CHAPTER 7
BUILDING NEW TOWNS
Where the . . . "Old Military Road" ascends the rugged north slope of the Uintah Mountains, the writer of this saw, in the fall of 1890, a low, flat valley surrounded by sunlit reefs, lying off some distance to the east. In contrast to the very broken, bleak and snow-covered country, this spot, where light and warmth appeared to dwell, seemed singularly attractive. —ADOLPH JESSEN
A,
„s the nineteenth century drew to a close, Utah was filling up with people. Most of the land that could be easily irrigated had been taken by 1880, and the high birth rate, coupled with the continual arrival of M o r m o n converts, brought increasing pressure to open up new farmland. The first response was to expand canal systems. More acreage was put under irrigation around existing Utah communities, and these lands were quickly taken. Demand for farmland, however, did not abate. New canal systems were built, requiring ever more money, effort, and technical expertise, and ever more marginal land was b r o u g h t into p r o d u c t i o n . Even so, the landless children and 123
