| Show dry gulch irrigation company story is history of Roose A R L 1 veIts al dry gulch company opened up 11 to cultivation square atiles of virgin territory more aromi prominent prom nent in the development of the middle section lectia of the uintah basin that large valley between fort duchesne on the east cast lake fork on the west the I 1 uintah mountains ains on the north i nd iid id matoi on the south known in the early days as the dry fulch valley was the dry gulch irrigation company made up angely of a 9 group of homestead i i era ars on land in in the uintah basin who got tog together ethor in september Septen of 1905 and plans for an or ia a illation to develop many of the acres of land which were filed on when the reservation was thrown open that fall the first meeting was held field in myton on september 1905 and a number of local land de it companies and homesteads were ere by jo josph R murdock of bleb heber er city P n S i bollett 0 ilett of vern vernal al ceorl goodpa D Alo ikley of vernal IL 11 J I 1 larding harding of vernal and J al roseberry nho owned a homestead nir mar fort duchene A number of afi meetings followed both in vernal I 1 i and myton and finally on november 28 1905 artic es of 1 tion lion wore were accepted and officers were chosen this meeting took place at the office of ed F harmston then located in vernal it 11 i S collett was the first preside nl and J G holmes vice president on the board of directors i in ii i addition to the above named officers were george D merkley 11 II J larding harding J W roseberry georgei georg 1 W fell and hyrum bairn 1 J meagher was appointed tica surer and J al roseberry Rosc borry secretary the purpose of the company as stated in the articles of incorporation was to en engage age in acquiring ownership of ans and title to the right to use waters of the uintah river in wasatch and uintah counties and the lake fork and duchesne rivers ii i i wasatch counties and from other creeks streams springs and reservoirs in the vicinity of the uintah and lake fork rivers and for the purpose of the con struxton ton of canals reservoirs ant am the distribution of water to the several stockholders lands ni first stockholders the first compa company ay iy was organized for a period of twenty five years and its first stockholders were R S collett 1000 sl shares 1 arcs john glen of vernal 1000 shares sha res ed F harmston of vernal 1066 1000 shares hares 3 hyrum baird of ogden 1000 shares george D merkley herbert and john N dajohn al roseberry shares share shares sold at ten cents and the first principal place of business was in vernal by april of 1903 approximate ly shares of stock had ben sold and a camp of surveyors wa established o on oi i the ed F harmati Harm sti lead how the business dis brict lf if i f roosevelt and surveying of canale began on may 15 1906 the fir first I stocal hollers meeting was held and ahr first officers were elected by stuk holders they were C L bailey and R S collett president zaid nd vice president and 0 the board of directors were H J I 1 larding J M rosebery J U D J G holmes and Willi art 11 lawrence most of whom haj honit in this vicinity at this meeting it was decided to levy labor assessments for con st vork nork on the canals and the they agreed to pay a man and i for an eight hour day later anti r this was changed to a nin h hour single hands received 2 25 per day and with extra lor for the foreman of gangs heo l carpenters received per day and so far as possible only stockholders were to be employed ed F harmston was elected chief engineer and R S collett superintendent in of construction enlarge canal the first job of the company was to enlarge the original canal no I 1 efte extending iding from the uintah river to crescent which was constructed ted by the indian department before the origin of the dry gulch company and to extend it to inde pen pend drice nce those who were employed on this job were ed F harmston chief engineer craig harm ston fr frank ank Gu buchert Guch chert crt charles lorg iorg edward C harmston Han doc dec workman patrick 11 miller beadnor bailey and G william fell durin during the next f few ew years many miles of canals a and nd la literals laterals late rals were w e r C constructed colstr lit c tm the compa iy ay grew to be the he largest mutually owned irrigation c company in the united states and extended over an ar area C a of s square quare miles the men who worked on these canals and la literals laterals late teras rals u all kinds kind of hardships hardship S most of them wore poor homesteaders trying to eke out a living on undeveloped land and their only hope lay in the development of an irrigation irr gation 1 system bread and potatoes was often their only diet for weeks at a time tima there was no santa claus in the form of franklin fraklin D roosevelt to make irrigation and water storage projects in those days a reality craig harms i balki talking w on the early history of the company said the reservation was thrown open to white settlers in september 1905 but they did not start starl coming in until the spring of the following year in january ja auary 1906 craig Ilar II armston nIon recalls i that the only caly land under cultivation in the entire dry gulch valley was the gorn government ment farm the remainder was all virgin territory the dry gulch irrigate i company opened up this great ecat section which could never have been dona don by individuals or small groups because of the cost of construction st of canals and laterals literals late rals at the present time there are abut 35 n miles les of main ca baals bals and over miles of laterals literals late rals and sub laterals literals late rals under the dry gulch company and tills this year its waters irrigated crop acrea which is small compared to the tha acres under cultivation a few fe years ago presidents of the dry gulch irrigation company following C L bailey in 1906 were john N davis davi 1907 owe i bennion osos to 1911 ephraim lambert 1912 to 1914 owen bennion in 1915 J austin pack 1916 to 1923 W il II stone 1921 1924 1 to 1926 E H dul duless burgess ess 1 1927 to 1928 C W smith imo 1923 and aid a id and john H haslem 1936 to tile the and john H haslem to uie ne pres at nt |
