Cucharas River[1]
The river in Walsenburg.
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • coordinates37°20′23″N 105°05′36″W / 37.33972°N 105.09333°W / 37.33972; -105.09333
Mouth 
 • location
Confluence with Huerfano
 • coordinates
37°54′58″N 104°31′56″W / 37.91611°N 104.53222°W / 37.91611; -104.53222
 • elevation
5,121 ft (1,561 m)
Basin features
ProgressionHuerfano—Arkansas—Mississippi

Cucharas River is a 75-mile-long (121 km)[2] tributary of the Huerfano River that flows from a source in Huerfano County, Colorado, southwest of the Spanish Peaks in San Isabel National Forest. The river passes through La Veta and Walsenburg before joining the Huerfano River in Pueblo County.

Cucharas Canyon

A view from the canyon's east rim, looking southwest towards the Spanish Peaks.

Northeast of Walsenburg, the river creates a deep, wild canyon called Cucharas Canyon.[3] Much of the land in and adjacent to the canyon was purchased by the Bureau of Land Management in 1998 and is open to the public for recreational activities such as hiking, horseback riding, and hunting. Access to the canyon is via county roads, with trailheads on either side. There are few visitors, and opportunities for solitude are abundant.[4]

Dams

Cucharas Number 5 Dam removal

The Cucharas #5 Dam was a 135-foot (41 m) tall irrigation dam on the Cucharas River 15 miles (24 km) northeast of Walsenburg. Built in 1910, it experienced structural problems throughout its life, including a partial failure in 1987 which resulted in the emergency dynamiting of a spillway. Reconstruction of the dam was proposed in the 2010s but was deemed economically infeasible. Following years of litigation, the State Engineer took emergency control of the dam in 2017 for safety reasons. The state removed it in 2019, recovering the cost in court from the dam's owners.[5] At the time, it was the third-largest dam ever to be removed in the United States.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Cucharas River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2011-01-30.
  2. ↑ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived 2012-03-29 at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 31, 2011
  3. ↑ "Protecting #BLMWild Places in Eastern Colorado". BLM Wild. Medium.com. 2017-03-30. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  4. ↑ Sztukowski, John (2015-03-01). "Lands with Wilderness Characteristics: Cucharas Canyon" (PDF). Wild Connections. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
  5. ↑ Perry, Mark; McCormick, Bill; Bennington, Paul; Lopez, Phillip. "The Cucharas #5 Dam Removal; a Story of Determination, Persistence and Partners" (PDF). Dam Safety 2020 Abstracts. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  6. ↑ East, Amy E.; Harrison, Lee R.; Smith, Douglas P.; Logan, Joshua B.; Bond, Rosealea M. (30 June 2023). "Six years of fluvial response to a large dam removal on the Carmel River, California, USA". Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. 48 (8): 1487–1501. doi:10.1002/esp.5561. ISSN 0197-9337.

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