Blanding, Utah - San Juan County, Utah

San Juan County, Utah

Blanding is the seco.xl incorporated town of the county. While it is one cf the newest settlements, yet its location and natural advantages for a city were so apparent that it has attracted the wealthiest people of our to its cofines for residence, and within the past eight years has grown from a straggling hamlet of a few tent houses to a little city of some 1,100 inhabitants. Blanding has the advantage of the other towns of the county in many respects. In the first place it did not come into existance through the accumulation of a few ranch houses to a town, but was conceived <ind laid out as such in its inception by some of the old settlers who, seeing In the location a place where a city could be built with all the modern ad- "vantages, surveyed it out with broad streets, having in mind at all times its future growth. From the very first it was decided that no temporary or shoddy looking buildings should be erected, and the result is that a com- Tnunity pride was at once engendered and today there is no town of its size in the state which can beast more tastily constructed and permanent looking residences or stores. The residence lots were laid out in acre tracts, and today beautiful and spacious lawns, surrounded by ornamental shade and fruit trees give it the appearance of being a town of much greater age than it i-eally is. At first the fences were built to the street line so that livestock would not injure the growing shade trees, and as these have attained sufficient growth the fences have been moved back and splendid sidewalks "have been laid so that now one would suppose when walking the streets that lie was in one of the old settlements of the middle states.

The location of the town is on the upper or north end of what is known as White Mesa, a tableland sloping toward the San Juan river from the southern end of the Blue mountains, and upon whose level xpanse two large canals bring the ever melting snows of the mountains to its fields and orchards. These two canals were designed to water some 15,000 acres, and can. be enlarged as time warrants and means are found to construct storage reservoirs, until the whole mesa, composing some 35,000 acres will be covered. At present the waving fields of alfalfa and orchards on the farms give absolute assurance that in time this spot so blessed by nature will more than fullfill the Bible prophecy of the desert blossoming as the roes.

Ezekiel Johnson Blanding, Utah

county, and is the main outfitting point for sightseers to the Natural Bridges which lie some forty miles to the west. It is on the line of the Federal Post Road which is being built into the county, and will be a main stopping place for tourists going through, when our roads are connected with those of th',- ?outhv.'p«tern part of the state.

The people of t^ie town have recently erected a meeting house at a cost of over $50,000 where they may all meet to worship the creator on Sundays or for amusement or intellectual advancement during week days. It has good grade and high schools, water works and electric lights for the comfort of its inhabitants and is supplied with stores, jfarage, flour mill and all other town facilities which may be needed by its inhabitants or by travelers or traders who enter its precincts.

All of the towns and most of the community centers are connected with telephone service, and either daily or tri-weekly mail service, which is the case in the community centers.

Good automobile roads connect every settlement with the county seat as well as the other towns of the county. There is being built into the county from the main line of the D. &. R. G. railroad on the north, a government post road, while daily truck service connects Monticello with the railroad at Dolores, Colo., during the summer months. The state of Colorado is now expending $30,000 on the grading of a road from Dolores, to the Utah state line, which will give an excellent highway to within twenty miles of Monticello, and which will be met by San Juan County with an equally good road just as soon as it can be accomplished. The completion of this road by the two states will give eastern auto tourists who visit the Mesa Verde National Park, a splendid highway over which to travel to the gi'eat Salt Lake, connecting them with the interstate highways to the Pacific coast, or permit them to make a circle through the great intermountain basin to the Yellowstone park before returning to their eastern homes. It will also make it easy for sightseers who wish to take side trips to the wonderland of southtastern Utah to drive their cars in speed and comfort to the various outfitting points of Bluff, Blanding or Monticello, from where they may procure guides to - the various places of interest.