Roosevelt

The biggest town in the Uintah Basin is named for the president who opened it to settlement. In 1905, the year Roosevelt's proclamation threw the Ute reservation open to homesteaders, they poured in, and a townsite was platted the next year at the basin's center. They called it Roosevelt. A mercantile, a school, a flour mill, and an irrigation company followed in short order. It grew into the basin's commercial heart — a settlers' town, raised on land that had lately been promised to the Ute, and carrying the name of the man who took it back.

What the plaque says

In 1905 William H. Smart, Uintah Stake President, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, supervised the colonization of reservation homesteaders. Ephraim Lambert was appointed bishop. Dry Gulch Irrigation Co. organized, R.S. Collett, President in 1906 townsite, in center of Uintah Basin, platted by Edgar F. Harmston, Ward E. Pack and J.C. Holmes; Roosevelt Mercantile built, Joseph Hardy, manager. School began 1907, N.C. Cable, teacher. First flour mill built by C.C. Larsen.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Fort Robidoux — 5.7 mi
• Northern Ute Veterans Memorial — 6.3 mi
• Fort Duchesne — 7.4 mi
• Settlement of Neola — 10 mi