Grand Lake (Colorado)
Colorado's largest natural lake, sacred to the Ute Tribe.
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Grand Lake is the largest and deepest natural lake in Colorado, located in Grand County at the headwaters of the Colorado River. It was formed by a glacial terminal moraine during the Pinedale glaciation. The Ute Tribe called it Spirit Lake, believing its cold waters to be the dwelling place of departed souls.
Colorado-Big Thompson Project
Grand Lake is connected to the man-made reservoir Shadow Mountain Lake, forming a continuous body of water that under natural conditions flows into another man-made reservoir, Lake Granby. As part of the Colorado-Big Thompson Project, water collected in Lake Granby can be pumped back into Shadow Mountain, where it flows backward into Grand Lake. From there, the water passes under Rocky Mountain National Park and the Continental Divide via the Alva B. Adams Tunnel to the Big Thompson River on the eastern slope. This transbasin diversion moves water from the Colorado River Basin to the South Platte Basin for agricultural, municipal, and industrial use, and also supplies five hydroelectric power stations.
More in Religious Places of the Indigenous Peoples of North America
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Grand Lake (Colorado) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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