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Show ; ) ; - -, ; ONE OF THE FEW remaiing dwellings from The Strip is this building, which was the home of Nichols, a partner in a saloon on The Strip. The year of birth of The Strip, which is now known as Gusher, is 18S3. The building had stucco added to it. . -. . . ... " - Vt- . . . ..' . v.."",.; y V 1 ' ' ' '- - : '--v - ' , t . ; - j ;f - i v ' : ; . ' ': " ' j li ' t ' ; ; - - - ' 1 .'j ' ' f ' .1 ! 1 1 I ANOTHER ORIGINAL building from the 'j days of The Strip is this building, which "a was the home of Donaldson, who was a partner of Nichols in a saloon and merchants mer-chants store. Off .the beaten path The Svrip, a rough, wild flown otf tfhe Old Westf By Aldon Rachele Express Sports Editor Gusher, Utah is located ten miles east of Roosevelt on U. S. Highway 40, and many motorists pass through the town in quick fashion without realizing realiz-ing that at one time famous outlaws, Butch Cassidy, Harry "Sundance Kid" Longabaugh, Elzy Lay, Harvey Logan, Matt Warner and others considered con-sidered the area when it was known as "The Strip" their home away from home. The Strip came into existence in 1888 when a treaty was made with the Ute Indians of the Uintah Reservation in eastern Utah, and 7000 acres at $20 an acre were sold to the United States Government. A vertical hydro-carbon, a black mineral, of a type only found in the Uintah Basin and nowhere else in the world was located about two miles west from the eastern boundary of the Ute Reservation, running slantwise in the sandrock. The mineral was put to commercial use, and experiments were conducted by Samuel Henry Gilson. It is from his name that the name for the ore, "Gilsonite" originates. The Ute Tribe sold the 7000 acres of the Ute Reservation, which included the gilsonite claims, to the U. S. Government. The purchased tract was in the shape of a rough triangle. The Ute Indians signed the treaty on two days in September 1888 and The Strip was born. Adolph Busch of the Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company in St. Louis, Missouri, opened the mine to quarry the mineral for use in sealing beer barrels. bar-rels. The mine was called the St. Louis and was the first commercial gilsonite mine in the world. Shortly after, a gambling hall and saloon on the strip of land, but separate from the mine property, were opened. Federal marshalls could enforce only federal statute violations, which dealt mostly with military and Indian troubles and did not at that time cover gambling, prostitution and liquor li-quor sales (except to the Indians). "The Strip was a little wild hell-for-leather town, with saloons, mercantile store, stage stop, blacksmith shop, livery' stable, dance hall, cafes, hotels, telegraph office and a few dwellings," stated George Stewart, western writer of Roosevelt. "It was a hangout for the Wild Bunch, and the only U. S. Marshall Mar-shall was Joe Bush in Salt Lake City. Local law enforcement officers couldn't arrest the Wild Bunch on The Strip. Cassidy, Langabaugh and Lay, after Warner went to the penitentiary, were the main nucleus of the Wild Bunch. They only used the other outlaws when they needed them." The Indian agent at Whiterocks was no longer responsible for the land as it was no longer Indian land. Lease officers of-ficers such as sheriffs had no jurisdiction jurisdic-tion on The Strip. Early Federal officers of-ficers could enforce the law on The Strip, because it was located on Federal land. Gambling was conducted 24 hours a day. Liquor was the number one drink and was bootlegged to the Indians. Numerous killings took place. The Strip was a good place for the Wild Bunch to take a rest, but they had to be careful coming and going. Cowboys, teamsters, miners, soldiers, Indians and many other people were on The Strip at any given time. Many of the businesses were located on one street about a half mile to a mile south of U. S. Highway 40 in Gusher. "Two original buildings, which were homes for the owners of the saloon and t mercantile store, Nichols and Donaldson, are still standing. The Nichols home had stucco added to it. The two men also had an interest in the dance hall. Nichols had to leave the area and Donaldson moved into Nichols' home and ran the business," said Stewart. A saloon and gambling house called the Babcock Place and another dwelling dwell-ing were located on the old Post Road south of Fort Duchesne. The buildings burned down last year. The Nichols home is located on the left side going south and the Donaldson home, which was gutted by a fire is located on the right side above the Nichols home on a road, which used to connect with the stage road running east and west. The government opened the vast Uintah-Ouray Reservation to settlement settle-ment in 1905. This move allowed territorial ter-ritorial officers as well as local officers and the Uintah County sheriff to control con-trol The Strip. The mine shut down in 1904. Buildings that were not moved away burned down. Today only a few buildings are left from the area known as The Strip. James Mease of Vernal filed for homesteading purposes in 1903 where Gusher is located, set out a townsite and renamed The Strip Moffat. Mof-fat. At the time of the oil boom of the 1920s it was renamed Gusher. I |