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32-634: Father Escalante 's expedition visited the Uinta Basin in September 1776. 1822–1840 French Canadian trappers Étienne Provost, François le Clerc, and Antoine Robidoux entered the Uinta Basin by way of the Old Spanish Trail and made their fortunes by trapping the many beaver and trading with the Uintah tribe. The Northern Ute Indian Reservation was established in 1861 by presidential decree. The United States opened

64-518: A native of Valle de Carriedo, Cantabria, Spain, lived in Chihuahua before he moved to El Paso in 1743. From 1754–56 he lived in Santa Fe. Multi-talented, he was an army engineer, merchant, Indian fighter, government agent, rancher and artist. It was his experience as a cartographer that made the expedition historic when he produced several maps of the expedition around 1778 and a report on the expedition, which

96-713: A report that was highly critical of the administration of the New Mexico missions. His views caused him to fall out of favor with the Franciscans in power, leading him to an assignment to an obscure post at a Sonoran Desert mission in the Sonora y Sinaloa Province in northern Mexico. In 1777, Domínguez returned to Mexico and was the chaplain of presidios in Nueva Vizcaya. In 1800, he was at Janos, Sonora, Mexico. He died between 1803 and 1805. Fray Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante

128-652: A source of coalbed methane . The most prominent source of oil from Paleozoic rocks is the Permian Phosphoria Formation . During the Laramide Orogeny along the Wasatch Mountains , the north–south trending coast during the Late Cretaceous was receding eastward, at the same time the area where the basin is located was subsiding , creating a lacustrine environment. A clastic wedge consisting of

160-582: Is a broad east–west strip of higher plateau that rises sharply above the denuded country to the south. On the south side of the plateau the descent of 3,000 feet (910 m), to the general level of eastern Utah on the south, is made in two steps. The first is the Roan Cliffs and the second, the Book Cliffs . Eastward in Colorado the two lines of cliffs are poorly distinguished. The Green River flows southward out of

192-712: Is included in Herbert E. Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness: The Story of the Escalante Expedition to the Interior Basin . He is also known for his artwork, including a painting of St. Michael on an altar screen in Santa Fe's chapel of San Miguel and statuettes that were in the Zuni church. Fathers Domínguez and Escalante named three Timpanogos/Ute Native Americans who joined the expedition as guides: Other men who began

224-844: Is the source of commercial oil and gas production. Separated from the Piceance Basin by the Douglas Creek Arch, both basins formed during the Laramide Orogeny , and are bounded by the Charleston-Nebo thrust fault , the Uinta Basin boundary fault, and the Grand Hogback monocline . The Uinta Basin includes the Wasatch Plateau . According to the USGS Uinta-Piceance Assessment Team, "The black- shale facies of

256-762: The Dakota and the Mesaverde Group. The lower marine Mancos Shale conformably intertongues with terrestrial sandstones and mudstones of the Dakota and in its upper part grades into and intertongues with the Mesaverde Group. The shale tongues typically have sharp basal contacts and gradational upper contacts. Whereas in the plains east of the Rocky Mountains certain mappable marine shales are identified as formations (e.g., Skull Creek , Graneros ), correlated deposits within

288-685: The Green River Formation is the main petroleum system of Tertiary age whereas the Mahogany zone of the Green River Formation is a minor component. The Cretaceous Mancos Group and equivalent rocks are the main source of Cretaceous oil and a major contributor of gas in the basin, whereas the Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde is a lesser contributor of oil but a significant source for gas. Ferron Sandstone coals are known to be

320-752: The Mancos River nearby. The two geologists also traced the unit into the Telluride, Colorado area. W.T. Lee had traced the unit north into the Grand Mesa area, defining it as all marine shale between the Dakota and the Mesaverde. It was subsequently traced into Utah and New Mexico. During their work in New Mexico in 1924, J.B. Reeside, Jr., and F.H. Knowlton found that the Mancos Shale could be divided into biostratigraphic layers corresponding closely to formations of

352-684: The Oligocene . The basin is also known for solid-hydrocarbon-filled fractures consisting of ozocerite , gilsonite , and wurtzilite . In 1948, oil was discovered in the Paleozoic portion of the basin at Ashley Valley. Tertiary discoveries followed in 1948 at Roosevelt, and then the Red Wash Field and Duchesne Field in 1951. The Bluebell Field was discovered in 1967 and the Altamont Field in 1970. The Altamont-Bluebell structural trap occurs where

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384-495: The San Juan Mountains Province . The Mancos is a diverse unit, with dozens of named subunits in different structural basins that often intertongue with other formations. The subunits and intertonguing formations (in italics) in each basin, in stratigraphic order, are: The Mancos Shale was first named by Charles Whitman Cross and C.W. Purington in 1899, for outcrops near the town of Mancos, Colorado and along

416-420: The "lush, mountainous land filled with game and timber, strange ruins of stone cities and villages, and rivers showing signs of precious metals." Santa Rosa de Abiquiú, July 30 Mesa Verde, August 10 Father Fray Francisco Atanasio [Domínguez] awoke troubled by rheumatic fever which he felt in his face and head since the day before, and it was desirable that we make camp here until he should be better, but

448-579: The North Horn, Colton, and Wasatch was deposited northwards. These sediments interfingered with organic-rich lacustrine clays and carbonate muds of the Green River and Flagstaff facies. Later, deposits originated from the Uinta Mountains from the north, forming a southward-thinning clastic wedge . A carbonate sediment consisting of an organic-rich oil shale was deposited from the middle Eocene into

480-484: The Uinta Mountains to the north, crossing the Uinta Basin, and flows in a 5,000 feet (1,500 m) deep gorge known as Desolation Canyon . The Colorado River crosses the eastern portion of this section, cutting off an area of some 40 miles (64 kilometres) in diameter in which are preserved fragments of a lofty lava cap forming Grand Mesa and Battlement Mesa . The Uinta Basin forms a geologic structural basin , and

512-568: The Wasatch sandstone pinches out. 40°13′30″N 109°32′32″W  /  40.22500°N 109.54222°W  / 40.22500; -109.54222 Father Escalante The Domínguez–Escalante Expedition was a Spanish journey of exploration conducted in 1776 by two Franciscan priests, Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante , to find an overland route from Santa Fe, New Mexico , to their Roman Catholic mission in Monterey , on

544-543: The coast of modern day central California. Domínguez, Vélez de Escalante, and Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco , acting as the expedition's cartographer , traveled with ten men from Santa Fe through many unexplored portions of the American West , including present-day western Colorado, Utah, and northern Arizona. Along part of the journey, they were aided by three indigenous guides of the Timpanogos tribe ( Ute people ). The land

576-459: The continuous rains, the inclemency of the weather, and the great dampness of the place forced us to leave it. Going north, and having traveled a little more than half a league , we turned to the northwest, went on a league and then swung west through valleys of very beautiful timber and abundant pasturage, roses, and various other flowers. After going two leagues we were again caught in a very heavy rain. Father Fray Francisco Atanasio became worse and

608-765: The distribution of the Mancos are named as tongues of the greater Mancos Formation. Thus, the classification broadly corresponds with the Colorado Group classification of the Great Plains region. As such, various units of the Colorado Group are recognized within the Mancos in those areas where their distinct facies can be recognized. The Mancos occurs in the Basin and Range Province , the Colorado Plateau Province , and

640-626: The expedition in Santa Fe include: The Domínguez–Escalante expedition was undertaken in 1776 with the purpose of finding a route across the largely unexplored continental interior from Santa Fe, New Mexico , to Spanish missions in Las Californias , such as the Spanish presidio at Monterey . On July 29, 1776, Atanasio Domínguez led the expedition from Santa Fe with fellow friar Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and cartographer Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco (Miera). The initial part of their journey followed

672-604: The expedition provided useful information for future travel, and their route from Santa Fe to the Salt Lake Valley became the first segment of a route later known as the Old Spanish Trail . Mancos Shale The Mancos Shale or Mancos Group is a Late Cretaceous (Upper Cretaceous) geologic formation of the Western United States . The Mancos Shale was first described by Cross and Purington in 1899 and

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704-502: The expedition. He died at the age of 30 in April 1780 in Parral, Mexico, during his return journey to Mexico City for medical treatment. Vélez de Escalante was known for his journal, in which he described the expeditions he went on. Escalante namesakes include Escalante Desert , Escalante River , Escalante (town) , Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument . Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco ,

736-669: The first written descriptions of the geography and people in the area that would later become the state of Utah . Yampa Plateau, September 11 Uinta National Forest, September 20 Utah Lake, September 23 Payson, September 26 Beaver River Valley, October 5 Mojave Desert, northwestern Arizona, October 16 Paria River, October 22 Crossing of the Fathers, Colorado River, October 26 – November 7 Northeastern Arizona, November 8–12 Pueblo of Oraybi, November 16 Northwestern New Mexico and Santa Fe, November 17 – January 2, 1777 The maps and information resulting from

768-499: The region, a new railroad is proposed to be constructed into the basin. In addition, Utah State University operates Branch campuses at Vernal and Roosevelt , expanding educational opportunities in a previously underserved region of Utah. The Uinta Basin is the most northerly section of the Colorado Plateau sections. The basin is 5,000 to 10,000 feet (1,500 to 3,000 m) above sea level and corresponding to this depression

800-654: The reservation for homesteading by non-Native Americans in 1905. During the early decades of the twentieth century, both Native and non-Native irrigation systems were constructed—the Uinta Indian Irrigation Project , the Moon Lake Project , and the Central Utah Project . The largest community in the Utah part of the Uinta Basin is Vernal . According to the U.S. Census, the community's population in 2010

832-519: The road impassable, and so, having traveled with great difficulty two more leagues to the west, we had to camp on the bank of the first of two little rivers which form the San Lázaro, otherwise called Río de los Mancos . The pasturage continues in great abundance. Today four and a half leagues. Escalante and Domínguez Pueblos, August 13 Nucla, August 23 Bowie, September 1–2 Rangely, September 10 The travel journal kept by Escalante provided

864-521: The route taken by Juan Rivera eleven years earlier into the Ute country of southwestern Colorado. Three Timpanogos guides led them through Colorado and Utah. These Spanish colonists were the first European men to travel through much of the Colorado Plateau into Utah, and back through Arizona to New Mexico. During the course of their trip, they documented the route and provided detailed information about

896-898: Was 9,089. Other communities in the Utah part of the region include Duchesne , Roosevelt , Altamont , Tabiona , and a number of small unincorporated communities. The Uinta Basin is also the location of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation , home to the Ute Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Agency (also known as the Northern Ute Tribe). The Ute Tribe is the source of Utah's state name. Local attractions include Dinosaur National Monument , Starvation Reservoir State Park , Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area , Raven Ridge and Fantasy Canyon . The local economy, once based on agriculture and mining, has diversified, and energy extraction and tourism are now major industries as well. In order to move oil out of

928-880: Was born in Mexico City about 1740, and in 1757, at the age of 17, joined the Franciscan order. In October 1772, Domínguez was at the Convent of Veracruz as Commissary of the Third Order . He arrived in Santa Fe on March 22, 1776, in present-day New Mexico, of the Mexican province to inspect the Custody of the Conversion of St. Paul and investigate opening an overland route from Santa Fe to Monterey, California. Upon his return to Santa Fe and Mexico City, Domínguez submitted to his Franciscan superiors

960-578: Was born in Treceño, Cantabria, Spain about 1750. When he was 17 he became a Franciscan in the Convento Grande in Mexico City. In 1774 he came to present-day New Mexico in the Mexican province; he was first stationed at Laguna pueblo and then in January 1775 assigned as a minister to the Zuni. In June 1776 he was summoned by Domínguez for the expedition to California and remained in New Mexico for two years following

992-403: Was harsh and unforgiving, and hardships encountered during travel forced the group to return to Santa Fe before reaching Las Californias . Maps and documentation produced by the expedition aided future travelers. The Domínguez–Escalante route eventually became an early template for the Old Spanish Trail , a trade route from Santa Fe to Pacific Coast settlements. Fray Francisco Atanasio Domínguez

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1024-548: Was named for exposures near the town of Mancos, Colorado . The unit is dominated by mudrock that accumulated in offshore and marine environments of the Cretaceous North American Inland Sea . The Mancos was deposited during the Cenomanian (locally Albian ) through Campanian ages , approximately from 95 million years ago ( Ma ) to 80 Ma. Stratigraphically the Mancos Shale fills the interval between

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