Rural USA is made up of thousands of small groups of people living in small cities or towns. They fill the space in between the big urban cities in every state. Most of them are much alike, having the same problems and the same dramas being played out as their neighbors at any given time. I am sure you would recognize some of the people in these towns because every small town has its own "town drunk", its own "town gossip", "town know-it-all" "town busy body", etc... These cities and towns were formed for any one of a thousand reasons or for no apparent reason at all. Myton had a reason to be borne. The reason was the bridge that was built by the Buffalo soldiers from Fort Duchesne in the late 1800's to transport supplies to the Fort from the railroad at Price, Utah.

Myton city is not your traditional Mormon colonized community, but in this year 1997, when citizens of Utah are being asked to pay homage to the pioneers that settled the state, it is fitting and proper that the pioneers that settled Myton be honored and remembered as well.

The pioneers that settled Myton, like the Saints, traveled many miles under the same adverse conditions, leaving much behind them. Why they did this is still to me an unanswered question. Many of them left fine homes and paved streets to come to this barren, undeveloped country, that as Brigham Young’s settlement scouts reported " was a vast contiguity of waste… valueless except for nomadic purposes, hunting grounds for Indians and to hold the world together". Most of the early settlers of Myton were men and their families that had originally been appointed to some government position pertaining to the Indian Reservation. The area had been set aside as a reservation right after the settlement scouts had been here. The Military people here feared that the Mormons were going to try to settle the area and thus made it into a reservation to prevent this. Many of the military men in the area had previously been stationed at Ft. Douglas in Salt Lake to enforce the " no polygamy " law and there was very bad feelings between the Mormons and the Military, so the unsuspecting people in early Myton kind of got caught in the middle of this private war.

Long before the Homestead Act in 1905, the community of Myton was called " The Bridge", since the post office in Salt Lake sent all mail to The Bridge in the Uintah Basin. Later in 1903 an official post office was established and a former government employee, H.P. Myton, was appointed as Post master and all mail was the sent to The Myton Post Office and the town was called Myton. He stayed just long enough to get the town named after him and then returned to Salt Lake. He was replaced by H.C. Calvert, who had moved from Whiterocks, where he had been Indian Trader ( appointed by the government ) since 1885. He became Indian Trader in Myton in 1902. When Mr. Calvert arrived in Myton in 1902 with his family, his was the only white family in the area. The other white man in the area, Mr. Addis ( appointed by the government as the government farmer) had no family. His job was to teach the Indians how to farm.

Mr. R.E. Waugh was another prominent citizen of early Myton. He moved here after the soldiers were removed from Ft. Duchesne. His father was the first appointed Indian Agent, appointed by President Harrison, over the Uintah, Ouray and Whiterocks agencies. He worked for the Currys at Ouray and was later Indian Trader at Ft. Duchesne. It is said that Mr. Waughs influence kept the soldiers at Ft. Duchesne long after they were needed, by convincing the Federal Government that the Indians were a huge threat to the citizens of the Basin. It took the government awhile to realize that the threat was to the "economy" of the Basin, for the soldiers got a regular paycheck which they spent in the Basin , and supplies were needed to feed the 300 or more troops which were bought from the residents of the area. In fact, if it had not been for Federal money coming from Ft. Duchesne and the military there, the Basin ( and Myton ) may not have survived those first few years.

H.G. Clark was another former government employee who went on to become a resident of Myton. A.M. Todd was a government surveyor who stayed on. Many came in to work on the canal system the government was putting in to irrigate the Indian allotments, stayed on to homestead. It is probably safe to say that the population of early Myton, which was the largest town in the area in 1908, was 90% "Gentile", as the Mormons called any one that was not a Mormon. And to make us look worse in their eyes, most were or had been, affiliated with the government in some capacity.

The colonization leaders, were sent out when The Homestead Act was passed to gain control of the area for their people. Many of these leaders were still smarting from the Edmonds-Tucker Act that had been so devastating to the residents of Salt Lake. They had no love for the military or the government in general. So they began the colonization of the area with an intense zeal against all but the " chosen Ones".

A very calculated, well organized plan was begun to assure that " The day would come when nothing but Jack Rabbits and Tumble weeds would be seen on Myton’s main street". This became known as the Mormon Curse or the Myton Curse. Step by step they gained control of water ( Dry Gulch Assn.), newspapers, location of the high schools and their superintendents, location of the County Seat and finally saw the demise of the Myton State Bank. This pretty much ended Myton’s reign as the number one town in the basin. A direct quote from the Journal of William H. Smart, President of the Duchesne County Stake at that time, about says it all; " Every thing has a place - even Myton. I an not at enmity with her, but am willing to accord her all that, of right, belongs to her - but she must learn her place".

So you might say we have been working at quite a disadvantage for the past ninety years. Yet this place, half forgotten, much over looked, is woven, like a vivid thread, through the tapestry of all our families lives. Here our ancestors settled even before it was an official town and here many of them remain today. I have always said that I married Myton when I married my husband in 1946. I think the only way I will be divorced from Myton is when I am laid to rest in the peaceful Myton cemetery. Once you allow yourself to become involved in the city, you are hooked. Its like being a parent to a child. You are always over protective and ever watchful of its interests. You will always feel a special concern for the area even though you are miles away, and more especially if you are here. You are not free to let go. You are its mentor and it is your responsibility. This is my legacy or curse, however you look at it.

When I became Mayor of Myton and began going to various meetings around the state, wearing little name tags that proclaimed I was from Myton, Utah, everywhere I would go people would ask, "Where in the Hell is Myton?" Sometimes they did not actually say Hell, but it was always implied. After careful deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that to the best of my knowledge, Myton has never been officially designated as Hell as we believe it to be.