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Show I N T R O D U C T I ON G, Scratching the Surface AN OVERVIEW OF HAPPENINGS IN UINTAH COUNTY eological changes over eons fashioned the immense mountains, exquisite valleys, and beautiful canyons of Uintah County. These canyons are the setting for famous rock art, so famous as to have given its name-Classic Vernal Style-to a whole class of rock art. This fabulous collection of petroglyphs, pictographs, and other forms of rock art have attracted worldwide attention. The famous "Three Kings" in Dry Fork Canyon are exceptional in detail and workmanship. Some of the most prominent figures in the Little Brush Creek sites are also a variation of the Classic Vernal Style. One such figure wears a helmet with rays extending from either side and holds a mask or head of the same inverted bucket-style helmet. The Prayer Rock and Indian Sundial are also located at the Brush Creek site. The ancient people have scratched the surface leaving a brief history of their existence. Rock art and other archaeological evidence located in Uintah County indicate these prehistoric people or "mo-cutz," as the Ute Indians call them, occupied this area for centuries before the present Indian culture.1 With the advent of modern equipment and new HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY The Three Kings petroglyphs in Dry Fork Canyon. (L. C. Thorne) methodologies, archaeologists are gaining new insight and constantly updating ideas about the Uintah County prehistoric people. lust what happened to these ancient Indians and the time the Utes actually arrived in Uintah County are not certain. Humans first arrived in Uintah County about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Many archaeologists believe these ancient men were descendants of immigrants who came to the North American continent across the Bering Strait during the late Pleistocene period. It was a time of nomadic life with temporary campsites located along routes where food and water were most easily obtainable. Centrally located in the east-west-oriented Uinta Mountains and Uinta Basin area, Uintah County is the ninth largest county in Utah, covering approximately 4,476 square miles, or 5.44 percent of the state's area.2 Elevations range from 4,365 to 12,280 feet. Uintah County shares the northeast corner of Utah with Daggett County, which borders Uintah on the north. The Uintah-Daggett county line partly follows the crest of the Uinta Range. Grand County borders Uintah County on the south, Carbon and Duchesne counties on the west, and the state of Colorado lies on its eastern border. From the AN OVERVIEW OF HAPPENINGS IN UINTAH COUNTY Utah-Colorado state line, Uintah County runs some forty-nine miles west to the Duchesne County line.3 Uintah County is part of two geographical provinces. The Uinta Mountains are an east-west spur of the Rocky Mountains, which forms the Rocky Mountain Geographical Province. The Uinta Basin, which is formed by the Uinta Mountains to the north, the Wasatch Range to the west, and the Roan and Book cliffs to the south, is part of the Colorado Plateau Province. The highest point in Uintah County is Mount Chipeta (12,280'), named for the wife of the prominent Ute Chief Ouray. Southwest a short distance is Marsh Peak (12,240'), second highest peak in the county. It is named for a Yale University paleontologist, Othniel C. Marsh, who headed an expedition to the Uinta Mountains to study fossil beds in 1870.4 The Uintas are one of the few mountain ranges in the world which lie in an east-west direction. Their south slope is dissected by many deep, steep-walled canyons. The spectacular, rugged canyons of the Green River are carved chiefly in Paleozoic formations. The main canyons are Brush Creek Gorge, north of Vernal, Ashley and Dry Fork to the northwest, and Whiterocks and Uintas in the extreme northwest. The Uinta Basin, a structural depression paralleling the range on the south, is comprised of the lowland stream bottoms and badlands lying between the Uinta Range and the Tavaputs Plateau. The linear depression is dissected by several rivers. The Green River, largest tributary of the Colorado River and the most significant river in the basin, crosses Uintah County diagonally from northeast to southwest. Its headwaters flow out of the north-central portion of the Wind River Mountains in western Wyoming, and some of its tributaries drain the north, east, and south faces of the Uintas. Two major tributaries of the Green River are the Yampa River and the White River flowing from the east. The Yampa, flowing out of Colorado, joins the Green northeast of Vernal. The White River, with headwaters in Colorado, flows into the Green River below Ouray, Utah. The largest tributary from the west is the Duchesne River. This river enters the Green River near Ouray in the west central portion of the county. Other important water courses are the Uinta and Whiterocks rivers which flow into the Duchesne. Rock Creek, Yellowstone River, Lake HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Fork River, and Strawberry River also drain into the Duchesne River. The major drainages and tributaries have produced a highly diversified terrain including badlands dominated by colorful mesas, buttes, cliff-bench topography, and other geologic features. The Tavaputs Plateau which includes southern Uintah County is a northward-sloping area bounded on the south by outward-facing retreating escarpments known as the Roan Cliffs and the Book Cliffs. Elevation at the southern county line attains 8,000 feet.5 The average elevation of the basin floor is 5,000 feet. Uintah County is unique in its geological display of one billion years of prehistoric life. The first documented account of white men coming into Uintah County is from the Spanish Dominguez-Escalante expedition. Originally comprised of ten men, but supplemented by several Indian guides along the way, the expedition left Santa Fe, New Mexico, on 29 luly 1776.Their 2,000-mile journey took them north through western Colorado, west through the Uinta Basin to Utah Lake, then south through northern Arizona, and east back to Santa Fe by January 1777. The expedition failed to reach Monterey, California, its original goal. A second objective was to locate possible sites among the Indians for the eventual establishment of missions. The expedition passed through the Uinta Basin after reaching the Green River above present Jensen, Utah, on 13 September 1776. No known records exist of what happened in Uintah County during the next fifty years, but apparently Spanish officials, fearing unrestrained trade would provoke hostility from the Indians, discouraged further expeditions. Incidents of violation became increasingly common, however; men were apprehended and tried for illegal trade in 1783,1785, and 1789. With the threat of increasing American encroachment into the continent's western regions at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Spaniards relaxed their restrictive policy and even encouraged trade with the Indians in hopes of securing their friendship, but they had waited too long, and the days of Spanish influence were numbered.6 It was not until 1824, during the great beaver trapping era, that records show explorers, trappers, and fur traders entered the area. Others may have been there sooner, but no written record exists. Etienne Provost, a Catholic of French ancestry for whom Provo, AN OVERVIEW OF HAPPENINGS IN UINTAH COUNTY Utah, is named, was probably here earlier, but as he could neither read nor write, he left no record. Provost and his men had followed the Dominguez-Escalante Trail from New Mexico and camped on the Green River near the mouth of White River during the winter of 1824-25.7 Also by 1824 the big fur companies were in operation, and explorers, trappers, and traders were coming to the area not only north from Taos but also west from St. Louis. Among the several trappers and traders who traversed the Uinta Basin in 1824 were Etienne Provost, Antoine Robidoux, William Becknell, William Heddest, and William Huddard. One man who left a special mark on Uintah County was William Ashley. He was responsible for the first American fur-trading rendezvous held just north of the present Utah-Wyoming border on Henry's Fork of the Green River in 1825. Before this time the furs were packed out by the trappers on mules or transported in boats. Ashley led an expedition down the Green River to explore the area for beaver. The group floated down the river in bullboats made of willows and buffalo hide. At Red Canyon, Ashley painted an inscription on a rock giving his name and the date, 1825. As he passed through Uintah County, he met Ute Indians. These Utes, unlike their ancestors of fifty years earlier, were mounted, and about half of them possessed British-made guns.8 Ashley found them to be friendly and willing for the Americans to come into their lands to trap and trade. He observed that beaver were plentiful in the rivers and streams. Ashley obtained horses from the Indians and from Provost's men at their camp on the Green. He traveled across Strawberry Valley, where he met Provost, and, after exploring the nearby countryside, they traveled together back to Henry's Fork for the 1825 rendezvous. Many entities in Uintah County are named after William Ashley including: Ashley Center, Ashley Valley, Ashley Town, Ashley Ward, Ashley Falls, and Ashley Valley High School. The first baby boy born in Ashley Center was named Ashley Bartlett. Ashley Creek, as it is now called, was named Ashley River by early residents. In the spring during high water it even now looks like a river. At that time no canals or other streams were diverted out of the river, leaving it to HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY flow unimpeded through the valley and into the Green River where it was first viewed by trappers and explorers. In 1828 the first trading post was established in Uintah County at Whiterocks. Three French trappers and traders from Kentucky- William Reed, Denis Julien, and a young nephew of William, Jimmy Reed-traveled north from Taos and built the Reed Trading Post at the confluence of the Whiterocks and Uinta rivers. A year or two later another young man, Auguste Pierre Archambeau, who had run away from home, joined the group at the post. Young limmy Reed married an Indian girl named Wah Ve Dah, and many descendants of this couple are still living in Uintah County.9 The Reed family sold the trading post to French-American trader Antoine Robidoux in 1832.10 Robidoux's fort was named Fort Uintah, sometimes called Fort Winte or Twinty by trappers and Indians. It is believed to be the first year-round dwelling of white men in Utah. Although other traders came into the area, Robidoux monopolized the fur trade. He traded with Indians, trappers, and free traders. He also employed about twenty men who trapped for him. This post operated until it was burned by Ute Indians in 1844. Topographical exploration began in Uintah County in 1834 when Warren Angus Ferris spent the winter on the Green River. His map is one of the first of the area. Ten years later John Charles Fremont completed the first comprehensive survey of the valley. He was guided by Kit Carson. The next survey was completed by lohn Wesley Powell, who began his explorations in 1869. In 1847 the Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and began settling the areas north and south of Salt Lake. The Uinta Basin was one of the last frontiers in Utah to be colonized. In 1861 a daily overland stagecoach mail and semiweekly Pony Express central route was established from Missouri to Sacramento. Officials in Denver wanted the route to go from Denver to Salt Lake and sent a party headed by Captain E.L. Berthoud to search for a feasible pass through the mountains. Berthoud made the journey to Uintah County, but it took him so long that the decision was made to stay with the Wyoming route. Brigham Young, upon learning the route might run from Denver to Salt Lake through the Uinta Basin, immediately called about thirty AN OVERVIEW OF HAPPENINGS IN UINTAH COUNTY missionaries (later three were excused and eleven new names added) to start for the basin, commenting, "I have been requested several times to permit a settlement in that valley.... The Gentiles will take possession of that valley if we do not and I do not wish them to have it." The group was to build a road as they traveled and was preceded by an exploring and surveying team. The team returned and gave Brigham Young a negative report of the area, saying, "The area was one vast contiguity of waste, and measurably valueless, excepting for nomadic purposes, hunting grounds for Indians and to hold the world together."11 The Deseret News went on to criticize the positive assessment of earlier explorers. Upon receiving this information, Young canceled all arrangements for establishing the settlement and recalled the men.12 At the same time, Indian agent Henry Martin requested that the Uinta Basin be set aside as an Indian reservation. President Abraham Lincoln established the Uintah Indian Reservation by executive order on 3 October 1861, and on 5 May 1864 the reservation was further recognized by an act of Congress. Captain Pardon Dodds was the first Indian agent. He was appointed in 1868 and took over the agency which was then located at the foot of Mount Tabby near Tabiona where an Indian encampment was located. He moved the agency to the confluence of Rock Creek and the Duchesne River that summer. He also moved the Uintah Utes to Whiterocks on Christmas Day, 1869. This site was chosen as the permanent location for the agency as the Indians were used to trading previously with Reed and Robidoux at Whiterocks.13 Dodds recognized the agricultural potential of the Uinta Basin and began building up a personal cattle herd. After completing his term as Indian agent, he settled near the reservation in what was to become known as Ashley Valley. Other men began drifting into the area. Soon a settlement, known as Ashley, took shape about four miles northwest of present-day Vernal. A post office was created on 27 December 1878. It operated until 17 November 1899, after which mail was obtained at the Vernal post office, established in 1886.14 Teancum Taylor, a Mormon polygamist, settled near the big HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY spring in 1877 in what later became known as Dry Fork. This settlement soon prospered with the arrival of twenty-seven families. lensen, which lies on the Green River, was settled in 1877 when Isaac Burton, Sr., and family settled at the junction of Brush Creek and Green River on 17 November. This settlement was originally known as Riverdale. As families continued to arrive, other settlements or LDS wards were formed. Mill Ward, later named Maeser, came into existence in 1877. In 1878 three families moved onto what was called the Bench and planted crops. The settlement grew and went by three names- Jerico, then Hatch Town, and finally Ashley Center-before it was named Vernal in 1886. The general area was part of Green River County when Congress established the Territory of Utah in 1850. In 1862 Wasatch County was created, and Ashley Valley became a part of that county. Ashley remained a part of Wasatch County for the next eighteen years with Heber City as the county seat. Because of the long trip from Ashley to the county seat, 136 people signed a petition in lanuary 1880 asking the legislature to form a new county called Coal County in Ashley Valley. The legislature agreed to create the new county but gave it the name of Uintah County. It was formed 8 February 1880. The county seat was Ashley until 1893 when it was moved to Vernal, which became an incorporated city in 1897. Three years later construction of the magnificent LDS tabernacle was begun in Vernal. During the 1880s two military forts were established within the county. Fort Thornburgh was located at Ouray in 1881, then moved to the mouth of Dry Fork Canyon in 1883, and abandoned by the spring of 1884. Fort Duchesne was established in 1886 about midway between the Uintah and Ouray Indian agencies. Discovery of Gilsonite on the reservation brought profound changes to the area and greatly affected the Indians. In 1888 Congress was persuaded to cut a triangle of land containing 7,040 acres from the reservation so that Gilsonite could be mined.This became known as "the Strip," wide open to gambling, alcohol, prostitution-free from all law. The mining of Gilsonite also began in Bonanza, southeast of Vernal, in 1888. Other company-owned mining settlements were AN OVERVIEW OF HAPPENINGS IN UINTAH COUNTY established at Dragon in 1904, Watson in 1905, and Rainbow in 1912, after the Uintah Railway was built in 1904. Uintah County's economic base was built on agriculture, livestock, some timbering, mining, freighting, and oil. By the turn of the century, the population of Uintah County numbered 6,458, of whom 1,790 were school-age children, prompting the construction of five new schoolhouses-Central, Naples, Glines, lensen, and Maeser-between 1900 and 1910. Other developments included the arrival of the first automobile, owned by John W Pope, in 1905; installation of electric lights in 1907; the designation of the Ashley National Forest and establishment of the Vernal City Library in 1908; local telephone service in 1909; the installation of a water system for Vernal and the establishment of the Uintah State Bank in 1910; and the construction in 1911 of the Jensen Bridge across the Green River, connecting eastern Utah and western Colorado. The population continued to expand with the opening of the Uintah Reservation to white settlers in 1905. Small settlements were developed at Tridell, Lapoint, Avalon, Bennett, Hayden, Independence, Leota, and Leeton. In 1914 Duchesne residents successfully petitioned for their own county; it was carved out of Wasatch County in January 1915. The second decade of the twentieth century saw 700 young men from Uintah County register for the draff and 318 of them serve in the military during World War I. Fifteen Uintah County men gave their lives during the war. Local residents joined in the war effort, purchasing war bonds, donating clothing, shearing sheep, producing bean seeds, and saving fruit stones and pits to be used in the manufacture of gas masks. During the war residents on the north side of the Uinta Mountains petitioned for the establishment of their own county, and the result was the creation of Daggett County on 1 January 1918. A nationwide flu epidemic also struck Uintah County in 1918. In Vernal six funerals were held one week due to the flu. Gauze masks became a common sight. Regulation masks consisted of at least eight thicknesses of gauze, six by eight inches, completely covering the mouth and nose. Every person entering a store or other public build- 10 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Bank of Vernal under construction. (Uintah County Library Regional History Center-UCLRHC, Donna Abegglin collection) ing was required to wear one. Voters even had to wear gauze masks at the November election. Schools, churches, theaters, and all public functions were closed as the epidemic raged. In December 1918 Dr. Edwin W. Tolhurst, who had been working to save the flu victims, succumbed to the disease himself, as did Vernal's undertaker, Elmer Dillman. Until then, Dillman had been present at every funeral, providing services and comfort to families. The deaths brought a shortage of caskets, prompting Elisha Campbell to start making them. A total of 107, including 62 Indians and 45 whites, died of the disease. The new Bank of Vernal was built in 1917, and by 1920 the county population numbered 8,470. The 1920s was a period of general prosperity and community growth for Uintah County. The Vernal-Manila road was constructed; local sheepmen sent nearly a million pounds of wool to market annually; development of the county's oil shale resources began; a local Lion's Club was organized and a J.C. Penny store was opened in Vernal in 1927; natural gas was provided to Vernal in 1929; sidewalks and streets were paved; and by 1930 the Victory Highway (present-day U.S. Highway 40) was paved between Vernal and Salt Lake City. AN OVERVIEW OF HAPPENINGS IN UINTAH COUNTY 11 The impact of the Great Depression and the New Deal relief efforts were felt in Uintah County during the 1930s. The Depression affected Vernal citizens in many different ways. Those with money found the low prices put them in a better financial position than they had been in the 1920s. On the other hand, many ranchers and land owners who had loans at the Bank of Vernal lost their livelihood as the bank foreclosed on loans. Others lost their homes and farms when they were unable to pay taxes. People who had money benefited from buying property at tax sales for next-to-nothing, but most families were living from hand-to-mouth. One family told how a cow was sold for thirty-two dollars in the fall, which was all the cash available to live on until the next summer. Farm families who had a milk cow, chickens, and a garden at least had food to eat. The problem was finding enough cash to pay rent or mortgages and taxes and to buy shoes and clothing. Churches and the government set up soup lines for people who were near starvation. The county benefited from such New Deal programs as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Works Progress Administration (WPA), and the Civil Works Administration (CWA). Young men hired under the CCC program lived in a camp of tents and barracks at the county fairgrounds in Vernal, receiving one dollar a day plus food and shelter. Twelve reservoirs were constructed; many miles of roads, corrals, and fences were built; and other range work in the area was completed. Eradication measures against prairie dogs, kangaroo rats, and Mormon crickets were undertaken. Many of the CCC workers were from the eastern United States, and a number of them married local girls and stayed on after the CCC camps were closed in November 1941. Local men employed under the CWA and WPA programs laid asphalt on the streets, built sidewalks, and installed a sewer system for Vernal. Schools were constructed, and the original rodeo grandstand was built. Hundreds of outhouses were built, painted white with green trim, and placed around the area. Other public workers conducted history interviews with Indians at Fort Duchesne, painted pictures for public buildings, compiled county archive listings, and began preliminary excavation work at the dinosaur quarry. County residents also benefited from other New Deal programs such as the Federal Deposit 12 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Insurance Corporation, National Youth Administration, Social Security, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, National Recovery Administration, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) which employed teachers, distributed surplus goods from the federal government, and furnished lunches to school children. The Moon Lake Electric Cooperative was organized with the help of the Rural Electrification Administration in 1939. The outbreak of World War II, first in Europe in September 1939 and then in the Pacific on 7 December 1941 with the lapanese attack on Pearl Harbor, brought an end to the Depression and new challenges for the county. Fifty-six tons of scrap iron were collected during the 1942 war drive, and twenty-three tons of rubber were gathered during a countywide rubber drive. Boy Scouts undertook a "Victory Garden Project," and the Uintah County USO sent 356 books to men in the service. Nearly all residents participated in the war-bond and stamp drives; also, rationing was implemented for sugar and gas and a statewide thirty-five-mile-an-hour speed limit was enforced. A total of 1,095 Uintah County residents served in the armed forces, including 740 who were drafted and 355 who enlisted. Among the volunteers was Judy Shannon, one of Uintah County's first women to join the military. Thirty county residents lost their lives in this war. Uintah County's postwar economy grew, fueled by a local oil boom which began in 1948 when J. L. Dougan put the first successful oil well into production. A year earlier, in 1947, Uintah County's first radio station, KJAM, began broadcasting. Television arrived in the county in 1956 through a subscription service provided by the Basin Television Company. Both television and radio would have a significant influence during the future decades, especially among the county's youth who adopted-much to the distress of some parents as well as educational and religious leaders-many of the fashions, fads, and music brought to their attention through the miracle of electronics. Tourism was enhanced with the opening of the Utah Field House of Natural History in October 1948, while plans were completed for the construction of Union High School straddling the county line on the eastern outskirts of Roosevelt. This school was owned by both Uintah and Duchesne county school districts. AN OVERVIEW OF HAPPENINGS IN UINTAH COUNTY 13 Following the outbreak of the Korean conflict, an "Americanism Committee," chaired by Marguerite Colton, organized the Uintah Service Association to sponsor patriotic activities that included sending a newsletter to all Uintah County servicemen. The threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union was taken seriously as local officials launched a drive for home preparedness including family fallout shelters and the installation of a combination civil defense and fire alarm atop the Vernal City Building. The late 1950s saw a renewed economic boom for Uintah County with construction of the Steinaker Dam and Flaming Gorge Dam (both of which were completed in 1963), the discovery of new oil reserves, and the construction of a regional gas transmission line by El Paso Natural Gas Corporation through the northeast portion of the Uinta Basin. County residents benefited from advances in medicine including the discovery of the Salk polio vaccine, with nearly 16,000 doses administered from March through May 1963.15 The 1960s also brought additional attention to the area's recreation and tourist possibilities. The county hosted a visit by former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and his family for a raft trip down the Green River in 1965. Vernal City began operating the local golf course as a public facility. Work began on the Jones Hole Fish Hatchery Road, and the Ute Indian tribe started construction of the Bottle Hollow Resort in 1968; it was opened three years later. The centennial of the historic 1869 voyage of lohn Wesley Powell down the Green and Colorado rivers was commemorated at Split Mountain in Dinosaur National Monument on 26 lune 1969. The 1970s were again "boom" years for Uintah County. The population of Vernal more than doubled between 1970 and 1975. The 1970 census indicated 3,908 people resided in Vernal City; five years later the population had grown to 7,993. The population in Uintah County in 1970 was 12,684 and had increased to 20,479 by 1980. Included in the 1980 census were six blacks, 1,952 Indian, 47 Asians, and 565 Hispanics.16 A peak population of 25,300 was reached in 1983, just before an economic slump hit the county; the accompanying out-migration rate of 4.9 percent from luly 1987 to lanuary 1988 was the highest in Utah. By 1990 the county population had stabilized at 22,211 residents. The population of the county in 1996 is esti- 14 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY mated to be 25,600, growing at a rate of 2.4 percent per year. Records indicate 136 dwellings were built in 1975, and from 1975 through 1979 an average of 104 dwellings were constructed each year. Contributing to the boom was the opening of Stauffer Chemical Company's Vernal phosphate-mining operation on the old Harry Ratliff property on Brush Creek, which began production on 1 luly 1969. The plant went on a 300,000-ton yearly production basis, running three eight-hour shifts seven days a week. Construction of the Jensen Unit of the Central Utah Project (now known as Red Fleet Reservoir) began in 1977 and was completed in 1980.17 Oil production boomed following the international oil crisis of 1973. Development of the region's oil shale deposits was encouraged by the Department of the Interior as a way to help the United States become less dependent on oil imports. The Bonanza Power Plant provided work for hundreds of construction workers and for 130 full-time employees after it was dedicated on 20 September 1985. In addition to the vagaries of a boom-bust economy, Uintah County residents have faced other challenges during the past two decades. National and international events such as the Vietnam conflict, Watergate, the outbreak of the AIDs epidemic, and the Persian Gulf War have drawn notice and concern. Local issues and problems also demanded attention. They included illegal drugs, a devastating Mountain Pine Beetle infestation which claimed about 70 percent of the pine trees in the Vernal and Daggett ranger districts in 1984, Ute tribal jurisdictional and boundary disputes, a bid to make Dinosaur National Monument a national park, the establishment of the High Uinta Wilderness Area, several minor earthquakes, the omission of tar sands and oil shale from President George Bush's National Energy Policy, and the construction of badly needed county facilities including a new library and adult activity center. Attention focusing on what to do with the historic Uintah LDS Stake Tabernacle climaxed in 1994 with the decision to renovate it for use as a temple-the first such renovation in the history of the LDS church.18 As Uintah County looks ahead to the twenty-first century, the traditional cornerstones of the economy-agriculture, oil, and mining- remain important. In addition, tourism will play an increasingly large role in the county's economy. The wide variety of scenery-changing AN OVERVIEW OF HAPPENINGS IN UINTAH COUNTY 15 PANT fil .. CAMP ; :RO^J Civilian Conservation Corps Company 1507 camp headquarters. (UCLRHC, L. C. Thorne Collection) from the lush green forests and glacial lakes of the high Uinta Mountains to the deep rugged canyons and gorges cut through many layers of the earth's crust, as well as the spectacular formations created by erosion in the colorful sandstone-offers the visitor unequaled 16 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY attractions. Dinosaur National Monument, Dinosaur Quarry, and Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area attract thousands of visitors each year. The Utah Field House of Natural History in Vernal is another outstanding tourist attraction. These, along with the Western Park Museum, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum, river running, petroglyphs, Brush Creek Cave, ghost towns, and such geological attractions as t h e famous "Drive t h r o u g h the Ages tour," make Uintah County a favorite tourist destination. ENDNOTES 1. lay Monaghan, "Fort Robidoux," 59, unpublished manuscript, copy in the Uintah County Library Regional History Center, Vernal, Utah. In this Civil Works Administration oral histories project (1933-34), Monaghan interviewed members of the Ute Tribe and stated the Indians call ancient people "mo-cutz," which are people who are gone or dead. 2. The National Board of Geographic Names applies the spelling "Uintah" to political subdivisions, such as counties, reservations, etc., and the spelling "Uinta" to mountains, streams, and other geographic features. See G.E. Untermann and B.R. Untermann, Geology of Uintah County (Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1968), 13. Uintah is an Indian word and there is disagreement about what it means. Some believe it means "that (country) at the foot of long-leaf timber pines, clear stream flowing." According to Albert B. Reagan, the word Uintah is derived from the word Uintaugump, Uinta meaning "at edge of pine" and Ugump, "the stream of water at edge of pine." He theorizes that the combined word refers to a dwelling place located north of present-day Whiterocks where a point of land is formed by two streams coming together at an angle and where long-leafed pines grow; Utah Historical Quarterly 6:103. Francis Desmore stated in a 1928 promotional booklet that it means "that at the foot of long-leaf, timber pines, clear streams are flowing," E. Peterson states in "Our Indian Settlers" that the word Uintah signifies "the place where pines come down the river." However, most of the old Uintah Indians state that the word means "land high up where timber grows." Uintah was probably not the original name of the region; more likely it was Uimpah Ow-ump. Uim means "around," pah, "water," and Ow-ump is the "long-leafed pine tree." 3. Statistics in this paragraph were provided by Randy Simmons, Uintah County Recorder. Chipeta Peak is the highest peak in Uintah County. The USGS map, Whiterocks Lake Quadrangle, 1963, shows two bench marks: one is listed as Chipeta at 12,267, the other is listed as AN OVERVIEW OF HAPPENINGS IN UINTAH COUNTY 17 Eccentric at 12,276. Simmons states that sometime after 1963 another survey shot was made, and the eccentric bench mark on Chipeta Peak now lists the nominal elevation at 12,280. In a 14 December 1992 Deseret News story by Lynn Arave it was said that the highest peak in Uintah County was Eccentric Peak. There is no Eccentric Peak; this was just a name they used on the bench mark to show it deviated from the other Chipeta bench mark. 4. lohn W. Van Cott, Utah Place Names (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990), 245. 5. Untermann, Geology of Uintah County, 13-14, 16. 6. David J. Weber, The Taos Trappers; The Fur Trade in the Far Southwest, 1540-1846 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971), 28. 7. Floyd A. O'Neil and Gregory C. Thompson, A Short History of the Uinta Basin, Utah (Salt Lake City: University of Utah American West Center, 1975), 8. 8. Dale L. Morgan, ed., The West of William Ashley (Denver: Old West Publishing Co., 1964), 115-16, 277-80. 9. lohn Barton, Buckskin Entrepreneur: Antoine Robidoux's Fur Trade with the Ute Indians, 1824-1844 (Vernal: n.p., 1995), 47; Mary Reed Harris, interview by Mildred Miles Dillman in Early History of Duchesne County (Springville, UT: Art City Publishing Company, 1948), 69. 10. lulius Orn Murray, interview by lohn D. Barton, 3 October 1988, Alterra, Utah. Murray is the grandson of lames Reed and remembers his grandfather telling him about setting up the Reed Trading Post and the sale of that post to Robidoux in 1832. 11. Deseret News, 25 September 1861. 12. Letter, 9 August 1995, and records provided to the author by lames L. Kimball, Ir., research librarian in the Church of lesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Historical Department, in Salt Lake City, Utah. 13. J.H. Head to Commissioner E.S. Parker, 24 May 1869, microcopy no. 234, National Archives, Washington, D.C. 14. lohn S. Gallagher, The Post Offices of Utah (Burtonville, MD: The Depot, 1977), 57. 15. Vernal Express, 7 March, 11 April, and 25 April 1963. 16. Wayne L. Wahlquist, ed., Atlas of Utah (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1980), 273. 17. Vernal Express, 5 March, 13 August, 24 September, 15 October, and 13 December 1970. 18. Ibid., 15 lanuary, 5 February, 11 March, 25 March, 22 April, 29 April, 27 May, and 7 October 1992. |
