United Nuclear Corporation. Approximately 1,100 tons of uranium mine waste contaminated 250 acres (1.0 km²) of land and up to 50 miles (80 km) of the Puerco River, traveling into the Little Colorado River as far as the Navajo Indian Reservation. Traces of the spill can still be found today.^[21][22]

The Little Colorado River gorge, part of Grand Canyon National Park

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Little Colorado River.

• List of Arizona rivers
• List of tributaries of the Colorado River

References

Colorado River system
Jurisdictions	United States Arizona California Colorado Nevada New Mexico Utah Wyoming Mexico Baja California Sonora
Canyons	Byers Canyon Gore Canyon Red Gorge Glenwood Canyon De Beque Canyon Horsethief Canyon Ruby Canyon Westwater Canyon Cataract Canyon Narrow Canyon Glen Canyon Grand Canyon Marble Canyon Granite Gorge Middle Granite Gorge Lower Granite Gorge Grand Wash Canyon Iceberg Canyon Virgin Canyon Boulder Canyon Black Canyon Pyramid Canyon Mohave Canyon
Natural features	River course Rocky Mountains Colorado River Basin Colorado Plateau Grand Lake Horseshoe Bend Sonoran Desert Mojave Desert Lower Colorado River Valley Mohave Valley Parker Valley Palo Verde Valley Colorado Desert Alamo River New River Salton Sea Imperial Valley Delta Montague Island Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez
Tributaries	Blue River Dirty Devil River Dolores River Escalante River Eagle River Fraser River Gila River Green River Gunnison River Kanab Creek Little Colorado River Paria River Roaring Fork River San Juan River Virgin River Las Vegas Wash Williams Fork Río Hardy
Engineering	Mainstem dams Shadow Mountain Granby Windy Gap Grand Valley Price-Stubb Glen Canyon Hoover Davis Parker Headgate Rock Palo Verde Imperial Laguna Morelos Major reservoirs Fontenelle Reservoir Flaming Gorge Reservoir Blue Mesa Reservoir Navajo Lake Lake Powell Lake Mead Lake Mohave Lake Havasu Imperial Reservoir Theodore Roosevelt Lake San Carlos Lake Aqueducts and canals Grand Ditch Colorado River Aqueduct San Diego Aqueduct Central Arizona Project All-American Canal Coachella Canal Water projects Boulder Canyon Project Colorado-Big Thompson Project Colorado River Storage Project Grand Valley AVA Yuma Project
Designated areas	Arches National Park Canyonlands National Park Colorado National Monument Dead Horse Point State Park Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Grand Canyon National Park Lake Mead National Recreation Area Rocky Mountain National Park
Related topics	Arizona v. California Colorado River Board of California Colorado River Compact Floyd Dominy Lee's Ferry International Boundary and Water Commission Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Rapids and features U.S. Bureau of Reclamation William Mulholland