Show transportation history in uintah county told by harold E hullinger former fonner uintah county bistor 1 1 1 ians lans ans have told in detail of the I 1 early arly indian trails and first 1 pioneer roads into ashley va val vai ey 7 these came thru straw rry erry valley over nine mile nyon anyon from price add arid from he e north they came over the from wyoming the first road built was the old oid ad corduroy road known as the government trail it was I 1 built bulit ailt and maintained by the government between ft thorn burn burg arg urn and ft bridger many interesting stories are told of the experiences of many I 1 I 1 the first travelers over these I 1 perilous byways the mountains I 1 were steep and almost I 1 able while the streams were rough and during flood season always treacherous the first roads were built along the natural routes as were the indian trails in 1909 a map was nas made by nile hughel show ing the old mail and state roads I 1 the old road to burnt fork wyo and manila utah browns Brown park road and old road to anza in 1910 theodore johnson I 1 i made a map showing all the i roads in uintah county these and other maps are on file in the county court house early travelers came from wyoming and over that moun tain more than over the straw berry route and the eastern section of the state was under the ine direction of 01 the lne ine green river government until 1862 ahen wasatch county was creat kr ed cd r then n for 1 18 years v uintah uintah county was governed from iruin heber city it etwas was in 1880 that uintah uintah aiman county colty costy was vas created u the nn county seat established estabi shed at ashley in the administration of the county government the county commissioners had direct con troi over r the county oun road system until onui 1921 lul lui however however ver there lla oll was avus statutory provision for the separate office of county road commissioner missioner er special tax there was a special tax of two and a half mills levied to be used for maintenance and construction of county roads these and also the state roads were dirt and very rough being muddy in spring and fall dusty in n summer and blocked by snow in the winter both funds and equipment were limited it was wag a difficult task to keep the hc roads in useable condition the story is told by william mott that in 1905 when the reser was throw open the people were brought in by stage coach wagon horseback and even on n foot f the wagons were equipped with spring seats three rec and four to the outfit there were no covers over them and gd four horses were driven over the dry dusty roads when they finally reached vernal a distance of 64 miles from drag on it was almost impossible to tell which passengers were men and which were women travel at any time of year was a long slow process it took five to seven days to reach salt lake city with a team and even after lears cars cans were put on the mail routes and for passenger travel was one reason for this improve ments were made each year however and more equipment purchased until in 1938 a new provision was made in the state and uintah county was allocated approximately from the motor license fund for use on county roads was a great joost boost for the county and taxes vere acre were dropped to 17 17 mills and yet the county roads have been greatly improve ed may of them have been sur faced with asphaltum new roads have been constructed and all of them have been graded and put into good condition other roads in addition to the county roads of which there are irately 1200 miles uintah county has as miles of state roads and nearly 60 miles of fed eral cral h highway 40 these roads are maintained by the state and federal app ai governments there is one airport in uintah county having just been im proved through funds that were gathered from vernal city uin tah county the state and federal governments tr in addition to tn services Eer vices of the basin flying service daily passenger and freight flights are made by challenger airlines co |