The Park City to Fort Thornburgh Road

The Park City to Fort Thornburgh Road

BY FLOYD A. O’NEIL AND SHAUNA O’NEIL

When Colorado became a state in 1876, many of its citizens were concerned about the amount of land held by the Ute tribe. A chance to alter that situation came in 1879 when the Utes of northern Colorado resisted national Indian policy prescribing forced acculturation. The dispute led to an armed struggle between the US Army and the Utes of northwestern Colorado. In that armed encounter, known as the “Meeker Massacre,” Utes repelled the military’s advances and the army suffered many casualties, including the leader of the expedition Major Thomas Thornburgh. The Utes killed the Indian agent Nathan Meeker and some of his employees and kidnapped part of his family and staff. 1

A second military force was sent; Ouray, a Ute leader of the Taviwache or Uncompahgre band of west central Colorado, intervened and negotiated a bloodless truce. But the struggle was a motivating factor in creating a “Utes must Go” campaign. The suggested area for this relocation was to the “vacant” lands in Utah. Thus the leaders in Colorado were able to use political pressure in Washington to remove the Utes from their traditional lands. This was implemented by Executive Order of President Arthur and laws passed in Congress. Utah and the federal government were at odds over the issue of polygamy, and the federal government was unwilling to grant favors to the people of Utah Territory.

The Utes in the White River area were removed to the Uintah Reservation, an area designated for the Indians of Utah. Both the Uintah and the White River bands were outraged at their removal. But the treatment of the Uncompahgres was particularly unjust. Although this band had no part in the conflict referred to above, and in fact their leader, Ouray, had been instrumental in stopping the bloodshed, the Uncompahgre were also removed to Utah. The land chosen for them and made into an adjacent reservation was desert, bleak and almost totally without farming land. At first the Utes showed signs of resistance. The response of the national government was to send military force. That force was sent to Colorado under the command of General Ranald S. Mackenzie, who had used great violence against Indians in Texas. He was a man the Indians feared.

To remove the Uncompahgres from Colorado, Mackenzie “brought his main force to join Beaumont’s column, giving him several thousand infantry and cavalry troops scattered throughout the valley. He found the tribal elders were keeping the Uncompahgres under control.” 2 The Utes delayed the process with negotiations until August when Mackenzie spoke to the Utes in a meeting: “It is not necessary for me to stay here any longer. You can settle this matter by discussion among yourselves. All I want to know is whether you will go or not. If you will not go of your own accord, I will make you go. When you have sufficiently discussed this matter and have arrived at a conclusion, send for me. Remember, you are to go, at once.” 3

Thus, the Utes left the beautiful Uncompahgre Valley. Mackenzie watched the Utes travel down the road to their new reservation, herded along by the soldiers. A witness described their departure: “Sheep were abandoned, blankets and personal possessions strewn along the road, women and children were loudly wailing.” This rich, proud, powerful people had been reduced to poverty by a single act of the government. Within days of the Utes’ dispossession, settlers began establishing homesteads and laying out towns in the rich Uncompahgre Valley. 4

When the dispossessed arrived at their new location, they could hardly believe the desolation. Their new location was called Ouray, after their leader who had recently died. The new reservation, huddled against the Green River, was surrounded by land so poor that one government official described it

As uninhabited even by birds and beasts. Only a lonely raven could occasionally be seen upon a bleak and barren mountain crag, when it appeared as if he had only stopped to rest, in his weary flight to a better land. Practically timberless, and being fruitless and grassless and waterless, it is but a wild and ragged desolation; and virtually valueless for any purpose whatever, unless it be for the minerals that may be found beneath the surface. 5

So poor indeed was this land that for the next fifty years, the U.S. government issued rations to keep the refugees alive. The Utes already occupying the Uintah Basin were angered at the potential forced sharing of the meager resources that the area provided.

Federal officials decided to establish a fort to force the Utes to stay and to keep peace with the other Utes. The new fort was named for the fallen soldier Major T. Thornburgh. In August 1881, Captain H. S. Hawkins of the Sixth Infantry, along with four companies, established his headquarters near Ouray. The location of the first Fort Thornburgh was adjacent to Ouray, where a new agency was founded. Federal officials relocated the fort to an area north of Vernal in Ashley Creek Canyon, partly due to the soldiers’ negative influence on the Indians. Even that location was not successful and the army closed the post in July 1884.

Fort Thornburgh was a difficult place to maintain from its founding. The Uintah Basin was remote, supply lines were long and difficult. One route was from the railroad in southwestern Wyoming. Freight from that location had to be carried over the lofty Uintah Mountains. A second was a crude route from Park City over Daniels Summit, then nearly 100 miles over broken country to the Uintah Ute agency, Ashley settlement and for a short time to Fort Thornburgh. This was the passage chosen by the army, and they decided to improve the road and make it a military supply corridor. The reconnaissance was conducted by Lieutenant A. L. Wagner of the Sixth Infantry.

The notes on the survey are as follows:��

Headquarters Fort Thornburgh, UtahSeptember 21st 1881.To theAssistant Adjutant General,Headqrs. Department of the Platte,Omaha, Nebraska.

Sir:

I have the honor to forward the Itinerary, prepared by Lieut. Wagner, 6th Infantry, of the road from Park City, Utah to this post. The total distance is 142.69 miles, which will be shortened at least two miles in this vicinity.

I believe Lieut. Wagner’s personal observations and measurements over the road actually travelled to be as accurate as circumstances would admit, but I do not agree to that part of his report which mentions that the distance could be reduced 3 or 4 miles by adopting the road explored and reported upon by Lieut. Byrne, 6th Infantry. That road crosses the Duchesne by a ford below the mouth of Lake Fork runs down the south side of the Duchesne and recrosses to north side near the mouth of the Uintah, thus making one additional crossing. The road travelled by the command leaves the Duchesne at

Map of the Park City to Fort Thornburgh road. —

National Archives and Records Administration

or near this ford and goes by what is known as the Dry Gulch road; for 5 ¼ miles it travels on the regular Uintah Agency road, then turns east around the hills on north side of the Duchesne and runs down to mouth of the Uintah. This distance is 15.93 miles, odometer measurement, the road requiring no work. Lt. Byrne reported the road on south side of Duchesne as requiring some work and the estimated distance 17 miles. It took him 5 hours on horseback; it took me 4 hours and 18 min. on horseback by the Dry Gulch road to reach the same point on the Uintah. The Dry Gulch road is accurately laid down on the map of Utah issued in 1878 by the Department of the Interior and leaves Uintah Agency 13 miles to the N.E. The road on south side of the Duchesne ought to be shorter, but Lieut. Byrne estimates the distance by this road from Lake Fork crossing to Uintah crossing at 24 ½ miles; the odometer measurement by the Dry Gulch road is 21.34 miles, so the two roads are probably very nearly equal in length, but the Dry Gulch is the better.

I am Sir, very respectfully,Your obedient servant.(Sgd.) H. S. HawkinsCaptain 6th Infantry,Commanding Post.Inclosure (Lieut. Wagner’s Report)Fort Thornburgh, Utah.September 20, 1881To the Adjutant,Fort Thornburgh, UtahSir:

In compliance with Par. 1, Orders No. 45, Headquarters Battalion 6th Infantry, Camp near Park City, Utah September 3 1881, I have the honor to submit the following report upon the condition of the road between Park City, Utah, and this post, in advance of the detailed map which I am now preparing. I submit, herewith, as supplements to this report two itineraries of the road in question; one containing notes of compass bearings and extracts from my topographical notes; the other being merely a list of camping places and important points with distances recorded.

The road from Park City to Provo River is a good mountain road upon which no important repairs are needed. The bridge across Provo River is old and should be repaired, if not entirely rebuilt. This bridge is an ordinary plank bridge consisting simply of a flooring of planks laid upon timber “stringers.”

The bridge in Daniel’s Cañon, 21.63 miles from Park City is old and in urgent need of repairs; as the flooring is broken and the stringers are unsound. This bridge must be repaired soon, or a new one will be necessary. It is a rough country bridge consisting simply of a flooring of planks laid upon timber stringers. The bridges in the same cañon (24.6; 26.6 and 28.8 miles from

Park City respectively) should be repaired. Probably only slight repairs will be needed on these structures. There are several saw mills in Daniel’s Canon at which material for these repairs could be obtained cheaply. The road through Daniel’s Canon is very bad. The grades, as a rule, are not heavy; but the road is full of boulders and ruts. The road should be repaired by removing these boulders and filling the ruts with gravel or corduroy. The road through this cañon is lined with willows which in many places arch over the road, and striking in the faces of the teamsters distract their attention from their teams. These willows should be cut down for a distance of 4 or 5 feet on each side of the road. The willows thus cut down could be utilized in corduroying the road.

In Strawberry Valley there are three brooks with marshy crossings. Each train should corduroy these crossings with willows. This would be the work of but a few minutes. I do not think that bridges are necessary at these points, which are 36.1; 36.34 and 38.28 miles respectively from Park City. In leaving Strawberry Valley near Cold Cañon another marshy stream is crossed. This stream should be bridged. It would require stingers about 30 feet in length; and as the banks are low and marshy, the bridge should be raised and approaches constructed. The road from this point across the valley to Cold Cañon is very marshy and bad; but a good road branches off to the left and follows the direction of the hills around the valley. This road should be used and the valley road abandoned. In Cold Canon the road should be improved by removing boulders from the roadway, filling ruts, and reducing the grade at various points. At a point 48.38 miles from Park City the road ascends a steep grade which could not be reduced without more labor than the result would be worth; but the road might be improved by removing stones and filling ruts. The same may be said of the steep hill by which the road descends into Deep Creek Cañon. At the bottom of this cañon, the road, in some places, is marshy and should be corduroyed with saplings.

Major Thomas Tipton Thornburgh, an artillery school instructor, a professor of military science at East Tennessee University, a paymaster, and ultimately commander of Fort Fred Steele, Wyoming Territory, with the Fourth U.S. Infantry. On September 29, 1879, he was killed commanding an expedition to protect the Indian agency of Nathan Meeker in an event known alternately as “Meeker’s Plow Share Incident” or the “Battle of Mill Creek.” The late major’s name graced a short-lived army fort placed at the newly formed Uintah Reservation in Utah in 1881 and abandoned by 1884. —

National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

At Currant Creek the road descends into a cañon by a very heavy grade. It would require a great deal of labor to reduce this grade; but the roadway, which is rough, stony and uneven could be easily improved. The grade by which the road leaves this cañon is light.

The road enters Red Creek Cañon by descending a high hill with steep grade. The roadway at this place should be improved by removing stones and filling ruts. The road in leaving this cañon passes up a high hill with an unusually heavy grade. It is impossible to ascend this grade with an ordinary wagon load without doubling teams. This grade should be abandoned, and a road should be constructed by following the sloping side of a ravine a few yards to the left of the present road. A road with easy grade could thus be constructed. This would require the labor of 20 men for 10 days or two weeks; but I regard this work as imperatively necessary, as the road in its present condition cannot be used in winter when the hillside is covered with snow and ice.

At 73.76 miles from Park City the road descends a long hill with heavy grade. It would require a vast amount of work to reduce this grade; but the roadway which is full of stones, ruts and pitches, should be improved by the removal or reduction of these obstacles.

Along the Duchesne River, between 82 and 85 miles from Park City, there is a series of washouts which will seriously endanger the road at the next spring rise of the river. Most of these could be avoided by establishing a road nearer the hills on the right bank of the river. Such road should cross the river continue at a point 79.88 miles from Park City and then continue on the right bank, as near the hills as possible, for about 7 miles.

At Point of Rocks, 92.59 miles from Park City, the road descends a long hill with easy grade. A little work on the roadway is all that is required at this point.

At Blue Hill, 97.96 miles from Park City, the road descends into Desolation Valley. The grade at this point is steep; but the principal difficulty lies in the fact that the road is full of rocks and shelving pitches, which could, however, be removed with comparatively little labor.

Between Blue Hill and Fort Thornburgh the road requires no work that could not be easily done by passing trains. At 111.77 miles from Park City a road branches off to the right and follows the course of the Duchesne River to Ft. Thornburgh. This road was recently reported upon by Lt. Chas. Byrne, 6th Infty. I am unable to state, from my own knowledge, anything about this road; but from the information I have received I believe that the distance from Park City to this post could be reduced 3 or 4 miles by adopting and improving this road. Nearly, or quite, the same result could be obtained by opening a road from the mesa at this post, around Rocky Hill, and thence in a straight line to the point where the road now in use descends a hill 9 miles from the post. The opening of this road would require the labor of 6 men for 2 weeks.

In conclusion, the road from Park City to this post can, with the improvements I have mentioned, be made as good as mountain roads usually are; but I do not think that it can be used in winter. I have carefully questioned teamsters, frontiersmen and other citizens acquainted with the route, and they have invariably informed that Daniel’s Canon and Strawberry Valley are impassable in winter, owing to heavy snow drifts.

I am, Sir, very respectfully,Your obedient servant.(Sgd.) A. L. WagnerLieut. 6th InfantryActing Engineer Officer

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As noted in the report, the route could not be used in winter. A new route of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, completed in 1882, used an existing road from Price, Utah, through Soldier Creek, Nine Mile, and Gate canyons. That route made the Park City to Fort Thornburgh road unnecessary. The struggle to haul freight from Wyoming over the Uintah Mountains on the Carter Road and from Park City on the road to Fort Thornburgh ended with construction of the shorter and more passable route. Not only was the rail line built, but a telegraph line was constructed in 1887.

In the twentieth century portions of the old Park City to Fort Thornburgh road were developed and are now present-day U.S. Highway 40.

—Notes

1. Joseph G. Jorgensen, The Sun Dance Religion: Power for the Powerless (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), 45–50.

2. Charles M. Robinson III, Bad Hand: A Biography of General Ranald S. Mackenzie (Austin, TX: State House Press, 1993), 269.

3. Ibid., 279.

4. Ibid., 280.

5. George M. Gordon, Special Indian Agent, Fort Duchesne, Utah, to Commissioner of Indian Affairs, July 31, 1889, 15–17, manuscript, Record Group 75, National Archives and Records Administration.