Wilkins Peak is a small mountain located in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, between the cities of

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

and Rock Springs. It is primarily used for

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

station transmitters, but it also serves radio needs of the

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

, EMS, and local businesses such as Questar Gas. In 2003, a tower on the peak was knocked down by a vehicle delivering propane to customers. The tower was owned by Wyoming Public Radio and was serving the local area with programming from

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. There are numerous access roads to the peak and it is not gated and open year-round, weather permitting. Along with the radio uses, the mountain is also a popular location for mountain biking and

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

. The mountain contains geology typical of its location in southwestern Wyoming.

Geology

Along with other mountains in southwestern Wyoming, Wilkins Peak is part of the

Green River Formation The Green River Formation is an Eocene geologic formation that records the sedimentation in a group of intermountain lakes in three basins along the present-day Green River in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. The sediments are deposited in very fine ...

, a formation of the

intermontane Intermontane is a physiographic adjective formed from the prefix " inter-" (''signifying among, between, amid, during, within, mutual, reciprocal'') and the adjective "montane" (inhabiting, or growing in mountainous regions, especially cool, moi ...

Lake Gosiute environment during the

Eocene epoch The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "daw ...

. Similar to its neighboring Aspen Mountain, Wilkins Peak is part of the

Rock Springs Uplift The Rock Springs Uplift is an area of uplifted Cretaceous to Eocene rocks in Wyoming surrounded and once covered by sediments of the Green River Formation which were deposited in the Eocene Lake Gosiute.Surdam, Ronald C. and K. O. Stanley, ''Lacustr ...

, and some of the largest

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitut ...

and

trona Trona (trisodium hydrogendicarbonate dihydrate, also sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate, Na2CO3•2NaHCO3•3H2O) is a non-marine evaporite mineral. It is mined as the primary source of sodium carbonate in the United States, where it has replaced ...

beds in the region are located near the mountain. Wilkins Peak also has its own distinct segment of the Green River Formation, which is known as the '' Wilkins Peak Formation''. The peak itself is in elevation and is located from

Rock Springs, Wyoming Rock Springs is a city in Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 23,036 at the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state of Wyoming, and the most populous city in Sweetwater County. Rock Springs is ...

and from

Green River, Wyoming Green River is a city in and the county seat of Sweetwater County, Wyoming, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 12,515 at the 2010 census. History The townsite of Green River, Dakota Territory was platted ...

Radio and television uses

Wilkins Peak holds radio towers for several FM

and

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...

s. Stations include KYCS (95.1 FM) and its sister stations KFRZ (92.1 FM) and KZWB (97.9 FM). Also on the mountain is the tower for the station KTME 89.5, which signed on the air in September 2010. KTME is an affiliate of Pilgrim Radio. KREO 93.5 is the newest station on the peak. Several television translators transmit their signals from two small towers located in the center of Wilkins Peak. Additionally, the religious television network TBN has a translator known locally as K35CN, broadcasting from the mountain. Prior to 2009, K22BK, the local

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

television translator, carried its signal from Wilkins Peak. K22BK was moved across the interstate to White Mountain to the same tower as its digital counterpart. In late 2009, a new television station signed on the air from the peak. It is known as K33IX-D on channel 33 (UHF) and carries programming from EICB TV, a Christian religious broadcast and production company, based in

Cedar Hill, Texas Cedar Hill is a city in Dallas and Ellis counties in the U.S. state of Texas. It is located approximately southwest of downtown Dallas and is situated along the eastern shore of Joe Pool Lake and Cedar Hill State Park. Per the 2020 United States ...

. K35CN and K22BK have been off the air since the digital television transition in the year 2009.

FM translators

Among high powered FM radio stations, Wilkins Peak is also currently host to three lower powered FM translators. K205FE carries a

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...

format on 88.9 FM. K285FG retransmits programming from AM station KUGR on 104.9 FM. Finally, K290BJ carries programming from KZWB 97.9 FM.

Other radio related uses

Wilkins Peak also has

repeater In telecommunications, a repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it. Repeaters are used to extend transmissions so that the signal can cover longer distances or be received on the other side of an obstruction. Som ...

towers for local

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames a ...

, and EMS services. The emergency radio repeaters on the mountain are used in conjunction with other repeaters located on nearby Aspen Mountain and Mansface Hill. In September 2003, a commercial truck delivering propane to customers on the peak knocked down the then-existent KUWZ tower after the vehicle's brakes failed. The collapse of the tower knocked out power to the mountain for several hours, and while KUWZ borrowed space from neighboring towers for several months thereafter, the station ultimately relocated its transmitter to nearby Aspen Mountain.

Accessing the peak

Wilkins Peak is not gated, and it can be reached via an unpaved road known as ''Wilkins Peak Road'' that starts on

U.S. Route 191 U.S. Route 191 (US 191) is a spur of U.S. Route 91 that has two branches. The southern branch runs for from Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican border to the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. The northern branch runs for from the north ...

southwest of

. The mountain can also be accessed via another unpaved road that begins in the Scott's Bottom Nature Area in

. The peak is accessible year-round, weather permitting. The Green River access road is in worse shape than the Rock Springs side, and it has several road hazards such as steep grades, poor grading, and off-road vehicle traffic. Along with serving radio needs, the peak also is a popular

and mountain biking location in the area. There are many smaller roads and trails that spring from the peak that offer varied degrees of challenge.

Trail system

The Sweetwater Mountain Bike Association, a committee of the City of Green River Chamber of Commerce and in partnership with the BLM, U.S. Forest Service and Rock Springs Grazing Association has sanctioned the mountain biking trail system known as the Wilkins Peak Trail System, currently a group of single track trails encompassing just over 24 miles located on land directly west of Wilkins Peak. Accessed primarily from the Green River area these trails offer a mix of varying difficulty levels for every rider. Current trail maps can be obtained for free at the Green River Chamber of Commerce at the Visitor Center.

References

http://grchamber.com/pages/MountainBikingInformation/

External links

- Wilkins Peak Radio Tower Information and Pictures

- Wilkins Peak Studios, an independent film studio which got its name from Wilkins Peak. Image:KYCStwr.jpg, The tower for KYCS 95.1 FM, Rock Springs, Wyoming Image:WilkinsPeakNW.jpg, Wilkins Peak as seen in 2002, prior to the KUWZ tower (farthest left) collapse Image:WilkinsTV KFRZ.jpg, The towers for KFRZ/ KZWB (farthest right) and the TV stations, including K35CN (center). Image:Wilkinspeak08.jpg, The peak as seen from the east, in March 2008 Image:WhitemountainWY.jpg, White Mountain from Wilkins Peak, looking north. Pilot Butte (left center) is on top of White Mountain. {{good article Mountains of Wyoming Mountains of Sweetwater County, Wyoming