A History of Uintah County

Transpotation and communications

8 Horse Bits to Computer Bytes TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS A network of Indian trails crisscrossed the Uinta Basin when the first white settlers arrived. These routes were gradually enlarged by explorers, government employees, soldiers, and settlers. Eventually a number of roads were developed that connected the basin with other populated areas. In the early trapping and trading era, Antoine Robidoux followed Indian trails from New Mexico to the area and built a fort called Fort Uintah near Whiterocks. He eventually improved the trails to bring wagons to the area. He crossed Indian trails over the Uinta Mountains to Fort Bridger, Wyoming-one of which went over Gilbert Peak. Indian trails over the Wasatch Mountains were also used by trappers and traders. The first major road survey through the Uinta Basin from Denver to Salt Lake City was conducted by Captain E.L. Berthoud, a civil engineer from Golden, Colorado, with lim Bridger as his scout. The overland mail bill was enacted by Congress on 2 March 1861, just two days after the Territory of Colorado was created. Denver was three years old. To that territory and its infant metropolis came the 190 TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 191 opportunity to be placed upon the main western thoroughfare of the nation if a practicable pass could be found through the central Rocky Mountains. A route through Denver for the Pony Express and the daily stagecoach would greatly enhance the growth of the city. Berthoud and his party left Denver on 6 July 1861 and traveled to the Yampa River headwaters through Twenty-mile Park to where Hayden and Craig, Colorado, are now located. The river was followed to about the mouth of Snake River, where the surveyors turned south­west to the White River and followed it to the Green, then up the Uinta River. They crossed the Wasatch Range, descended along the Provo River, and then continued to Salt Lake City. Berthoud reported that a good wagon road with practicable grade could be easily and quickly built to Provo. He gave the distance as 426 miles and esti­mated that the first-class road would cost about $100,000. However, the survey was not completed in time, and the overland mail route was put into service over the old emigrant trail via South Pass, Wyoming, leaving the Uinta Basin off the route. The next company organized to build a wagon road across Berthoud Pass left Salt Lake City on 3 lune 1865 led by a Col. Johns of the California Volunteers with 150 men and twenty-two wagons. The route followed was that explored by Berthoud and Bridger in 1861. Nearly four months were consumed in marking the route and mak­ing it passable for wagons. Today U.S. Highway 40 crosses Berthoud Pass following the trail marked out by Berthoud and Bridger through the Uinta Basin.1 The first major wagon route came into the valley when the Uintah Indian Agency was located at Whiterocks. This was not the result of any organized surveys or construction work; it developed piecemeal after the headquarters was moved into the area in the fall of 1868. In those early days, agency employees searched out a pass­able route from Heber to the agency location, following Indian trails and natural routes wherever possible to reduce construction work. The road was still little more than a trail in the late 1870s when Agent John J. Critchlow traveled to Whiterocks to manage the agency. He complained of the deplorable condition of the route in his annual report, writing, "It is a misnomer to call it a road." He asked for five thousand dollars to survey and construct a new road to the agency. 192 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Reports give no indication the five thousand dollars was ever granted.2 The route to Whiterocks began at Heber, Utah, and wound up through Daniel's Canyon, crossing and recrossing the creek numer­ous times. The road passed approximately two miles north of Fruitland and about six miles north of Duchesne City. It went about three miles southeast of Roosevelt, then east to Montes Creek, cross­ing the creek nearly three-quarters of a mile below the present site of the Montes Reservoir spillway. From this point, the road closely fol­lowed the present highway north to Whiterocks. The earliest route leading into Ashley from the Indian agency at Whiterocks was the Dodds Twist Road located by Pardon Dodds, Morris Evans, and lohn Blankenship in 1872 or 1873. This road commenced on the Heber-Whiterocks road approximately one-fourth mile below the Indian agency and ran southeastward across the river bottoms to Whiterocks River, passing immediately north of the present Fort Robidoux historical monument. From the fort, it pursued a southeasterly course, passing about one mile southwest of Tridell and crossing Deep Creek just south of LaPoint. It continued southeast about two miles to the foot of LaPoint Bench, then crossed over the mesa to Halfway Hollow. The road crossed the hollow just below Steamboat Rock and proceeded eastward to Twelve-Mile Wash, then north up the east fork of the wash to the present LaPoint- Vernal highway, and easterly through the gap west of Maeser to the Dodds homestead. The route followed the course of the wash bottom up the east fork of Twelve-Mile Wash, and it was this section, known as the Dodds Twist, that gave the road its name.3 The road to the valley was later shortened by travelers who forded the Uinta River at the old Daniel's Crossing, north of Fort Duchesne, and followed Deep Creek to its junction with the Whiterocks-Ashley road southeast of LaPoint. Sometime between 1875 and 1879 another route was established between Whiterocks and Ashley Valley via Dry Fork Canyon. Beginning at the point where the Dodds Twist crossed Deep Creek, this road ran north along the west fork of that small stream to the Basor (later Thoroughbred) Ranch, then eastward over Pine Ridge to Dry Fork, and down Dry Fork Canyon to Ashley Valley.4 A more TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 193 direct course between Whiterocks and Dry Fork was later used which led northward from Whiterocks about five miles, then east past the Little Water Coal Mine, and across Mosby Creek to intersect the Deep Creek Road near the Thoroughbred Ranch. Not all of the early settlers arrived from the west, however. Many entered the basin from the north, following a rough but passable route leading south from Wyoming across the Uinta Mountains. In 1865 Major Noyes Baldwin, commanding officer at Fort Bridger, established a road from that post to Brown's Park. This route ran south from the fort and then east to Henry's Fork River near Manila, Utah. The road followed Henry's Fork nearly to the Green River, then turned north and crossed the Green about three miles above the con­fluence of the two streams. It then ran east up Spring Creek, through Minnie's Gap, and around the base of Richardson Mountain into Clay Basin. At that point, it joined an alternate route coming south from Green River, Wyoming. From Clay Basin, the road went south down Jessie Ewing Canyon into Brown's Park. To proceed to the Uinta Basin the traveler climbed up Sear's Canyon to Pot Creek, then continued south past Flynn's Point to Diamond Springs. The route then came south over the Diamond Mountain rim to Bowery Spring, which is located just under the rim and about one-half mile east of Diamond Mountain Road. A trail and later a wagon route then led southwest down the face of the mountain to where Big Brush Creek forked. One fork followed the creek to its junction with the Green River and turned south to Jensen; the other crossed Brush Creek and continued southwest, passing over a small ridge and entering a hollow called Paddy's Gap.5 The wagon track fol­lowed Paddy's Gap to its head and then over the Buckskin Hills into Ashley Valley, entering the valley at the old David Karren ranch in Ashley Ward, now the LDS farm and cannery at 2178 East 1500 North. When the early stores, saloons, and other mercantile enterprises were established in the county, the proprietors had to haul merchan­dise into the area by wagons from Wyoming or Heber. The old Indian trail around the south side of Blue Mountain known as the "Old Rawlins Trail" was the route used by teamsters who had secured gov­ernment contracts to haul supplies from the Union Pacific station at Rawlins, Wyoming, to Fort Thornburgh and Ouray trading posts. 194 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Part of this trail was close to the present alignment of Highway 40, south of Blue Mountain.6 Later scouting parties were ordered to explore other possible routes over which supplies could be brought into Fort Thornburgh. Explorations were made from the military post which was then on the White River to Green River, Wyoming, to Fort Bridger, and to Park City, Utah, to determine which would be the best route. Park City was chosen. The government built a depot and warehouses at the site and supplies were brought from that depot.7 When Fort Thornburgh was moved to the head of Ashley Valley, it was decided that a closer route would be over the Uinta Mountains to Fort Bridger, Wyoming, about ten miles south of the railhead at Carter Station on the Union Pacific Railroad. The Ute Indians used two main trails in traveling north to Wyoming: Lodge Pole Trail ran from a point near the old Burnt Fork post office in Wyoming to Ashley; the other trail crossed west of Gilbert's Peak north of Whiterocks and was known as the Soldier Trail. It was used by Captain R. B. Marcy in 1857 on his trip from Wyoming to Taos, New Mexico, for emergency supplies for snowbound troops who had been on their way to Utah under Colonel Albert Sidney lohnston.8 This route was found impracticable for a wagon road, so General George Crook, advised by Judge William A. Carter, chose the Lodge Pole Trail as the best route for the road and favored its construction for trans­porting troops and supplies.9 ludge Carter of Fort Bridger undertook to construct a passable road at his own expense in anticipation of the government later accepting and improving the road. By the late fall of 1881 Carter had succeeded in constructing a road following the Lodge Pole Trail across the mountains. Judge Carter became ill with pleurisy while at his camp on the creek that now bears his name and died shortly afterward at his home in Fort Bridger. In 1882 the army awarded a contract to William A. Carter, Ir., son of ludge Carter, to freight supplies over the new road from Carter Station to Fort Thornburgh. On 1 May Carter left Fort Bridger with twenty-two six-mule teams and wagons; he arrived in Ashley Valley three weeks later. It was evident from the difficulties encountered during this trip that the route would have to be improved. Lt. R. H. TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 195 Young was sent from Fort Bridger with a detachment of troops to work on the road during the summer of 1882. They removed numerous large rocks from the right-of-way and laid a roadbed of logs across many of the swamps and marshes. Mules proved not adapted to all the problems encountered on this trip, so oxen were used, with "bull-whackers" instead of "mule skinners" for drivers.10 The next summer four companies of infantry from Fort Thornburgh labored on the road under the command of Major I.D. Russey. In addition to improving the roadway, these soldiers con­structed corduroy roads across nearly all the high mountain mead­ows through which the route passed. William A. Carter, Ir., constructed a log cabin with a fireplace to serve as a way-station at the junction of Beaver and Carter creeks for the freighters traveling over the road. This first route came down Taylor Mountain and Spring Creek to Ashley Creek, then along the creek to Fort Thornburgh. The army later established an alternate route commencing at Spring Creek. This road, which became the wagon route, led southeast into Steinaker Draw, then to the south, passing out of the mouth of the draw where Steinaker Dam is now located, and westward along the foot of the hills to Fort Thornburgh. The original track down Ashley Creek con­tinued to be used as a horse trail.11 The War Department abandoned Fort Thornburgh in 1884, but the road continued to be used, with contractors hauling more than one million pounds of supplies over the road from Carter Station to the site of Fort Duchesne in 1886.12 From 1887 to about 1900 ore from the Dyer Mine on the south slope of the Uinta Mountains was freighted over the Thornburgh Road to the railhead at Carter Station. In 1884 Uintah County constructed a new road leading into Ashley Valley from the west.13 This route began at the Heber- Whiterocks road near the Dry Gulch Creek ford southeast of mod­ern Roosevelt and followed the creek east along the bottom of the hollow to the Uinta River near the present location of Fort Duchesne. From the river the road led east to Sand Ridge, passing south of pre­sent- day Gusher through the Strip and onto Halfway Hollow. At this point, the route was north and nearly parallel to the original Highway 40. Approximately three miles west of Asphalt Ridge the road turned 196 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY northeast across Dog Valley, over Asphalt Ridge south of where the cut is now, and into Ashley Valley at about 5000 South. It continued on 5000 South east to 1500 West and turned north to the 1500 South and 1500 West intersection. The road turned east on 1500 South to 500 West, turning north past the tabernacle (purposely built by the LDS church there that it might be seen by all entering the town) then east down Main Street to Vernal Avenue. It went out South Vernal Avenue to 1500 South. The main road turned east at 1500 South and Vernal Avenue and came out on the present Naples highway at 1500 East and 1500 South. From here the road turned south on 1500 East, the present Naples highway, straight to 5000 South, turning east and up a dugway on the hill. The road crossed Ashley Creek about one-fourth mile north of the present Ashley Creek bridge and continued east to the yellow hill at 6620 East Highway 40. The road then turned south, following the hill to about the present highway and went up an old dugway and straight east to lensen. After crossing the lensen Bridge, the road followed south along the river to the Powell Ranch, then east to Cockleburr Valley, through Powder Wash north of pre­sent Highway 40 to the K Ranch and the Utah-Colorado state line. Many county road appropriations were spent on the Valley Hill Dugway west of Vernal. Evidence discloses five or six parallel old dug-ways at that site. One part of the old "twists" on the right side of Highway 40 coming up to the lookout was named after commis­sioner Al Hatch, who with his horse marked out a dugway with many sharp curves. In 1924, $48,000 in federal funds was obtained to con­struct the first dugway on Asphalt Ridge. This graveled highway remained in use until 1940, but it featured dangerous curves and had been the scene of many accidents including fatalities. Funds were obtained to take the highway out from Vernal on the present route, paving the four miles west of Vernal. This route traveled west to 800 West where it made a gradual inclination past the Glines LDS chapel to 1500 South where it joined the old road. In 1965 contractor L.C. Stevenson made the straight cut over the first hill out of town and over the hill at 2700 West, joining the old highway and continuing over the old dugway. In 1967 contractors Whiting & Haymond Company made the large cut and view area on Asphalt Ridge.14 When Fort Duchesne was established in 1886, the government TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 197 Fred Feltch pulling road construction equipment with cat in 1918. (UCLRHC, C. J. Neal collection) first supplied the new post from Fort Bridger via the Thornburgh- Carter Road and from Park City over the Heber Road. It became evi­dent that better mail delivery, telegraph service, and good roads for freight delivery were needed to the fort. The War Department recog­nized that the Price-Myton road, which followed an old trail used by Indians and whites prior to 1886, would be a much shorter route to bring supplies for the soldiers at Fort Duchesne, and units were dis­patched from the fort to work on this road. The route went from Bridges (now Myton) through Wells Draw to the head of Gate Canyon, through that canyon to Nine Mile Canyon, and southwest over the rim of the canyon. It then followed Soldier Canyon to Wellington, a few miles south of Price. This is approximately the same course State Highway 53 later followed. In 1886 and 1887 the army detailed soldiers to improve the road and construct a telegraph line from the railroad to the post.15 Nearly all the freight entering or leaving the area traveled this route until a road was completed over Indian Canyon in 1905. Freighting The Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad was completed between Denver and Salt Lake City in 1883, and the town of Price, 198 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY located approximately 120 miles southwest of Fort Duchesne, pro­vided a new railhead for shipment of goods to the fort after connect­ing roads were completed. An army quartermaster was stationed at Price at a warehouse which was constructed to store goods awaiting shipment to the Uinta Basin. For nearly twenty years steady traffic passed through Price to the basin. This traffic was increased in both directions with the development of the Gilsonite mines on the Strip in 1889. The difficult journey required six days each way for freight wagons in good weather. The trip was made through arid country, so feed and water for the draft animals had to be carried.16 Early residents supplemented their incomes by using their wagons and teams for freighting. Many were given all the business they could handle. Most of these freighters were farmers who engaged in freighting on a sporadic, informal, and often temporary basis. It was often necessary to "double" in order to traverse difficult stretches of road. The outfits usually consisted of two canvas-covered wagons, one trailing the other, pulled by a four-horse team hitched by twos. Occasionally a third, smaller wagon was included. Some freighters, however, used a two-horse team and a single wagon; and they could haul as much as 5,000 pounds, depending upon the nature of the cargo. With four horses and two wagons, a skillful team­ster could haul as much as 11,000 pounds. Boys as young as fourteen years of age who could be spared from farm work sometimes hauled freight with single teams and wagons during the spring and summer months to help support their fami­lies. 17 It was not unusual for farmers to spend part of the winter haul­ing freight in and out of Vernal. When a freighter received an order to bring a load of merchandise from Price, he generally tried to obtain cargo for the outward journey. Typical out-going loads could include honey; sacks of copper ore; eggs, packed in barrels of grain; cured ham; pork; wool; alfalfa seed; and, the major commodity, Gilsonite, picked up from mines on the Strip. Without railroad service, all merchandise was freighted in on wagons. Much of the area's commerce used parcel post, which was shipped on the train to Dragon and then came into Vernal on freight wagons. This practice elicited some interesting comments in the local paper, such as, "Parcel post continues to come in by the four-horse TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 199 load," and "Government losing $36,000 a year on Basin Parcel Post."18 In June 1916 readers were told "Up to fifty-pound limit, a typical day's load was: 10,000 pounds of salt, 12,500 pounds of flour, 8,800 pounds of sugar, together with other of the following articles: gro­ceries, blacksmith tools, automobile parts, hardware, nails, pitchforks, brooms, water hydrants, oranges, fresh strawberries, garden truck vegetables, cherries, tires, feather beds, fruit jars, and magazines." Turkeys were shipped parcel post as far as the Pacific Coast. Even dry cleaning was sent to Salt Lake by parcel post. The average rate paid for freighting at the time was $1.00 per one hundred pounds but var­ied from $0.75 to $1.25. A good freighter could usually make about eighty dollars a week. Under favorable conditions, teamsters could drive a loaded out­fit thirty miles a day; with adverse conditions or steep grades, ten to fifteen miles was a good day's travel. A round trip between Vernal and Price could vary from ten to twenty-five days depending on the weather, the route traveled, and the wagon load. Sometimes it was necessary to wait several days at the warehouse for a load. The freighters camped by the roadside at night, if possible under ledges or in other places partially sheltered from wind and weather. Way-stations were located about every fifteen or twenty miles along the route, but freighters had to stop and make camp wherever they were when dark overtook them. When freighters camped near a way-station during inclement weather, station attendants often allowed them to unroll their bedrolls and sleep in one of the buildings. The way-station and campground at Halfway Hollow, fifteen miles west of Vernal, was the only place water was available between Vernal and the Uinta River near Fort Duchesne. The water at Halfway Hollow was hauled to the station from a spring located about two miles up the hollow and stored in an underground tank. It cost fif­teen cents to water a two-horse team and twenty-five cents for a four-horse team. Finally a well was dug in the middle of the wash. A metal barrel with a lid was placed in the top of the well. It subsequently never washed out when floods came down the wash.19 As saloons were well represented among the business establish­ments of the Uinta Basin, it was a rare occasion when at least one of the wagons at a campground was not carrying a few barrels of liquor. 200 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Most veteran teamsters had long known a foolproof method for tap­ping a whiskey barrel, and in the evening, as soon as the horses were cared for, one of the men often tapped one of these casks. A small nail was first pounded into the barrelhead to make an air vent and then pulled out and driven through the side of the container. The nail was withdrawn and a straw inserted in the hole. A small bucket or pot was then placed beneath it. After the desired amount of liquor had drained out, the straw was removed and a small piece of wood such as a matchstick driven into the opening to plug the hole. The match was cut off flush and a little dirt rubbed over the spot to complete the job. The men then sat around the fire drinking whiskey and telling stories.20 The freighters brought most of their provisions for the trip from home, filling grub boxes with homemade bread, jams and jellies, bot­tled fruit, potatoes, onions and other vegetables, eggs, fresh or cured ham and bacon, mutton, or beef. Teamsters usually carried their eggs in a bucket of oats, putting in a layer of grain, then adding alternate layers of eggs and oats until the pail was full. This method worked well unless the road was unusually rough, when the eggs sometimes worked together and broke. Feed for horses, including hay and grain, had to be carried. A canvas tarp wrapped around the bedroll served as both a groundcloth to keep out the moisture and a top covering to ward off the dew or rain. A wagon iron served as a small anvil to shape horseshoes if necessary and to rivet the harness when it broke, as it often did. Rifles were an important item, and a keg or two of drinking water was fastened to the side of the wagon box. Life on the freight roads was arduous and hazardous for both teamsters and horses. In summer, heat, dust, and insects made life miserable, and the danger of being caught in a canyon or wash by a flash flood was ever present. In the winter the men and animals suf­fered from the cold and snow. One freighter claimed they had to hitch twenty horses on one wagon to break open a trail. Sometimes it was many degrees below zero, and the snow would be five or six feet deep.21 In the spring and fall the freighters often had deep mud to plow through. The possibility always existed of the wagons breaking down, of the teamsters becoming ill or suffering an injury, or of the horses becoming sick or lame. Occasionally a wagon would slip off TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 201 the rim trail and plunge into the canyon. All the driver could do was jump free and then go down and free the horses that had not already broken away from the traces. In 1896 officials of the Union Pacific concluded that a good deal of the freight was being lost to rival Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, so they sent a scouting party over the regular route through Brown's Park to Vernal. They discovered on the way back that the haul from Vernal could be cut to eighty-five miles by leaving the Brown's Park road and going through McKee Draw, then crossing the Green River near the Lewis Ferry, and then going by Spring Creek, down Currant Creek, and up along the Green River through Firehole Basin. In lune 1896 OB. Maxwell, traveling freight agent for the Union Pacific, made a trip with his wife to Ashley Valley, where they spent several days interviewing local merchants, stockmen, and ranchmen. They found the Ashley people unanimously in favor of a northern outlet to railroad facilities because it would be a shorter route than the one to the Rio Grande Western. Furthermore, along this route feed and water were plentiful for teams, while between Vernal and Price lay forty miles of the worst kind of dry desert road without water or feed. Mrs. Maxwell interviewed many merchants and was informed by a salesman in a Vernal store that "thousands of dollars worth of damage was suffered annually by the merchants because of the ruinous sand and dust that came in contact with the goods and fineries while crossing this desert."22 Lewis R. Dyer, manager of the Victoria copper mine, expected his company to haul thousands of tons of ore over the road to the rail­road and was very much in favor of the route. Maxwell believed that large quantities of Ashley's fine vegetables and fruits as well as tons of honey would be used by the people of Green River and Rock Springs, Wyoming, bringing a new market to Vernal. Also 300,000 pounds of wool were freighted from the valley annually and more than 1.5 million pounds of merchandise were shipped into Ashley yearly. It was believed that the wagon bridge across the Green River and Black's Fork was the forerunner to the establishment of a road that would prove to be a great commercial artery to Ashley Valley.23 An early Forest Service map shows a road down to the Green 202 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY River below Cedar Springs that went up through Dutch John Gap. If this road was used for freighting, it must have been a steep and rough haul. Nevertheless, the Union Pacific had plans to build a railroad along this route and drew maps showing its proposed location. The plan never materialized, but it would have resulted in one of the most spectacular mountain railroads in the West.24 By 1905 a passable route had been built from Duchesne through Indian Canyon to the railroad at Colton, a station located north and west of Castle Gate. The stage then came to Uintah County from Colton Station. Many early residents used this road to enter the basin after the Uintah Indian Reservation was opened to homesteading in 1905. Although this route to Price was shorter than the Nine Mile Road, it was often impassable because of deep snow and avalanches. Railroad and Trucking Parcel post and regular freight were shipped in exclusively by freight wagon until 1904 when the majority of freight was shipped closer by train on the narrow-gauge railroad. The railway provided both freight and passenger service to the growing basin. The Uintah Railway, a narrow-gauge railroad, beginning in western Colorado at Mack and continuing over some of the steepest grades and sharpest curves ever built for a railroad line, was constructed in 1903. The rail­road was built by the Barber Asphalt Company between its Gilsonite mining properties located along the White River in the southeastern corner of Uintah County and the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad's main line near Grand lunction, Colorado. It ran fifty-five miles from Mack, Colorado, to the Black Dragon Mine, where a small commu­nity named Dragon soon developed. The terminal was about sixty-five miles from Vernal and Fort Duchesne, and it became a major railhead and supply point for the eastern Uinta Basin. In 1911 the company extended the rails ten miles farther north to Watson, which served as the terminus until 1939 when the railroad ceased opera­tions. During 1904 and 1905 the Uintah Railway Company constructed 112 miles of roads leading from the railhead at Dragon to the Ashley and Ouray valleys, where they connected with county roads leading to Vernal, Fort Duchesne, and Whiterocks. Two obstacles, the Green TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 203 Stage crossing Green River on Alhandra ferry. (UCLRHC collection) and White rivers, had to be crossed. The White River was crossed by spanning it with a toll bridge at Ignatio. The wooden bridge was taken out by ice jams and floods in 1912. A metal bridge was later constructed. Freighters often forded a few miles below the bridge during periods of low water to avoid the toll; however, freighters who drove for Uintah Freightway crossed free. To cross the Green River, ferryboat toll stations were constructed at Alhandra, about twelve miles south of Jensen, and at Ouray. Bob Johnston and James McNaughton operated the ferry at Alhandra. Uintah Railway Company organized the Uintah Toll Road Company in November 1906 to operate and maintain the roads, bridges, and ferries and then established freight and stage lines.25 Two ferries operated by Ira Burton and Lars Jensen were already in operation on the Green River at lensen at the time the railroad arrived, but they were farther to the north. They catered to cattlemen who were driving wagons and animals to ranches on Blue Mountain and the Rangely area. After the Uintah Railway was constructed, much of the freight entering the basin came through Dragon. Uintah Railway freight lines carried part of the freight, but many merchants still preferred to have the local freighters haul merchandise from the railroad. 204 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Uintah Railway Narrow Gauge train on Baxter Pass in 1917. (UCLRHC, C. J. Neal collection) Uintah Railway built way-stations at Chipeta Wells on the road to Fort Duchesne and at Kennedy's Hole on the route to Vernal. These way-stations consisted of stables, barns, and inns where travelers could obtain food and lodging and company teamsters could procure feed and shelter for their animals. A round trip from Vernal or Fort Duchesne could usually be made in between four and seven days. A teamster leaving either of these communities in the morning with empty wagons could plan on taking a noon rest stop at the Ouray or Alhandra ferryboat stations on the Green River. Camp the first night was at either Kennedy's Hole or Chipeta Wells way-station about thirty miles out. Unless delayed by breakdowns or other difficulties, Ignatio at the White River toll-bridge crossing would be reached by noon the second day. The next day the freighters would travel through the southern edge of the Rabbit Hills and along Evacuation Wash, arriving that night at Dragon. The night would be spent in the campground located on the outskirts of town. The freighters who worked for the Uintah Railway were issued a book of tickets good for eating or sleeping at the boarding houses along the route.26 TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 205 Freight wagons leaving Uintah Railway Station which was built in anticipa­tion of trains that never reached Vernal. (UCLRHC collection) Although the company constructed roads from the Green River to connect with county thoroughfares near Vernal and Fort Duchesne, only those segments between the Green River and Dragon were actually operated as toll roads. The cost of a trip from Vernal or Fort Duchesne to Dragon with freight wagons varied from $2.50 to $3.50 depending upon the number of teams and wagons in the out­fit. The crossing of the Green River by ferry at Alhandra or Ouray and the White River by bridge at Ignatio constituted the major part of the expense. The railroad company tried to make passengers as comfortable as possible, building a nice hotel at Dragon. Another hotel was built at Watson when the railroad was extended to that location. The rail­road planned to eventually continue on to Vernal. A railroad station was built on the corner at 80 North Vernal Avenue in anticipation of the railroad which never arrived. The station (which still stands) was then used by the Uintah Railway Company as a stagecoach and freight station. Vernal is still more than 100 miles from the nearest railway. A large pasture in Vernal was owned by the company. The company had acquired many teams and wagons, and by the end of 206 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY The first "cat" tractor in the Vernal area. Its first and only trip from Watson to Vernal took 27 days. (UCLRHC, American Gilsonite Company collection) 1906 owned over 160 head of horses, most of them large freight horses.27 In 1910 the company replaced its stagecoaches with auto­mobiles. In lune of that year railroad officials met with Uintah County commissioners to discuss the possibility of a joint effort to improve the roads from Dragon so motor vehicles could be used in place of freight wagons. In 1911 the company purchased some solid-tire Mack trucks to haul cargo from Watson to Vernal and Fort Duchesne; but trucks proved to be unsuitable for the muddy roads. About this time, the freight line purchased both a Holt caterpillar tractor and a large steam-driven tractor to pull freight wagon trains.28 Although these machines were used for a year or so, they also proved unsatisfactory. By 1916, however, roads had been improved and the company was phasing out the horse-drawn wagons and successfully using trucks to haul freight from the railhead to various towns in the basin. It was not long before enterprising individuals saw the oppor­tunity to purchase motor vehicles and establish motorized freight lines. By 1920 only a few horse-drawn freight wagons were still on the roads. Near the end of 1927, Sterling Transportation Company placed six new trucks in service in addition to the large fleet already main­tained by the Eastern Utah Transportation Company, which operated TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 207 -. . - Early 1900s, one of Vernal's first trucks pulling two wagons loaded with people. (UCLRHC collection, Trim photo) truck lines between Price and the Uinta Basin. Stations were estab­lished at Duchesne, Price, Salt Lake, Roosevelt, Myton, Fort Duchesne, and Vernal to service the trucks.29 After the railroad closed down on 16 May 1939, all freight was hauled by trucks. The railway cars which had been used for many years to transport the basin's lamb crop to the market were sold for corn cribs in Colorado. The track became scrap metal and was used during World War II. The trucking business grew as the county grew. In the 1940s the Sterling Transportation Company had twelve trucks and employed twenty men hauling freight and Gilsonite. The Comet Motor Express out of Craig, Colorado, had three trucks making ship­ments from Denver to Vernal every other day. Trucks were used to haul cattle to market, and Victor Wilkins owned the major livestock trucking company. As the oil industry grew, many large tankers hauled oil along U.S. 40. Phosphate and Gilsonite became major products hauled out of the county by trucks. Articles appeared in the Vernal Express nearly every decade telling of plans for a railroad to come to Vernal; however, these plans always fell through and no railroad has ever been extended to Uintah 208 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY County. Trucking continues to be a big part of the economy of the county. Highways Technological developments in transportation and communica­tions moved Uintah County out of relative isolation into the world community. In a sense, the twentieth century really began for Uintah County in 1905 when John W. Pope went to Denver, purchased an automobile, and had it shipped to Dragon. It took h im two days to drive the automobile to Vernal from Dragon, where residents greeted the arrival of the county's first car. The machine was used to haul pas­sengers to celebrations and to resorts in the vicinity of Vernal.30 By 1917 Uinta Basin residents owned 182 automobiles including eighty Fords, fifty Buicks, twenty-five Overlands, ten Oaklands, ten Dodges, and seven Studebakers. There were also four trucks of u n k n o wn make and eight Buick three-ton trucks.31 The natural scenic beauty of the area is a tremendous asset, and with the i n t r o d u c t i o n of automobiles t o u r i sm became a large and growing i n d u s t r y limite d only by t h e availability of vehicles and roads. An ocean-to-ocean highway was designated in 1914 which would cross Utah. Increased funds began to be spent improving the roads. The present system of highways in Utah developed in stages. Up to about 1910, county commissioners had full control over county roads, although the roads were often little more t h a n trails cut by wagon wheels. County commissioners generally were interested only in improving well-traveled trails or roads to and from the county seat and through thickly settled parts of the counties. One folktale is told about the bad road conditions on the road going through Naples. John D. Karren owned an eighty acre farm in Naples along the highway. He and his four sons had built a high levy to carry water the full width of the farm. In winter, snow often reached fence tops and so this levy worked as a dam and kept the spring runoff from going down the fields. As a result, this made the road almost bot­tomless. Legend has it that two men in Naples, ledediah, who lived a quarter mile northwest of this muddy road, and leremiah, who TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 209 lived a quarter mile south were good friends and often visited each other. One day as leremiah was walking along on top of the levy he noticed a hat. "Why that belongs to ledediah," he said, "I must pick it up." He took hold of a willow and eased himself down through the mud. He picked up the hat and there was ledediah's head sticking above the mud. "Why led," he exclaimed, "I'll go get help and get you out of this mess!" "Never mind, lerry," said led, "I still have my feet in the stir­rups and my horse will get through some way." By the year 1910 the next stage of road development began with the state highway commission's goal to link the main highways in each county, so continuous thoroughfares would exist from one part of the state to another. The commission issued seven million dollars in bonds for highways, financed by the state license tax and, later, by the gasoline tax. Opposition was expressed by the legislature, as the outlying counties were afraid all the money would go to Salt Lake County for paving its roads. It was suggested that construction of roads begin at the Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and Idaho state lines, working toward Salt Lake City; this might expedite the passage of the bill. If any money was left, it could be spent in Salt Lake County. The bill passed with this restriction and it worked well for the outlying counties. A third phase came in 1920, with the introduction of a federal aid system established by an act of Congress, which provided federal aid for the establishment of a system of highways passing through several states. The state highway systems, which connected roads at county borders, were continued on a national basis, connecting high­ways at state borders. This project provided money to be used on the Vernal-Duchesne road in 1921. The dangerous Hatch dugway with its sharp curves was taken out under this program, but it would still be many years before that portion of the twisting road starting twelve miles out of Vernal was completely straightened out. Many accidents occurred on this twist in the 1940s, and residents were greatly relieved when this strip of road was improved.32 State highway commissioners planned the routes in Utah, cen- 210 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY tering all main highways-north, south, west, and east-through Salt Lake City, making it the hub of western travel.33 The Victory Highway was the "spoke" that came through Uintah County. The Victory Highway was promoted about 1919 by Salt Lake and northern California interests to provide a straight line of travel from St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver through Salt Lake City to Reno and San Francisco. It would be the shortest route between Washington, D.C, and San Francisco, crossing the center of the United States. The First World War had just ended, so the name "Victory Highway" was cho­sen for the route. A San Francisco man, Ben Blow, was named pro­ject manager and went over the entire route from San Francisco to the Atlantic Coast to organize local people in towns and cities to boost and promote the route. Victory Highway later became the first transcontinental highway to receive a U.S. highway number for its entire length from the Atlantic to the Pacific Coast-U.S. Highway 40. With the announcement of the new Victory Highway came opposition from within the state. Opposing it were the Utah State Highway Commission, the Associated Clubs of Southern Utah, and the towns of Price, Richfield, other southern Utah towns, and Grand Junction, Colorado. The route would decrease tourist trade on the Midland Trail, which came from Denver via Grand Junction and Price. Opponents also feared that the new route would take away the post office star route from Price to the Uinta Basin, as mail and express freight would go directly into the Uinta Basin via Heber and Daniel's Canyon. This is exactly what happened. Salt Lake City very much wanted this highway and waged a campaign against southern Utah for its construction. However, due to the strength of the oppo­sition, U.S. 40 through the Uinta Basin was not paved until the Midland Trail was completed to Grand junction. As soon as that route was completed, civic clubs of Vernal immediately began to pro­mote paving the road through the basin to the Colorado state line. A race was instituted to see which state would complete its work first- Colorado or Utah. U.S. 40 was already paved from coast to coast with the exception of eastern Utah and western Colorado; however, Vernal's Main Street, which was a part of the highway, was paved as early at 1899.34 A hundred cars drove into Salt Lake City in a caravan, TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 211 driving up and down the main streets and around the state capitol blowing horns. This demonstration, along with other pressure applied by Uinta Basin businessmen, finally prompted the state high­way commission to finish the paving.35 Governor Henry M. Blood spoke at the Uinta Basin Industrial Convention in 1933 and promised that the road would be paved from Myton to the Colorado line the following summer-a distance of seventy-five miles. The first narrow bridge over the Green River at Jensen had been built in 1911 and would not carry the traffic antici­pated on this new coast-to-coast highway, so a new bridge was built; it was dedicated on Armistice Day, 11 November 1933. The Victory Highway was paved from Vernal east and connected with Colorado at the state line in 1938; however, it was oil-surfaced not rock asphalt as previously planned. Colorado had already completed paving their portion of the highway in 1937, winning the race. On 3 July 1938 a celebration was held on Berthoud Pass commemorating the comple­tion of Highway 40. There was, however, a portion of Utah through Fruitland east of Vernal which was not completed until 1940. Several highways traversed Utah from east to west by the 1920s: Midland Trail through Denver, Grand Junction, Price, Provo, and Salt Lake City; Pikes Peak Highway, which came from Colorado Springs to Rifle, then north to Vernal, and through the Uinta Basin to Salt Lake City, Ogden, and on to Reno and San Francisco; Lincoln Highway through Rock Springs, Green River, and Evanston, Wyoming, to Salt Lake City; and Victory Highway crossing through Denver, Vernal, and Salt Lake City on its route through the central part of the United States. Vernal had access to the Midland Trail by traveling to Price, and in 1923 Grand Junction opened a dirt road to Rangely over Douglas Pass. The trip over this dirt road from Vernal to Grand Junction, which took "only" eight hours, completed another link to the Midland Trail. In 1927, when a highway was built from Vernal over the mountains north to Manila, it established a direct connection between the Victory Highway and the Lincoln Highway. This connected Dinosaur National Monument to Yellowstone National Park. It also connected the Uinta Basin with many roads in northern Utah and in Wyoming. Before 1927 a family trip to Manila from Vernal took about three 212 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY days. A wagon carried the family up over Taylor Mountain on the Carter Military Road and the first night a camp was made at Trout Creek Park. The second day the family crossed the summit of the Uinta Mountains at Summit Park, descended Young Springs dugway, crossed Carter Creek, and probably camped for the night in Sheep Creek Park. The third-day route twisted down the mountain on the Carter dugway and on to Manila or Green River, Wyoming. When the Vernal-Manila highway was built, it took a new route up over Brush Creek Mountain. The dirt road was designated as Utah 44, and at twenty-five miles an hour this trip would take three hours rather than three days.36 The U 44 Vernal-Manila highway over Dowd Mountain was completed and dedicated on 21 August 1971. Travel from Vernal to Manila takes about seventy minutes. When construction commenced on Flaming Gorge dam, Wyoming residents wanted a road from Rock Springs to Dutch lohn so they could capitalize on the increased tourism to the area. They began a road out of Rock Springs in 1962 and completed it in seg­ments as money became available. They completed the paved road to the state line in 1978. Two years later Utah completed its portion of the highway. On 6 February 1981 this highway from Rock Springs to Vernal was designated U. S. Highway 191. The portion from the Flaming Gorge turnoff to Manila remained as Utah 44. During the early 1990s, plans were discussed to open a new "Seep Creek Road" from Vernal to extend U.S. Highway 191 south through the Book Cliffs to Interstate 70 at Crescent Junction where present U.S. Highway 191 continues south to Moab, Arches and Canyonlands national parks, and Monument Valley. Uintah County strongly sup­ported the construction of this road; however, Grand County's with­drawal from the proposed project brought plans to a halt. Early roads also were built to cattle ranges and ranches, includ­ing the ranches on Blue Mountain, Diamond Mountain, and Brush Creek Mountain, and to forests, hunting grounds, Gilsonite mines, and sawmills. A paved road was built from Dinosaur National Monument headquarters in Dinosaur, Colorado, across Blue Mountain, crossing the old road over Blue Mountain which went east and west, to the Chew dugway going down into Yampa Canyon. The plan was eventually to connect this park road to the dinosaur quarry TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 213 down through Cub Creek, a distance of thirteen miles. Blue Mountain road boosters are still fighting for this connection. Telegraph and Telephone The first technological communication with the outside world was made possible when the government moved Fort Thornburgh from Ouray to Ashley Valley and built a telegraph line from Fort Thornburgh to Fort Bridger in the summer of 1882. Nearly one hun­dred miles of copper wire were used in the installation. The route fol­lowed the Fort Thornburgh-Carter road. Following permanent abandonment of Fort Thornburgh in 1883, the line was dismantled and sold at a public auction for forty-nine dollars. In 1884 the buyer tore down both the poles and the copper wire and used them for fences.37 With the establishment of Fort Duchesne in 1886, the army built a telegraph line from that fort to the railroad at Price. In 1901 a line was connected from Fort Duchesne to Dragon. People heard a rumor that the Price telegraph route was being discontinued, and A. D. Ferron came in from Price with a petition signed by nearly everyone along the line asking the War Department not to remove the tele­graph line. In 1893 the Vernal and Fort Duchesne Telephone Company was organized to provide telephone service between the fort and Vernal. The telephone line was completed and equipment installed by early March 1894. Communication from Vernal with the outside world was possible with a telephone call to Fort Duchesne, where the mes­sage was then sent by telegraph. The first person to use this system was loseph Pieronett, who sent a message to his wife in Salt Lake City. It took twenty-eight minutes to send the message and the answer was received in one hour and twenty-five minutes. The telephone was first placed in the Vernal post office and then moved in 1899 to S.D. Colton & Company store. It was moved again to Mease's store build­ing and then to George A. Lowe's hardware store in 1902. Early tele­phone service was not always satisfactory, and in cases of sickness or emergencies it often was necessary to send messengers when the tele­phone system failed. The telegraph station was discontinued at Fort Duchesne and 214 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY relocated in Vernal. The Uintah Railway had a single-circuit grounded wire from Fruita and Mack, Colorado, to Dragon, Utah, in 1903-1904. Telegraph and telephone service was extended to Vernal on the same system; the project was completed on 20 June 1905. Lynn Ashton was the first local operator and had the equipment upstairs in the old co-op building which later became the J.C. Penney store. Uintah Railroad Company moved the exchange to the Uintah Railway building in the fall of 1905. Mr. and Mrs. J.Q. Logan were employed to operate the line, arriving in Vernal that same year. The couple continued in this work until their deaths. A branch line was built from Bonanza to Fort Duchesne in 1905. At first the wire was put on poles; but they were replaced with pipes because freighters and Indians would chop the poles down for fire­wood. The Department of the Interior had a private telephone sys­tem from Fort Duchesne, with lines to Ouray, Randlett, and Whiterocks. The old line was taken down and dismantled in 1939. At the beginning of 1907 steps were taken for the Uintah Bell Telephone Company to construct a telephone line from Vernal to Soldier Summit where it would connect with the line of the Rocky Mountain Bell Telephone Company. The estimated cost of the 115- mile line was $24,000. The telephone line from Vernal to Theodore (Duchesne) required 44,000 pounds of wire. By September telephone lines were operating between Vernal and lensen.38 By the end of 1907 telephone service was available over a line stretching from Salt Lake City through Myton, Roosevelt, Fort Duchesne, and Vernal. Also in 1907 a line was installed from Vernal to Price by way of Fort Duchesne, Roosevelt, Myton, and Theodore over Nine Mile Canyon. This was used until 1918 when another extension was made over Wolf Creek Pass to Park City.39 Telephone service expanded fast. The first Uintah telephone directory printed in 1909 listed only eighteen names; a year later the new directory contained 250 names. In addition to the main line through the Uinta Basin, two forest-service lines were constructed in 1911 and 1912. The first, from Spring Creek (north of Vernal) to Moon Lake, was the only telephone line in the Whiterocks area and was greatly relied on by local people. The second was built by way of Dry Fork to the ranger station near Lake Fork. TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 215 Telephone operator, Louie Atwood at switchboard in 1910-11. (UCLRHC, C. J. Neal collection) The Uintah Telephone Company sold its holdings to Mountain States Telephone Company in 1933. During its twenty-six year his­tory, the company had provided telephone access to all settlements in the county while greatly improving its system. After the breakup of AT&T in 1981 and the Bell System in 1983, US West became the provider for Utah. Telephone services are improving continually. In 1992 US West invested $2.5 million to replace existing telephone switching equipment serving Vernal with a state-of-the-art digital system. Stagecoaches and Mail Service When Ashley Valley was first settled, there was no mail service. People traveling out of the valley often took letters to be mailed. If a friend or relative heard of someone traveling to Uinta Basin they might send a letter with them. In 1877 Alfred Harvey Westover, using a cart made from the back wheels of a wagon, made a trip to Rock Springs, Wyoming, to obtain flour for the local settlers. He took the settlers' mail with him and after that began carrying mail over the mountains between Ashley Valley and Rock Springs, for which he was paid twenty-five cents a letter. 216 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY The original post office in Brown's Park, Utah, was established on 14 February 1881. It was located near the old relay station of the Pony Express on the larvie Ranch near Bridgeport at the western end of the park, with John Jarvie, Sr., serving as postmaster. The first post office in Ashley Valley was established on 27 December 1878 and located in the town of Ashley; Wilbur Carlton Britt was the first postmaster.40 During the winter of 1879, Otto Peterson carried the mail on snowshoes over Taylor Mountain from Green River, Wyoming. He was not a paid mail carrier and settlers gave him produce for his service.41 During the month of December 1879, a terrible snow storm closed all the roads. Five different men- Pete Dillman, Sam Miller, Frank Catte, Dan Beard, and John Snyder-tried to make the trip to Brown's Hole for the mail; two of them froze their feet and almost lost their lives. Peter Dillman finally succeeded and returned with the mail. Settlers persuaded him to con­tinue to carry the mail all winter. Once a week he brought the mail in from Green River City through Brown's Hole, crossing the moun­tains on horseback or snowshoes.42 Ira Burton, Ed Carroll, lohn Glines, and Henry Coleman also carried the mail across the moun­tain during the 1880s. On 8 lune 1887 the post office at Brown's Park was discontinued and no mail came into Ashley Valley over that route again.43 Joseph O.B. Eaton carried the mail from Vernal to Fort Thornburgh using a mule team. Later, when Fort Duchesne was established, he carried the mail to the fort three times a week. Eaton was also the government butcher of hogs and beef at Fort Duchesne.44 Hyrum Oscar Crandall also ran a mail route with stations at Myton and Fort Duchesne.45 The first post office in Vernal was established on 10 lune 1886 in the Blythe and Mitchell store located on the corner where the Bank of Vernal was later built. Thomas M. Mitchell was the first postmaster. Despite the many challenges of traveling on the early Nine Mile Canyon road, regular mail service was provided and increased through 1890. In 1888 the mail came in on the Price stagecoach twice a week. The Fort Duchesne and Price Stage Company left Price on Mondays and Thursdays at 6 A.M., departing Vernal on Tuesdays and Fridays at 2 A.M. The stage line announced that commencing 2 TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 217 Stagecoach loading on Vernal Main street. (UCLRHC collection) lanuary 1889 service would increase to a "daily" basis, leaving the fort on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, with return trips on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.46 In 1892 mail service was extended to Meeker, Colorado, and beginning 1 luly 1893 Lou Woodward had the mail contract for sev­eral years from Vernal to Rangely, Colorado. Mail service continued to improve after 1894, when the mail left Price at 8 A.M. and arrived in Vernal thirty-five hours later.47 In 1903 the passenger fare from Vernal to Price on the stage was ten dollars and the round trip was sixteen dollars. It cost three dol­lars from Vernal to Fort Duchesne or five dollars for a round trip. The fare was four dollars to the Duchesne Bridge or six dollars for a round trip. Anywhere between the above locations was charged at ten cents a mile. Four horses were used on the coaches and six changes were made between Vernal and Price. Dinner was served on the Strip, with the stage reaching Smith-Wells in Nine Mile Canyon at six in the evening for an overnight stay.48 When the Uintah Railway Company completed its rail line to Dragon in the fall of 1904, the railroad secured a United States mail contract to serve the Vernal and Fort Duchesne areas. Freight and stage services were also provided. Freight service took three days 218 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY between Vernal and Dragon. By 1906 a stage carrying mail and pas­sengers left Vernal for Dragon at 7 A.M. daily, while another departed Fort Duchesne for Dragon an hour earlier. Passengers stayed overnight at the Uintah Railway Hotel in Dragon and left at seven the following morning for Mack, with arrival scheduled for noon.49 With the mail-service contract awarded to the Uintah Railway Company, mail service between Price and Vernal was discontinued between 1905 and 1910. The Uintah Railway found plenty of chal­lenges in providing mail service. In 1907 heavy snow fell in the Book Cliff Mountains, causing a blockade on the Uintah Railway at Baxter Pass; the mail was unable to come through. The winter of 1908-1909 hit the little railway with greater than normal fury. In 1909 the mail had not arrived for a week due to a snowdrift two miles long and twenty feet high on Baxter Pass. A large accumulation of mail and passengers piled up at Mack and Dragon. Residents of the valley wondered why railroad officials could not transfer the mail from one end of the snow blockade to the other on snow shoes so the mail would not be delayed. Still more problems came in the spring when ice breaking up on the Green River took out the Ouray ferryboat, but the bridge over the White River remained intact. When asked where the ferryboat was, a spokesman for the railway replied that he thought most likely it was nearing the Gulf of California, as they had not heard from it.50 A terrific storm also hit the area in lanuary 1910 delaying forty-two sacks of Vernal mail. In May 1910 the railroad announced that automobiles would be brought in on a trial basis to haul passengers, mail, freight, and express between Dragon and Vernal. The railroad was willing to replace the horse-drawn stages and freight wagons with automobiles provided the people of the valley would put up half the expense to build a good automobile road in the valley. On 26 May 1910 the first of the autos rolled into Vernal with a load of mail and some passen­gers. Its arrival was witnessed by a crowd of local businessmen, and later that afternoon the express truck arrived from Dragon. Duchesne area residents were not pleased with the mail service provided by the Uintah Railway and urged support from Vernal area residents for the reestablishment of a Vernal-Price route through Nine Mile Canyon. Postal officials finally agreed, and on 1 luly 1910 a TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 219 mail and stage line was put into operation that included four Concord stagecoaches and sixty horses. A stage left Vernal at 8 A.M., stopped at Moffat (Gusher) for lunch, changed horses at Myton, and spent the night at Wells in Nine Mile Canyon. The next morning, the stage continued through the canyon with a lunch stop at Soldier Station and change of horses at A.J. Lee's, arriving in Price that evening. Beginning 1 December 1912 the Vernal-Price mail route through Nine Mile was discontinued and the Vernal-Colton route over Indian Canyon was established. The stage going from Vernal to Colton left at 8 A.M. and arrived in Colton at 3 p.m. the next day-a 112-mile trip. The fare was twelve dollars one way or twenty-two dollars round trip. During the worst winter months, bobsleds were substituted for coaches due to the deep snow. In 1914 the Intermountain Stage Line and Transportation Company began automobile passenger service between Vernal and Craig, Colorado. It ran three times a week, and the cost of a trip from Vernal to Denver was thirty-six dollars for a round trip. Passenger service was also provided by the Salt Lake and Vernal Stage Line, which by 1934 offered daily service leaving Vernal at 7 A.M. and arriv­ing in Salt Lake City at noon, with the return trip leaving Salt Lake at 3:15 P.M. and arriving in Vernal at 8 P.M. In 1915 the mail for Brown's Park began coming to Vernal rather than through Craig, and a regu­lar carrier was appointed to carry it on from Vernal to the park.51 Mail packages sent to the Vernal post office included diverse items such as groceries, blacksmith tools, automobile parts, hardware, nails, pitchforks, brooms, water hydrants, fresh strawberries and cherries, fruit jars, tires, and feather beds. Acorn Mercantile shipped out 12,000 eggs to Grand Junction and Salt Lake City every week. Practically all the parcel post moving into the eastern part of the Uinta Basin was hauled by the Uintah Railway Company. By April 1916 this had amounted to 728,000 pounds during the previous six months. In addition, the company transported about 40,000 pounds of regular mail in that period. The Duchesne Stage 8c Transportation Company had the con­tract for the mail and parcel post from Helper to the basin and hauled approximately 787,000 pounds of parcel post plus about 220 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY Dicky lensen, Rural Route One mailman, delivers mail in 1913. (UCLRHC, C. J. Neal collection) 60,000 pounds of mail during a six-month period in 1916.52 This great deluge of parcel post might have continued for years had it not have been for the thirty-five tons of brick ordered for the Bank of Vernal in 1916. The post office department took action in November: instructions were sent out to postmasters permitting no more than 200 pounds of parcel-post mail to be accepted for any one addressee on the same day, effectively putting a stop to shipments of cement, flour, and brick. In the late winter of 1918-19 the post office department did not renew its contract for hauling the mail between Watson and Vernal but took over delivery service itself. Tons of mail had backed up dur­ing the severe winter, but, using a few surplus war department trucks, the postal service succeeded in delivering the mail. It reestablished a reliable service between Price and the thirty-five post offices in the Uinta Basin. In 1920 mail came to Ashley Valley from Helper, Utah, a distance of 120 miles, by government-owned motor trucks, with special cars used for first-class mail and perishable goods. Thirteen tons of mail per day was not an uncommon amount during this period when all mail for the Uintah Reservation points was handled through the Vernal office. With the post office taking over the service, a savings of TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 221 U.S. Mail trucks fight mud to deliver mail from Price to Vernal. (UCLRHC collection) $3,000 to $4,000 a month was made over the cost of mail delivery let out on private contracts by the government. In 1903 the Vernal post office was located in a small wooden building on the north side of Main Street. The post office was moved to a temporary place on South Vernal Avenue until the new bank and post office could be built on that site.53 In 1923 it moved to the new Federal Building at 100 West Main, remaining at that location until 1986. One hundred years after the first Vernal post office opened in 1886, the doors swung open to a large new post office at 67 North 800 West on 6 September 1986. The postmaster was John Evan Jones, with sixteen part-time helpers and twenty-four full-time employees, with six on city and rural routes and two on star routes. These indi­viduals currently handle mail delivery to some 9,500 homes and busi­nesses, including service to 2,430 post office boxes. Vernal's mail carriers travel about 111,000 miles a year in all kinds of weather, delivering more than 9.8 million pieces of mail.54 Air Transportation and Airmail Within half a century, mail service to Uintah County progressed from men trudging across the mountains on snowshoes to the arrival of air-mail service in 1929. The first recorded airplane landing in 222 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY First recorded airplane to land in Uintah County in 1920. (UCLRHC col­lection) Uintah County took place in the summer of 1920 when E. R. Winston, cashier of the First National Bank of Myton, arranged for a plane to land at Bennion's pasture; nearly one hundred Vernal res­idents then took rides in the airplane. By 1927 plans were discussed to provide airline passenger and mail service between Salt Lake City and Vernal. Those plans became a reality when the Intermountain Flying Company of Price in cooperation with Union Pacific Airways of Ogden started daily round-trip service with a six-passenger Travelair monoplane on 29 September 1929. The first trip from Vernal to Salt Lake City took seventy-nine minutes, while the return trip was made in seventy-six minutes. A 660-by-2,640-foot landing strip was established in a field owned by Ed Winder near the center of Vernal. In 1939 a strip of land was cleared on the Upper Burns Bench northeast of Vernal for emergency landings; however, it was not kept in good repair and weeds and sagebrush soon reclaimed the land.55 Other fields also were used for landing aircraft. On 19 lune 1941 two women flying to Denver were forced to make an emergency landing in a pasture owned by Al Hatch. After refueling, an attempt to take off failed when the propeller struck a wire fence and the plane nosed over. The women climbed out unhurt and, after repairing the plane, TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 223 took off successfully. It was apparent that Vernal needed more ade­quate facilities.56 One week later, when an Army bomber from Salt Lake crashed north of Vernal killing all aboard, Vernal officials were convinced an airstrip was needed. The next week county engineer Leon P. Christensen surveyed and marked the strip on the Bench and Ross Merrill removed the weeds and leveled the runway with the county grader. This ground was hard, with no obstructions such as fences and trees, making it ideal except for its location seven miles out of town. Members of the Vernal Aviation Club purchased a Piper Cub airplane and built a hangar. The Bench airport was used for several years. Land for the present Vernal airport was acquired from Van Massey and Albert Hodgkinson in August 1944, and the airport was completed in June 1945 at a cost of $9,375. A year and a half later the airport was upgraded to handle commercial aircraft. Subsequent improvements have included paving and lighting the two-mile-long runways and construction of hangars, offices, a pilot lounge, and other facilities. The Vernal Aviation Club had been organized in the early 1940s with nine original members. The Uintah Air Scouts Squadron was established in February 1944 with more than twenty members, and the organization of a local Civilian Air Patrol (CAP) squadron when 200 interested persons attended a mass meeting in April 1944 brought strong support for a new airport. The previous year twenty-seven students enrolled in an airplane mechanics class authorized by the Uintah Board of Education and taught by Charles T. Freeman. A ladies class, with thirty-eight women, was also taught. Flying lessons were offered through the CAP, whose main purpose was to patrol for­est and grazing areas during the fire-hazard seasons and to help locate downed aircraft. Members were provided uniforms but worked on a volunteer basis. The state CAP provided the Vernal squadron with three planes for training and patrol purposes. Today Vernal and Roosevelt share one CAP plane. Some pilots, including lack C. Turner, Otis A. Kounalis, and Chuck Ridling, offered private flying lessons, and both men and women worked to earn pilot licenses. By December 1944 several local 224 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY women had soloed and four-Isla King, Ada lensen, Polly Hazelbush and Cora Winkler-went on to earn pilot licenses. Most took air­plane mechanics from Charles Freeman at the high school as the old planes were not always in good condition and the women needed to know how to fix them in emergencies. Fourteen men had soloed at this time. Out of this group of flyers a few belonged to an elite club, "The Sagebrush Club." To qualify a flyer must have set a plane down with a couple of rabbit-like hops through the sagebrush.57 Mishaps were always a possibility. Don Barr hit a donkey upon making a solo landing, causing the plane to flip over. Duff Swain's most memorable flight occurred when he flew Gail Morey out to work on ranch houses he was building for Golden and Abe Hatch at Willow Creek. Swain had made the trip many times without any trouble; however, on take-off from the Hatch pasture, he failed to take into consideration the extra weight of his passenger and instead of clearing an irrigation ditch that ran through the middle of the pas­ture, Swain hit the ditch, nearly crashing as the plane skimmed just above the sagebrush with its right landing gear broken off and hang­ing six feet down on the end of the brake cable, "like a dead rooster." Swain decided to fly to Vernal, thinking that if he crash-landed he would be better off in town. When they reached town, he buzzed Main Street and some of his flying buddies who worked in stores ran out and saw the problem. They jumped in their cars and headed for the airport. Swain wrote a note, put it in his folding ruler and dropped it. The note simply said, "Bring a fire extinguisher to put out the fire. We will be fine and are not scared, don't worry." The airstrip was then just a pasture. Swain set the plane down like a bicycle on one wheel. He did a 180-degree turn and stopped. The propeller had dug two inches into the ground. The repairs to the plane cost only forty-seven dollars, and soon he was ready to go again.58 These early planes had few instruments and no radios. If these did not work, you "flew by the seat of your pants." Pilots would joke and say, "We're on instruments, take out your watch." If someone had to come in after dark, the other pilots and friends drove cars to the airstrip and lined both sides with car lights on, so the pilot would know where to land.59 In February 1945 Fran Feltch, Stan King, and lack Turner orga- TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 225 nized the Basin Flying Service. Later that same year Turner took over the company and operated three light aircraft. The Uintah School District had one aircraft. From this point on aviation in Vernal con­tinually progressed. Hangars were built, offices, pilot lounge, club room, and a caretaker residence were added to Basin Flying Service operations. Many students took advantage of the instruction and rentals. Gib Bennett joined lack Turner to run a charter service. By 1948 at least forty county residents had private pilot licenses. In 1948, in a move to bring a commercial airline to Vernal, Hugh Colton and Fran Feltch traveled to Casper, Wyoming, and appeared before the Civil Aeronautics Board to present Vernal's case for an air­line. Challenger Airlines was seeking a permit at the time from the federal organization to make stops in Vernal and Casper. Colton and Feltch worked with Challenger and their efforts eventually paid off- Challenger made its inaugural flight from Vernal on 1 July 1949.60 Later that year Frontier Airlines took over the commercial flights, and in 1954 the company recorded its 10,000th flight into Vernal dur­ing the celebration and dedication of its new administration build­ing. 61 Sky West took over the commercial flights from Frontier in March 1982. A new municipal airport terminal was begun on 18 July 1985 at a projected cost of $246,102. The building was completed at the end of January 1986.62 Other small commuter air services have also served the area in the past. The history of Uintah County's economic development is inter­woven with that of the transportation industry. The county's distance from railroads and population centers necessitated the early devel­opment of the freighting industry to bring in needed supplies and to ship out the products being raised and produced in the valley. Today Uintah County is an integrated part of the outside world and its transportation and communication needs are constantly changing. Plans for expanding the airport at the present location or building elsewhere are under discussion. Roads are constantly being widened and upgraded. Computer technology is adding another dimension to communication through the Internet, and fax machines and expanded and improved telephone, radio, and TV services are enjoyed by county residents. 226 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY ENDNOTES 1. See Vernal Express, 25 October 1973. 2. Report of the Secretary of the Interior: Indian Affairs, 42nd Cong., 2nd sess., 1871-72, Serial 1505, (Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office, 1872), III, 960-66. See also Donald M. Batty "A History of Early Roads and Freighting in the Eastern Uinta Basin, 1872-1920," M.S. thesis, Utah State University, 1970, 11. 3. Batty, "A History of Early Roads and Freighting," 17. 4. Ibid. 5. A.R. Standing, "Through the Uintas: History of the Carter Road," Utah Historical Quarterly 35 (Summer 1967): 257. 6. Doris Karren Burton, Blue Mountain Folks (Salt Lake City: K/P Graphics, 1987), 224. 7. Gary Lee Walker, "History of Fort Duchesne," Ph.D. diss., Brigham Young University, 1992, 91-93. 8. Captain R.B. Marcy was dispatched by Colonel Albert Sidney lohnston from Fort Bridger on 27 November 1857 to Taos, New Mexico, to obtain meat and draft animals to replace those lost as a result of Mormon resistance to the Utah Expedition. 9. Standing, "Through the Uintas," 260; William A. Carter, "First Federal Road Built to Ashley Valley," Vernal Express, Christmas edition 1934. 10. A. Reed Morrill, "A Historical Study of Ashley Valley and Its Environs," Ph.D. diss., Brigham Young University, 1937, 196. 11. Batty, "A History of Early Roads," 25. 12. Thomas G. Alexander and Leonard I. Arrington, "The Utah Military Frontier, 1872-1912: Forts Cameron, Thornburgh, and Duchesne," Utah Historical Quarterly 32 (Fall 1964): 348. 13. George Alfred Slaugh, "The Autobiography of George A. Slaugh," in Legacy: The Story of George Alfred Slaugh and Rachel Maria Goodrich, Their Children, and Their Children's Children (Salt Lake City: Gladys Slaugh lacobson, 1964), 6. 14. Tom Reece, telephone interview with author, 21 April 1996. See also Vernal Express, 14 November 1924, 9 November 1939, 26 September 1940, 26 December 1963, and 21 December 1967. 15. Henry Flack, "Fort Duchesne Beginnings," in Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Uintah County, comp., Builders of Uintah (Springville, Art City Publishers, 1947), 187-88. 16. Philip F. Notarianni, Carbon County: Eastern Utah's Industrialized Island (Salt Lake City: Utah Historical Society, 1981), 139. TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS 227 17. Batty, "A History of Early Roads," 44. Ivan Batty commenced dri­ving a freight team when he was fourteen years old. 18. Vernal Express, 27 March 1914 and 24 March 1916. 19. Dee lenkins, telephone interview with Doris Burton, 1995. 20. Batty, "A History of Early Roads," 59. 21. Vernal Express, 27 October 1948. 22. Ibid., 21 May, 28 May, and 11 lune 1896. 23. Ibid., 11 lune 1896. 24. Dick and Vivian Dunham, Flaming Gorge Country (Denver: Eastwood Printing and Publishing Company, 1977), 199. 25. Newell C. Remington, "A History of the Gilsonite Industry," Ph.D. diss., University of Utah, 1959, 236-45; Batty, "A History of Early Roads," 35; Harold Workman, interview with author, 12 luly 1993. 26. Workman, interview. 27. Henry E. Bender, Ir., Uintah Railway: The Gilsonite Route (Berkeley: Howell-North Books, 1970), 57. 28. Builders of Uintah, 266-68. 29. Vernal Express, 25 November 1927. 30. Andrew J. Vernon' s family history states that Charlie (Lectric) Johnson brought the first car to Vernal; most reports name John W. Pope, however. 31. See Loosle, "The Ashley National Forest.," UCL Regional History Center. 32. Vernal Express, 10 lune 1921; J. William Workman, "The Twist," Vernal Express, 24 October 1946. 33. Virginia Rishel, Wheels to Adventure: Bill RisheVs Western Routes (Salt Lake City: Howe Brothers, 1983), 81-100. 34. Vernal Express, 7 October 1899. 35. Rishel, Wheels to Adventure, 100. 36. J.O. Stewart, "Driving From Vernal to Green River Over Utah's Scenic Mountain Road," Vernal Express (date unknown), copy in Uintah County Library Regional History Center. 37. Walker, "A History of Fort Duchesne," 90. 38. Vernal Express, 8 lune, 6 September, 20 September, 18 October, and 22 November 1907; Bert lenson, Outlaw Trail History Journal, (Vernal, UT: Outlaw Trail History Center, 1993),40-50. 39. This was put in by the Uintah Telephone Company with Charles J. Neal as manager. The line over Wolf Creek Pass was constructed by Neal with only young boys to help him. 228 HISTORY OF UINTAH COUNTY 40. John S. Gallagher, The Post Offices of Utah (Clarksburg, MD: The Depot, 1977), 57. 41. "Ashley Valley's First Post Office," booklet printed by the Uintah County Daughters of the Pioneers, Vernal, n.d.,copy in UCL Regional History Center. 42. Vernal Express, 31 August 1949; Morrill, A Historical Study of Uintah Basin, 99. 43. "Ashley Valley's First Post Office." 44. Walker, "History of Fort Duchesne," 190. 45. Builders of Uintah, 24. 46. Post Returns for Fort Duchesne, October-December 1888, micro­film UA 26 A 255, roll 333, UCL Regional History Center; Walker, "A History of Fort Duchesne," 209. 47. Vernal Express, 7 June 1894. 48. Ibid., 14 February 1903. 49. Bender, Uintah Railway, 57. 50. Vernal Express, 2 April 1909. 51. Ibid., 18 lune 1915. 52. Bender, Uintah Railway, 115. 53. Vernal Express, 23 May 1903; Al lohnston had a six-pulley tackle, and one horse did all the pulling to move the post office. 54. Ibid., 12 September 1986. 55. Ibid., 26 lune 1941. 56. Ibid., 19 lune 1941. 57. Ibid., 14 December 1944; Vernal Express 7 September 1944; per­sonal interview with Isla King by author on 12 September, 1993. 58. Isla King, interview. 59. Ibid. 60. Vernal Express, 6 October, 15 December 1948, and 29 lune 1949. 61. Ibid., 1 luly and 24 luly 1954. 62. Ibid., 22 lanuary 1986.