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Uintah Basin Marvelous Land of Natural WealthlV.Coming of Railroad Will Develop Enormous Trade Whose Natural Center Will be Salt Lake if Zion Merchants Are Alert.By WILLIAM M. ANDEBSON, Secretary Vernal Commercial Club.FROM ©very nook and corner of tee siato couio facia and figures that oiler undeniublo testimony of tbo unprecedented era of development into which Uluh has entered. Perhaps no section of the state holds forlb greater promise, or is today attracting more studious attention of en-torpribiu# business interests and men who have learned to foresee the future, than the Uintah basin.In thu last soven years iho Uintah basin, comprising a vast section in the extreme northeastern part of the state, has shook off its garb as a section practically unheard of, in which apparently vast, desert stretches were roamed for iho most part by reservation Indians, and now apnesrs as a veritable land of promise—a laud that is deirincd to be one of (be state's riC-bent. greatest and most powerful assets.The rapid development of the Uintah basin is astounding, but not nearly so astounding as the great promises it holds forth for the future. That the section is rapidly growing into a vast i aland empire of almost illimitable resources that will furnish commercial business not esc ceded bv any other agricultural district of its kind in the United States.- is now widely recognized tot alone in Utah, but also in Colorado, whose capital city has its eyes fixed steadily on the Uintah basin, and is eagerly awaiting the first opportunity to grub tho lion's share of trado from the future empire.CorPeople Are Alert.While residents of the Uintah basin ore alert to the great advantages of their community and aro incessantly working and boosting for its advancement; while wide-aw3ko aieu and business interests in two states, at least, nrc watching the Uiatah basin take its regular strides of progress and are ragcrlv studying lo benefit in some way 1 hereby—there are. after all, comparatively few who aro actually familiar with’that promising section und its resources.The uninformed reader will naturally osk: NVbere is the Uintah basin? Whatis it? How do you gel therefhi answer to these questions: The Uintah basin is situated in tko extreme northeastern section of Utah, and is boeuded on the north by a magnificent »• ha in of majestic mountains running aloag the boundary line between this tulc and Wyoming. Ar. its name would imply, the Uintah basin lies surround-•'lt;1 with high ranges on every side. Jt iueludes two of the most beautiful valleys in the state—famed for scenic at-li’aclixenc.-ss, splendid climate, produc• ivcucss of soii uud wonderful undeveloped icsourccs.projects oil her now under way or planned* will mean uu immense increase in this area in the future.Tho Dry Gulch Irrigation company, with headquarters al Roosevelt, nine miles north of Myton, has practically established its gigantic project to water more than .80,000 acres liv canais ana ditches. In the Ashley valley there arc three main canals, the Ashley Upper, the Ash lev Central and the liockv Point, which alone carry water enough for 00,000 acres, most of waic\ are under cultivation. The Myton uana! Irrigation company also has practically completed a big canal near Mylou that will irrigate forty thousand acres.,Other canals have been completed by | various promoters, and still newer pro-, jects are under way, which together J Will raeaD tliq cultivation of at leasi I 138,000 additional acres of barren land lt;in the basin. It is also known that eastern interests are plauning to cstabr 15sh as soou as possible a big hydroelectric and irrigation project in the basin, which will mean new industries and still more cultivated land.Tbore is not a better watered country tu the west than the Uiutab_ baain, and the average cost of diverting the water to apparently barren lands that are in fact as fertile as any in tr.c whole country is but $10 an acre. In parts of California the cost runs up to S‘250 au acre, w-hilo $100 an aero »n Colorado is nothing uunsuaL The land of the Uintah basin will produce almost anything outside of tropical fruits, nnd is sufficient to maintain a population many times as large a- the present pomilation of tho entire state. The irrigable area is 125.000 acres larger than the areas of Cache, bait Lake and Utah counties combined.stlt;in*anticOiArBeByFfydro-Carbon Wealth.Valleys Are Rich.The Ashley valley lies ir. iho extreme cuaterc cud of (lie basin. The Dueheane valley composes practically the western portion of the basin, and was until receully u pari of tho Uiatah and White River Judiuu reservation. This reservation was opened to settlement and cutry in the fall of 1005, by an act ul‘congress.These two valleys combined formhat is known as the Great Uintah ba-in. au inland umpire of vast magnitude. To quote from authentic statis-lies, the Uintah basin comprises an irrigable and richly agricultural area equal to one-third of ibe entire agricul-loral area of-Utah. ,• .No more delightful climate can be Jo uud tfciiu that of the Uintah basin. The elevation above sea level varies from SdOU to t500 feet. In (he vast mountain chains that surround tho b»-Rin aro himdrtda or' lakes, large anti smull. which offer an inexhaustible sup-i.lv of pure, sparkling mountain water, i-iwily lo he distribute# over the entire basin. The lakes and Uio streams ofAnother resource of vast importance is hydro-carbon, which outcrops ad about the basin. Ifc has b9on very conservatively estimated that the value of hvdro-caTbons in the Uintah basin is $7,OOO.OOU,OO0, figuring on the btuda of $35 a ton. But thai rate is proo-ably too low. for the present price of elaterite ill St. Louis is $55 a Ion, aoa of gilsonite $30. It is declared •that the total production of hydro-carbons, with satisfactory freight rates, would easily amount to from 60,000 to 7o,0QO tons a year.But the Uintah basjn offers other resources and inducements. There are sheep, cattle, horses, honey, alfalfa, alfalfa seed, coal and oil, which will all bring vast wcallh as the basin ia developed. The sheep in the basin number 200,000 head, tho wool clip amounts to 1,600.000 pounds annually and the lamb yield is a big item. Tbo horse and cattle industry flourishes as well as it does anywhere in tho west. Uintah basin honey weighs twelve and a half pounds to the gallon and is of prize winning quality.It is declared that active conoitions in the oil fields of the Uintah basin are being kept quiet, but that the output will one day be enormous. Prospecting is being carried on between Myton and Vernal aud California money has become interested ou a largo scale. The Bangley fields, nea.-the Utah-Colorado line, knv« long neen prospected and a large number or wells have been bored. Splendid results have followed. The color of the Kang-lev oil is a elmr, bright red, with strong green flouresconcc, closely resembling that of the Pennsylvania oils. Dr. W. H. Oschner of belaud Stanford university declared that the deposits were enormous and ranked the oil wit.) ihe purest in the country. Here alone is a great resource with a great prospective industrial development w:*n its attendant wcallh (O tbo basin and the state at large\\000,00 the year, of thlt; Wyorr ing C piciou turn.TheprodutheirAgrict Stock Min Ini ManulTola Dui-n Uie OHO, n-000. a: of 151 DcS] nets 1913 : ICC h* velopr Incrca during1911£Tho cxpcri develc to a t ase o men? tho s able. I State estlmi reachi 820.00' ably : 1911.The dustr: adject prosiil rarral crops thresl the * hand!-.he basin, .-ouplcd with the advantageous physical character of r.hc cnliro sec-; ion. provide not. only unexcelled resources aud facilities for agricultural development, but only await the baud uf modern engineering to provide hydroelectric power that could bo easily developed sufficiently to accommodate the entire section, reach far-away parts of tIio stato and furnish power for eleclric inlcrurban systems of tho future.Mineral and Timber.The mountains of tbo Uintah basin Iso are well forested with a most vq!: V II * V- *blc inippiy oi: timber aud forage, aoawit; r.-u v* - ----irougftcut tha enliro section aro large .'posits of bituminous coa.l, well disputed in veins varying in width from mi to ten lcct.-Some of the largest deposits or ntural sand asphalt in the United tates arc found within the boundaries [ the Uxntab basin, while the scctioD rich in various compositions of vdro-Carbon not t’ouud in any other art of the world. Expert geologists eelarc that portions of the basin con-•in large bodies of lubricating oil, hicb will yet be dovclo'ped to an noraioue output, and alone bring vast ealth to the Uiatah baain, in turn enefiting the entire state.Distant though the Uialab basin may ;em from Salt Lake, and although aerc is no railroad'directly connecting ; with transcontinental traffic, the romising section can easily be reached i a day’s travel. Tho route to the asin from Salt Lake is over the Denver Bio Grande railroad to Mack. Colo., hence over the Uintah Railroad comFossils of Rarest Kincl.Nor is this all. Near the mouth of the Green river gorge, a few . miles above Jensen, is dcposi;ed remains or prehistoric animals known to scientists to have inhabited this section of the country at least tw0 aud onc-half million years ago. These specimens are known scientifically as tho Dinosaurs, a' species of mammoth Hazards. Gne has been exhumed from the solid ju-rassie sandstone. This animal was, shaped somewhat like tho alligator,growlducedTil.increiinputtheirsideW1prescwastho000,01 ped shipp 5000 No this and : reaso the .Salt the 1 west they mate: at aUiottSaltOuwas eighty-two feet long und about ..... seventeen feet tall, and the skeleton Citywhen packed ready for shipment weighed ‘-'00,000 pounds. The bones of the aniinaj are all intact, in a state of perfect preservation. It 1ms been shipped to the C3rucgie museum and is listed as one of the world’s wonders.The story of Uintah basin advantages. resources, possibilities, present and future development, would cover many columns, but the future of the basin binges largely on tbe construction of the Moffat road, which is now practically assured und which it is expected will be constructed within, two years. This railroad and others that are being projected will oner long needed and absolutely essential factors whereby the outside world may proiit bv the trado of this inland empire.After tbe Uintah ''sin's vast resources and possibilities for development with almost inestimable profit to individual and corporate enterprise, to sav nothing of vast crofit to the state and outside communities bayo been thoroughly recognized, there is surely uo need to aek what inducements tlicro arc for a railroad.;gvv vT ^^ M ---ny*S 3in© to Vernal, Utah, the largest Jimercisl center of the Uintah basin.:enic Wonders.Ibc line from Mack to Vernal is larrow gugc, and traverses the Book ifis, passing through a -country as b iu natural scenery as can be found the world. Tbe line is not less scome in tbe noted scenic routes of Peru, its terminus lie *ome ot the largest sonito deposits of the entire basin, iicb are owned by the Barber Asphalt enpauv, in which Salt Lake business in are'interested.From the Uintah railway terminus, ,-erai automobile stages are ruo dailv different directions, carrying mail d passongcrs to various points in a basin, including sneb thriving wns as Roosevelt. Duchesne, Myton, n9en and Theodore. ...Aside from tbe system of irrigating -ebes and “i*13 constructed for the riians of tho reservation through the dtan dcpartmont, the whites now ve hundreds of miles of such work ♦hoir credit- Thousands of acrcj .ro added to tbe cultivated area of n basin during the .ast year, andEnormous Trade.But it is now understood with a firm degree of certainty that a railroad w-l •'hortly tap the rich basin, which will then enter rightly into groat era of remarkable advancement. A,u enormous trade will spring up aud the population in that sectioD will be doubled many tiries. Even at this date a vast ton-naao of merchandise, building materials, etf-el, farm implements, mining machinery and oil rigs is. being shipped into the basin, and during the last year there has been ft groat influx o. enterprising people.But we are naturally led to the question: Who is going to get the trado or tbe Uintah baain J How much does it amount to1 How great will it be-° At present that trade is pretty wcj) divided between Donvcr and .Salt Laxe.The freight shipments received over *« o tho Uintah railway alone and over a us wagon highway from Prico, Ltan. has aggregated 622,000.000 pounds during the last year. ' Think of euch a vast tonnage being consumed in one locnlitv ♦bat is 120 miles from any mum railroad line! This means only necessaries such as cannot bo manufactured insido cced tho basin. Everything that can *......my stancelying get a of th vnr, 1 canni can in U adva: Th Basit Two, iu Sa ed w Th nece; few -distr that very been depe. In trailn tural side parts Sa the favoi The The is si antsnciftlbThgrowaltoaare t vent cdly the fiva in ere busii grec crdei Thon iv mont Salt, tocmni finbo.trict
Newspaper Details
Salt Lake Tribune and Evening Telegram
Salt Lake City, Utah, US
Sun, Dec 29, 1912
Page 65
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
UT, USA 16 Dec 2016
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