Matrimony Spring

Moab, Grand County, Utah. Spring.

Details

Map. Moab, Grand County, Utah. Larger map

Where: River Road, Moab, UT. Directions
When: 24/7/365.
Getting there: Leaving Moab toward colorado border. turn down river road it is on the right hand side of the road just a few minutes from town (Route 128, just east of its southern intersection with Route 191).
Fees: None.
Access: Public access; Continuous flow.

Small cove right off river road, leaving Moab. just a few minutes from town. There is spout coming right out of the mountain. Water tastes amazing! icy cold, pure spring water, great place to refill all bottles.

Notable Events

2009The spring was closed to public access in February; supporters gathered in March to ask authorities to reopen it. moabhappenings.com
2009Grand County officials removed the spring box and pipe and reopened the spring in its natural state; it has remained open that way since July 2009. moabtimes.com
2010In an opinion issued Oct. 27, State Engineer Kent L. Jones found that Jerry T. White's application for more than 6 acre-feet of water from Matrimony Spring failed to meet state requirements; Grand County had protested because the spring must be dedicated to public use. moabtimes.com
2013The Moab Rotary Club voted in 2013 to adopt Matrimony Spring as a community service project and set aside $1,000 for water testing and other project costs. moabsunnews.com
2014The Moab Rotary Club requested a letter of recommendation from the City of Moab to the Utah Health Department to install a spring box for faster fill times, easier parking, and less algae-growing surface area. moabsunnews.com

People

Jessica Vachon, of Longmont, Colorado; filled bottles at the spring for years, met Ryan Vachon, and married him a year later at Sorrel River Ranch upriver.
Mel Dalton, Moab native and former city police chief who wanted the spring reopened (served the city 11 years as police chief).
Ryan Vachon, of Longmont, Colorado; filled bottles at the spring for years, met Jessica Vachon, and married her a year later at Sorrel River Ranch upriver.
Phil Hudson, Moab Museum Uranium Memories Project interviewee who recalled drilling wells upriver and the spring's legend (in Moab from 1953).
Joe Kingsley, Castle Valley developer and Rotary Club member who presented the spring-box project to the City Council (lived in the valley since 1973).
E.R. (Russ) Carter, poet whose "Spring with a Legend" about the River Spring was published in Canyon Legacy.
Eddah Williams Shields, shown collecting water from the spring in a museum photograph of roughly 1945.
Kris Johnson, writer who recorded the spring's legend and name stories in the Moab Museum's Canyon Legacy.
George E. White, first developed the spring.
Tommy White, purchased Red Cliffs Ranch, whose only culinary water was hauled from the spring (1968).
Jim Adamson, Southeastern Utah District Health environmental health scientist who kept the spring unofficially running, then posted the closure sign (more than 20 years).
Jerry T. White, Moab man whose family relied on the spring; filed an application for its water right (since 1890).
Kent L. Jones, Utah State Engineer who denied the Matrimony Spring water-right application (2010).

Details

Notable Events

People

Sources