Geography and History
Utah’s Jordan River runs from Utah Lake about 45 miles north to the Great Salt Lake. The river got its name from early Mormon apostle Heber C. Kimball, who observed that like Israel’s Jordan, Utah’s Jordan flows from a “fresh water lake through fertile valleys to a dead sea.”
Native Americans lived along the river, and their archaeological remains can be found there today. After Mormon settlers came to Utah the river became a dumping ground, carrying waste from slaughterhouses and smelters, along with untreated sewage, to the Great Salt Lake.
The Jordan is a meandering, marshy river, although it has fast-flowing sections. The river naturally fluctuates and shifts course over time. A pumping station at the north end of Utah Lake controls the flow to prevent flooding.
Although the Jordan River’s health has improved since it became the focus of environmental legislation in the 1970s, the Jordan’s water quality is still designated “impaired” by the Utah Division of Water Quality.
Jordan River Parkway
The Jordan River Parkway is envisioned as a system of trails and parks that will run the entire length of the river. Various sections of the parkway include jogging and walking paths, playgrounds, bird refuges, equestrian trails and even a motocross facility. Not all of the parkway has been constructed, but existing parks and trailheads include:
Jordan River State ParkSalt Lake City section from 1000 North to 1700 South
South Salt Lake and West Valley City section
Murray/Taylorsville section
Midvale and West Jordan section
Sandy and South Jordan section
Draper and Bluffdale section
Utah County section
See Wikipedia's Jordan River Parkway entry for descriptions of the parks and trailheads along the Jordan River.
Blueprint Jordan River
In late 2008, the influential nonprofit Envision Utah issued a document called “Blueprint Jordan River,” which provides guidelines for development along the river. The document has been endorsed by the 15 cities and three counties along the river.
The blueprint document presents several “big ideas” for enhancing the river. These include creating a contiguous lake-to-lake waterway for kayaking and canoeing, designating seven regional “river centers” for housing and retail development, improving river access through regional trails and public transit, and creating education centers along the river.
Recent Controversy
It’s become clear that various groups have different ideas about what it means to preserve the Jordan’s ecosystem. River advocates like the Utah Rivers Council, who were initially enthusiastic about Blueprint Jordan River, soon realized that the blueprint’s voluntary nature means city and state governments can interpret it as they see fit.
Wild river enthusiasts object to the noise, dust and exhaust from the motocross and off-road vehicle tracks at the Jordan River State Park. Closer the other end of the river, the South Valley Sewer District plans to build a new sewage treatment plant near the river and the Bangerter Highway.
The future of the biggest undeveloped tract of land along the river, between Galena Park Boulevard and Bangerter Highway in Draper, has been a subject of controversy as far back as 2000. The controversy pits the UTA, the Draper City Council, and the land developer Whitewater VII against the Utah Rivers Council, the Utah Professional Archaeological Council, and a good deal of public indignation.
The gist of the story is this: the state Department of Natural Resources was told by the State Legislature to protect the land with a conservation easement. The department had to find a group willing to care for the conservation area. DNR director Mike Styler was about to sign a deal with wilderness advocacy group Utah Open Lands, but then-Speaker of the House Greg Curtis used his influence to stop the deal. In addition to being Utah’s Speaker of the House, Curtis was representing a real estate developer who wanted some of the land for improved road access to a subdivision.
Later, separate land developer, Whitewater VII, began working with UTA and the Draper City Council to put a South Valley stop for the FrontRunner rail system, along with an adjacent high-density mixed-use land development, on the property. Because the conservation easement had never been executed, the development's promoters wanted to trade the state-owned land for an equal amount of private land to the north, which they considered less valuable for development but which could become state-owned open space along the river.
First Residents Have the Last Word
Whitewater VII, the UTA and the Draper City Council won't get their location for the FrontRunner stop, because in March 2009 the Utah Association of Professional archaeologists raised public awareness about important Native American artifacts at the site.
The state-owned land is home to remnants of a 3,000-year-old Native American village. The village’s former inhabitants are called the Archaic People, because their civilization predates known Native American tribes.
The site was partially excavated in 2007. Archaeologists found remains of tepee-like houses, hearths, cooking stones, stone knives and spear points. There was evidence of corn use at the site, a discovery that opens up the possibility that corn cultivation occurred in the region much earlier than previously thought.
Governor Gary Herbert, in his first week after taking office, signed the conservation agreement to protect the land from development. The FrontRunner stop will now likely be located to the north of the Native American site on private land.
