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2.2 Community Description Mountains in central Mesa County in western Colorado. It is surrounded by the unincorporated areas of Mesa County. It is situated approximately halfway between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Denver, Colorado, and is a regional center for transportation and trade for an area of over 60,000 square miles. The Ute Indians were the earliest residents of western Colorado. In 1868, the Ute Indians were put on a reservation which included land in the Grand Junction area. This reservation was dissolved by an 1880 treaty which removed the Ute Indians to a new reservation in northeastern Utah. On September 1, 1881, the old Ute Indian reservation was opened for resettlement. After the Indians were forced out of western Colorado, many settlers moved into the area, drawn by claims of the beauty of the area and possibilities for irrigation. The city was named Grand Junction because it lies at the junction of the two largest rivers in the State, the Colorado River (then known as the Grand River> and the Gunnison River. The townsite was laid out in 1881 by George Crawford, a former Kansas governor. In the next year, a railroad spur was built from Gunnison, Colorado, and several irrigation projects were begun. After uranium was discovered, Grand Junction became the center of the extensive mining industry. It continues to be a transportation center for the farming, orchard growing, and livestock industries in the area, as well as a base for various industrial, commercial, and tourism activities. The population in 1981 was 28,111 (Reference 2), and approximately 30,000 in 1990 (Reference 3). The Colorado River originates high in the Rocky Mountains, on the western slope of the Continental Divide. The headwaters, located . in~HRocky Mountain J1ational Park,. a):"e_.atH apProximateJyU.,OQO feet.. The river flows southwesterly from its headwaters, approximately 200 miles upstream of Grand Junction. At Grand Junction, the river turns to the northwest and continues in that direction through Colorado. The drainage area at Grand Junction is approximately 17,100 square miles. Grand Junction lies at an elevation of approximately 4,600 feet in the southern part of the Grand Valley, a wide gently sloping valley defined by high, rock cliffs. To the north, the valley gradually slopes upward for several miles to the base of the Book Cliffs, which rise abruptly to more than 8,000 feet. To the south, Grand Junction is flanked by the Uncompahgre Plateau. Indian Wash originates at the foot of the Book Cliffs at an elevation of approximately 5,800 feet and flows approximately 5.5 miles southwesterly to an area just northeast of Walker Field, where the U.S. Soil Conservation Service IW-l flood detention . structure is located. From there it flows generally southerly 4