Roaring Rapids (Colorado River)

Last updated
Roaring Rapids
USA Arizona location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Roaring
Rapids
Location in
NevadaArizona
Geography
Coordinates 35°50′35″N114°42′12″W / 35.84306°N 114.70333°W / 35.84306; -114.70333 Coordinates: 35°50′35″N114°42′12″W / 35.84306°N 114.70333°W / 35.84306; -114.70333

Roaring Rapids are one of several rapids in the Black Canyon of the Colorado, 10.25 miles above El Dorado Canyon in the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada. [1]

Rapids A section of a river where the river bed is relatively steep, increasing the waters velocity and turbulence

Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence.

Black Canyon of the Colorado the canyon on the Colorado River where Hoover Dam was built

The Black Canyon of the Colorado is the canyon on the Colorado River where Hoover Dam was built. The canyon is located on the Colorado River at the state line between Nevada and Arizona. The western wall of the gorge is in the El Dorado Mountains, and the eastern wall is in the Black Mountains of Arizona. The canyon formed about 15 million years ago during the Miocene Basin and Range uplift. Black Canyon gets its name from the black volcanic rocks that are found throughout the area.

El Dorado Canyon is a canyon in southern Clark County, Nevada famed for its rich silver and gold mines. The canyon was named in 1857 by steamboat entrepreneur Captain George Alonzo Johnson when gold and silver was discovered here. It drains into the Colorado River at the former site of Nelson's Landing.

History

The Roaring Rapids were one of two of the significant hazards to navigation to steamboats, barges, and other shipping when ascending or descending the Colorado River between El Dorado Canyon and Callville, in the 19th Century. [2] :47, 49 The other was the Ringbolt Rapids, 12 miles farther up the river. [3]

Steamboats of the Colorado River

Steamboats on the Colorado River operated from the river mouth at the Colorado River Delta on the Gulf of California in Mexico, up to the Virgin River on the Lower Colorado River Valley in the Southwestern United States from 1852 until 1909, when the construction of the Laguna Dam was completed. The shallow draft paddle steamers were found to be the most economical way to ship goods between the Pacific Ocean ports and settlements and mines along the lower river, putting in at landings in Sonora state, Baja California Territory, California state, Arizona Territory, New Mexico Territory, and Nevada state. They remained the primary means of transportation of freight until the advent of the more economical railroads began cutting away at their business from 1878 when the first line entered Arizona Territory.

Callville, Nevada human settlement in United States of America

Callville is a former settlement of Clark County in the U.S. state of Nevada. Abandoned in 1869, it was submerged under Lake Mead when the Colorado River was dammed, Callville Bay retaining the name. At one time, it was noted to be the southernmost outpost of the Mormon settlement.

Ringbolt Rapids

Ringbolt Rapids are a series of rapids in the upper Black Canyon of the Colorado, 12 miles above the Roaring Rapids in the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada.

Related Research Articles

Colorado River major river in the western United States and Mexico

The Colorado River is one of the principal rivers in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada border, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora.

Little Colorado River river in the United States of America

The Little Colorado River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. state of Arizona, 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), 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.

Eldorado Mountains

The Eldorado Mountains, also called the El Dorado Mountains, are a north-south trending mountain range in southeast Nevada bordering west of the south-flowing Colorado River; the endorheic Eldorado Valley borders the range to the west, and the range is also on the western border of the Colorado River's Black Canyon of the Colorado, and El Dorado Canyon on the river. The range is 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Las Vegas, Nevada; and the Eldorado Mountains connect with the Highland and Newberry mountains.

Rioville, Nevada human settlement in United States of America

Rioville, Nevada was a settlement founded by Latter-day Saints in what they thought was Utah Territory in 1869, now under Lake Mead and within Clark County, Nevada.

Esmerelda, was a stern-wheel paddle-steamer, built for the Sacramento River trade, in 1864 it became the first of the opposition steamboats on the Colorado River. It was also the first steamboat to tow large cargo barges on that river, in May 1864 and to reach Callville, Nevada in 1866.

Louisville, which is now a ghost town, was a mining camp in El Dorado Canyon near the Techatticup Mine in the Eldorado Mining District, of New Mexico Territory. The camp was probably named for Nat S. Lewis, the superintendent of the Techatticup Mine in the 1860s, and camp doctor.

San Juan or Upper Camp is a ghost town that was a mining camp of the Eldorado Mining District. It was located in the upper reach of El Dorado Canyon, just below the present day location of Nelson in Clark County, Nevada.

El Dorado City, which is now a ghost town, was a mining camp in the Colorado Mining District at the mouth of January Wash at its confluence with El Dorado Canyon. It was located about a mile down the canyon from Huse Spring, at an elevation of 2382 feet. Its site was located nearby to the south southeast of the Techatticup Mine the primary source of the ore its mill processed.

Lucky Jim Camp sometimes called Lucky Camp is a ghost town site in Clark County, Nevada. It was within New Mexico Territory when founded in 1862.

Stone's Ferry is a former Mormon settlement and ferry crossing of the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona, in Clark County, Nevada, United States.

Boulder Canyon (Colorado River) canyon on the Colorado River, above Hoover Dam, now flooded by Lake Mead

Boulder Canyon, originally Devils Gate Canyon, is a canyon on the Colorado River, above Hoover Dam, now flooded by Lake Mead. It lies between Clark County, Nevada and Mohave County, Arizona. It heads at western end of the Virgin River Basin of Lake Mead, at about 36°09′05″N114°32′51″W. Boulder Canyon divides the Black Mountains into the Black Mountains of Arizona, and the Black Mountains of Nevada. Its mouth is now under the eastern end of the Boulder Basin of Lake Mead, between Canyon Point in Nevada and Canyon Ridge in Arizona. Its original mouth is now underneath Lake Mead between Beacon Rock and Fortification Ridge on the southern shore in Arizona.

Cottonwood Island (Nevada) island in the United States of America

Cottonwood Island, a large island in the Colorado River, within Cottonwood Valley, in Clark County, Nevada. Cottonwood Island was a low-lying island about 10 miles long and up to 3 miles wide. It was forested by cottonwoods and also after the spring flood, cluttered with driftwood from the riparian woodlands along the upper watershed of the Colorado River, washed down and caught in the first wide valley where the river slowed and spread out. Cottonwood Island was important as a source wood and of fuel for steamboats on that river and for the early mills and mines in El Dorado Canyon.

Explorers Rock

Explorer's Rock was a large rock in the Colorado River that was a hazard to navigation at the mouth of the Black Canyon of the Colorado between Arizona and Nevada during the 19th century. It got its name from incident where the iron hulled steamboat Explorer struck it doing some damage, during the expedition of Lieutenant Joseph C. Ives, Corps of Topographical Engineers to explore the Colorado River of the West in 1857 and 1858.

Colorado Mining District was primarily a silver and gold mining district organized in El Dorado Canyon, New Mexico Territory on the west shore of the Colorado River in what is now Clark County, Nevada. The Colorado District was part of Arizona Territory from 1863 to 1869. In 1869, the land of Arizona Territory north and west of the Colorado River east to the 114th meridian of longitude, including the Colorado District, was turned over to Nevada.

Quartette or Quartette Mill or Quartette Landing, was a mining settlement, location of the stamp mill of the Quartette Mining Company, owner of the largest mine in the Searchlight Mining District and a steamboat landing on the Colorado River, in what is now Clark County, Nevada. It lay at an elevation of 646 feet.

References