Little Sahara Recreation Area
recreation area in Juab County, Utah, United States
The Little Sahara Recreation Area is a large area of sand dunes, hills and sagebrush flats located in the northeast corner of the Sevier Desert in Juab County in the west central part of Utah, United States.
Description
The recreation area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management of the United States Department of the Interior. A 9,000-acre (36 km2) portion of the northwest corner of the facility has been designated as The Rockwell Natural Area and is off limits to vehicles to preserve and shelter desert plants and animals. Although the entire recreation area is located within Juab County, the dune field (which covers an area of 220 square miles [570 km2]), extends southwest into Millard County, nearly as far as the city of Delta.
Geology
The Little Sahara sand dunes are remnants of a large river delta formed by the Sevier River from about 12,500 to 20,000 years ago. The river emptied into ancient Lake Bonneville near the present day mouth of Leamington Canyon. After Lake Bonneville receded, winds transported the sand from the river delta to the current location. The dunes are still moving 5 to 9 feet (1.5 to 2.7 m) per year. One of the primary barriers to the sand movement are the Sand Hills, which are located entirely within the recreation area and substantially slow the movement of the blowing sand.
The sand consists of quartz grains, with minor amounts of feldspar, biotite, calcite, garnet and magnetite.
“Little Sahara Recreation Area” enters the record as recreation area in Juab County, Utah, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Little, Sahara and Recreation can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6651810. Authority coordinates are 39.726, -112.307. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Little Sahara Recreation Area” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.