The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-02-17
WHAT wAYNE COUNTY, WANTS.

1t has been proposed to the Legis-
lature to annex to Wayne county the
eastern part of Garfield county. There
should be good and sufficient reasons
for changing the boundary lines be-
| tween counties, and the people on both
sides of those lines ought to be con
suited before action is taken We are
not aware how the Garfield county
people view this proposition. But the
plea of the Wayne county applicants
appears to be based upon very good
grounds. 1t can be best understood by
reading the following, which has been
addressed to the House committee on
counties. We hope the subject will be
fully ventilated, and if Garfield coun-
ty, like Barkis is ''willin,' we see no
objection to the granting of the petit
ton as follows:
F'irst-Garfeld county was created
March 9, 1892. At that time Wayne coun-
! ty and the eastern portion of Garfield
county was almost wholly uninhab ited,
and the dividing line between Piute
county INCLUDING Wayne) and Garfield
county was adjusted to suit the peo-
lple in the western part of Piute and
Garfield counties. The territory asked
for by Wayne county people was val
ueless as a source of revenue to Gar
| field county at the time of its crea-
! ton, and for several years after no
revenue was derived therefrom Wayne
county was created in 1892 from the
territory forming the eastern part of
Piute county, and has been settled al
most wholly since 1882. The petitions
asking for the creation Of Wayne cor-n-
| ty included a request for the territory
non-asked for, because of its necessity
to them 1t is very evident that if
present conditions prevailed at the time
of the creation of Garfield county, the
north line Of said county through the
| territory in question, would have fol-
lowed d natural boundary somewhere
near the line now asked for, and this
territory could not have been a mater
ial consideration with them in the or
ganization of their county.
SecOnd-ThiS territory is accessible to
our people and is used by them almost
exclusively, being comparatively near,
or at least much nearer to them than
any other. It forms the greater part of
| their grazing country in summer and
winter, is the source of many of their
irrigation streams. the site of their
reservoirs, the region from which they
get most of their fencing poles, logs
and lumber, and contains the ranches
for supplying us with butter and
cheese. The people of Garfield do not
use it for any of these purposes nor
for any other purpose in particular.
except the deriving Of revenue. 1t is
remote from their nearest settlements
and near ours. The present line is
from one TO twelve miles only from
most of our towns and forty to
lseventy-five miles by roads from
Escalante, their nearest town. It is
lshown by existing conditions that the
InsA Of this ferTiforv is in1nractica lale.
to the people of Garfield county or they
would have used it in the past. Gar
field people have large extent of ter
rirory nearer their settlements that
they use for the purposes that this ter
Iritory is used by the people Of Wayne.
Third-Our citizens have made all
the roads leading into this territory
depending hundreds Of dollars to date
land not a dollar has been spent by
the citizens of Garfield county for this
purpose there. They did not need to
land could not do so to their advantage.
Fourth-Their is no possibility of