Craig Fuller, Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The Uinta Basin and Mountains are located in the northeast corner of the state and are part of a larger physiographic area known as the Colorado Plateau Province. The Uinta Mountains, a folded and faulted anticlinorium (a succession of geological anticlines and synclines), are 150 miles long and are oriented in an east-west direction; …
Bonneville Salt Flats
Kevin B. Hallaran Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The Bonneville Salt Flats of the western Great Salt Lake Desert were formed through the evaporation of the Pleistocene-era Lake Bonneville. The salt flats are actually the bed of that once massive lake which rivaled in size present Lake Michigan. The flats are composed mainly of potash salts ranging in thickness from less …
Great Basin
Gary B. Peterson Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The Great Basin is defined by hydrology and physiography. It is a region of interior drainage bounded prominently on the west by the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range and on the east by the middle Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau. Less distinct are its northern boundary with the Columbia Plateau and …
Colorado Plateau
Joseph M. Bauman, Jr. Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic province encompassing 130,000 square miles of the Four Corners states, including Utah’s southeastern quarter. Arguably, it is the least-tamed country remaining in the lower forty-eight states. It is a land of outstanding natural beauty and ecological diversity. The high, semi-arid region is actually a gigantic basin …
Colonization of Utah
Leonard J. Arrington Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The establishment of settlements in Utah took place in four stages. The first stage, from 1847 to 1857, marked the founding of the north-south line of settlements along the Wasatch Front and Wasatch Plateau to the south, from Cache Valley on the Idaho border to Utah’s Dixie on the Arizona border. In addition …
Bryant-Russell Party
David L. Bigler Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The vanguard of some 300 emigrants who took the Hastings Cutoff of the California Trail across Utah, south of the Great Salt Lake, was a nine-man pack party led by William H. Russell, a hard-drinking Kentuckian, and forty-one-year-old Edwin Bryant, former editor of the Louisville Courier. Riding mules, they traveled the seventy-five-mile stretch …
Explorers and Trappers
BRIEF HISTORY OF UTAH Ron Rood and Linda Thatcher Utah’s thousands of years of prehistory and its centuries of known recorded history are so distinctive and complex that a summary can only hint at the state’s rich heritage. The synopsis offered here follows major themes in Utah history and includes some of the significant dates, events, and individuals. Mexicans and …
A History of Utah’s American Indians, Chapter 7
A History of Utah’s American Indians, © 2000 “The Navajos of Utah,” pp. 264–314 Nancy C. Maryboy and David Begay Introduction Navajos have been living in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest for hundreds of years. The land of the Navajo includes areas of southeastern Utah, northeastern Arizona, and northwestern New Mexico. Navajo people traditionally and historically refer …
A History of Utah’s American Indians, Chapter 5
A History of Utah’s American Indians, © 2000 “The Northern Utes of Utah,” pp.167–224 Clifford Duncan Creation and Migration Stories of the Utes The story of Sinauf, the god who was half man, half wolf, and his brothers Coyote and Wolf has been told many times in tipis and wickiups. According to Ute legend, these powerful animal-people kept the world …
A History of Utah’s American Indians, Chapter 6
A History of Utah’s American Indians, © 2000 “The White Mesa Utes,” pp. 225–63 Robert S. McPherson and Mary Jane Yazzie Billy Mike, the oldest living resident of the White Mesa Ute community, sat comfortably and slowly ran his fingers through his silver hair. The thick glasses perched upon his nose served more as a token of past vision than …