Blacks Fork

This article is about a river in Utah and Wyoming. For the ghost town of the same name, see Blacks Fork, Utah.
Blacks Fork
Blacks Fork of the Green River
River
Country United States
States Utah, Wyoming
Cities Green River, Wyoming, Lyman, Wyoming, Granger, Wyoming
Source
 - location Uinta Mountains, Utah
 - coordinates 40°56′25″N 110°35′19″W / 40.94028°N 110.58861°W / 40.94028; -110.58861 [1]
Mouth Flaming Gorge Reservoir
 - coordinates 41°17′42″N 109°32′06″W / 41.29500°N 109.53500°W / 41.29500; -109.53500Coordinates: 41°17′42″N 109°32′06″W / 41.29500°N 109.53500°W / 41.29500; -109.53500 [1]
Discharge for USGS gage #09224700 near Little America
 - average 292 cu ft/s (8 m3/s) [2]
 - max 9,980 cu ft/s (283 m3/s)
 - min 0 cu ft/s (0 m3/s)

Blacks Fork (also referred to as Blacks Fork of the Green River) is a 175-mile-long (282 km)[3] 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.[4] From there the river flows through the town of Lyman before joining with the Smiths Fork, 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,[5] who trapped in the area with Jedediah Smith in 1824.[6] 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

  1. 1 2 "Blacks Fork". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey., USGS GNIS
  2. ↑ "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.
  3. ↑ 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
  4. ↑ "Lyman Project". Bureau of Reclamation.
  5. ↑ Bagley, Will (2014). South Pass: Gateway to a Continent. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0806145110.
  6. ↑ http://historytogo.utah.gov/salt_lake_tribune/mormon_trail_series/070597.html
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