Irrigation Canals in the Uinta Basin, Duchesne, Duchesne County, UT

Significance: The irrigation canals in the Uinta Basin represent turn-of-the-century water development efforts of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Mormon settlers. Originally intended to help the reservation Indians develop small, self-sufficient farms, the majority of the irrigation water was eventually appropriated by Mormon settlers who homesteaded on the ceded lands of the Uintah Indian Reservation. As more and more land was put under irrigation, the demand for water increased and small, high mountain lakes were dammed to capture runoff and regulate stream flow throughout the irrigation season. Water storage and handling technology in the early 1900s in Utah and the West ranged from the sophisticated to the primitive. Though representative of early civil engineering technology, the canals, ditches and small dams are more significant for their representation of a historical theme crucial to Western development: water storage and distribution. This history also documents the dams and reservoirs created by the BIA's Indian Irrigation Service and private irrigation companies;... The dams were constructed between 1914 and 1935, with the exception of one, built in 1951.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N675
Survey number: HAER UT-30