Editing Colorado River (section)

==History==
===Pre-colonial indigenous peoples===
[[Image:Cliff_Palace-Colorado-Mesa_Verde_NP.jpg|thumb|right|280px|Cliff Palace, [[Mesa Verde National Park]]]]
Small numbers of [[Paleo-Indian]]s of the [[Clovis culture|Clovis]] and [[Folsom culture]]s inhabited the Colorado Plateau as early as 10,000 BCE, with populations beginning to increase in the Desert Archaic period (6000 BCE–0 CE).<ref name="CP">{{cite web |url=http://cpluhna.nau.edu/People/people.htm |title=People of the Colorado Plateau |publisher=Northern Arizona University |work=Land Use History of North America |access-date=April 9, 2012 |archive-date=June 29, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150629182507/http://www.cpluhna.nau.edu/People/people.htm}}</ref> While most early inhabitants were hunter-gatherers, evidence of agriculture, masonry dwellings and [[petroglyph]]s begins with the [[Fremont culture]] period (0–1300 CE). The [[Ancient Puebloan]] culture, also known as Anasazi or Hisatsinom, were descended from the Desert Archaic culture and became established in the Four Corners region around 1000 CE.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/wrfo/Cultural_Resources/formative_era_fremont.html |title=Formative Era/Fremont Culture |publisher=U.S. Bureau of Land Management |date=August 31, 2009 |access-date=April 9, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623051811/http://www.blm.gov/co/st/en/fo/wrfo/Cultural_Resources/formative_era_fremont.html |archive-date=June 23, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/dino/historyculture/fremont-culture.htm |title=Fremont Culture |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |work=Dinosaur National Monument |access-date=April 9, 2012 |archive-date=August 15, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120815052653/http://www.nps.gov/dino/historyculture/fremont-culture.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Vess |first=Deborah |url=http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/amtours/anawciv.htm |title=The Anasazi |publisher=Georgia College and State University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608070125/http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~dvess/ids/amtours/anawciv.htm |archive-date=June 8, 2011}}</ref>

While there is much evidence of ancient habitation along the Colorado River, including stone dwellings, petroglyphs and pottery in places such as Glen Canyon,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.knau.org/knau-and-arizona-news/2022-05-12/archaeological-sites-once-thought-lost-under-lake-powell-reappear-as-water-drops|title=Archaeological sites once thought lost under Lake Powell reappear as water drops|work=Arizona Public Radio|author=Sevigny, Melissa|date=May 12, 2022|accessdate=August 11, 2024}}</ref> the first major agriculture-based societies arose a significant distance from the river. The [[Puebloans|Puebloan]] people built many multi-story pueblos or "great houses", and developed complex distribution systems to supply drinking and irrigation water in [[Chaco Canyon]] in northwestern New Mexico<ref name=luhna>{{cite web |url=http://cpluhna.nau.edu/Change/waterdevelopment2.htm |title=Water Development, Extraction, and Diversion |page=2 |work=Land Use History of North America: Colorado Plateau |publisher=Northern Arizona University |access-date=October 21, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214234430/http://cpluhna.nau.edu/Change/waterdevelopment2.htm |archive-date=February 14, 2015}}</ref> and [[Mesa Verde National Park|Mesa Verde]] in southwest Colorado.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/historyculture/upload/ancestral_pueblo_people_2018_508_01-24-18-2.pdf|title=Ancestral Pueblo People and Their World|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|date=|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref> The [[Hohokam]], present in the modern Phoenix area since about 0 CE, experienced prolific growth around 600–700 CE as they constructed a large system of irrigation canals making use of the [[Salt River (Arizona)|Salt River]]. Both civilizations supported large populations at their height, with 6,000–15,000 in Chaco Canyon{{sfn|Nobles|1998|p = 26}} and as many as 30,000–200,000 Hohokam.{{sfn|Logan|2006|pp = 21–22}}
{| style="float:right; width:15em; margin:1em; border:1px solid grey; padding:5px; background:beige; text-align:center;"
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| align=center | '''Indigenous names for the Colorado River'''
|-
|{{langx|hop|Pisisvayu}}<ref>Hopi Dictionary/Hopìikwa Lavàytutuveni:. Hopi-English Dictionary of the Third Mesa Dialect. The Hopi Dictionary Project. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1997.</ref>
|-
|{{langx|mrc|'Xakxwet}}<ref>Antone, Caroline. ''Piipayk m'iim''. Salt River: Oʼodham Piipaash Language Program, 2000.</ref>
|-
|{{langx|mov|'Aha Kwahwat}}{{sfn|Gupta|2010|p=362}}
|-
|{{langx|nv|Tó Ntsʼósíkooh}}
|-
|{{langx|yuf-x-hav|Ha Ŧay Gʼam}} /<br />{{lang|yuf-x-hav|Sil Gsvgov|italic=yes}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Hinton |first=Leanne |title=A Dictionary of the Havasupai Language |year=1984 |publisher=Havasupai Tribe |location=Supai, Arizona |oclc=12358778}}</ref>
|-
|{{langx|yuf-x-yav|ʼHakhwata}}<ref>{{Cite thesis |author=William Alan Shaterian |title=Phonology and Dictionary of Yavapai |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |year=1983 |type=PhD dissertation |oclc=13197420}}</ref>
|}
Puebloan and Hohokam settlements were abruptly abandoned in the 1400s CE, due both to over-exploitation of natural resources such as timber, and severe drought that made it impossible to maintain irrigation systems.<ref name="tenthmil">{{cite web |url=http://tenthmil.com/mission/timeline/ancient_forest_management_in_the_chaco_canyon |title=Ancient Forest Management in the Chaco Canyon – From 600 AD to 1300 AD |publisher=Tenthmil |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101224005421/http://tenthmil.com/mission/timeline/ancient_forest_management_in_the_chaco_canyon |archive-date=December 24, 2010}}</ref><ref name="Schwinning">{{cite journal |title=Sensitivity of the Colorado Plateau to Change: Climate, Ecosystems and Society |journal=Ecology and Society |volume=13 |page=28 |year=2008 |author1=Schwinning, Susan |author2=Belnap, Jayne |author3=Bowling, David R. |author4=Ehleringer, James R. |name-list-style=amp |issue=2 |doi=10.5751/ES-02412-130228 |doi-access=free |hdl=10535/2863 |hdl-access=free}}</ref> Many Puebloans migrated east to the Rio Grande Valley, while others persisted in smaller settlements on the Colorado Plateau. Puebloan descendants include the [[Hopi]], [[Zuni people|Zuni]], [[Laguna people|Laguna]] and [[Acoma people|Acoma]] peoples of modern Arizona and New Mexico.<ref name="CP"/> [[O'odham]] peoples, including the [[Akimel O'odham]] (Pima) and [[Maricopa people|Maricopa]] who continue to live in southern Arizona, are believed to be descended from the Hohokam.<ref name="CP"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://phoenix.gov/recreation/arts/museums/pueblo/about/visitorinfo/materials/dfdisappearance.html |title=Desert Farmers at the River's Edge: The Hohokam and Pueblo Grande |author1=Andrews, John P. |author2=Bostwick, Todd W. |publisher=City of Phoenix |work=Pueblo Grande Museum Archaeological Park |access-date=April 10, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508080438/http://phoenix.gov/recreation/arts/museums/pueblo/about/visitorinfo/materials/dfdisappearance.html |archive-date=May 8, 2012}}</ref><ref name="pima">{{cite web |url=http://www.srpmic-nsn.gov/history_culture/pimapast.asp |title=A Pima Past |publisher=Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community |author=Shaw, Anne Moore |access-date=April 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120034144/http://www.srpmic-nsn.gov/history_culture/pimapast.asp |archive-date=January 20, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 

The lower Colorado River valley was inhabited for thousands of years by numerous tribes of the [[Patayan]] cultures, many of which belong to the [[Yuman-Cochimi languages|Yuman-Cochimi language group]]. These include the [[Walapai]], [[Havasupai]] and [[Yavapai]] in the Grand Canyon region; the [[Mohave people|Mohave]], [[Halchidhoma]], [[Quechan people|Quechan]], and [[Halyikwamai]] along the Colorado River between Black Canyon and the Mexican border, and the [[Cocopah people|Cocopah]] around the Colorado River Delta. The [[Chemehuevi]] (a branch of the [[Southern Paiute]]) and the [[Kumeyaay]] inhabited the desert to the river's west.<ref name=Yuman>{{cite web|url=https://open.uapress.arizona.edu/read/2d8a8c6f-6ac9-42c7-948b-c6e915ead695/section/76b1ffac-3d68-4022-bfee-c9dc93fe5f19|title=Yuman Antagonists: Maricopas, Quechans and Mohaves to 1857|publisher=University of Arizona Press|work=Massacre on the Gila: An Account of the Last Major Battle Between American Indians, with Reflections on the Origin of War|author=Kroeber, Clifton B. and Fontana, Bernard L.|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref> Those living along the lower Colorado River depended more on fishing and floodplain agriculture than on irrigation, and mostly did not live in permanent settlements.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nrcprograms.org/site/PageServer?pagename=swirc_res_ca_mohave |title=California: Mohave |publisher=Southwest Indian Relief Council |access-date=April 10, 2012 |archive-date=December 13, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121213172312/http://www.nrcprograms.org/site/PageServer?pagename=swirc_res_ca_mohave |url-status=live }}</ref> The site of modern-day Yuma has been [[Yuma Crossing|an important river crossing]] since ancient times, as the channel here is much narrower compared to the expansive, swampy river bottoms to the north and south, and enabled the expansion of trade to the Pima and Maricopa in the east and coastal California tribes in the west.<ref name=Yuman/>

[[Image:Navajo Woman and Infant, Canyon de Chelle, Arizona (Canyon de Chelly National Monument), 1933 - 1942 - NARA - 519947.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Black and white photograph of a Native American woman holding a child|[[Navajo people|Navajo]] woman and child, photographed by [[Ansel Adams]], c. 1944]]
The [[Navajo people|Navajo]] (Diné) began migrating into the Colorado River Basin around 1000–1500 CE, and eventually exercised influence over much of the Colorado Plateau. Originally hunter-gatherers, they acquired knowledge of farming from the Puebloans and adopted a more sedentary lifestyle over time, making extensive use of irrigation in their settlements.<ref name="NavajoUC">{{cite web |url=http://www.ics.uci.edu/~aisi/97_aisics/people/jsells/assign5.html |title=Dine History and Facts |publisher=Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences |location=University of California, Irvine |access-date=April 10, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121211142719/http://www.ics.uci.edu/~aisi/97_aisics/people/jsells/assign5.html |archive-date=December 11, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.navajobusiness.com/pdf/FstFctspdf/A%20Brief%20History.pdf |title=The Navajo: A Brief History |publisher=The Navajo Nation Division of Economic Development |access-date=April 10, 2012 |archive-date=September 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120904050849/http://navajobusiness.com/pdf/FstFctspdf/A%20Brief%20History.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> The Navajo gradually displaced Hopi settlements as they expanded into northern Arizona after the 1500s. [[Navajo Mountain]] and [[Rainbow Bridge National Monument|Rainbow Bridge]] in the Glen Canyon area came to hold particular religious significance for the Navajo, and the nearby confluence of the Colorado and San Juan River is regarded as the birthplace of clouds and rain.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/187/oa_monograph/chapter/202309|title=Navajo Mountain Religion: Rainbow Bridge through Indian Eyes|author=Hassell, Hank|publisher=Johns Hopkins University|year=2001|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref>

The [[Ute people|Ute]] also became established in the Colorado Plateau around 1500 CE, although they had inhabited more northerly parts of the Colorado basin (modern Wyoming and northern Colorado) since at least 0 CE.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://cpluhna.nau.edu/People/ute_indians.htm |title=Ute |publisher=Northern Arizona University |work=Land Use History of North America |access-date=April 9, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205112023/http://www.cpluhna.nau.edu/People/ute_indians.htm |archive-date=February 5, 2012}}</ref>{{sfn|Benke|Cushing|p=486|2005}} They are the first known inhabitants of this part of the Rocky Mountains, and made use of an extensive network of trails crisscrossing the mountains to move between summer and winter camps. The Ute were divided into numerous bands with separate territories but shared a common language and customs. The Uncompahgre or Tabeguache lived around the confluence of the upper Colorado and Gunnison Rivers, an area including the [[Grand Mesa]]; the Weenuchiu lived along the San Juan River, and the Parianuche and Yamparika lived in the Yampa, [[White River (Green River tributary)|White]] and [[Duchesne River]] valleys.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.southernute-nsn.gov/history/|title=History|publisher=Southern Ute Indian Tribe|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref> The Ute ranged as far as the river's headwaters; one Ute story recounts a battle with the [[Arapaho people|Arapaho]] at Grand Lake, which they believe still hosts the spirits of the deceased.

===Spanish exploration and early settlement===
[[File:La conquista del Colorado.jpg|thumb|right|''La conquista del Colorado'' (2017), by [[Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau]], depicts [[Francisco Vázquez de Coronado]]'s 1540–1542 expedition. [[García López de Cárdenas]] can be seen overlooking the [[Grand Canyon]].]]
Starting in the 1500s, the Spanish began to explore and colonize western North America. [[Francisco de Ulloa]] may have been the first European to see the river, when in 1536 he sailed to the head of the Gulf of California.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/geology/publications/inf/powell/sec2.htm |title=John Wesley Powell's Exploration of the Colorado River |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |date=March 28, 2006 |access-date=February 19, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150405233341/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/geology/publications/inf/powell/sec2.htm |archive-date=April 5, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 1540 [[García López de Cárdenas]] became the first European to see the Grand Canyon, during [[Francisco Vásquez de Coronado|Coronado]]'s expedition to find the [[Seven Cities of Gold]] ("Cibola"). Cárdenas was apparently unimpressed with the canyon, greatly underestimating its size, and left in disappointment with no gold to be found.{{sfn|Axelrod|Phillips|p=4|2008}}{{sfn|Lankford|pp=100–101|2010}} In the same year [[Melchior Díaz]] explored the Colorado River's delta and named it ''Rio del Tizon'' ("fire brand river"), after seeing a practice used by the local people for warming themselves.<ref>{{cite web |author1=Flint, Richard |author2=Flint, Shirley Cushing |url=http://www.newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=472 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131010042202/http://www.newmexicohistory.org/filedetails.php?fileID=472 |archive-date=October 10, 2013 |title=Diaz, Melchior |publisher=New Mexico Office of the State Historian}}</ref> 

By the late 1500s or early 1600s, the Utes had acquired horses from the Spanish, and their use for hunting, trade and warfare soon became widespread among Utes and Navajo in the Colorado River basin. This conferred them a military advantage over [[Goshute]]s and [[Southern Paiute]]s that were slower to adopt horses.{{sfn|Pritzker|p=309|1998}} The Navajo also adopted a culture of livestock herding as they acquired sheep and goats from the Spanish.<ref name="NavajoUC"/> [[Juan Bautista de Anza]] in 1774 was the first Spaniard to reach Yuma Crossing, where he established friendly relations with the Quechan people and opened the [[Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail|Anza trail]] between Arizona and the California coast.<ref name=YumaCrossingNPS/> The Spanish soon founded [[Mission Puerto de Purisima Concepcion]] and [[Mission San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuner]] along the lower Colorado River. However, Spanish attempts to control the crossing led to the 1781 Yuma revolt, in which over 100 soldiers and colonists were killed, and the settlements were abandoned. The Quechan blocked foreigners' use of the crossing until the arrival of American mountain men and fur trappers in the 1820s.<ref name=YumaCrossingNPS>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/yuma.htm|title=Arizona: Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|date=April 22, 2019|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref>

The name ''Rio Colorado'' first appears in 1701, on the map "Paso por Tierra a la California" published by missionary [[Eusebio Kino]], who also determined during that time that Baja California was a peninsula, not an island as previously believed.{{sfn|Bolton|2017|pp=440}} In the 1700s and early 1800s many Spanish and American explorers believed in the existence of a [[Buenaventura River (legend)|Buenaventura River]] that ran from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast.{{sfn|Gudde|Bright|p=50|2004}} In 1776, [[Silvestre Vélez de Escalante]] attached this name to the upper Green River, and a number of later maps showed this connecting to Lake Timpanogos (now [[Utah Lake]]) and flowing west to California. The [[Dominguez–Escalante expedition]] first reached the Colorado River near the junction with the [[Dolores River]], naming the larger river "Rio San Rafael". They later forded the Colorado in southeastern Utah at [[Crossing of the Fathers]], now submerged in Lake Powell.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/65|title=Crossing of the Fathers|author=Anthony, Alex|publisher=Intermountain Histories|date=|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref>
===American exploration===
[[Image:%27Noon_Day_Rest_in_Marble_Canyon%27_from_the_second_Powell_Expedition_1872.jpg|thumb|right|Boats of [[John Wesley Powell]]'s second Colorado River expedition in [[Marble Canyon]], 1872.]]
In the 1820s, American fur trappers along the upper Green River in Wyoming (known to them as the "Seedskeedee" or variants thereof), seeking a route to export furs to the coast, surmised that this and what the Spanish called the Colorado were in fact connected. [[William H. Ashley]] made an unsuccessful attempt to navigate from the Green River to the Colorado's mouth in 1825.<ref name="Before Powell">{{cite web | url=https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/uhq_volume55_1987_number2/s/153728 | title=Before Powell: Exploration of the Colorado River }}</ref> In 1826, [[Jedediah Smith]] arrived at the lower Colorado River, referring to it as the Seedskeedee,{{sfn|Dellenbaugh|p=60|1909}} and proceeded upstream, exploring as far as Black Canyon.<ref name="Before Powell"/> During the 1830s, various fur trappers from Wyoming made it as far downstream as Cataract Canyon and Glen Canyon, but none were able to navigate the full length of the river.<ref name="Before Powell"/> In 1843 [[John C. Frémont]] explored the Great Basin and conclusively determined no Buenaventura River flowed west to California; thus, the direction of river flow must be southwest.{{sfn|Rolle|p=54|1999}}

By the early 19th century, the stretch of the Colorado above the confluence of the Green River at [[Cataract Canyon]], Utah, became known to fur trappers as the "Grand River", though the exact origin of this name is unknown. The Grand River above the confluence with the [[Gunnison River]] was also called the Bunkara River, the Blue River, or  the North Fork of the Grand River until the 1870s.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1hVPAQAAMAAJ&dq=bunkara+river&pg=PA856 | title=Indian Affairs: Treaties | date=1904 | publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office }}</ref><ref name=congress/> By the early 1900s the name "Grand River" had been attached to the entire stream as far as Grand Lake, which was then considered its official source.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELk9AQAAMAAJ&q=grand%20river%20colo | title=A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer or Geographical Dictionary of the World: Containing the Most Recent and Authentic Information Respecting the Countries, Cities, Towns, Resorts, Islands, Rivers, Mountains, Seas, Lakes, Etc., in Every Portion of the Globe | date=1906 | publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company }}</ref> Although the Grand River was renamed the Colorado in 1921, its name survives in numerous places such as Grand County and Grand Junction, Colorado.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.gjsentinel.com/news/western_colorado/whats-in-a-name-grand-junction-and-the-rivers-that-run-through-it/article_608fc78e-0a02-11ed-b9f8-4b374828fc21.html|title=What's in a Name: Grand Junction and the rivers that run through it|author=Gemaehlich, Tammy|work=The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel|date=September 4, 2023|accessdate=August 17, 2024}}</ref>

In 1848 the U.S. Army established [[Fort Yuma]], creating the first permanent U.S. settlement along the river. This served as a military garrison and supply point for settlers headed to California along the [[Southern Emigrant Trail]]. Due to the arduous task of ferrying supplies overland, the schooner ''[[Invincible (schooner)|Invincible]]'' attempted to bring supplies up the river but was thwarted by the delta's strong tides. Steamboats were brought to the river, starting in 1852 with the sidewheeler ''[[Uncle Sam (sidewheeler 1852)|Uncle Sam]]'', whose first voyage from the Gulf to Yuma took fifteen days.<ref name=Marcucci>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7I8xAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA14 |title=Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine |date=August 11, 1895 |publisher=A. Roman and Company |via=Google Books |access-date=August 31, 2016 |archive-date=March 1, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240301110641/https://books.google.com/books?id=7I8xAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|15}} Exploration by steamboat soon advanced upriver. In 1857, George A. Johnson in the ''[[General Jesup (sidewheeler)|General Jesup]]'' was able to reach [[Pyramid Canyon]], over {{convert|300|mi|km}} north of Fort Yuma.<ref name=Lingenfelter/>{{rp|16–17,19}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7p30228k/?order=2&brand=calisphere |title=Autobiography and Reminiscence of George Alonzo Johnson, San Diego, 1901. |website=oac.cdlib.org |access-date=August 11, 2022 |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803144014/https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/kt7p30228k/?order=2&brand=calisphere |url-status=live }}</ref> He was followed by Lt. [[Joseph Christmas Ives]] who used a specially built shallow-draft steamboat, ''[[Explorer (sternwheeler)|Explorer]]'', to reach [[Black Canyon of the Colorado|Black Canyon]], where Hoover Dam stands today.<ref name=Ives>{{Cite web |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1xIOAAAAQAAJ |title=Report Upon the Colorado River of the West |first=Joseph C. |last=Ives |date=August 11, 1861 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |via=Google Books}}</ref>{{rp|Part 1, 85–87}} Having set out to determine the river's suitability as a navigation route, Ives remarked: "Ours has been the first, and will doubtless be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. It seems intended by nature that the Colorado River, along the greater portion of its lonely and majestic way, shall be forever unvisited and undisturbed."{{sfn|Dellenbaugh|p=170|1909}}{{sfn|Schmidt|p=12|1993}}
[[Image:First_Powell_Expedition_1869_USGS_Pioh120.jpg|thumb|left|Route of Powell's first expedition, 1869.]]
The last part of the Colorado River to be surveyed was the Grand Canyon itself. In 1869, [[John Wesley Powell]] with nine men set out on [[Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869|an expedition]] from [[Green River, Wyoming|Green River Station, Wyoming]]. They were the first part of non-natives to travel the length of the Grand Canyon, and the first to successfully travel by boat from the upper Green River to the lower Colorado.{{sfn|Dolnick|2002|p=5}}{{sfn|Leuchtenburg|2000|p=360}} Powell led a second expedition in 1871, with financial backing from the U.S. government,<ref>
{{cite web |url=http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/3Dcanyons/html/glencanyon.htm |title=Historic 3D Photographs of the Second Powell Expedition (1871–1872) |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |work=Geology of National Parks |date=February 13, 2012 |access-date=February 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311104946/http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/3Dcanyons/html/glencanyon.htm |archive-date=March 11, 2012 |url-status=dead}}
</ref> and continued to conduct geographical and botanical surveys across the region until the 1890s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/auth_exp_fbr_eace0023|title=The J.W. Powell Survey (1871-1894)|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Archives|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref> Another Grand Canyon river expedition was led in 1889–1890 by [[Robert Brewster Stanton]] to survey a route for a proposed railroad through the canyon, which was never built.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.nativefishlab.net/library/textpdf/16614.pdf|title=The Colorado River Railroad Survey|author=Hekkers, Jim|journal=Colorado Outdoors|year=1980|accessdate=August 17, 2024}}</ref>
{{quotation|
We are now ready to start on our way down the Great Unknown. Our boats, tied to a common stake, are chafing each other, as they are tossed by the fretful river. They ride high and buoyant, for their loads are lighter than we could desire. We have but a month's rations remaining… The lighting of the boats has this advantage: they will ride the waves better, and we shall have little to carry when we make a portage.

We are three-quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks into insignificance, as it dashes its angry waves against the walls and cliffs, that rise to the world above; they are but puny ripples, and we but pigmies, running up and down the sands, or lost among the boulders.

We have an unknown distance yet to run; an unknown river yet to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls rise over the river, we know not; Ah, well! we may conjecture many things. The men talk as cheerfully as ever; jests are bandied about freely this morning; but to me the cheer is somber and the jests are ghastly.|John Wesley Powell's journal, August 1869{{sfn|Dolnick|2002|p=238}}}}

===U.S. westward expansion and military campaigns===
{{see also|Steamboats of the Colorado River}}
[[Image:Fort_Yuma_California_1875.jpg|thumb|right|[[Lithograph]] of Fort Yuma, c. 1875]]
In 1858, gold was discovered on the Gila River east of Yuma, then along the Colorado River at [[El Dorado Canyon (Nevada)|El Dorado Canyon, Nevada]] and [[La Paz, Arizona]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/400|title=Nelson, Nevada Ghost Town and El Dorado Canyon|publisher=Intermountain Histories|author=Keeler, Preston|date=|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.azcentral.com/story/travel/arizona/road-trips/2018/09/10/arizona-mining-history-wild-west/953080002/|title=Arizona's mining history: Danger for many, riches for a few|author=Johnson, Weldon B.|work=The Arizona Republic|date=September 10, 2018}}</ref> As prospectors and settlers entered the region, they became involved in skirmishes with the Mohave, spurring U.S. Army expeditions that culminated in the 1859 Battle of the Colorado River which concluded the [[Mohave War]].{{sfn|Kessel|Wooster|p=217|2005}} In the 1870s the Mohave were moved to the [[Fort Mojave Indian Reservation|Fort Mohave]] and [[Colorado River Indian Reservation|Colorado River]] reservations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://public.csusm.edu/loc/rezinfo/ftmojave/index.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130514234037/http://public.csusm.edu/loc/rezinfo/ftmojave/index.htm |archive-date=May 14, 2013 |title=Fort Mojave Reservation |publisher=California State University San Marcos |work=Tribal Library Census and Needs Assessment |date=June 12, 2001}}</ref><ref name="CRIT">{{cite web |url=http://www.crit-nsn.gov/crit_contents/about/ |title=About the Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi and Navajo Tribes |publisher=Colorado River Indian Tribes |year=2009 |access-date=April 10, 2012 |archive-date=August 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210812031022/https://crit-nsn.gov/crit_contents/about/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Chemehuevi and later some Hopi and Navajo peoples were also moved to the Colorado River reservation, where they today form the [[Colorado River Indian Tribes]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indiancountryextension.org/sites/indiancountryextension.org/files/publications/files/u6/CRIT%20and%20Extension%20Programs.pdf |title=The Colorado River Indian Tribes (C.R.I.T.) Reservation and Extension Programs |publisher=Indian Country Extension |work=University of Arizona College of Agriculture and Life Sciences |date=October 2008 |access-date=April 10, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120034152/http://www.indiancountryextension.org/sites/indiancountryextension.org/files/publications/files/u6/CRIT%20and%20Extension%20Programs.pdf |archive-date=January 20, 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

As the American frontier expanded into the Colorado Plateau, an effort to expel the Navajo from the Four Corners region was begun by General [[James Henry Carleton]], who in 1864 enlisted mountain man [[Kit Carson]] to lead a campaign against the Navajo. Carson, with the help of the Navajo's Ute enemies, captured more than 8,000 Navajo and forcibly marched them to [[Fort Sumner]], New Mexico. Hundreds died during what is now known as the [[Long Walk of the Navajo|Long Walk]] and while enduring appalling conditions at Fort Sumner. After the failure of the Army to maintain the reservation there, the [[Treaty of Bosque Redondo]] established the [[Navajo Nation]] in the Four Corners, where the Navajo were allowed to return in 1868.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ihs.gov/navajo/index.cfm?module=nao_navajo_nation |title=Navajo Nation |publisher=Indian Health Service |access-date=April 10, 2012 |archive-date=June 23, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623162828/http://www.ihs.gov/Navajo/index.cfm?module=nao_navajo_nation |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://reta.nmsu.edu/modules/longwalk/lesson/document/treaty.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020311010532/http://reta.nmsu.edu/modules/longwalk/lesson/document/treaty.htm |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 11, 2002 |title=Treaty Between the United States of America and the Navajo Tribe of Indians |publisher=New Mexico State University |work=Historic Documents |year=1868 |access-date=April 10, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.navajobusiness.com/fastFacts/Overview.htm |title=Navajo Nation – Facts at a Glance |publisher=The Navajo Nation |year=2004 |access-date=April 10, 2012 |archive-date=March 8, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120308193308/http://www.navajobusiness.com/fastFacts/Overview.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Gold and silver were also discovered in the Upper Basin, beginning with the 1859 Blue River strike that led to the founding of [[Breckenridge, Colorado]].{{sfn|Brown|pp=52–53|1972}} Up until the 1860s, southwestern Colorado had remained relatively untouched by U.S. westward expansion, as the Americans had recognized Ute sovereignty by treaty. Following the 1861 carving out of [[Colorado Territory]] and further mineral strikes including [[Ouray, Colorado|Ouray]] and [[Telluride, Colorado|Telluride]],{{sfn|Casey|p=251|2007}}{{sfn|Lindberg|pp=134–135|2009}} Ute leaders were coerced into signing the 1873 [[Brunot Agreement]], in which they lost rights to most of their land. A flood of mineral prospecting and settlement ensued in western Colorado.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/blm/co/10/chap5.htm|title=Chapter 5: The Utes in Southwestern Colorado: A Confrontation of Cultures|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|work=Frontier in Transition: A History of Southwestern Colorado|access-date=2017-05-15}}</ref> By 1881, the Army had driven out the remaining pockets of Ute resistance on the Western Slope, officially opening the Grand River country to settlement, and the town of Grand Junction was incorporated a year later.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.postindependent.com/news/local/gj-history-grand-junction-town-founder-george-a-crawford-a-witness-to-early-american-history/|title=GJ HISTORY: Grand Junction town founder George A. Crawford — A witness to early American history|work=The Post-Independent|date=September 26, 2013|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref> The [[Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad]] (D&RGW) quickly expanded into this area to serve mining boomtowns, crossing the Rockies to the south via the [[Black Canyon of the Gunnison River]]. By 1883 the railroad had reached Grand Junction, and a spur up the Colorado to Glenwood Springs was completed in 1887.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.postindependent.com/news/glenwood-canyon-time-travel-a-journey-back-through-the-history-of-travel-through-the-grand-river-canon-passage/ | title=Glenwood Canyon time travel: A journey back through the history of travel through the 'Grand River Cañon' passage | date=August 15, 2021 }}</ref>

In [[Arizona Territory|Arizona]] and [[Utah Territory|Utah Territories]], many early settlers were Mormons fleeing religious persecution in the Midwest. Mormons founded agricultural colonies at Fort Santa Clara in 1855 and [[St. Thomas, Nevada|St. Thomas]], now flooded under Lake Mead, in 1865.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/nature/st-thomas-nevada.htm#:~:text=St.%20Thomas%20was%20founded%20in%201865%20by%20Mormon,flowed%20to%20the%20Colorado%20River%2C%2022%20miles%20south.|title=St. Thomas, Nevada|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|date=December 15, 2022|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref> [[Stone's Ferry, Nevada|Stone's Ferry]], crossing the Colorado at the mouth of the Virgin River, enabled shipping of their produce by wagon to gold mining districts further south. Although the Mormons abandoned St. Thomas in 1871, a salt-[[mining industry]] persisted here, and steamboats operated up to nearby [[Rioville, Nevada|Rioville]] into the 1880s.{{sfn|Glass|Glass|pp=162–163|1983}}<ref name=Lingenfelter>{{Cite book |author=Richard E. Lingenfelter |url=http://www.ansac.az.gov/UserFiles/PDF/08182014/X028_FMIBurtellLingenfelterSteamboats/FMI%20Lingenfelter%20Steamboats/Steamboats%20on%20the%20Colorado%20River%201852-1916.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118031332/http://www.ansac.az.gov/UserFiles/PDF/08182014/X028_FMIBurtellLingenfelterSteamboats/FMI%20Lingenfelter%20Steamboats/Steamboats%20on%20the%20Colorado%20River%201852-1916.pdf |archive-date=January 18, 2016 |url-status=dead |title=Steamboats on the Colorado River, 1852–1916 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |location=Tucson |year=1978}}</ref>{{rp|78}} In 1879 [[San Juan Expedition|a group of Mormon settlers]] made their way to southeastern Utah, blasting the precarious [[Hole in the Rock Trail]] to cross the Colorado River at Glen Canyon, subsequently establishing the community of [[Bluff, Utah|Bluff]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/glca/learn/historyculture/holeintherock.htm|title=Hole-in-the-Rock|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|date=July 28, 2023|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref> Due to the dry climate, these settlements depended heavily on irrigation. In central Arizona, settlers uncovered and re-established canals previously used by the Hohokam.<ref name="hohokam">{{cite web |url=http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/hohokam2/ |title=Hohokam Legacy: Desert Canals |website=WaterHistory.org |author=Howard, Jerry B. |access-date=April 9, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120124025948/http://www.waterhistory.org/histories/hohokam2/ |archive-date=January 24, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Gilavalley">{{cite web |author=Williams, O.A. |url=http://uair.arizona.edu/system/files/usain/download/azu_e9791_1937_67_w.pdf |title=Settlement and Growth of the Gila Valley as a Mormon Colony, 1879–1900 |publisher=University of Arizona |year=1937 |access-date=February 20, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130120034142/http://uair.arizona.edu/system/files/usain/download/azu_e9791_1937_67_w.pdf |archive-date=January 20, 2013}}</ref>
[[Image:File-Historic_photograph_of_ferryboat_at_Lees_Ferry._John-D._Lee_established_the_first_ferry_at_the_confluence_of_the-Colorado_and_(698b6643-1dc1-4738-866e-a38aa7046253).jpg|thumb|right|Historic photograph of the cable ferry at Lee's Ferry, prior to construction of the Navajo Bridge.]]
Following tensions between Mormon settlers and the U.S. government in the [[Utah War]], a [[Nauvoo Legion|local militia]] including [[John D. Lee]] perpetrated the 1857 [[Mountain Meadows Massacre]], in which 120 non-Mormon settlers were killed. Fearing retribution, Lee moved in 1870 to the remote Pahreah Crossing in Arizona, where he took over a ferry first established in 1864 by [[Jacob Hamblin]].<ref name="GCNleesferry">{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/glca/historyculture/leesferryhistory.htm |title=Lees Ferry History |publisher=U.S. National Park Service |work=Glen Canyon National Recreational Area |date=August 11, 2006 |access-date=February 20, 2012 |archive-date=April 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414171025/http://www.nps.gov/glca/historyculture/leesferryhistory.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> This, the only river crossing for hundreds of miles not hemmed in by vertical canyon walls, became known as [[Lee's Ferry]]. While Lee was tried and subsequently executed in 1877, the ferry remained a major transportation link until the [[Navajo Bridge]] was completed nearby in 1928, rendering the ferry obsolete.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu/sites_coloradorivercorridor_leesferry.html |title=Lees Ferry |publisher=Arizona State University |date=July 8, 2010 |access-date=February 20, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120603033950/http://grandcanyonhistory.clas.asu.edu/sites_coloradorivercorridor_leesferry.html |archive-date=June 3, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The [[Denver and Salt Lake Railway]] (D&SL), incorporated in 1902, sought to provide a more direct connection between Denver and [[Salt Lake City, Utah|Salt Lake City]] than either the [[First Transcontinental Railroad|transcontinental railroad]] through Wyoming or the D&RGW's route via Black Canyon and Durango. The D&SL completed a rail line into the upper headwaters of the Colorado River and blasted the [[Moffat Tunnel]] under the Continental Divide, but ran out of money before even reaching Utah.<ref name=MoffatRoad/> In 1931 the D&RGW completed the "Dotsero Cutoff" linking Glenwood Springs to the D&SL route at [[Bond, Colorado]], finally completing the direct Denver–Salt Lake link with its acquisition of the bankrupt D&SL. The Gunnison River route was eventually abandoned in favor of the shorter Colorado River route, which today is owned by [[Union Pacific Railroad|Union Pacific]].<ref name=MoffatRoad>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/blm/cultresser/co/2/chap9.htm#:~:text=In%201931%20the%20Denver%20and,Denver%20to%20Salt%20Lake%20City.|title=The "Moffat Road" and Northwestern Colorado, 1903-1948|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|work=BLM Cultural Resource Series: An Isolated Empire: A History of Northwest Colorado|date=|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/blca/learn/historyculture/railroad.htm|title=Black Canyon of the Gunnison: Narrow Gauge Railroad|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|date=December 2, 2022|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref>

===Renaming of the upper Colorado River===
As late as 1921, the Colorado River upstream from the confluence with the Green River in Utah was still known as the Grand River. For over a decade, U.S. Representative [[Edward T. Taylor]] of Colorado had petitioned the [[United States House Committee on Energy and Commerce|Congressional Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce]] to rename the Grand River as the Colorado River.<ref name=congress>{{citation |url=http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/LawOfTheRiver/HearingToRenameGrandRiverColorado1921.pdf |work=Hearing Before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce of the House of Representatives, Sixty Sixth Congress, Third Session, on HJ 460 |publisher=[[Government Printing Office]] |title=Renaming the Grand River, Colo. |date=February 18, 1921 |access-date=May 16, 2023 |archive-date=August 5, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210805160830/http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/LawOfTheRiver/HearingToRenameGrandRiverColorado1921.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=[[Colorado River Water Conservation District]] |date=December 23, 2003 |title=Many Years Ago, the Colorado River Was Just Grand |url=http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20031223/OPINION/312230302 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430050158/http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20031223/OPINION/312230302 |archive-date=April 30, 2011 |access-date=January 5, 2008 |publisher=SummitDaily}}</ref> Representatives from Wyoming, Utah, and the [[United States Geological Survey]] objected, noting that the Green River was longer and drained a larger area. Taylor argued that the Grand River should be considered the main stream, as it carried the larger volume of water.<ref name="congress"/>{{sfn|Barnes|p=104|1988}}{{refn|The average discharge of the Colorado (Grand) River at [[Cisco, Utah]], about {{convert|97|mi|km}} upstream from the Green River confluence, is {{convert|7181|cuft/s|m3/s}}; between here and the confluence, only a few small, intermittent tributaries join the river.<ref name="Ciscodischarge"/>The [[Green River (Colorado River tributary)|Green River]] has an average discharge of {{convert|6048|cuft/s|m3/s}} as measured at [[Green River, Utah]], about {{convert|117.6|mi|km}} above the confluence;<ref name="Greendischarge"/> below here the only major tributary is the [[San Rafael River]], which contributes an average of {{convert|131|cuft/s|m3/s}}, resulting in a total of {{convert|6169|cuft/s|m3/s}}, still significantly lower than the discharge of the Colorado at their confluence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wdr.water.usgs.gov/wy2012/pdfs/09328500.2012.pdf |title=USGS Gage #09328500 on the San Rafael River near Green River, Utah |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |work=National Water Information System |date=1910–2012 |access-date=June 22, 2013 |archive-date=September 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150919112455/http://wdr.water.usgs.gov/wy2012/pdfs/09328500.2012.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>|group=n}} Taylor felt "slighted" that the Colorado River, as named, did not begin in the state of Colorado, and "he wasn't going to let Utah or Wyoming lay claim to the river's headwaters, despite the fact that the Green River is the larger drainage basin."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.colorado.edu/center/west/2017/12/20/how-grand-became-colorado-and-what-it-says-about-our-relationship-nature|title=How the 'Grand' Became the 'Colorado' And What It Says About Our Relationship To Nature|publisher=University of Colorado Boulder|date=December 20, 2017|work=KUNC|author=Runyon, Luke|accessdate=August 20, 2024}}</ref> On July 25, 1921, [[President of the United States|President]] [[Warren G. Harding]] signed House Joint Resolution 32 - "To change the name of the Grand River in Colorado and Utah to the Colorado River."<ref name="Grand_River_renamed">{{cite web |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1921-pt5-v61/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1921-pt5-v61.pdf |title=House Joint Resolution 32 - To change the name of the Grand River in Colorado and Utah to the Colorado River |work=[[Congressional Record]] |publisher=[[Sixty-seventh United States Congress]] |date=July 25, 1921 |page=4274 |access-date=May 29, 2023 |archive-date=May 16, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230516224606/https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1921-pt5-v61/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1921-pt5-v61.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>