BlueFox5

BlueFox5 t1_jbzp1wd wrote

Related but not really, there was a town in NW Colorado named Artestia. Not much there but just north of the town is where Dinosaur National Monument was created. The monument crosses the UT/CO border. There was a plan to build the Echo Park Dam in the monument just after the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers, filling up miles of canyon land to make giant lakes. With the new potential tourism prospects, Artesia renamed the town Dinosaur, with statues all around town and street names of dinosaurs that weren’t even found in the area.

Things were looking up for the community, but the Sierra Club, preservationists, and environmentalists made a big campaign to stop the dam from being built. It was the first huge win for the Sierra Club and it created a lot of momentum for environmentalists at the time, who had just had a devastating loss at Hetch Hetchy (now known as Yosemite National Park). Because Echo Park Dam was shelved, they went downstream to build the Glen Canyon Dam in AZ on the Colorado river, filling up that canyon land to make Lake Powell.

The tourism never manifested in Dinosaur, CO. The major fossil discoveries, including the famous “Bone Wall” are located on the Utah side, while the Colorado side contains miles of rivers, canyons, and wilderness which is difficult to access. You won’t find much in town these days other than a gas station, liquor store, a dispensary, and an ice cream shop.

It’s easy for me to say this since I don’t live there (I did live in Jensen for a brief time), but keeping those canyons in-tact was the best decision. I highly recommend going to the UT side to see the fossils and possibly my #1 favorite hiking trail ever called Sounds of Silence trail. But the best kept secret of the monument is those rivers. Especially the Yampa. One of the last free-flowing rivers that feeds the Colorado River. Absolutely gorgeous, teeming with wildlife, and some legendary white water rapids. The rafting trips down either river is an experience you’ll never forget.

As for what was Artesia, well, they have a dispensary and a liquor store who largely serve the neighboring towns on the Utah side…

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