Bighorn Basin

Coordinates: 44°18′N 108°12′W / 44.3°N 108.2°W / 44.3; -108.2
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
ISS
, 2021.
Satellite image of the Bighorn Basin in Wyoming, with the bordering ranges labelled
Power lines crossing the Bighorn Basin's plains

The Bighorn Basin is a plateau region and intermontane basin, approximately 100 miles (160 km) wide, in north-central Wyoming in the United States. It is bounded by the Absaroka Range on the west, the Pryor Mountains on the north, the Bighorn Mountains on the east, and the Owl Creek Mountains and Bridger Mountains on the south. It is drained to the north by tributaries of the Bighorn River, which enters the basin from the south, through a gap between the Owl Creek and Bridger Mountains, as the Wind River, and becomes the Bighorn as it enters the basin. The region is semi-arid,[1] receiving only 6–10 in (15–25 cm) of rain annually.

The largest cities in the basin include the Wyoming towns of Cody, Thermopolis, Worland, and Powell. Sugar beets, pinto beans, sunflowers, barley, oats, corn and alfalfa hay are grown on irrigated farms in the region.

History

The basin was explored by

Shoshone project, the nation's first federal water development project to help irrigate the western portion of the basin. The project culminated in the construction of the Buffalo Bill Dam and reservoir. The wealth in the region also attracted outlaws. Butch Cassidy lived near Meeteetse for a while and was arrested at the insistence of local cattle baron Otto Franc and sent to the Wyoming State Penitentiary for horse theft. Following his release, he formed the Wild Bunch gang which operated from the Hole-in-the-Wall
area southeast of the Bighorn Basin.

In 1942 one of the nation's ten

Japanese American internment camps was located in Park County in the western part of the basin. The camp was named Heart Mountain Relocation Center, after nearby Heart Mountain
. The camp operated until 1945, and at its peak detained over 10,000 internees.

Geology

Big Horn Basin geologic map
Big Horn Basin structural map
Big Horn Basin stratigraphy

The Bighorn Basin forms a geologic

Frontier Sandstone.[2]

Some uranium has been mined in the northern part of the basin, along the Bighorn Mountains.

The eastern section of the basin is famously rich in

fossils, with formations such as the Cretaceous period Cloverly Formation
yielding numerous dinosaur fossils.

The alluvial strata of the

Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).[3] Analysis of paleosols here shows that the Bighorn Basin became more arid during the PETM, with wet/dry cycles superimposed over this general increase in aridity.[4] These changes in environment are coupled with changes in paleoecology.[5][6]

Communities

Notable Features

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bighorn Basin.

References

  1. doi:10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<3855:TROPIT>2.0.CO;2
    .
  2. ^ John P. Weldon (1972) The Big Horn Basin in Geologic Atlas of the Rocky Mountain Region, Denver: Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, p.270-272.
  3. doi:10.1130/B26104.1
    .
  4. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.09.011
    .
  5. ISBN 978-0-8137-2369-3
    .
  6. PMID 18268338
    .

44°18′N 108°12′W / 44.3°N 108.2°W / 44.3; -108.2

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