CHAPTER
11
WATER DEVELOPMENT
AId}out fifty miles due east of Salt Lake City, in a small sliver of Summit County in the shadow of Bald Mountain and Reid's Peak, four of Utah's most important rivers spring to life. Three of t h e m — the Bear, the Provo, and the Weber—eventually find their way to the Great Salt Lake. The fourth, the Duchesne River, heads east to eventually join the Colorado River. Summit County's early settlers quickly learned that some of the best land for growing crops lay in narrow fertile valleys along these rivers and the streams that flow into them. The Weber River, in particular, attracted farms and settlements to its banks. Henefer, Echo, Coalville, Hoytsville, Wanship, Rockport, Peoa, and Oakley all grew up within a stone's throw of the river that took its name from lohn H. Weber, a Danish-born fur trapper who was in the northern Utah area from 1822 to 1827.
Irrigation Despite the fact that large quantities of snow fall on Summit County's mountains during a normal winter, water for agriculture 240
