Green River, Utah

John Wesley Powell's second major river expedition set out from Green River, Wyoming, in eighteen seventy-one and floated down the river past this stretch of desert, into the canyon country below with a crew of scientists and surveyors. The Green River had been a landmark on the trails west since the mountain-man era, its crossing one of the critical waypoints in the long passage across the interior West.

The town grew from a railroad stop into a melon-farming community when growers around nineteen hundred discovered that the desert soil and hot days of the Emery County basin produce exceptionally sweet watermelons. Green River earned the title Watermelon Capital of Utah, and the harvest is still celebrated each September at a festival that draws people off the interstate. The John Wesley Powell River History Museum downtown connects the two identities of the place: the wild canyon river that runs through the desert, and the quiet agricultural town that grew up alongside it.