Wednesday, February 23, 2022
Utaw Lake
Posted By Babs De Lay on February 23, 2022, 4:00 AM
The first peoples in Utah were the Fremont and the Anasazi and then later the Northern Shoshone, Goshute, Bannock, Paiute and Ute peoples. Like the herds they followed for food, they migrated throughout the state during all types of weather.
White explorers encountered these tribes in the 1700s and 1800s. Fur trappers were the first whites to encounter Utah Lake and in the mid-1800s, Mormons began using its water and settling around its east and west shores.
Historians report that Brigham Young first sent a fishing party to the lake to see what species inhabited the water and then in 1850 established a permanent settlement near its shores named Fort Utah (in honor of the Utes living there), then later Fort Provo (after the well-known French-Canadian trapper, Etienne Proveau, who first saw the lake in 1825).
Utah Lake is a freshwater body on the west side of Interstate 15 in Utah County, about 30 miles long and 7 to 10 miles wide. Over the years it has been known as Ashley Lake, Little Uta Lake, Utaw Lake and Laguna de Nuestra Senora de la Merced de Timpanogos.
The most important use of the lake has always been to water crops and provide irrigation. And in the 1800s, water users wanted to make sure there was enough volume in the lake for late-season irrigation. In 1884 and 1885, Mormons got together and effectively set the level of the lake to control water use.
Fast forward some 60-odd years and Utah Valley saw the creation of a $200 million steel plant financed by the federal government to make sure that there would be enough steel to meet military supply needs. The plant opened in 1944, three years after the Japanese attacked Hawaii.
The plant operated for two years as a government facility and then was sold to U.S Steel for $47.5 million. It closed in 2001, the blast furnaces used to melt the product were demolished in 2005 and then in 2017, the master-planned community of Vineyard was announced. In 2020, the new city was the fastest-growing place in America, with a growth rate of 10,687%.
Now, developers have produced a grand plan to build islands in the lake for a mixed use of housing and business. The Legislature is looking at a myriad number of bills around water use and Utah Lake, including one to create an agency to oversee the management of Utah Lake.
While elected officials try to figure out how to save on water use during this decades-long drought and to get more water to the endangered Great Salt Lake, developers ("Lake Restoration Solutions") want to dredge the bottom of the Utah Lake so they can build 34 islands. They would remove layers of sludge made up of decades of sewer and industrial waste at the lake bottom, which could turn the notorious white, murky waters of Utah Lake into something cleaner.
Utah Lake water quality readings throughout the summer months are often bad enough to close beaches and prompt warnings along the Jordan River. The Utah Legislature ends March 4.
About The Author
Babs De Lay
A full-time broker/owner of Urban Utah Homes and Estates, Babs De Lay serves on the Salt Lake City Historic Landmark Commission. A writer and golfer, you'll find them working as a staff guardian at the Temple at Burning Man each year.
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