Delle, Utah

Last updated
Delle
Ghost town
Delle, Utah EB I-80.jpg
The few buildings at Delle, as viewed from eastbound I-80 off ramp, February 2008
USA Utah location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Delle
Location of Delle in Utah
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Delle
Delle (the United States)
Coordinates: 40°45′36″N112°46′39″W / 40.76000°N 112.77750°W / 40.76000; -112.77750 Coordinates: 40°45′36″N112°46′39″W / 40.76000°N 112.77750°W / 40.76000; -112.77750
Country United States
State Utah
County Tooele
Settled1880 (1880)
Elevation
[1]
4,258 ft (1,298 m)
GNIS feature ID1437542 [1]

Delle [1] is a small unincorporated community on the northern end of the Skull Valley in northeast Tooele County, Utah, United States, along Interstate 80 near the Bonneville Salt Flats. [2] The town has never had more than a few residents and has served primarily as a filling station along the I-80 corridor (and U.S. Route 40 corridor before it). Since the completion of the freeway, the town has essentially become a ghost town.

Contents

History

Delle was established in 1880 as a railroad village along the Western Pacific line, primarily as a water depot for steam engines in preparation for the trek across the famous salt flats. It was originally named Dalles Spring, from a French word referring to water, but railroad personnel later shortened the name for telegraphic efficiency. [3] It possessed a water tower, a reservoir, and numerous homes where railroad employees and their families resided from at least 1920 until 1940. The inhabitants were primarily Irish, Scot and Greek immigrants. Water was obtained from springs located as far as 12 miles (19 km) away in nearby mountains (Delle Ranch located along the east bench of Skull Valley being the primary) and piped to the site. After diesel powered engines were introduced, Delle continued as a site station for railroad employees in charge of track upkeep between Wendover, Utah and Salt Lake City. As of the 1950 United States Census, the population was 174. [4]

During the 1950s a gas station and small motel were constructed. The railroad homes were demolished, and the railroad abandoned the site.

Delle was owned by local businessman Karl William Winsness, Jr. for most of the 1970s, and water was hauled in by truck from Grantsville. Karl was injured in a propane explosion while remodeling the motel and cafe in the early 1980s.

Interesting "artwork" watching over I-80 at Delle, November 2007 Watching over I-80 at Delle, Utah, Nov 07.jpg
Interesting "artwork" watching over I-80 at Delle, November 2007

In 1999, the frontage road on the southwest side of I-80, from the Delle Interchange (Exit 70) northwest to the Low/Lakeside Interchange (Exit 62), as well nearly 7 miles (11 km) of county and BLM roads southwest the frontage road, were all designated as Utah State Route 900 (SR-900), a Statewide Public Safety Interest Highway. [5] The purpose of this designation (and for the similarly created Utah State Route 901) was to prevent the construction of rail spur from Union Pacific Railroad's Shafter Subdivision (ex-Western Pacific Railroad), to the Skull Valley Indian Reservation. This proposed rail spur would be necessary for the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe to carryout its plans to store 40,000 tons of nuclear waste on the reservation. By creating the Statewide Public Safety Interest Highways, the Utah Department of Transportation would have to give permission to construct the rail spur, something adamantly opposed by the Utah state government. [6] [7] Despite the designation as a state route, the roadways included as part of SR-900 were expressly intended to remain in their current, mostly unpaved, status and "may not be upgraded or improved to a higher class of highway". [5]

See also

Related Research Articles

Tooele County, Utah County in Utah, United States

Tooele County is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 58,218. Its county seat and largest city is Tooele. The county was created in 1850 and organized the following year.

Tooele, Utah City in Utah, United States

Tooele is a city in Tooele County in the U.S. state of Utah. The population was 35,742 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Tooele County. Located approximately 30 minutes southwest of Salt Lake City, Tooele is known for Tooele Army Depot, for its views of the nearby Oquirrh Mountains and the Great Salt Lake.

The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:

Goshute

The Goshutes are a tribe of Western Shoshone Native Americans. There are two federally recognized Goshute tribes today:

Utah and Northern Railway

The Utah & Northern Railway is a defunct railroad that was operated in the Utah Territory and later in the Idaho Territory and Montana Territory in the western United States during the 1870s and 1880s. It was the first railroad in Idaho and in Montana.

Transportation in Salt Lake City consists of a wide network of roads, an extensive bus system, a light rail system, and a commuter rail line. Although Salt Lake City, Utah is a traditionally car-oriented city, the rapidly growing public transit system has a high number of riders for a city of its size, and public transit is widely supported by its residents and businesses.

Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation Indian reservation in Utah and Nevada, United States

The Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation is located in Juab County, Utah, Tooele County, Utah, and White Pine County, Nevada, United States. It is one of two federally recognized tribes of Goshute people, the other being the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah.

Mountain View Corridor State highway in Utah and Salt Lake counties in Utah, United States

The Mountain View Corridor is a freeway under construction in northern Utah that will run along the western periphery of Salt Lake County and south into northwest Utah County. Except for the last several miles on its southern end the Mountain View Corridor is numerically designated as State Route 85 (SR-85) in the Utah state highway system. The entire Mountain View Corridor will be maintained by the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT).

The Skull Valley Indian Reservation is located in Tooele County, Utah, United States, approximately 45 miles (72 km) southwest of Salt Lake City. It is inhabited by the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians of Utah, a federally recognized tribe. The population includes approximately 31 people in 7 households and is characterized by a high incidence of poverty.

Deseret Peak Wilderness Wilderness area in the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest in Tooele County, Utah, United States

The Deseret Peak Wilderness is located in the Stansbury Mountains of Tooele County, Utah, United States near the towns of Tooele and Grantsville, not far from the Great Salt Lake. It is part of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. This semi-arid wilderness is part of the Great Basin ecosystem. Elevations range from about 6,000 feet to the top of Deseret Peak's limestone escarpment at 11,031 feet (3,362 m). In this high country, with barren Skull Valley to the west, you'll find some springs and intermittent creeks, despite the general dryness of the area.

Interstate 80 (I-80) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey. The portion of the highway in the U.S. state of Utah is 196.35-mile-long (315.99 km), through the northern part of the state. From west to east, I-80 crosses the state line from Nevada in Tooele County and traverses the Bonneville Salt Flats—which are a part of the larger Great Salt Lake Desert. It continues alongside the Wendover Cut-off—the corridor of the former Victory Highway—U.S. Route 40 (US-40) and the Western Pacific Railroad Feather River Route. After passing the Oquirrh Mountains, I-80 enters the Salt Lake Valley and Salt Lake County. A short portion of the freeway is concurrent with I-15 through Downtown Salt Lake City. At the Spaghetti Bowl, I-80 turns east again into the mouth of Parley's Canyon and Summit County, travels through the mountain range and intersects the eastern end of I-84 near Echo Reservoir before turning northeast towards the Wyoming border near Evanston. I-80 was built along the corridor of the Lincoln Highway and the Mormon Trail through the Wasatch Range. The easternmost section also follows the historical routes of the First Transcontinental Railroad and US-30S.

Wendover Cut-off Highway in Utah

The Wendover Cut-off, also called the Wendover Road or Wendover Route, is a two-lane highway in the western part of Tooele County in the U.S. state of Utah. Stretching 40.3 miles (64.9 km) from Wendover to Knolls across the Bonneville Salt Flats, a part of the Great Salt Lake Desert, the cut-off was once part of the primary link between the Nevada state line and Salt Lake City. In 2012, between 240 and 250 vehicles used the cut-off near its western terminus in Wendover on an average day.

State Route 196 is a north-south state highway located entirely in Tooele County, Utah that begins at SR-199 and ends at I-80. It passes through Skull Valley, and was added to the state highway system in 1998 to prevent the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians from using their reservation to store nuclear waste.

Gosiute dialect Dialect of the Shoshoni language

Gosiute is a dialect of the endangered Shoshoni language historically spoken by the Goshute people of the American Great Basin in modern Nevada and Utah. Modern Gosiute speaking communities include the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation and the Skull Valley Band of Goshute Indians.

Stansbury Mountains Mountain range in Tooele County, Utah, United States

The Stansbury Mountains are a 28-mile (45 km) long mountain range located in eastern Tooele County, Utah. It is named for U.S. Army Major Howard Stansbury, a topographical engineer, who led an expedition that surveyed the region.

State Route 199 (SR-199) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Utah. Spanning 21.96 miles (35.34 km), it connects SR-196 and the Dugway Proving Ground with SR-36 between Rush Valley and the Deseret Chemical Depot.

Low is a ghost town in northern Tooele County, Utah, United States.

Tekoi Rocket Test Range, or Tekoi, is a former solid fuel rocket motor test and calibration site operated by Hercules Aerospace near the Utah Test and Training Range in Utah's West Desert, approximately 80 miles (130 km) west of Salt Lake City, Utah. It is located on the Goshute's Skull Valley Indian Reservation.

Private Fuel Storage LLC (PFS) was a nuclear power industry consortium organized to manage spent spent nuclear fuel based in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The plan was to store it above-ground in dry casks on the Goshute's Skull Valley Indian Reservation, Tooele County, Utah. It was withdrawn in 2012.

References

  1. 1 2 3 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Delle
  2. ↑ MyTopo Maps - Delle, Tooele County, UT, United States (Map). Trimble Navigation, Ltd. Retrieved 15 Nov 2017.
  3. ↑ Van Cott, John W. (1990). Utah Place Names. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. p. 107. ISBN   0-87480-345-4.
  4. ↑ "Census of Population and Housing". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 8 Feb 2006. Retrieved 20 Oct 2011– via web.archive.org.
  5. 1 2 "Route 900" (PDF). udot.utah.gov. Utah Department of Transportation. Dec 2008 [February 11,1999]. Retrieved 16 Nov 2017.
  6. ↑ Hebert, H. Josef (27 Jun 2006). "Store nuclear waste on reservation? Tribe split: Utah leaders also join battle, seek to block shipments". nbcnews.com. New York: NBCNews.com. Associated Press . Retrieved 12 Nov 2017.
  7. ↑ Van Eyck, Zack (15 Feb 1999). "Utah takes over 2 Tooele roads. Action aims to block Goshute N-waste plans". Deseret News . Salt Lake City: Deseret Digital Media . Retrieved 16 Nov 2017.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to Delle, Utah at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.