Ouray is an

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

of the

Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation (, ) is located in northeastern Utah, United States. It is the homeland of the Ute Indian Tribe ( Ute dialect: Núuchi-u), and is the largest of three Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Ute Trib ...

, located in west‑central Uintah County,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

, United States.

Description

The community is located primarily on the north

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

of the confluence of the

Duchesne Duchesne is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Joseph Duchesne (c. 1544–1609), French physician and chemist. Physician-in-ordinary to King Henry IV * André Duchesne (1584–1640), French historian * François Duchesne (1616� ...

and

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combi ...

rivers at an elevation of . (The confluence of the Green and

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

rivers is approximately further south.) Ouray is situated within the

at the southern terminus of State Route 88, about south-southwest of

Vernal Vernal, the county seat and largest city in Uintah County is in northeastern Utah, approximately east of Salt Lake City and west of the Colorado border. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 9,089. The population has since grown to ...

. The community is the second oldest modern settlement within the

Uinta Basin The Uinta Basin (also known as the Uintah Basin) is a physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division. It is also a geologic structural basin in ...

and was named in honor of

Chief Ouray Ouray (, 1833 – August 24, 1880) was a Native American chief of the Tabeguache (Uncompahgre) band of the Ute tribe, then located in western Colorado. Because of his leadership ability, Ouray was acknowledged by the United States government as ...

, a Native American chief of the ''Uncompahgre'' band of the

Ute tribe Ute () are the Indigenous people of the Ute tribe and culture among the Indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. They had lived in sovereignty in the regions of present-day Utah and Colorado in the Southwestern United States for many centuries unt ...

. In the Ute language, "Ouray" means arrow.

History

The area was first settled by Europeans in the early 1830s when a

trading post A trading post, trading station, or trading house, also known as a factory, is an establishment or settlement where goods and services could be traded. Typically the location of the trading post would allow people from one geographic area to tr ...

was established by French fur trader,

Antoine Robidoux Antoine Robidoux (September 24, 1794 – August 29, 1860) was a fur trapper and trader of French-Canadian descent best known for his exploits in the American Southwest in the first half of the 19th century. Early life Robidoux was born in 1794 in ...

. The trading post was also known as Antoine Robidoux' Fort. Although he moved the trading post further north within a few years, the settlement remained in use and became known as Fort Kit Carson. (Some of the remains of structures from this earlier settlement still exist.) Decades later, in 1881, an

Indian agency In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the government. Background The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the United States first included development of t ...

for the Uncompahgre band of the Utes was established and included a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

for the area. At that time the settlement received its current name of Ouray. In response to the

Meeker Massacre Meeker Massacre, or Meeker Incident, White River War, Ute War, or the Ute Campaign), took place on September 29, 1879 in Colorado. Members of a band of Ute Indians ( Native Americans) attacked the Indian agency on their reservation, killing the ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

in 1879, Fort Thornburgh was built in the area in 1886, but was moved to near the present day Vernal less than a year later. (However, the "new" Fort Thornburgh was abandoned several years after that when it was replaced by Fort Duchesne at the present site of Fort Duchesne.) Even with the abandonment of the forts in the area, the community still prospered. However, by the late 1920s the population began to slowly decline. By December 1964, the post office finally closed.

Climate

Ouray has a

cold semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of semi-ar ...

(

BSk BSK is a three-letter abbreviation that may refer to: Sports * OFK Beograd, Serbian football club * FK BSK Borča, Serbian football club * FK BSK Batajnica, Serbian football club * FK BSK Banja Luka, Bosnian-Herzegovinian football club * FK BSK L ...

) with short but cold winters and long, hot summers. Precipitation is sparse year round.

References

External links

Ouray on ghosttowns.com
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Uintah County, Utah Unincorporated communities in Utah

Description

History

Climate

See also

References

External links