CHAPTER 9
WATER: LLFEBLOOD OF THE COUNTY W n e of the most significant factors of Western history is the general aridity of the West and the struggle of westerners to make the dry lands productive and life-sustaining. 1 As it has been in the twentieth century, water will likely prove to be the most contested Western resource of the twenty-first century In the West more court battles between regions and states, and even more fights between neighbors, have occurred over water t h a n over any other issue. The effort expended to create the water system now in use in Duchesne County is beyond doubt the largest expenditure of time, work, and money that has gone into building up of the region. When one includes the construction of early canals and ditches, use of the high mountain lakes, the building of massive tunnels and reservoirs, the service roads built to these projects, and the construction of buildings to house those who came to the area as workers, only the highway system and the development of the oil fields can begin to rival the impact of water development in the county. Following the great model of California's Imperial Valley and its agricultural value with a reliable source of water, elsewhere in the 301
