Courtesy Utah Division of Water Rights
bear.river_.basis_.waterrights.utah_.gov_.250×354.jpg
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.
Courtesy US FWS/Mountain Prairie-flickr
Katie Theule, Photographer
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