The Bear River

Following the same route which I had taken when coming up, we arrived at Bear River on the evening of the eleventh and encamped. Examination of Cache valley occupied several days. Crossing over the range of low rounded hills through, which Bear River has cut a passage, we entered this beautiful and picturesque valley. Which was then covered with a profusion of rich green grass and adorned and diversified by numerous clumps of willows. The valley is full of swampy springs affording an abundance of good sweet water and excellent grass. Speckled trout, large size, abound in the streams. I believe this passage to be from “Journal of a Trapper” written by mountain man Osborn Russell around 1816.

The Bear is a unique and beautiful rivering system. Superlatives abound. A river of profound beauty, who provides over 60% of the life blood for the Great Salt Lake eco system. The largest river, to begin and end in the Great Basin. A river which witnessed the largest massacre of Native Americans in our country’s history. A river of abundant life, who supports three national wildlife refuges, in its 500 mile course.

There were a few thoughts running through my brain as I canoed down a stretch of the Bear River though Gentile valley, in southeast Idaho this morning, counting bird species for Utah Power and Light. I was stunned by the beauty as we left the bank, into early morning sunrise, in a river mist with rain clouds forming over surrounding mountains. Our spirits were further buoyed by rampant bird songs, Canada Geese, Sandhill Cranes, Meadow Larks, Red Winged Blackbirds countless swallows and songbirds. Occasionally sun would find a hole in the clouds and awaken the hills to vibrant Spring green offset by dark clouds gathering.

A large white bird appears on the water ahead of us. Perhaps another pelican. Drifting closer we startled this elegant graceful being, which emits a loud trumpeting call to echo through the shrouds of fog. Trumpeter Swan. We are held in awe of this magnificence. Still on the endangered species list, due to overharvesting and habitat loss.

Winding our way through many river miles we finally arrived at the backwaters of Oneida Reservoir, as the river disappears in a rugged defile called the Narrows. Most of this once magnificent stretch of wildriver now lies beneath the reservoir

This is Jack Greene and I am Wild About Utah!

Credits:

Map: The Bear River Basin Courtesy Utah Division of Water Rights
Images:Courtesy US FWS/Mountain Prairie-flickr Katie Theule, Photographer
Text: Jack Greene
Audio: Courtesy and Copyright Kevin Colver
Transcribed from the audio supplied by UPR

Additional Reading:

Russell, Osborne, York, Lem A, Journal Of A Trapper Or Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains 1834-1843, Syms York, 1921, Digitized by Google, https://archive.org/details/journalatrapper00yorkgoog
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=49HTAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA7

Russell, Osborne, Journal Of A Trapper: Nine Years in the Rocky Mountains 1834-1843, University of Nebraska Press, 1955, https://www.amazon.com/manuscript-Robertson-Collection-University-Mountains/dp/B000OFZEES/
Other versions
https://www.amazon.com/Journal-Trapper-Years-Mountains-1834-1843/dp/1541104935
https://www.amazon.com/Journal-Trapper-Years-Mountains-1834-1843-ebook/dp/B01MYMW9AQ

Morgan, Dale, Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West, Bison Books, 1964, https://www.amazon.com/Jedediah-Smith-Opening-West-Bison/dp/0803251386

Oneida Narrows Reservoir, Southwest Region, Idaho Birding Trail, Idaho Fish & Game, https://idfg.idaho.gov/ifwis/ibt/site.aspx?id=127

Trumpeter Swans, US FWS/Mountain Prairie-flickr account, Several Photographers https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmtnprairie/sets/72157659882083253