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Show OMS No. 1024·0018, NPS Fonn United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. §. Page~ Wells Historic District, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, UT "mechanics and artisans." 14 The larger lots, which were platted in 10-, 20, 40-, and 80-acre parcels, were to be allocated to farmers, most of whom lived within the platted city but farmed outside the city limits. 15 The future Wells area was part of the Five-Acre Survey. Large portions of the Five-Acre Survey in which Wells is located were allocated to Brigham Young, then-president of the LDS Church; Wilford Woodruff, then-future president of the LDS Church; and Daniel Wells, future Bishop of the LDS Wells Ward. Smaller sections of the area were allocated to other individuals. Of great concern agriculturally during this period was the appropriation of a valuable and limited resource, water. The Mormon Church is the first known entity to legally regulate water for agricultural purposes. Each farmer was granted land and water rights by the Church, which, in the absence of federal homestead laws, had laid claim to all land within the Utah Territory. In less than two decades, this· system of land granting expe1ienced serious disruftions when the area's first federal land office opened following the passage of the Homestead Act of 1862. 1 It was in 1870, after the passage of the Homestead Act and the establishment of a federal land office in Salt Lake City that the lands encompassing the Wells area were formally patented to Young, Woodruff, and the others. The mere granting of water rights to individuals by the Mormon Church did not solve the problem of accessing that water. To their credit, the Mormon pioneers were ingenious in their creation of irrigation systems to address the issue. The settlers in the Salt Lake Valley, within days of their arrival, set about digging irrigation ditches from the numerous streams flowing out of the Wasatch Mountains. By the 1870s, an extensive network of canals designed to control the flow and amount of water carried to the numerous the homesteads extended throughout the valley. Farmers received water rights by digging sections of canals on their lands. The canal system was geographically widespread and stretched across many pioneer communities. 17 Some of the irrigation ditches extended off of Parley's Creek into the Big Field/ Wells area to serve the farmlands platted there. Initial Settlement (l871to1899) The expansion of the railroad into the West was one of the foremost events of the nineteenth century. In 1869, railroading entered the area with the completion of the first transcontinental line running through Promontory and Corinne, north of Salt Lake City. Recognizing the economic importance of being connected with the main national east-west transportation corridor, Brigham Young immediately initiated the construction of the Utah Central Railroad to link Salt Lake City with the northerly route. In addition to the northern line from Salt Lake City to Ogden and points beyond, rail lines were constructed to the south as well, extending the reach of the national markets and social influence. Within a matter of years, 14 McCormick, John S. The Gathering Place, An Illustrated History of Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2000. 15 16 17 Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. |
