Utah Water Ways an essay by Gregory E. Smoak, 2021

This essay, "Utah Water Ways" by Gregory E. Smoak, explores the multifaceted relationship between Utahns and water, from ancient times to the present. It emphasizes that water scarcity is a defining characteristic of Utah's landscape, shaping both natural features and human cultures.

Water is Life. Regardless of who we are, where we live, or what we do, we cannot exist without; water. This is as true in a rainforest as in the driest of deserts. Water ways include the physical world; that we inhabit - all of the rivers, streams, lakes, oceans, and irrigation ditches that sustain our lives.; Yet no place's or people's water ways are the same. They are a sum of all of the ways - social, cultural,; historical, religious, technical - in which people engage with that life-giving resource. And so, water; ways are the product of both nature and culture; they are built where human beliefs and actions meet; the natural world.; In Utah the general scarcity of water has loomed large over its peoples' lives. While natural factors; have posed obstacles and presented opportunities, these factors alone have never determined; how Utahns have lived. Native peoples and European-American settlers adapted to Utah's physical; environment very differently. Utahns have contested, bitterly at times, the formation of Utah's water; ways. It is not always a happy story, nor is it a straightforward tale of perseverance and progress.; Utah's water ways are a story of challenge, adaptation, change, success, and sometimes failure.