CHAPTER 8
THE CREATION AND EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF DAGGETT COUNTY The reason for the separation of this part into a new County was on account of the difficulty of getting to the County Seat at Vernal; the high range of m o u n t a i n s k n o w n as the U [ i ] n t a h s made it almost impossible to go over . . . [in all but] four months of the year, the rest of the year a person must be under the obligation of taking the stage to some point in Wyoming on the U.P. Railroad a distance of 50 to 60 miles, then taking a journey by rail for about 400 or 500 miles, then again taking the stage for another ride of 150 miles; which made it very expensive to go to the County Seat to transact any business. — D A G G E T T COUNTY COMMISSION MINUTES, 1918
O m a l l in p o p u l a t i o n a n d isolated f r o m t h e i r fellow U t a h n s b y rugged m o u n t a i n s , t h e p e o p l e along t h e n o r t h e r n slope of t h e Uintas felt like political stepchildren. For travel a n d t r a d e t h e y looked n o r t h w a r d t o w a r d Fort Bridger a n d t h e t o w n s along t h e U n i o n Pacific railr o a d line; b u t w h e n Congress set t h e s o u t h e r n b o u n d a r y of W y o m i n g at the 41st parallel, they f o u n d themselves cut off politically from their n a t u r a l association. This r e m n a n t of Green River C o u n t y was instead 154
