The Uncompahgre Valley is an agricultural valley of the

Uncompahgre River The Uncompahgre River is a tributary of the Gunnison River, approximately long, in southwestern Colorado in the United States. Lake Como at in northern San Juan County, in the Uncompahgre National Forest in the northwestern San Juan Mountain ...

around the town of Montrose in the western part of the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

state of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

. The valley is bounded to the south and east by the

San Juan Mountains The San Juan Mountains is a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry ...

and to the west by the Uncompahgre Plateau. The valley contains about 135,000 acres of irrigable land, is 35 miles long, and approximately 12 miles wide. The Uncompahgre Valley was originally home to the Utes who were removed to

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 ...

in 1881. Agriculture in the Uncompahgre Valley was made possible by the construction of the Gunnison Tunnel, which diverted irrigation water from the

Gunnison River The Gunnison River is located in western Colorado, United States and is one of the largest tributaries of the Colorado River. Description The river flows east to west and has a drainage area of according to the USGS. The drainage basin of the ...

in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison. This augmented irrigation waters from the Uncompahgre River, which could run low in summer after the spring

snowmelt In hydrology, snowmelt is surface runoff produced from melting snow. It can also be used to describe the period or season during which such runoff is produced. Water produced by snowmelt is an important part of the annual water cycle in many part ...

References

Valleys of Colorado Landforms of Montrose County, Colorado {{Colorado-geo-stub