Item Detail
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30688
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1
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3
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English
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"Been Grazed Almost to Extinction": The Environment, Human Action, and Utah Flooding, 1900-1940
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Utah Historical Quarterly
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67
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1
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Champaign, IL
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University of Illinois Press
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23-47
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"Utah is the nation's most arid state--only Nevada receives less moisture annually than Utah's average of thirteen inches--but flooding as a natural process has occurred in the area for thousands of years. The combination of Utah's topography and erratic climate creates an ideal situation for periodic flooding. Due to seasonal disparities in precipitation, many of Utah's smaller streams remain completely dry during part of the year. Such dry water courses, along with other desert surfaces, canyons, and gullies, provide an outlet for flash flooding during periods of unusually heavy precipitation. Heavy winter snows and low spring temperatures create a snowpack susceptible to rapid melting in late spring when temperatures jump, unleashing water from an entire winter onto the valleys below. Finally, cloudburst storms can dump huge quantities of water onto already-saturated or otherwise impaired mountain watersheds, sending a wall of water and debris down canyon streambeds.
The physical setting to which Brigham Young brought the initial Mormon settlers in the summer of 1847 had a long history. Natural forces, primarily wind and water, had shaped and eroded the landscape, and flooding had long been a naturally occurring phenomenon. Various cultures and peoples had lived in, explored, and used the area to which the Mormon pioneers came. These earlier peoples had exploited the natural flora and fauna, and some had developed irrigation. Utah was not a virgin uninhabited wilderness in the summer of 1847, but the arrival of Brigham Young's band and the thousands that followed did mark a new era for the region. Less than five years after their entrance into the Salt Lake Valley, Mormons had to cope with flooding, and in 1862 flood waters plagued much of Utah from February to June, sweeping away almost every bridge in the region and demolishing roads, fields, and homes. A continuing war against rising and rushing waters, with the damage they may bring, had begun."
[from author]