The Colorado River, fifth longest in the U.S., is probably the wildest and most violently beautiful in the world. It is certainly one of the most useful. The expanding economy of the whole southwestern corner of the U.S. depends on it. At its source in Rocky Mountain National Park (see opposite page) the Colorado is clear and cold, fed by melting snow and dammed by beavers. As it flows southward, it gains strength and becomes yellow with mud. For 1,000 miles it rushes through a steep walled gorge, which for an unbelievable 217 miles is called Grand Canyon. By the time it empties over great tidal flats into the Gulf of California it is broad and sullen, only partly controlled by levees. The strength which makes the Colorado dangerous is what makes it useful. The deep canyons it has cut are probably the best natural dam sites in the world. The river is first harnessed at a point about two thirds of the way from its headwaters, at Boulder Dam. Behind the dam a great blue lake, filled by the muddy river, turns the turbines which supply electricity to the war industry of the southwest. Below Boulder the river is plugged at Parker Dam, where part of it is drawn off to supply Los Angeles with water. Farther down, at Imperial Dam, it is tapped by canals which water one of America's richest agricultural areas, the Imperial and Yuma-Gila Valleys,
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