The Wedding of the Waters  by Barton Stam   airs Nov. 18, 2007   1:19 long

I’m standing at the Wedding of the Waters, near Thermopolis, Wyoming.  When early explorers came through the Big Horn Basin, they noticed that all the water flowed into what they would call the Big Horn River.

Other explorers in the Wind River Mountains named a river there the Wind River. These explorers had unknowingly named the same river two different names, with the headwaters of the river being called the Wind River and the downstream section the Big Horn River. The term Wedding of the Waters refers to this location where the Wind River becomes the Big Horn River.  As you can see there is no physical change in the river, only the name changes.

Upstream from the Wedding of the Waters is the spectacular Wind River Canyon, which cuts through the Owl Creek Mountains.  The canyon is 12 miles long with walls towering as high as 2000 feet above the river.  There are several interpretive signs along the highway describing formations from geologic periods of the earth’s history.

The wedding of the waters is not only a place where one river becomes another but also a showcase of natural history.  From the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service, I’m Barton Stam, exploring the nature of Wyoming.