CHAPTER
1
BEFORE IT WAS CALLED DUCHESNE Geography Duchesne County is located in the western portion of the Uinta Basin, rimmed on three sides by mountains and high plateaus. This unique region, located in the northeastern section of Utah, possesses a variety of notable geographic features and is geographically different from the Great Basin portion of Utah. The settlement and develo p m e n t of Duchesne C o u n t y has been shaped in p a r t by its geography. The Uinta M o u n t a i n s and Uinta Basin are p a r t of two larger physiographic regions identified by geographers as the Rocky Mountain and Colorado Plateau provinces, respectively. The Uinta M o u n t a i n s are the d o m i n a n t feature of the region a n d form the northern rim of the Uinta Basin. The Uintas are a rugged range of mountains that trend east-west, unlike most mountain ranges in the world that r u n n o r t h - s o u t h . The Uinta M o u n t a i n s are about 150 miles long and 30 miles wide. The central core of this broad range of mountains was formed
