The New Student's Reference Work/Colorado (river)

Colorado (kŏl′ō-rä′dṓ) (meaning red), a river 900 miles long and navigable for 600 miles. It is formed by the junction of the Grand and Green Rivers. Its main branches are the San Juan, Flax, Bill Williams and Rio Gila. It flows southwest through southern Utah and northwestern Arizona; next separates Arizona from Nevada and California; then enters Mexico and empties into the northern end of the Gulf of California. The Colorado itself and most of its branches flow at the bottom of deep cañons, slowly cut out by water during the lapse of eons. Below the mouth of the Flax, for nearly 400 miles, the cañon walls rise from 4,000 to 7,000 feet, forming the Grand Cañon of the Colorado, one of the great wonders of the world. In 1906 the river created Salton Sea in southern California.