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Huntington, Utah |
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| Huntington, Utah, United States, is the largest city in Emery County. Huntington is located in northwestern Emery County near the mouth of a long canyon that cuts diagonally into the Wasatch Plateau. Emery county is 4451.85 Square Miles. The city is bisected by the Huntington Creek. In 1880 a mile-square townsite was surveyed on the Prickly Pear Flat, a bench south and west of the creek. The first structure erected on the new townsite was a 40-foot by 60-foot log meetinghouse, which was completed in time for an all-night New Year's Eve party on 31 December 1880. | ||
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Huntington Canyon Mts * Beaver dam/Huntington Ck * Bear Creek & Huntington Ck * Huntington Lake State Park |
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| The town of Huntington is named after Huntington Creek and Creek was probably named for William, Oliver, and Dimick Huntington, brothers who led exploring parties into the region during the 1850s. Dimick Baker Huntington, (1808-1879), shoemaker, constable, Indian interpreter, blacksmith; born at Watertown, Jefferson County New York. Married Fannie Maria Allen, 1830. Converted to Mormonism, 1835. Dimick made shoes for Joseph Smith. Huntington was also a Coroner and constable at Nauvoo, Illinois. Constable at Far West, Missouri. Enlisted with the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War. Arrived in Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Helped establish settlements in Utah and Sanpete counties. Accompanied Parley Pratt on exploring expedition to southern Utah, 1850. Participated in Indian fights at Battle Creek and Provo; served as interpreter among Great Basin Indians. Dimick died in Salt Lake City. | ||
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| The first settlers of European extraction in the area were four stockmen, Leander Lemmon, James McHadden, Bill Gentry, and Alfred Starr, who brought their herds to Huntington Creek in 1875, for grazing. The Huntington-Fairview Canyon Pass, the summit's highest Point is 9880ft. In the fall of 1877, in response to the same "call" from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that brought settlers to the other creeks in Castle Valley, a small group from Fairview, Utah, under the leadership of Elias Cox, established a dugout colony on the banks of Huntington Creek and began digging irrigation canals. The colony grew from 126 in 1880 to 738 in 1890 and 1,293 in 1910. A majority of the early settlers came from Sanpete Valley, which by the late 1870s had outgrown its irrigable land, and many belonged to three or four interrelated kinship groups, making for an abundance of cousins in the community. | ||
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| Summit U31 looking down at Fairview | Log Dugout Home | Wood Plank Huntington Home |
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| Most of the townsite was
without water until the completion of the Huntington Canal in 1882. Settlers
drew town lots and built homes in town as they proved up on their homesteads. The first homes, some of which were still occupied until recent years, were
typically of sawed log or plank construction or of adobe sheathed with
lumber. The erection of a new LDS meetinghouse in 1896 inaugurated a
twenty-year building boom that saw the completion of many brick homes,
schools, and commercial buildings. Huntington's early economic base was agriculture and stock raising. Alfalfa seed was an important cash crop at the turn of the century, and honey produced by local apiarist Christian Ottesen won first prize at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1903. Huntington has drawn its main income from coal mining. Small "wagon mines" in Huntington Canyon provided limited employment. wikipedia The coal companies these days have many huge double dump, covered semi trucks on the highways of Utah. |
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| By having the coal companies in the area, we have a nice health clinic, staffed with three medical personnel and a modern hospital in Price, Utah. We have several grocery stores and gas stations in the towns of Huntington and Castle Dale. The coal we have around here is different than the coal my folks used in Missouri in the 1940s. Utah coal comes in large shiny chunks and my hands don't get all dusty. | ||
