Uintah Basin

The Uintah Basin, also spelled Uinta Basin, is a physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division. It is also a geologic structural basin in eastern Utah, east of the Wasatch Mountains and south of the Uinta Mountains. The Uintah Basin is fed by creeks and rivers flowing south from the Uinta Mountains. Many of the principal rivers (Strawberry River, Currant Creek, Rock Creek, Lake Fork River, and Uinta River) flow into the Duchesne River which feeds the Green River—a tributary of the Colorado River. The Uinta Mountains forms the northern border of the Uintah Basin. They contain the highest point in Utah, Kings Peak, with a summit 13,528 feet (4123 metres) above sea level. The climate of the Uintah Basin is semi-arid, with occasionally severe winter cold.

History

Father Escalante's expedition visited the Uintah Basin in September 1776. The Northern Ute Indian Reservation was established in 1861 by presidential decree. The United States opened the reservation for homesteading by non-Native Americans in 1905. During the early decades of the twentieth century, both Native and non-Native irrigation systems were constructed—the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project, the Moon Lake Project, and the Central Utah Project.