Price River

{{Infobox river | name = Price River | native_name = | native_name_lang = | name_other = | name_etymology =  | image = UTAH MK50-3 Price Canyon 3.jpg | image_caption = The Price River in Price Canyon, June 2010 | image_size = 300 | map = Price River watershed.jpg | map_size = 300 | map_caption = Price River watershed ([https://mghydro.com/watersheds/app/shared/A8FBC5 Interactive map]) | pushpin_map = | pushpin_map_size = | pushpin_map_caption=  | subdivision_type1 = Country | subdivision_name1 = United States | subdivision_type2 = State | subdivision_name2 = Utah | subdivision_type3 = Region | subdivision_name3 = Carbon, Utah, and Emery Counties | subdivision_type4 = | subdivision_name4 = | subdivision_type5 = Cities | subdivision_name5 = Colton, Royal, Castle Gate, Helper, Spring Glen, Carbonville, Price, Wellington, Woodside  | length = | width_min = | width_avg = | width_max = | depth_min = | depth_avg = | depth_max = | discharge1_location= | discharge1_min = | discharge1_avg = | discharge1_max =  | source1 = Scofield Reservoir | source1_location = Northern edge of the Manti–La Sal National Forest and Wasatch Plateau | source1_coordinates= {{coord|39|47|13|N|111|07|24|W|display=inline}}<ref name=gnis>{{gnis|1444642|Price River}}</ref> | source1_elevation = {{convert|7618|ft|abbr=on}} | mouth = Confluence with the Green River | mouth_location = {{convert|20|mi|km}} north of Green River, Utah | mouth_coordinates = {{coord|39|10|46|N|110|06|23|W|display=inline,title}}<ref name=gnis/> | mouth_elevation = {{convert|4140|ft|abbr=on}} | progression = | river_system = | basin_size = {{convert|1900|sqmi|abbr=on}} | tributaries_left = White River, Willow Creek, Coal Creek, Grassy Trail Creek | tributaries_right = Miller Creek, Gordon Creek, Beaver Creek | custom_label = | custom_data = | extra = }}

The '''Price River''' is a {{convert|137|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}}<ref name=NHD>U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. [http://viewer.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ The National Map], accessed October 30, 2020</ref><ref name=saltpickup>{{cite journal |title=Salt Pickup by Overland Flow in the Price River Basin, Utah |author=Stanley L. Ponce |author2=Richard H. Hawkins |journal=Water Resources Bulletin |year=1978 |volume=14 |number=5 |pages=1187–1200 |doi=10.1111/j.1752-1688.1978.tb02257.x |bibcode=1978JAWRA..14.1187P |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1752-1688.1978.tb02257.x |access-date=October 30, 2020|url-access=subscription }}</ref> southeastward flowing river in Carbon, Utah and Emery counties in eastern Utah. It is a tributary to the Green River, itself a tributary to the Colorado River.

==History== The river's early name was the White River, but it was changed in the summer of 1869 when LDS Bishop William Price of Goshen, Utah, explored the region and renamed it, making the White River above Colton into a tributary of the Price River.<ref>{{cite book |title= Utah Place Names: A Comprehensive Guide to the Origins of Geographic Names: a Compilation |author= John W. Van Cott |publisher=University of Utah Press |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-87480-345-7 |page=303}}</ref> The town of Price was later named after the river.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.media.utah.edu/UHE/p/PRICE.html |title=Utah History Encyclopedia: Price | publisher=University of Utah | access-date =September 10, 2006 }}</ref>

==Watershed and course== [[File:Scofield Reservoir aerial.jpg|thumb|left|upright|The Scofield Reservoir flows into the Price River (lower right)]] The Price River watershed comprises {{convert|1900|sqmi|km2}}.<ref>{{cite report |title=Reconnaissance of Chemical Quality of Surface Water and Fluvial Sediment in the Price River Basin, Utah |author=J. C. Mundorff |publisher=United States Geological Survey |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |year=1972 |page=55 }}</ref> The USGS indicates that the Price River originates at Scofield Reservoir in the Wasatch Plateau in Carbon County in central Utah. From the reservoir, the river flows briefly eastward and northeastward into Utah County, where it receives the flows of the White River at Colton. Colton was originally named Pleasant Valley Junction, and Scofield Reservoir would occupy a large portion of Pleasant Valley.<ref name=Watt>{{cite book |title=A History of Carbon County |author=Ronald G. Watt |year=1997 |publisher=Utah State Historical Society Carbon County Commission |page=417}}</ref> Alternatively, historical accounts place the origin of the Price River at the confluence of the White River and Fish Creek, such that lower Fish Creek continued from below Scofield Dam to said confluence.<ref name=Watt/> The White River drains the Tavaputs Plateau.

From Colton the Price River continues southeastward, receiving Beaver Creek from the right and then Kyune Creek from the left (at Kyune). Below Kyune, the river enters Price Canyon and drops back into Carbon County alongside U.S. Route 6. The canyon of the Price River is a physiographic break between the Wasatch Plateau and the Book Cliffs.<ref name=Hydrology>{{cite report |title=Hydrology of the Price River Basin, Utah with emphasis on Selected Coal-Field Areas. U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2246 |author1=K. M. Waddell |author2=J. E. Dodge |author3=D. W. Darby |author4=S. M. Theobald |publisher=United States Government Printing Office |location=Washington, D.C. |year=1986 |page=52 | url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/2246/report.pdf |access-date=October 30, 2020}}</ref> Next, from the left the Price River receives Willow Creek at Castle Gate. Willow Creek is the largest tributary in the Book Cliffs area with a watershed of {{convert|81|sqmi|km2}}.<ref name=Hydrology/> After leaving Price Canyon at Heiner, the Price River enters the city of Helper, and then Price. From Price, the river continues southeast along the northeastern edge of the San Rafael Swell to the ghost town of Woodside, at which point it proceeds east into canyonlands, joining the Green River in Gray Canyon, about {{convert|20|mi|km}} north of Green River, Utah.

The Scofield Reservoir was formed by the construction of the Scofield Dam in 1946. Scofield Reservoir is fed by Pondtown Creek,<ref>{{gnis|1444574|Pondtown Creek}}</ref> Mud Creek,<ref>{{gnis|1443660|Mud Creek}}</ref> and Fish Creek,<ref>{{gnis|1441075|Fish Creek}}</ref> the primary tributary to the reservoir. There are plans to build a second dam on the river, upstream from the Scofield Reservoir, called the Gooseberry Narrows Dam near the confluence of Gooseberry Creek<ref>{{gnis|1441374|Gooseberry Creek}}</ref> with Fish Creek. The proposal has met with opposition out of concern for environmental impacts on trout fisheries in the Price River headwaters and the planned diversion of the water impounded by the dam out of the Colorado River basin to supplement the irrigation systems of the Sanpete Valley.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.utahrivers.org/gooseberry.htm | title = Utah Rivers Council - Gooseberry Dam | publisher = Utah Rivers Council | access-date = September 10, 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060908225337/http://utahrivers.org/gooseberry.htm  |archive-date = September 8, 2006}}</ref> As a result of the planned dam the Price River was included on the American Rivers list of the top ten endangered rivers in the United States in 2005.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_103115617.html |title=Utah's Price River "Most Endangered" |publisher=KUTV.com |access-date=September 10, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070926212316/http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_103115617.html |archive-date=September 26, 2007 }}</ref>

Just downstream of the town of Price, a partnership of the Carbon Canal Company (CCC), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR), is expanding the Olsen Reservoir<ref>{{gnis|1431001|Olsen Reservoir}}</ref> so that it can capture high spring Price River flows at the end of the Carbon Canal and store it, for agricultural use and to recharge the river in dry seasons and drought years.<ref>{{cite web |title=Price River: Solving Problems for Farmers and Fish |publisher=The Nature Conservancy |date=September 24, 2020 |url=https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/utah/stories-in-utah/price-river-reservoir/ |access-date=November 2, 2020}}</ref>

Tributaries downstream of Price are largely ephemeral. The largest is Grassy Trail Creek<ref>{{gnis|1425009|Grassy Trail Creek}}</ref> which exits the Book Cliffs at East Carbon, Carbon County, and joins the Price River south of Cedar, Emery County.<ref>{{gnis|1437518|Cedar}}</ref>

==Ecology== The headwaters of the Price River harbor Colorado River cutthroat trout (''(Oncorhynchus clarki pleuriticus''). Distribution and abundance of this cutthroat trout subspecies are now limited to small populations in less than 1% of its historic range in the upper tributaries of the Colorado River watershed. The chief vulnerability of Colorado River cutthroat trout is hybridization with non-native rainbow trout and competitive replacement by non-native brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') and brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'').<ref name=fish>{{cite journal |title=Ecology and Conservation of Native Fish in the Upper Colorado River Basin |author=Richard A. Valdez |author2=Robert T. Muth |journal=American Fisheries Society Symposium |volume=45 |pages=157–204 |year=2005 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288133225 |access-date=October 30, 2020}}</ref>

The federally endangered Colorado pikeminnow (''Ptychocheilus lucius'') is extant in the lower {{convert|143|km|mi}} of the Price River.<ref name=fish/> Three other imperiled fishes of the upper Colorado River basin, whose habitat is high desert streams, are the roundtail chub (''Gila robusta''), the flannelmouth sucker (''Catostomus latipinnis''), and the bluehead sucker (''Catostomus discobolus''). All three inhabit or inhabited the lower Price River until the roundtail chub was likely extirpated from the Price River due to low flows in 1977 and 1993, a localized rotenone detoxification problem in 1977, and/or multiple other pollution-caused fish kills.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Conservation and Management Plan for Three Fish Species in Utah. Addressing needs for Roundtail Chub (Gila robusta), Bluehead Sucker (Catostomus discobolus), and Flannelmouth Sucker (Catostomus latipinnis). Publication Number 06-17 |publisher=Utah Department of Natural Resources Division of Wildlife Resources |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |date=September 1, 2006 |page=82 |url=https://www.pacificorp.com/content/dam/pcorp/documents/en/pacificorp/energy/hydro/weber/resource-reports-and-data/UT-Conservation-Plan-Final-for-Pub_Sept2006.pdf |access-date=October 30, 2020}}</ref>

==Recreation== The Price is a small, shallow river and is normally unnavigable. However, during high springtime flows, the {{convert|23.5|mi}} below the Scofield Dam to Castle Gate contain Class I to V whitewater.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://southwestpaddler.com/docs/greenut9.html | title = Price River, Utah | publisher = southwestpaddler.com | access-date = September 10, 2006 }}</ref> The river has become increasingly popular with canoeists and kayakers.

The tailwater below Scofield Reservoir is sometimes called Lower Fish Creek (although the USGS sets the source of the Price River at the reservoir dam). It is considered Blue Ribbon flyfishing for large brown trout. This uppermost reach is paralleled by railroad tracks in a very scenic canyon and is stocked annually with non-native brown trout fingerlings, which have been known to mature up to {{convert|10|lbs|kg}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=Lower Fish Creek (Blue Ribbon) |publisher=Utah Division of Wildlife Resources |url=https://dwrapps.utah.gov/fishing/fStart?NA=Lower%20Fish%20Creek |access-date=November 2, 2020}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist|22em}}

==External links== {{commons category|Price River}} * [http://www.usbr.gov/dataweb/html/scofield.html U.S. Bureau of Reclamation – Scofield Dam project] * [http://www.riverfacts.com/rivers/13322.html Price River Whitewater]

Category:Tributaries of the Colorado River in Utah Category:Rivers of Utah Category:Rivers of Utah County, Utah Category:Rivers of Carbon County, Utah Category:Rivers of Emery County, Utah Category:Tributaries of the Green River (Colorado River tributary)