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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 2.0 GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE BASIN 2.1 HISTORICAL OVERVIEW The first explorations in the Basin were made by the Spanish. Many of the names of streams and mountains still bear the names given them by Captain Juan Marie de Rivera in 1765 and Father Escalante in 1776. In 1853 Captain Gunnison was commissioned by the government to search for a feasible railroad route across the Continental Divide. His party did much of the early exploration in the Basin. The Ute Indians retained possession of the Gunnison River Basin until 1873 when they ceded to the Federal government a large tract of upper basin land, which was immediately opened for settlement. The lower basin was not settled until the compromise of 1881 between the U.S. Government and the Ute Indians. As a result of the compromise, the Indians agreed to leave the area and locate in the Uintah Reservation in the territory of Utah. The 1 ure of gold, s i 1 ver and other mi nera 1 s caused an i nfl ux of people and the population increased rapidly until 1893. With the decline of the mining industry, agriculture became the basic industry of the Basin. Many of the miners, disappointed in their search for gold and silver, turned to farming and ranching as a means of livelihood and by 1900 most of the readily available sources of irrigation water had been developed by private individuals and small irrigation companies. In the late 1940's the relative abundance of automobiles and especially four-wheel drive vehicles resulted in a significant increase in tourists drawn to the area for outdoor recreat i on act i vit i es. That trend has cont i nued to increase over the years and recreation is now a very important segment of the economy of the Study Area. 2-1 I ~0003149