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

Significance: A couple hundred yards downstream from the canal's diversion, the Highline Canal achieves its most significant engineering characteristic of its whole length. An outcrop of sandstone made it necessary for the Highline Canal to go through this sandstone cliff by means of a tunnel, providing it wanted to follow the highest counter on the west side of Ashley Valley. An oral interview with Mr. Morgan Merkley on June 27, 1983 indicated that a man by the name of McConkie [sic] had the contract to build the tunnel around 1915. The tunnel was completed by using picks, hammers, shovels, and dynamite. The canal also goes through a similar tunnel near the canal's crossing with Highway 40. Although these tunnels are an unique characteristic of canals in the Uinta Basin, it is not felt that they are significant enough to warrant placement on the National Register of Historic Places. The Highline Canal should be considered, however, as potentially eligible.
Survey number: HAER UT-30-F
Building/structure dates: ca. 1916 Initial Construction