A BRIEF HISTORY OF LAND USE
TABLE OF CONTENTS Agriculture 2 Farming 2 Farming and Livestock 3 Ranching and Grazing 9 Water, Timber, and Mineral Resources 12 Irrigation 12 Timber 16 Mining 18 Conclusion 23 works cited 24
A Brief History of Land Use in Utah The Utilization of an Eclectic Landscape By Lacey Jensen Copyright 2008 Sutherland Institute All Rights Reserved Cite as: Lacey, Jensen, A Brief History of Land Use in Utah The Utilization of an Eclectic Landscape, Sutherland Earth Week 2008 report, http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/ uploads/land_use_utah.pdf
Without question, Utah is the home of a fantastically diverse landscape. The Rocky Mountains reside in the same geographical area as red rock canyon lands. Magnificent alpine wilderness contrasts with harsh yet beautiful desert, each offering its own mixture of plants, trees, and animals. With such an eclectic landscape, it is not surprising that the land itself is rich in nature s bounties - resources that have inspired a variety of uses since the Paleolithic era. Inventive and industrious, Utah s inhabitants have made use of the land in ways that are as varied and complex as the landscape itself, creating a history worth exploring. It has been over a hundred and sixty years since early Mormon pioneers entered the Great Basin. Owing to a host of passionate historians, Utah s history has been painstakingly traced and recorded in great detail, with special attention paid to the use of its natural resources. There is an enormous amount of information regarding land use, so much that to compile and record all that is available is beyond the scope of this paper; similar to placing a tornado within a thimble. The purpose then is to provide a brief history, one that explores the remarkable beginnings of land use and some of the notable changes that have taken place over time. Agriculture Farming Agriculture is a logical place to start when composing a brief history of land use as it can be traced back to ancient peoples. Prehistoric Indians were the first explorers of Utah among whom were the Anasazi. The Anasazi, over time, built large villages and became highly dependent upon agriculture, building impressive systems of dams and canals to water their fields. The Anasazi began growing maize and squash about the time of Christ. They continued to gather and hunt, but their crops became the larger part of their diet. In the lat- A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 2 2008 Sutherland Institute
ter period of A.D. 500 to 700, the Anasazi grew an improved kind of corn. They also grew beans, an important source of protein. During A.D. 1200 to 1300, the Anasazi raised cotton along with their vegetable crops. At the same time, they domesticated the turkey, adding a dependable meat supply to their diet. The Fremont also inhabited Utah around the same time as the Anasazi. They also began farming by growing maize, later adding beans and squash. The Fremont did not farm as extensively as the Anasazi, but they, too, supplemented their diet with home-grown vegetables. By A.D. 1300, the Anasazi and Fremont were no longer in Utah. Whether they left or were driven out, these ancient people were among the first tribes to know the land and make a living from it. (Hinton, 21-31) In his book Utah: Unusual Beginning to Unique Present, Wayne K. Hinton writes,... we can only learn of, admire, and appreciate the accomplishments of these ancient peoples. (31) Clearly, they are an important part of Utah s agricultural history. It would not be until centuries later that another major group of people farmed the land. Farming and Livestock In the late 1840 s, early members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) fled violent religious persecution in Illinois and headed west toward the Rocky Mountains into the Great Salt Lake Valley. The Mormon people wanted a place that they could live in peace, far away from their enemies. The Great Basin was the place. It was a large area over which there would be little dispute or difficulty. (Arrington, 40) In short, no one else really wanted it. In July and August of 1847, the advance company noted the following characteristics: 2008 Sutherland Institute 3 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
The almost complete absence of trees, a plentiful supply of potential irrigation water in the mountain creeks and streams, a number of excellent mill sites, the ample facilities for grazing, the fertility of the land as evidenced by the size of the grass and brush, the abundance of loathsome large black crickets, and the large number of rattlesnakes.(44) With an abundance of natural resources, the settlers would have their work cut out for them, and work they did. Before settling the valley, leaders and followers alike agreed that they would combine and concentrate their efforts and work cooperatively. It was an ideal pattern of labor for the geography and conditions of settlement, one that would be used over and over in the years to come. (45) Following the pattern of collective labor, the advance company was divided into committees for work, one of which was designated to farm. The group staked off, plowed, harrowed, and irrigated thirty-five acres of land. They planted potatoes, corn, oats, buckwheat, beans, turnips, and garden seeds. A farming area, called the Big Field, was established south of the city. Regarding to land ownership, Mormon leader Brigham Young proclaimed, Every man should have his land measured off to him for city and farming purposes, what he could till. He might till as he pleased, but he should be industrious and take care of it. (46) Young s proclamation was met with approval. Not long after, Young returned to the main body of Saints in the Midwest and the vast Mormon migration began. Nearly seventeen hundred people spent the 1847-48 winter in the valley, creating the need for a greater food supply. A Big Field consisting of 5,133 acres of farming land was taken up and prepared for planting. Some 872 acres of the field were planted in winter wheat. Church leaders appointed a group to go to California and purchase cows, mules, mares, wheat, and seeds with a portion of Mormon Battalion pay. They returned with 200 cows and with various grain and fruit cuttings. (47) Despite all of the hard work, the first year in the A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 4 2008 Sutherland Institute
valley was one of great hardship. During the fall of 1847, livestock broke into planted fields and ate everything but the potatoes. Many settlers had sowed their seeds too early for mountain country, causing them to lose crops due to late frosts. Swarms of crickets took care of the rest. With the settlers reaching the point of desperation, leaders suggested the possibility of moving on to California. Fortunately, the seagulls living on the shores of the Great Salt Lake miraculously took care of the predators. (Alexander, 102-03) With this stroke of good fortune, the majority of the Mormons remained in the valley. In the fall of 1848, after Brigham Young returned to the Salt Lake Valley, the leaders began to divide up lands and resources by systematically distributing land and water rights. A lottery was held to assign town lots, while outside the town, they divided the acreage into farms of five-acre and ten-acre parcels. (103) Although the usual rule was individual farming of each plot, all farming land was usually fenced in by cooperative effort. The area outside the fenced portion was considered common pasture. Stock were bedded down for the night in barns built by owners on their town lots. Herd boys would pick up the stock of each owner in the early morning hours and drive them outside the Big Field for daytime grazing. In the evening, the herd boys would drive the stock back through the village to their owners and in to be milked and/or bedded down for the night. (Arrington, 91-92) Over the next few years, contacts were opened with suppliers outside the territory. The people imported plants and equipment to furnish their farms. Strawberries were shipped in from England, fruit trees from New York, and seeds from France. (Alexander 103-04) Mormon leaders also experimented with the sugar beet in an effort to combat the expense of sugar. In 1850, a Mormon delegate to Congress obtained enough sugar beet seed to plant two acres. It yielded a satisfactory crop of both seeds and beets, leading church officials to announce that attempts would be made to relieve the sugar market by cultivating and refining sugar beets. (Arrington 116) The planting, thinning, weeding, and harvesting of 2008 Sutherland Institute 5 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
beets required a great deal of labor. Beets were planted year after year while church leaders attempted to build a factory to process them. In 1855, the factory was completed and about 300 acres of beets were planted. Unfortunately, the factory was a failure. Adding to the difficulties, the sugar beet crops failed in 1855 and 1856 because of drought and grasshopper destruction. With the unpredictability of nature, the sugar beet crop was just one of the many destroyed. (118-20) The agricultural disasters of 1855-1856 took place throughout the territory, affecting a variety of crops. Grasshoppers, or Rocky Mountain locusts, had permanent breeding grounds in eastern Idaho and Nevada. Since 1849, they had given intermittent trouble to local Mormon settlements. Crops in Weber Valley were said to have been destroyed five years in succession by invasions of grasshoppers and crickets. In the Salt Lake Valley, they destroyed the first, second, and third sowings. They destroyed corn and even buckwheat. In Davis County, it was the much the same story. In one night, the grasshoppers and crickets would take the heads of oats, the blades of corn, beans and almost every green thing. Similar visits were made to Utah, Juab, and Millard counties. Late-season drought compounded the problem. By the end of June, 1855, there was a lack of rain and uncommonly low streams, and the water had already failed in many places. In Fillmore, the wheat was entirely destroyed. The fields in Juab County had the appearance of a desert, and about two-thirds of the grain in Utah County was destroyed. The destruction of the grass supplies by grasshoppers and drought were the catalyst to a new danger. Cattle had to be moved high up on the mountains A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 6 2008 Sutherland Institute
or to new and distant locations with virgin grass. The Church and most of the large cattle owners decided to send their cattle to Cache Valley, an area which had not been grazed previously because of the fear that it was too cold. Now it was a necessity. The Territorial Legislature granted Cache Valley as a herding ground to Brigham Young, as trustee-in-trust for the Church. A drive was then instituted and a company of 25 people was organized. Cabins and corrals were built and a Church ranch was established with about 2,000 church cattle and about 1,000 privately-owned cattle. Some 200 tons of wild hay was cut and stacked for winter use. The winter that followed was the most severe winter experienced by the settlers since 1847, and the bitter cold destroyed the greater part of the herd. Heavy snow arrived in November, making forage scarce and hard to find. Even cattle in good condition could not survive a trail that was more than two-feet deep in snow. Out of 2,000 cattle, only 420 survived. In other northern counties, Wilford Woodruff estimated that four out of every five head of cattle had been killed. The destruction of both crops and livestock brought on a near-famine. (149-51) With amazing fortitude, Mormon settlers continued their efforts to make a living off such an unpredictable landscape. As more and more people arrived in the territory, new settlements were established along with new kinds of crops. Among the new settlements being established between 1857 and 1867, those in southwestern Utah seemed the most ambitious in terms of agriculture. Communities such as St. George, Washington, Santa Clara, and Toquerville were picked to grow subtropical crops. The Mormons attempted to raise cotton, tobacco, sugar, and grapes. (Alexander, 140) The desert landscape of southwestern Utah as a resource base for an agrarian economy was restricted by heat, drought, lack of trees, infertile soil, and water shortage. (Hinton, 11) In reference to the Utah landscape, George A. Smith, an early Mormon colonization leader in Southern Utah, suggested that if the Lord got up all the rough, rocky, and broken fragments of the earth in one, he might have dropped it here. (Hinton, 11) 2008 Sutherland Institute 7 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
The land could be rather forbidding to farmers, but the settlers continued their efforts despite the obstacles of flooding, a small, sandy land base, and long and expensive transportation routes. At the time, the only major commercial success was the production of sorghum molasses, a popular product in mining towns. Dixie (southern Utah) farmers grew food for miners at nearby Silver Reef. At the same time, other changes were taking place throughout the territory. Most Mormon settlers operated small farms, usually under 20 acres. After 1868, the newer settlers built homes on isolated farms or in string settlements with fields stretching away from the well-traveled main roads. (Alexander, 221) They continued to experiment with seed for wheat, sweeteners, and other products, also bringing in agricultural machinery such as improved McCormick reapers. In terms of livestock, the Saints continued to import improved varieties of sheep and cattle. (Alexander, 140) In the last two decades of the nineteenth century, farming boomed. Though operating small farms, most Utahns produced a surplus for the national market. Between 1869 and 1900, wheat production increased 512 percent. During the 1880s, oat production experienced an initial growth spurt. Potato yields grew exponentially in the 1890s. After its disastrous failure in the 1850s, the European sugar beet became a mainstay of irrigated farms after 1891, from the Bear River and Cache Valleys on the north to Utah Valley on the south. (206) After 1896, nowhere were economic changes and challenges more evident than in agriculture. As late as 1920, nearly 29 percent of Utah s labor force worked in agriculture the largest in any economic sector and slightly more than the national average of 26 percent. Most farm families lived along the Wasatch Front and in Sanpete Valley, farming in general-crop agriculture, ir- A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 8 2008 Sutherland Institute
rigating fruits, grains, and vegetables. As markets beckoned for more of their farm products, some rural families began to clear and cultivate larger acreage. Farmers began to spread out onto new land in the 1890s and into the 20 th century. Still wrestling with unpredictable moisture, Utahns borrowed dry farming techniques from their midwestern neighbors. Most Utah farm families still lived on small farms of five- to ten-acres, growing vegetable, fruit trees, and berries mostly for home use. Some families may have used an additional 20 to 30 acres of irrigated land for sugar beets or some other commercial crop. The introduction of dry farming and power machinery enabled farm families to manage larger spreads of up to 80 acres where they could plant a host of cash crops. This being the case, production of oats, barley, wheat, and potatoes grew 374 percent between 1889 and 1909. Keeping their eye on the markets, farmers in northern and central Utah began growing apples, cherries, peaches, pears, and apricots. In Sanpete, everyone seemed to grow carrots. Also during this time, Utahns were taking steps from community to a capitalistic market. According to historian Thomas G. Alexander, Most families farmed according to their best lights and ability, and through management and luck, some rose to great wealth while others sank into poverty. (218-22) It can be safely said that this aspect of farming has not experienced change over time. It is much the same for farming families in the 21 st century. Ranching and Grazing As the number of livestock in the territory increased, changes were made in regard to sheep herds. Under the incentive of the Deseret Agricultural and Manufacturing Society, sheep and cattle herds were separated. The owners and herder came to an agreement in which the owner was entitled to a certain number of pounds of wool and head of lambs for each hundred head of mixed sheep. The complicated bookkeeping required for the arrangement was a clear disadvantage. In 1869, Church leaders discussed the abolition of 2008 Sutherland Institute 9 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
individual ownership and the formation of a cooperative sheep association. Each person, and the Church, turned their sheep over to the co-op herd in return for an equivalent number of shares in the association. The herd was then managed by elected directors and appointed managers, and profits were distributed according to the shares held. After the passage of a suitable incorporation law in 1870, most of these associations were incorporated, and many of them are still in existence. As a result of the cooperative arrangement, and the increase in cooperative woolen mills, the number of sheep in the territory rose dramatically. Through similar cooperative arrangements, the quantity and quality of cattle in the territory also greatly increased. (Arrington, 310) With the increase, sheep and cattle grazing swept into Utah at a tornado pace. The number of sheep and lambs increased more than 6,300 percent from 59,672 in 1870 to more than 3.8 million in 1900. Cattle and calves increased by 860 percent from 35,701 to 343,690. Cattle ranchers and sheepherders generally lived in the small towns along the Wasatch and Plateau Fronts. Their animals were grazed without charge on the well-watered slopes of the Wasatch and Oquirrh Mountains and the high plateaus during the summer. In the winter, cattle and sheep were trailed to the west desert. (Alexander, 206) In 1880, members of the Hole-in-the-Rock party of pioneers blasted, dug, and hung a road across the fractured mesas of the Colorado Plateau, from Escalante on the Escalante River in south-central Utah to Bluff on the San Juan. They tried with little success to scrape out a living through irrigated farming. Recognizing the futility of trying to cultivate shallow San Juan soils, Francis A. Hammond, president of the San Juan stake, convinced Mormon settlers that the future was in livestock. The farmers-turned-ranchers organized the Bluff Pool to run cattle and sheep. (207-208) Not surprisingly, other parties of people would be attracted to the Utah territory, forcing Mormon ranchers to compete with outsiders. To the north of their hardscrabble farms, parties of cowboys from Texas, New Mexico, and A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 10 2008 Sutherland Institute
Colorado had invaded the region, including Mormons such as J.A. and James Scorup and non-mormons such as Preston Nutter of Virginia. By 1885, several large cattle companies controlled virtually all of the range of south-eastern Utah except a small strip south and west of the Blue Mountains, namely, the English firm of Edmund and Harold Carlisle near Monticello, The Pittsburgh Cattle Company under Cunningham and Carpenter at La Sal, the L.C. Company near present-day Verdure, and Preston Nutter north of the Colorado. The Mormon ranchers declared a range war on the large outfits. The Pool, popularly known as the Bluff Tigers, drove their livestock mercilessly. They spread out aggressively, grazing their stock throughout southeastern Utah as they established towns at Monticello and Verdure. Mormons and non-mormons alike angered the Navajos and Paiutes, who rose to protect their ancestral homes. Federal troops from Fort Lewis were called out to control the Indians and protect the ranchers. In other words, these soldiers kept the Indians in check while the Mormons expanded their livestock operations. No one survived long in San Juan County without water, a fact well-understood by both the Bluff Tigers and the large ranchers. Quarrels over Montezuma Creek led to court battles between the Bluff Pool and the Carlisles, and a brushfire range war threatened to blaze. Ultimately, the Mormons won half the water of Montezuma Creek in the courts. The range war sputtered after several lamentable killings. The Bluff Tigers eventually defeated the other outfits, purchasing some and holding the range against others. (207-208) In the midst of the invasion of the American livestock frontier and competing Mormon herders, a pattern of transient herding implanted itself on the Utah landscape. During the 1880s, drovers from Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho began to invade the Utah territory with herds of cattle and sheep, called hoofed crickets by their critics. This made Utah the crossroads of the West, not only for travelers, but for livestock as well. 2008 Sutherland Institute 11 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
During the 1880s, small farmers in northern and central Utah and the larger ranchers in eastern Utah competed for pasturage with these transient herds. The increased numbers of sheep and cattle applied significant pressure on the limited forage as well because each cow required five times as much feed as sheep, and was not as easily managed. By 1900, Utah s fragile land suffered in the battle for forage between transient and domestic herds. Central Utah was doubly assaulted as sheep and cattle tore up ground as they trailed from ranch to pasture to pasture. When they stopped to graze, they devoured the grass and forbs so close that not a green leaf or sprig of any kind remained as high [or low] as the sheep could reach. With the mountains stripped of vegetation, frightened observers in the valleys counted the moving herds by the clouds of dust. (225) Water, Timber, and Mineral Resources In regard to the control of natural resources, early Mormon settlers, once again, forged their own path, decreeing that basic natural resources were subject to public rather than private use. As expressed by Brigham Young, the policy stated, There shall be no private ownership of the streams that come out of the canyons, nor the timber that grows on the hills. (Arrington, 52) The same principle was applied to mineral resources as well. This next section will examine how the policy was put into place along with its notable changes. Irrigation Instead of choosing a system of riparian water rights, the Utah settlers relied on cooperative ownership and distribution. Riparian law protected streams for generating water power and as channels for transportation. It also restricted the establishment of homes on the banks of streams and gave privileged protection to the few who could profitably utilize the water. The public ownership and management of water prevented the application of the riparian A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 12 2008 Sutherland Institute
principle in restricting irrigation since every use of water for irrigation robbed a stream of its water supply. Although water was first turned on the land on July 23, 1847, it took the Mormon settlers at least three years to learn the importance and effective use of irrigation. (52) In 1847-1849, the Mormons worked out an arrangement whereby dams and ditches were constructed on a community basis, rights to use the water were associated with the utilization of the land, and a public authority was appointed to supervise the appropriation of water for cooking, industrial, and agricultural purposes. The first year in the valley, the Church high council appointed a watermaster to control the distribution of water, the goal being equitable division and maximum use of available water supplies. During the next two years, water matters were in the hands of the bishops of the various wards, and the Mormons developed the well-known principles by which canals and ditches were to be constructed and the waters divided. When a group of families found themselves in need of water, or additional water, to irrigate their farms and gardens, the bishop arranged for a survey and organized the men into a construction crew. Each man was required to furnish labor in proportion to the amount of land he had to water. When the project was completed, the water would be distributed by a ward watermaster in proportion to this labor. The labor necessary to keep the canal in good repair was handled in the same way. Through this cooperative non-economic basis, water was diverted from a natural source into a general canal. From the canal, it was diverted into laterals and ditches which carried the water to the individual plots of ground that needed it. Corrugates were dug next to each row to carry water to the 2008 Sutherland Institute 13 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
crops. Waste ditches carried the water from one watered field to the next one below it. (53) This system of public ownership was confirmed by the legislature and placed under the legal supervision of the county courts when Utah became a territory. In 1865, the territorial government gave additional recognition to this system of cooperative construction and ownership by providing for the creation of irrigation districts, resembling western mining districts, with a large degree of local autonomy. It is noted that even today, farmer-owned mutual companies control practically all irrigation canals in Mormon communities in the West. (53) The vast majority of Utah s canals, Thomas states, were built by the farmers, owned by the farmers, and operated by the farmers. (Arrington, 53) To quote Leonard J. Arrington, the canals signify one of the most successful community or cooperative undertakings in the history of America. (53) By 1880, however, Utahns had begun to buy into the values of Victorian America and to raise individual initiative above community welfare. (Alexander, 223) A new law in 1880 a lawyer s and promoter s relief act repealed the 1852 statute that allowed local governments to distribute water and timber in the interest of the settlement. Under the new law, the following changes took place: County selectmen were given judicial power to give water rights to individuals. Selectmen often allowed favored irrigators to appropriate the entire flow of a stream, even though they did not need it for any purpose. This allowed irrigators to terrorize their neighbors with a monopoly over the precious fluid, now dubbed private property. The law required the counties to record water rights and to determine superior and inferior rights. A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 14 2008 Sutherland Institute
Individuals were allowed to convert water into a commodity. People could buy and sale water rights like stock shares or grain futures, with no concern for the effect of the sell on their neighbors. Rights and individual property in water rapidly replaced need and the general welfare. (222-224) Recognizing the harmful conditions that followed the new law, the territorial supreme court ruled the riparian system void in Utah in 1891, holding that such a doctrine would make this western country a desert. (224) By the late 1890s, both communitarians and progressives were offering similar remedies to prevent further growth of monopoly power. They saw in the growth of monopoly power a voracious cancer that threatened to devour any sense of community left in the nation. Both communitarians, who looked to Utah s past, and progressives, who feared monopoly, expected to remedy the problem either by relying on government -appointed experts who could investigate problems and offer scientifically - and technologically-approved solutions, or by increasing the democratic authority of the people to vote directly on their destiny. Beginning in 1898, the first successes in restoring some sense of community authority over private water monopolies came in a series of state supreme court decisions. These decisions undermined the monopoly power of prior proprietors by requiring beneficial and frugal use. The courts ruled that no one could appropriate more water than they could use for some beneficial purpose. For almost two decades, the Legislature experimented with water regulation. In 1919, the Legislature once again recognized both vested rights and community welfare while relying on experts and democratic referenda. The following changes took place: 2008 Sutherland Institute 15 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
The law strengthened the authority of the state engineers by giving them general supervision of the measurement, appropriation, and distribution of the state s waters. The law also made engineers a party to virtually every dispute over water rights by requiring them to determine technical facts about available water and land use by disputants. The law also regularized the procedure for referenda for the creation of irrigation districts under a series of laws passed since 1865. It also required an appropriator to make beneficial use of water within five years. (224-225) Timber As mentioned, timber was allocated much the same way as water. Because timber was located only in the canyons adjacent the settlements, it could not be obtained until suitable access roads had been constructed. Directed by the bishops, all turned out to build the road, and in return for upkeep of the road, all were permitted to use the timber. As in the case of the water, the Territorial Legislature confirmed the public interest in timber supplies. In 1852, the Legislature gave jurisdiction for its management to the county courts. (53-54) As settlers harvested trees in the nearby mountains to assist in the construction of homes and outbuildings, they logged at first as individuals. Not long afterward, settlers soon turned to entrepreneurs who set up water-driven mills in the canyons to provide lumber. By the late 1850s, they had logged most of the easily accessible timber in the lower reaches of the canyons near the Salt Lake Valley, and mill operators found themselves pushing higher and higher into the mountains. (Alexander, 104) Over the late nineteenth century, loggers continued to seek scarce timber up the canyons, clear-cutting all the trees they A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 16 2008 Sutherland Institute
could reach. Shorn of timber by loggers and grass and forbs by livestock, the mountains above the principal settlements showed scars and stubble by the 1880s. (225-26) Stripped of vegetation, the land was defenseless against the walls of water unleashed by summer thunderstorms. There was nothing to prevent the water from carrying mud and boulders into the valleys. In 1888, Manti reported its first serious flood. Subsequently, battering rams of water, mud, and rocks rushed down the canyons into the Sanpete Valley at least ten times by 1910. (226) Utahns responded to this threat by once again offering solutions backed by communitarian and progressive traditions. After an investigation of mountains and watersheds in Utah and in the West by foresters in the 1880s, and backed by the National Academy of Sciences, Congress passed the Forest Reserve Act as part of the General Revision Act of 1891. The act allowed the U.S. President to designate critical lands, valuable either for their timber or watershed protection, as forest reserves. Grover Cleveland set aside Utah s first reserve, the Uintah, in 1897. In Utah, most of the Forest Reserves renamed National Forests in 1907 resulted from local pressure to protect watersheds. In 1897, Congress passed the Forest Service Organic Act, which granted authority to manage the National Forests in the public interest. Managed until 1905 under Filibert Roth, then Gifford Pinchot, the National Forests began a slow and painful recovery. In its hiring practices, the Forest Service adopted the progressive penchant for experts and began to require a college degree of its employees, either in timber or range management, and certification by examination. On the revived communitarian side, priesthood leaders, under the urging of LDS President Joseph F. Smith, assembled at general conference in April 1902 and voted to encourage the federal government to withdraw all the lands in 2008 Sutherland Institute 17 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
watersheds along the Wasatch Front for protection in National Forests. Senator Reed Smoot, a second- generation Mormon and LDS apostle, took up the battle as an active supporter of Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot in their campaign to strengthen Forest Service control of fragile public lands. (226) Mining It is important to note that the mineral resources examined here are merely a portion of Utah s mining history, yet to examine all the resources and their locations is to reach beyond a brief history. Like other land use, mining in Utah began almost immediately after Mormon pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley, starting with salt. Not long after their arrival on July 24, 1847, Brigham Young and members of his party traveled to the Great Salt Lake. Naturally, they found an abundance of white, crystalline salt deposited on its shore. A few days afterward, a group of pioneers traveled to the lake and gathered 125 bushels of coarse white salt. They obtained one barrel of fine, white, crystalline salt by boiling four barrels of salt water. It is uncertain when the first commercial salt-boiling operations began, but Charley White built and operated a permanent salt-boiling facility from the spring of 1850 to about 1860. (Gwynn, 102) In 1880, salt miners on the Great Salt Lake and at other locations recovered 12,000 short tons with a market value of $60,000. (Generating Wealth, 38) Recognizing the value of this commodity, companies sold salt in Utah and nearby territories. Smelters in Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, and Montana used the chlorine from Utah salt in milling operations to recover silver. When a syndicate of midwestern capitalists purchased the Inland Salt Company (one of three extracting companies), production increased considerably in the early 1890s. Although production would rise and fall over the next few decades, salt remained a commodity more valuable than it had been during the 1890s, A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 18 2008 Sutherland Institute
even throughout the Great Depression of the 1930s. (38) Although salt was the first natural resource to be mined in Utah, it would be one of many. Throughout the history of Utah, coal has been a critical resource for the development of the state s economy. In addition to water and land, coal was the one resource that Brigham Young and other early leaders considered essential to develop a viable and self-sufficient economy in their new homeland. (Powell, 126) In 1851, considerable effort was made to open mines as part of the Iron Mission when coal was discovered near Parowan and Cedar City. This attempt proved unsuccessful, but a new source of coal was discovered in 1854 in the Sanpitch Mountains on the western slope of the Sanpete Valley. Located about 120 miles south of Salt Lake, the source offered new hope. Several wagonloads of coal were shipped to Salt Lake City in 1855. Outcrops of coal were also found on Chalk Creek in 1859, and mining operations began. The settlement of Chalk Creek was renamed Coalville in hopes that this location 45 miles east of the Salt Lake Valley would become a regional coal center. With several coal mines opening in the area, the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad through Echo Canyon and down the Weber River in 1869 offered a much easier transportation system than horse-drawn wagons. Coal continued to be mined in the Coalville area until the mid-twentieth century, but it was Carbon County that became the new center for Utah s coal-mining industry. Since the county was created in 1894, Carbon County has remained the center of Utah s coal industry for more than a century. (126-27) In October 1849, Mormon apostle Charles C. Rich, on his way to select a settlement site in San Bernardino, discovered iron ore near Iron Springs, 25 miles 2008 Sutherland Institute 19 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
southwest of the Little Salt Lake (now Parowan) Valley. In November, Brigham Young sent apostle Parley P. Pratt and the Southern Exploring Expedition to explore the area and evaluate potential locations for settlement. Pratt spoke highly of the Little Salt Lake and Cedar Valleys: Pratt recommended establishing an outpost on... a large body of good land on the southwest borders with a hill of the richest iron ore rising in the middle of thousands of acres of cedar contributing an almost inexhaustible supply of fuel. (Seegmiller, 198-99) In 1851, apostle George A. Smith led a group of iron missionaries to create a community that would sustain a full-fledged iron works in the middle of the desert. They settled a fort near Center Creek. Discovering coal on the banks of the Little Muddy 20 miles to the southwest, the pioneers renamed it Coal Creek. The iron missionaries decided to build the iron works on its banks. In November of the same year, Henry Lunt and two companies of men moved to Coal Creek to establish a settlement, soon named Cedar City, and began to produce iron. In May 1852, Burr Frost successfully smelted iron ore in his blacksmith s forge and produced a small amount of iron that was shaped into nails. Brigham Young furthered the venture by organizing an iron-manufacturing company. (199) From then on, iron mining and manufacturing would see its share of successes and failures, not unlike other mining projects in the state. The fact remains, however, that within the borders of Iron County lie the richest and most accessible iron-ore bodies in the western United States. (Seegmiller, 197) Iron and coal were not the only mineral resources mined in Iron County. Silver, gold, lead, fluorspar, and other useful minerals were also extracted. The A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 20 2008 Sutherland Institute
Stateline Mining District was organized in 1896 in Stateline Canyon, about 18 miles northwest of Modena. The Johnny, Ofer, Big Fourteen, Gold Dome, and Creole were the largest mines. In short, an estimated 13,000 ounces of gold and 173,000 ounces of silver were taken from these mines. (215) Organized in 1897 or 1898, the Gold Springs Mining District straddles the Utah/Nevada border about 17 miles northwest of Modena. The Jennie, the mine of prospectors C.A. Short and H.R. Elliott, was the largest gold producer at the time, reporting 4,000 ounces of gold and 21,000 ounces of silver by the 1930s. (216) After Mormons mined coal, salt, iron, sulphur, silver, and lead in the late 1840s and 1850s, the origins of commercial mining emerged in the 1860s in Bingham Canyon. In September 1863, a group of Mormon ranchers, including George and Alex Ogilvie, John Egbert, and Henry Beckstead, exposed a vein of argentiferous galena (silver combined with lead-sulphide) ore in Bingham Canyon while dragging logs. (Alexander, 148) The Ogilvies took the ore to General Patrick E. Connor, called the father of Utah mining, who had it assayed. Because the territory had no mining laws, Connor helped the Mormon cattlemen by following a pattern he had learned in California. He helped them locate a claim and set up a company. He also showed them how to organize the West Mountain Quartz Mining District, which included the Oquirrh range, under the direction of Mormon bishop Archibald Gardner, operator of a nearby lumber mill. (148) Thus, the stage was set for what was to become one of the most amazing mining ventures the world has ever known. (Whitehead, Rampton 222) In their essay, Bingham Canyon, Bryce D. Whitehead and Robert E. Rampton provide an overview of mining in the area by recounting the following history: 2008 Sutherland Institute 21 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
There was a ten-year burst of silver and lead mining in the canyon. Several million dollars worth of lead-silver ore was smelted at a Bingham smelter, at Salt Lake Valley smelters, or at smelters in San Francisco, Baltimore, or Wales. Some copper was produced as a by-product of these efforts, but the low-grade copper-bearing ores were not as easily smelted as Bingham s lead-silver ores... The rich finds of copper that have dominated Utah s minerals industry in the past century were not discovered until the 1890s. (223-24) Since this discovery, the 1900s would see an influx of new investors and new techniques, leading to open-pit mining in Bingham Canyon, a catalyst to Kennecott Utah Copper. (226-235) Given the importance of mining and ranching to Utah s economy in the early 20 th century, it is not at all surprising that issues relating to the use of public lands and resources occupied an increasingly greater political interest. Reed Smoot took the lead in the Senate in drafting the Smoot-Sinnot Minerals Leasing Act of 1920. The act provided for businesses to pay royalties for leases of public mineral lands containing coal, petroleum, potash, and other nonmetallics not covered by the 1872 hard-rock mining act. (302) By the mid- 1920s, the federal government had enclosed the most worthwhile timber and summer grazing land in national forests while encompassing much of the most scenic land within national parks and monuments. While most Utahns approved of the designation of national forests and parks, federal policy in relation to public lands remained a sore spot. Questions surrounding public lands, resources, and the federal government are timeless political issues in Utah s history of land use. A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 22 2008 Sutherland Institute
Conclusion In bringing this brief history to a close, Wayne K. Hinton s eloquent summary of land use in Utah provides a most appropriate conclusion: The great beauty of Utah is one of its choicest natural resources. The varied landscape is one of the great wonders of nature. Despite its harshness, the land has been good to the people. Enough fertile valleys edged by desert exist to provide for minimal agricultural needs. The midlatitude climate is invigorating with its great seasonal variations. Utah streams are generally small in volume, short in length, and variable in flow, but they are so well conserved and used that they meet most existing needs. Even though much of the soil is not rich and, overall, Utah is devoid of rich farming belts, the valleys where land and water meet have become the sites of thriving settlements. The three provinces of Utah have a multitude of minerals and oil and gas resources. The high mountains contain forests and streams. This harsh land has been a challenge to settlers over the years, but its advantages outweigh liabilities. In the modern era of rapid travel, leisure time, and affluence, the harshness, the wildness, and the variety of the landscape may be the greatest natural resource of all. (19) 2008 Sutherland Institute 23 A Brief History of Land Use in Utah
works cited Arrington, Leonard J. Great Basin Kingdom: An Economic History of the Latter-Day Saints, 1830-1900. Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 2005. Alexander, Thomas G. Utah, The Right Place: The Official Centennial History. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 1995. Hinton, Wayne K. Utah: Unusual Beginning to Unique Present. Northridge: Windsor Pub., 1988. Whitley, Colleen, ed. From the Ground Up: The History of Mining in Utah. Logan: USUP, 2006. Alexander, Thomas G. Generating Wealth from the Earth, 1847-2000. Whitley 37-57. Gwynn, J. Wallace. Saline Minerals. Whitley 101-25. Powell, Allan Kent. Coal Industry. Whitley 126-41. Seegmiller, Janet Burton. Iron County. Whitley 197-219. Whitehead, Bruce D., Robert E. Rampton. Bingham County. Whitley 220-49. A Brief History of Land Use in Utah 24 2008 Sutherland Institute
Board of Trustees Gaylord K. Swim Founder, 1948-2005 Debra P. Washburn Chairman of the Board Paul T. Mero President Robert A. Alsop LaVar Christensen Cindy I. Kern Justin C. Reber Stanford D. Swim Daniel E. Witte STAFF Paul T. Mero President Lyall J. Swim Director of Operations Liv O. Moffat Manager of Development Stan Rasmussen Manager of Public Affairs Katie Christensen Manager of Public Relations Derek Monson Policy Analyst Lisa Montgomery Assistant to the President Adjunct Fellows William Duncan, J.D. Marriage Law Foundation John Merrifield, Ph.D. University of Texas at San Antonio Diana Ernst Pacific Research Institute About the author Lacey Jensen is a senior at Southern Utah University located in Cedar City, Utah where she is majoring in English. Lacey is also a member of Block and Bridal a national agricultural organization. She and her husband have four boys.