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Little Mountain
The Little Mountain claim is found at the summit of the Emigration
Canyon Road
between Emigration Canyon and Mountain Dell. The paved road that
is being
claimed begins just past a locked gate and provides access to several
different
privately owned facilities. These facilities include
communication
towers, an oil pipeline owned by Chevron, and a natural gas pipeline
owned by
Questar. Between the gate at the beginning of the claim and the
gate at
the end (which is also locked), the road is in fairly good
condition.
Beyond the gate, past what is being claimed in the list submitted by
the
county, the pavement ends. From here a double track dirt road continues
up the
ridge line.
"The
right-of-way for the construction of highways over the public
lands not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted."
Construction:
"Means an intentional physical act or series of intentional physical
acts
that were intended to, and that accomplished, preparation of a highway
by a
durable, observable, physical modification of land for use by highway
traffic."
This road is paved, with
locked gates at each end. It
travels only a short distance from the Emigration Canyon road, and
provides
access to private facilities on Little Mountain.
Highway:
"Means a thoroughfare that was prior to the latest available date used
by
the public, without discrimination against any individual or group, for
the
passage of vehicles carrying people or goods from place to place."
This road is not open to
public access. Only those
with keys to the locks can drive beyond the gate.
Unreserved
public lands: "lands owned by the United States...that had not
yet
been set aside, dedicated, withdrawn, reserved, settled, preempted,
entered,
appropriated, or disposed of, or on which claims had not been located."
Presumably this road was
constructed with the first pipeline
over Little Mountain in the 1920's. The land that it is on would
have
already been reserved as part of the Wasatch National Forest by this
time.
The
history of travel over Little Mountain dates back to the time of the
Donner-Reed Party. This ill-fated group of pioneers was the first
to
travel over Little Mountain and down Emigration Canyon on their journey
to
California. Not long after the Donner-Reed party came through the
area,
the Mormon Pioneers, led by Brigham Young, moved into the Salt Lake
Valley by
way of the same route. For many years to follow, this trail over
Little
Mountain served as the primary route into the Salt Lave Valley.
Due to the
topography of Little Mountain where this claim is located, it is
unlikely that
the road that is currently being claimed was part of the original trail
into
the valley. It seems more plausible that the road was constructed
to
provide access to the oil and gas pipelines that pass over Little
Mountain. The first of these to be constructed was the gas
line. It
was put in place in 1929, followed the construction of an oil line in
1938 and
another gas line in 1949.
Adams, George.
Employee of Chevron. Conversation
on September 26, 2005.
Engleby, Dave.
Right-of-Way Department, Questar.
Conversation on August 30, 2005.
Salt Lake County
Surveyor’s Office. “The Bible” - Book of
maps (sheets 25A & 4B), accompanied by a book of field notes. Specific date of maps unknown – most likely
from the 1890’s.
U.S. Department of
Agriculture. Aerial photos of Little
Mountain taken in
1946. Found at the Salt Lake County
Archives.
U.S. Forest Service.
Right-of-way easement granted to Chevron for the construction of
a oil
pipeline across Forest Service land. May,
1948.
Map of the Little Mountain
Claim
Little
Mountain aerial photo (pdf 2.0 MB):
Photo taken
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1946. The photo shows
the
general area of the Little Mountain road claim.
Easement
for an oil pipeline on Little Mountain (pdf 1.4 MB): A
special use permit from the U.S. Forest Service granted to Chevron for
the
construction of an oil pipeline on Little Mountain. This easement
was
granted in May, 1948.