Flaming Gorge Dam

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The Flaming Gorge Dam is in a deep canyon of the Green River, in the northeast of Utah. It was built between 1958 and 1963 by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as a major unit in the Colorado River storage project, a multipurpose plan, undertaken in 1956, to control the flow of the upper Colorado and its tributaries and to aid in the development of the rugged, remote upper Colorado River basin. The dam regulates the flow of the upper river and produces hydroelectricity. Flaming Gorge Lake extends 146 km (91 miles) upstream. It is part of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, which is administered by the U.S. Forest Service. The canyon was named Flaming Gorge in 1869 by the U.S. explorer John Wesley Powell because the brilliant red gorge, from a distance, looked as if it were on fire.

Flaming Gorge Dam is 195 km east of Salt Lake City and 2780 km west of Washington D.C.