Carter Road

The Carter Road, named after Judge William A. Carter, constructed in 1881 and 1882, and used by the Army until 1884 is significant due to its association with military and transportation history. It is important in military history because as a supply route it was used to provision the first military post established to guard the Uintah and Ouray reservation, home to the remaining Utes of Utah and western Colorado.

The entire road originally ran from Fort Thornburgh to Fort Bridger at a distance of about 86 miles. This nomination covers the portion of the Carter Road that crosses the Ashley National Forest, approximately 36 miles. After the closure of Fort Thornburgh in 1884, the Army no longer used the road. However, Carter Road continued to be used by the residents of the area until about 1924. It was the principal route between Daggett and Uintah Counties during that period.

The road’s current condition is sketchy with most of the route impassable except by foot. Some evidence of its construction and route is still visible in the form of lodgepole corduroying, dugways, and various sites along the route. These extant roadway features located within the Ashley National Forest adequately convey the historic nature and character of the larger historic road corridor. Passing through some of the most difficult topography along the roadway’s route, the nominated portions convey the difficult nature of early road development in northeastern Utah during the historic period, reveal important aspects of historic road engineering technology, and represent the least disturbed components still visible on the local landscape

The Carter Road was added to the National Historic Register (#00000354) on May 21, 2001. The text on this page is from the nomination form from when it was added.

Need for a Military Preserve

a Military Preserve In 1881, the Utah Territory still had only a small population, mostly scattered along the Wasatch Front in towns of orderly Mormon design. Heber City was the eastern edge of civilized territorial settlement, a good two-day ride from the Wasatch Front. Almost no non-Indians lived east of Heber City except a few sheepherders and cattlemen who trespassed on the large Ute reservation set aside by President Lincoln and Congress in the early 1860s.

Most of the Uinta Basin, Colorado Plateau, and the western half of Colorado were virtually unsettled by whites. This area of rich natural resources adequately supported several bands of Ute Indians. The whites, attracted by these resources, began to encroach on the Utes’ large range, leading to confrontations that became increasingly hostile.

At the White River Indian Agency (now Meeker, Colorado), Ute bands became resentful of Indian Agent Nathan Cook Meeker’s attempts to reform them into an agriculturally based society. Fearing for his life, Meeker sought assistance from the military in September of 1879. Major Thomas T. Thornburgh and a column of four companies (190 men) were sent from Ft. Steele, Wyoming, to assist Meeker. Upon entering the reservation, the column was attacked by more than seven hundred mounted Utes. 3 Sixteen soldiers died, including Thornburgh, and forty-three were wounded. At the same time, Meeker and ten other employees were killed at the agency. As a result of these battles, the Ute bands involved, and other bands – including Chief Ouray’s Uncompaghres from western Colorado – were forced onto the Uintah Reservation, joining Chief Tabiona’s band from the Uintah Basin.

Ashley Valley residents were already concerned about their safety after Custer’s defeat in 1876 and the recent fighting in western Colorado. In 1881, Fort Thornburgh was established at the mouth of the Ashley Canyon, just northwest of present-day Vernal. The army’s mission was to keep the Utes on the reservation. The fort’s location was uncomfortably remote, given the recent bloodshed. It was several days march from Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, and more from Denver or other help in Colorado. Only about one hundred white settlers lived in the Ashley Valley, mostly cattlemen attracted to the area by lush grazing lands on the flanks of the Uinta Mountains.