Utah History for Kids

Area: 4,487 square miles
Population (2000): 25,224
County Seat: Vernal
Origin of County Name: after the Uinta-Ats Utes (Uinta, without the h, is used for natural features)
Principal Cities/Towns: Vernal (7,714), Maeser, Naples (1,300)
Economy: cattle, hay and alfalfa, lumber, oil, gas, and oil shale
Points of Interest: Dinosaur National Monument, Utah Field House of Natural History in Vernal, Ouray National Wildlife Refuge, Lake Waterfowl Management Area, Red Fleet and Steinaker reservoirs

Gilsonite mine in Bonanza.

What is the Land Like?
Uintah County is located in the central part of the Uinta Basin. Part of the basin lies in western Colorado. The Uinta Mountains form the northern rim of the Basin; the Wasatch Mountains form the western rim; and the Roan and Book cliffs form the southern rim.

The Basin is the geographical remains of prehistoric Uinta Lake, which filled the area almost a million years ago. During this time, sediment was deposited on the lake bottom that would later form gilsonite, oil shale, tar sands, and oil. Ashley Creek and the White, Uinta, and Green rivers are the major streams in the county. The Green, the largest of the four, slices through the central portion of the county.

Prehistory and Early History
Prehistoric Indian sites suggest that Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Fremont peoples all lived in the Uinta Basin. Dry Fork Canyon, near Vernal, is well-known for its spectacular Fremont rock art.

In historic times the Uinta-ats Utes lived in the Basin. The Shoshone also visited it.

Fathers Dominguez and Escalante and their party traveled through the Uinta Basin in 1776 as they searched for a route to Monterey, California. In his diary, Escalante called the Basin ". . . a fine plain abounding in pasturage and fertile, arable land, provided it were irrigated...."

In the 1820s and 30s American and French trappers found many beaver and other wildlife in the Basin. In 1831-32 Antoine Robidoux, a French trapper, built a small trading post near present-day Whiterocks. Here, trappers could trade their beaver pelts in exchange for supplies. Difficulties with the Utes forced the trappers to abandon the post in 1844.

Anglo-Americans who visited Uintah County include Major John Wesley Powell, who floated down the Green River in 1869 and again in 1871. Captain John C. Fremont led an expedition through the area in the 1840s.

In 1861 Brigham Young sent men to explore the Basin. These men had a different view than Escalante did. They thought the Uinta Basin was just one big wasteland. So Young decided not to send settlers there. Instead, he decided to send Ute Indians there.

Indian Reservations and Settlers
Also in 1861, President Abraham Lincoln created the Uintah Indian Reservation. In the 1880s, the Uncompahgre Reservation (now part of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation) was created in the south part of Uintah County. Utes from Utah and Colorado were forced to move to the reservations.

Ashley Valley, where Vernal is, was not part of either reservation. By 1880, enough ranchers and farmers had settled there that the territorial legislature created Uintah County, taking most of the land from Wasatch County.

The county seat, originally in Ashley, was later moved to the larger community of Vernal. With the building of irrigation canals other towns were founded, including Jensen, Maeser, and Tridell.

In about 1888, gilsonite was discovered in various parts of the county—including in the eastern part of the Uncompahgre and Uintah reservations. Men who wanted to mine the gilsonite quickly persuaded the federal government to take 7,000 acres from the Uintah Reservation. This area, called "The Strip," had no law and order for some time.

In 1898, following an effective campaign by national and local mining interests, the Uncompahgre Indian Reservation was thrown open to miners and settlers.

Dinosaurs
A short distance north of Jensen on the Green River is a famous dinosaur quarry. Earl Douglass, a paleontologist who worked for the Carnegie Museum, first discovered dinosaur bones here in 1909. For several years Douglas and others excavated tons of dinosaur fossils and sent them to eastern museums.

The fossils lay embedded in the Morrison Formation of the Upper Jurassic Age, about 150 million years ago. Some of the dinosaurs whose bones lay here are Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Allosaurus, and Stegosaurus.

In 1915 President Woodrow Wilson created Dinosaur National Monument. Paleontologists still study and work at Dinosaur. And thousands of visitors tour the monument each year.

Floyd Wilkins working at Dinosaur National Monument, 1955, to expose fossilized dinosaur bones.

Economy
Today, Uintah County's economy rests on farming, ranching, and extraction of oil and gas. Energy prices in the rest of the world have a big effect on the economy of the county. This has created a boom and bust economy--sometimes the economy is good, and sometimes it’s not.