The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-05-20
What Reservation Order Means to
Uintah County.
PEOPLE MUST MOVE OUT
POST TRADER MEASE DESCRIBES
THE SITUATION.
Says Half Million Dollars Worth
of Property Is at Stake In Uintah
County Alone-Sheep Men Must
Leave If Order Is Enforced-Will
Work a Hardship.

4
The order of the department of the
interior that sheep must not feed upon
any part of the Uintah forest reserve
is arousing the people of Uintah coun-
tY, as Wei as the wool men of Salt
Lake. They believe that the enforce
ment of the order during this spring
and summer will not only ruin them,
but it will almost destroy Uintah
county.
With them the matter has become
serious, for their property interests,
estimated at $780, 900, are at issue. In
the opinion of J. II. Mease, post trader
at Fort Duchesne and a sheepowner,
the enforcement of the order will not
only ruin the people of the county, but
will drive them out of it to other states
and parts of Utah, where they may find
spring and summer feed for sheep.
They are anXiously awaiting the out
come Of the mass meeting to be held
here, and the effort TO have the de-
partment rescind its order.
Here is what is at stake" said Mr..
Mease at the Kenyon yesterday after
noon. Seventy or $4,000 head of
sheep, an annual wool clip of about
600, 900 pounds, and all the property in
terests of the sheepowners. If the peo-
pie of Ashley valley cannot feed their
sheep about Diamond mountain during
the heat of the spring and summer.
they cannot raise them profitably. and,
consequently, they must leave. Sheep
raising is the staple industry of the
county, and one on which 5000 people
are dependent. What will these people
do if they can't raise sheep? They
must leave the county. That is the
only salvation. Take the sheep away
from Ashley valley. and you might as
well move everything else.
But the sheepowners will not be
able to move everything. They cannot
move their improvements, their houses
and barns, nor the towns which are
supported by them. These interests
viii be sacrificed. They will not be
saleable, and they will thus become
worthless.
Such is the disaster that the en-
forcement of this order will bring upon
the people of Uintah county. 1t is
based upon a report OF Inspector of
Forest Reserves May OF Denver, who
has never been near this forest reSer-
walton. He does not understand the
conditions, but he is evidently working
upon some theory of forestry. We want
the department to delay the enforce
ment, and to send men to investigate
the situation, for we are satisfied that
upon investigation the order will be
rescinded.
Diamond Mountain Range.
Here is the situation: Diamond
end of the Uintah mountains, compris-
ing three or four townships. is within
the forest reserve, as is the whole
range. There is enough timber on the
mountain TO furnish fine shade for the
sheep during the heat of the middle of
the year. In the timber and lower
down, where ii becomes scarce, there
is grass upon which the sheep feed.
Without this shade they will become
sickly, and if they don't die, the wool
will be of such poor quality that the
raising of it will be Improbable. But
every wool man realizes that in such
a warm climate sheep must be able TO
get in the shade and from the hot sun.
About Diamond mountain is the only
place where we can find suitable sum-
mer feeding grounds for our sheep.
Mr.. Mays report against the con-
tinuance of the custom is based upon
ignorance of the conditions. He says
that sheep feeding in the timber de-
Stroy IL. That proposition seems to
me absurd. But, believing it, he rea-
sons that with the destruction of the
timber the snow Will melt at once the
sun strikes it in the spring, and thus
the supply of water for streams used
by farmers and miners will not last
the whole year.
Admitting, for the moment, that
sheep viii destroy the timber, we are
on the north watershed of Diamond
mountain, the water from which flows
into Green river. There are no people
along the water. At the land office,
the other day, 1 learned that only two
homestead locations had been made in
10 - 81
ranches. The ground is barren and
utterly useless for farming purposes,
and never will have settlers. On the
Green river there are four or five fami-
lies who get water from the river. Even
if we did destroy the watershed it
would not injure Green river, for ii be-
gins away up in Wyoming. The guam
tity of water which it receives from
this watershed amounts to nothing, in
comparison with the regular supply.
Again, the river is down in a deep can
yon, so that the water cannot be
reached for irrigating purposes to any
great extent.
THE people of Ashley valley are
supplied from the south watershed
through Ashley creek. Sheep are not
fed about the sources of it's supply.
These people, whom, according to Mr.
May, would be affected, are the very
ones who oppose him and the order of
the department. They ought to be the
best judges of their own interests.
1t will mean almost the ruin of
that part of the county if this order is
enforced. l hope that some way of
staying the matter will be found. it
will not affect me as much as others.
because I can send my sheep to other
ranges, and I'm not dependent upon
them. But it means a great deal to
men whose sole business is sheep