Uinta County history

The county seat, Evanston became a division point on the railroad between Ogden, Utah, and Green River in 1870 and the largest community in the county.

The courthouse was built in 1874 and is the oldest functioning courthouse in the state.

Ashley Valley was not part of either reservation, and by 1880 enough ranchers and farmers had settled there that the territorial legislature created Uintah County, taking most of the land from Wasatch County.

Originally the Wyoming Insane Asylum, the hospital was established in 1887 by the Territorial Legislature on a 100-acre plot of land just south of downtown Evanston.

In about 1888 Gilsonite was discovered in various parts of the county and on the eastern portion of the Uncompahgre and Uintah reservations.

A post office was established at Mountain View in the Bridger Valley 1891.

The museum houses artifacts from Evanston's Chinese community, including a pair of carved wooden panels dating from 1896 that decorated the original structure.

In 1899, Lyman was founded nearby as a Mormon agricultural colony.

By 1913, the Lincoln Highway, a route comprising existing roads and trails between New York City and San Francisco, became the nation's first transcontinental automobile route.

In 1915, the University of Wyoming established a 200-acre experimental farm in the Bridger Valley just east of Lyman.

Used with permission and thanks.The black-and-white aerial photo of the UP roundhouse dates to about 1920 and is from the collection of the Uinta County Museum.

D., has worked as a historian and oral historian in Wyoming since 1991.