Scope of Lower Colorado River Basin Plan

Document: Attachment 1, Scope of Lower Colorado River Basin Plan, March 1965, page 15Starting with Hoover Dam and going upstream, the major dams of the Colorado system would be Hoover, Bridge Canyon, Marble Canyon, Glen Canyon, and Flaming Gorge, with the Curecanti Unit dams and Navajo Dam on the tributaries to the east. The reservoirs created by these dams would have total surface area of about 410,000 acres. Interspersed with these would be the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Mesa Verde, Rocky Mountain, and the proposed Canyon Lands National Parks. Also, there would be the Grand Canyon, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Dinosaur, and Rainbow Bridge National Monuments, plus 30 others of lesser significance. The area covered by these parks and monuments totals about 3,000,000 acres. In additon, there are numerous State parks, National Forests, and recreation areas. Between the headwaters of Bridge Canyon Reservoir and Marble Canyon Dam there would remain 104 miles of virgin canyon, of which 91 miles would be in the Grand Canyon National Park. Elsewhere in the Colorado River system there would remain hundreds of miles of additional virgin canyon areas of spectacular scenic beauty. Furthermore, neither Bridge Canyon nor Marble Canyon Reservoirs would despoil the beauty of the Colorado River canyon. Both would be contained within the inner gorge of the canyon topped by thousands of feet of towering walls. The reservoir surfaces would be stable with very little variation in elevation. 15Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 1,733,943 byte