Snake Creek is a
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
accessed November 9, 2020 southeastward-flowing
stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...
tributary to the middle section of the
Provo River
The Provo River (Ute people, Ute: Timpanoquint, “Rock River) is located in Utah County, Utah, Utah County and Wasatch County, Utah, Wasatch County, Utah, in the United States. It rises in the Uinta Mountains at Wall Lake and flows about southw ...
in
Wasatch County
Wasatch County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 34,788. Its county seat and largest city is Heber City. The county was named for a Ute word meaning "mountain pass" or "low plac ...
,
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 ...
.
History
Snake Creek was named for a nest of rattlesnakes in a dry "hot pots". Hot pots are formed by natural hot-water springs that create crater-like depressions in mounds of
tufa
Tufa is a variety of limestone formed when carbonate minerals precipitation (chemistry), precipitate out of water in ambient temperature, unheated rivers or lakes. hot spring, Geothermally heated hot springs sometimes produce similar (but less ...
(calcium carbonate). The snakes were seen as pests and eradicated, and the dry pot became a limestone quarry.
Snake Creek Canyon saw significant mining activity beginning in 1894 when a reporter wrote of a "handsome specimen of copper" from the head of Snake Creek Canyon. In 1897, the Steamboat Company began work in the Snake Creek headwaters.
[
]
Watershed and course
Snake Creek originates on the southeastern slope of Sunset Peak, about south of Brighton
Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...
.[ and flows southeast through Snake Creek Canyon, receiving Lavina Creek (from the left heading downstream) and other minor tributaries until it receives Pine Creek at the base on the canyon in ]Wasatch Mountain State Park
Wasatch Mountain State Park is a state park of Utah, United States, located in the northern part of the state within the Wasatch Back area on the north and west edges of the Heber Valley in Wasatch County, Utah, Wasatch County near the city of M ...
. Pine Creek, in turns descends along North Pine Canyon Road and is paralleled by the WOW (Wasatch over Wasatch) Trail. From here Snake Creek flows southward through the city of Midway on the western edge of the Heber Valley. After passing south of Midway, Snake Creek reaches its confluence with the middle section of the Provo River
The Provo River (Ute people, Ute: Timpanoquint, “Rock River) is located in Utah County, Utah, Utah County and Wasatch County, Utah, Wasatch County, Utah, in the United States. It rises in the Uinta Mountains at Wall Lake and flows about southw ...
, just above Deer Creek Reservoir
The Deer Creek Dam and Reservoir hydroelectric facilities are on the Provo River in western Wasatch County, Utah, United States, about northeast of Provo. The dam is a zoned earthfill structure high with a crest length of . The dam contains ...
.
Ecology and conservation
Since 1995 most of Snake Creek Canyon has been protected, beginning with 758 acres purchased by Utah Open Lands, the Snake Creek Preservation Society, The Nature Conservancy
The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is a global environmental organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, United States. it works via affiliates or branches in 79 countries and territories, as well as across every state in the US.
Founded in ...
and the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation. Additional purchases increased the protected lands to 917 acres.
Although Snake Creek only contributes 20% of the water flows in the Provo River, arsenic and other trace elements picked up by the creek increase concentrations in the river four-fold. Phosphate and nitrate pollution from dairy cattle and farms along lower Snake Creek significantly polluted the lower Middle Provo and Deer Creek Reservoir but underwent major clean-up in the 1980s.
See also
* Wasatch Mountain State Park
Wasatch Mountain State Park is a state park of Utah, United States, located in the northern part of the state within the Wasatch Back area on the north and west edges of the Heber Valley in Wasatch County, Utah, Wasatch County near the city of M ...
References
External links
*{{usurped,
Provo River Watershed Council
}
Rivers of Utah
Rivers of Wasatch County, Utah