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<br />w <br />o <br />~ <br />-.J <br /> <br />SECTION 4 <br /> <br />THE GRAND VALLEY <br /> <br />The Grand Valley is located in west central Colorado near <br />the western edge of Mesa County. Grand Junction, the largest <br />city in Colorado west of the Continental Divide, is the popula- <br />tion center of the Valley (Figure 3). The Grand Valley is a <br />crescent shaped area which encompasses about 49,800 hectares <br />(l23,000 acres) of which 57.7 percent or about 28,650 hectares <br />(70,800 acres) are irrigated. Urban and industrial expansion, <br />service roads and farmsteads, idle and abandoned lands account <br />for most of the land not farmed. The Valley was carved in the <br />Mancos Shale formation (a high salt bearing marine shale) by <br />the Colorado River and its tributaries. The Colorado River <br />enters the Grand Valley from the east, is joined by the Gunnison <br />River at Grand Junction and then exi~s to the west. <br /> <br />Spectacular and colorful canyons flank the southwestern <br />edge of the Valley (Colorado National Monument). A steep escarp- <br />ment known as the Book Cliffs (which are the southern edge of <br />the Roan Plateau) rises from the Valley floor on the north; the <br />3,050 meter (10,000 foot) high Grand Mesa lies to the northeast, <br />and distantly to the southeast the San Juan Mountains can be <br />seen; to the south and west lie the rough, steep, deeply eroded <br />hilly lands of the high terraces or mesas of the canyon lands of <br />the Colorado Plateau. Within the Grand Valley, the irrigated <br />lands have developed on geologically recent alluvial plains <br />consisting of broad coalescing alluvial fans and on older <br />alluvial fans, terraces and mesas. Also, included in the Valley <br />lands are stream flood plains and various rough lands occurring <br />as terraces, escarpments, high knobs, and remnants of former mesas. <br /> <br />POPULATION <br /> <br />The majority of the population of Mesa County resides in <br />the Grand Valley near and within the city limits of Grand <br />Junction. In 1970 the population of the city of Grand Junction <br />was 20,l70, 37 percent of the total Mesa County population. The <br />population has been growing steadily during the past decades, <br />and the 1974 estimated population of Grand Junction was 27,000 <br />while that of the Mesa County was nearly 62,000. The projected <br />1990 population of Mesa County is 90,000. <br /> <br />19 <br /> <br />~ .. <br /> <br />i' '~ <br /> <br /> <br />.i.:. . ,i:L ,~ . ,Co" <br />