The Beaver River is a river in western
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
, long, that drains to
Sevier Lake
Sevier Lake is an intermittent and endorheic lake which lies in the lowest part of the Sevier Desert, Millard County, Utah, United States. Like Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake, it is a remnant of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. Sevier Lake is fed p ...
via the
Sevier River
The Sevier River (pronounced "severe") is a -long river in the Great Basin of southwestern Utah in the United States. Originating west of Bryce Canyon National Park, the river flows north through a chain of high farming valleys and steep canyon ...
.
Description
The river starts in the
Tushar Mountains
The Tushar Mountains are the third-highest mountain range in Utah after the Uinta Mountains and the La Sal Range. Located in the Fishlake National Forest, Delano Peak, 12,174 ft (3,711 m) NAVD 88, is the highest point in both Beaver County ...
, in eastern
Beaver County near the town of
Beaver
Beavers (genus ''Castor'') are large, semiaquatic rodents of the Northern Hemisphere. There are two existing species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers are the second-large ...
, and flows for about west as a perennial stream, through the
Beaver Valley to the
Escalante Desert
The Escalante Desert is a geographic Great Basin region and arid desert ecoregion, in the deserts and xeric shrublands biome, located in southwestern Utah.
Geography
The Escalante Desert is northwest of Cedar City in Iron County, Utah, and ext ...
, where it turns north. The river then continues north for about as an
ephemeral
Ephemerality (from the Greek word , meaning 'lasting only one day') is the concept of things being transitory, existing only briefly. Academically, the term ephemeral constitutionally describes a diverse assortment of things and experiences, fr ...
wash, past
Milford (where its entire flow is diverted for irrigation) into
Millard County. Once it reaches the
Sevier Desert
The Sevier Desert is a large arid section of central-west Utah, United States, and is located in the southeast of the Great Basin. It is bordered by deserts north, west, and south; its east border is along the mountain range and valley sequences ...
south of
Delta
Delta commonly refers to:
* Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet
* D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet
* River delta, at a river mouth
* Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...
it turns west, joining the Sevier River and emptying into the intermittent,
endorheic
An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...
Sevier Lake.
The Beaver River watershed drains about ,
most of it desert. The human population is about 3500, mostly concentrated in the town of Beaver. The river is dammed for irrigation in its upper reaches by Rocky Ford Dam, forming
Minersville Reservoir. A total of are farmed in the basin.
See also
*
List of rivers of Utah
This is a list of rivers in the U.S. state of Utah in the United States, sorted by drainage basin, watershed.
Colorado River
The Colorado River is a major river in the Western United States, emptying into the Gulf of California. Rivers are liste ...
References
External links
{{authority control
Rivers of Utah
Rivers of the Great Basin
Rivers of Beaver County, Utah
Rivers of Millard County, Utah