Ogden River facts for kids
The Ogden River is a river in Weber County, Utah, United States. It is about 35 miles (56 kilometers) long. This river is important for the people and nature in the area. It provides water and has helped shape the land over millions of years.
River's Journey
The Ogden River starts high up in the Wasatch Range mountains. It has three main branches, like fingers, called the North, Central, and South Forks. These branches meet together at Pineview Reservoir, which is a large lake near Huntsville.
From the reservoir, the river flows southwest. It carves its way through a cool place called Ogden Canyon. Then, it goes through the city of Ogden. Finally, it reaches the edge of West Haven and Marriott-Slaterville. Here, the Ogden River joins a bigger river called the Weber River.
How Ogden Canyon Was Formed
The Ogden River is actually older than the Wasatch Range mountains it flows through! Over the last 15 million years, the mountains slowly grew taller. This happened because of small movements along the Wasatch fault line. But as the mountains rose, the river kept cutting its way through the rock.
This amazing process created Ogden Canyon. The canyon is about 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) long. It has many smaller canyons branching off from it. The city of Ogden is at the western end of the canyon. The eastern end is where you find Pineview Dam.
Using the River's Water
The Ogden River was named after a fur trader from the 1800s, Peter Skene Ogden. For a long time, people have used the river's water for farming. This is called irrigation.
In 1937, the Pineview Dam was finished. It was part of a big plan called the Ogden River Project. This project was created by the Bureau of Reclamation. Their goal was to bring water to about 25,000 acres (101 square kilometers) of farmland nearby.
Other parts of this project help move the river's water to different places. For example, the Ogden-Brigham Canal connects the river to Brigham City in the north. There are also other canals and conduits that help deliver water to farms and communities.
