GRAND JUNCTION

city, seat (1883) of Mesa county, western Colorado, U.S. It lies in the Grand Valley (elevation 4,586 feet ), at the confluence of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers. Settled by ranchers in 1881 after the expulsion of the Ute Indians, it was first called Ute, then West Denver, and was finally named for the junction of the rivers. It developed as the centre of a mining and irrigated- farm region and as the transportation hub of the Colorado Plateau. In the 1950s Grand Junction became a business headquarters for uranium production, along with local oil, gas, vanadium, gilsonite, and oil-shale resources. Nearby is the lake-studded Grand Mesa, the Colorado National Monument, and the Grand Mesa and Uncompahgre national forests. Grand Junction is the site of Mesa State College (1925) and of an area office of the U.S. Department of Energy. Inc. town, 1882; city, 1891. Pop. (1992 est.) 30,580.