Duchesne River from: Utah Place Names

DUCHESNE RIVER (Duchesne County, Uintah County) originates at the southwestern section of the Uinta Mountains at the foot of Mount Agassiz. The river drains south southeast through Duchesne* into the Green River. Prior to 1875 the present Duchesne River was known as the Uinta River. As one of the more historic and prominent rivers of Utah, there has been much confusion in past writings as to the river's name history and relative relationships with the mouths of the nearby White and Uinta rivers. The river was supposedly named in the 1830s after the early French trapper in the area, Du Chasne. Others suggest that the name was derived from an early Indian chief. Name sources relating to Indian chiefs often crop up whether based on fact or fiction. Another version suggests that Father DeSmet may have influenced the name in honor of Rose Du Chesne, founder of the Society of the Sacred Heart in America. Another record claims the river was named for Fort Duquesne, built by the French in 1754 where Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is located. Another reference records an Ute Indian word "doo-shane," which means "dark canyon." Parts of the river, especially in the Uinta Mountain areas, drain through dark canyons. Still another source suggests the river was named for Andre Duchesne, the French geographer and historian. There is also a chance that the actual name source will never be found. Unless there is a reference the author has not briefed, this would be an intriguing research project for an enthusiastic toponymist. >T3N,R8,9W,USM to S32,T5S,R3E,USM. Bibliography: Dellenbaugh, Frederick S. A Canyon Voyage. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1908. The Romance of the Colorado River. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906. Kamas Ranger District, Kamas, Utah. "Place Names of this United States Forest Service District." Typescript. Kamas, UT: Kamas Ranger District, [1976]. Layton, Stanford J. "Fort Rawlins, Utah: A Question of Mission and Means." Utah Historical Quarterly 42 (Winter 1974): 68-83. Stegner, Wallace. Beyond the Hundredth Meridian. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1954. U. S. Board on Geographic Names, Archives, Unpublished. Washington DC. Writers' Program. Origins of Utah Place Names. 3d ed. Comp. and written by Utah Writers Project, Work Projects Administration. Sponsored and published by Utah State Department of Public Instruction. Salt Lake City, 1940. Utah Historical Quarterly. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society. (v9).

EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS... 1. An asterisk (*) following a place name indicates past or present inhabitation. 2. When a series of letters and numbers are present towards the end of an entry after the ">" symbol, the first group indicates section/township/range as closely as can be pinpointed (i.e., S12,T3S,R4W,SLM, or USM). A section equals approximately one square mile, reflecting U.S. Geological Survey topographic map sections. Because Utah is not completely mapped, some entries are incomplete. In this case, whatever information is available will be provided. The second group, when present, is altitude in feet followed by meters in parentheses [i.e., 6,000' (1,829m)]. Altitude is not included with canyons or deserts with varying altitudes.

______SOURCE... Utah Place Names. Salt Lake City, Utah : University of Utah. University of Utah Press, 1990.

AUTHOR... Van Cott, John W.

USE RESTRICTIONS... The contents of this article may be repurposed for non-commercial, non-profit, educational use.

______Distributed by the Utah Education Network eMedia service: http://www.uen.org/emedia Original digital conversion by UCME: Utah Collections Multimedia Encyclopedia project: http://www.uen.org/ucme File ID = t_002263 A softbound copy of the original book may be purchased online from the University of Utah Press at: http://www.uofupress.com

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