Lapoint is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in western

Uintah County Uintah County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 35,620. Its county seat and largest city is Vernal. The county was named for the portion of the Ute Indian tribe that lived in t ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States. As a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

, the population was 170 at the 2020 census.

Description

The community lies along State Route 121, just inside the

Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation The Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation (, ) is located in northeastern Utah, United States. It is the homeland of the Ute Indian Tribe (Ute dialect: Núuchi-u), and is the largest of three Indian reservations inhabited by members of the Ute Trib ...

, and west of the city of Vernal (the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Uintah County). Deep Creek, a tributary of the Uinta River flow southwest through Lapoint. The community's elevation is . Although Lapoint is unincorporated, it has a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, with the ZIP code of 84039. Originally named ''Taft'' in honor of

William Howard Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

, its name was changed to ''Lapoint'' since it lies on a southward-jutting spur or "point" of the

Uinta Mountains The Uinta Mountains ( ) are an east-west trending mountain range in northeastern Utah extending a short distance into northwest Colorado and slightly into southwestern Wyoming in the United States. As a subrange of the Rocky Mountains, they are u ...

Climate

According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Lapoint has a

semi-arid climate A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of se ...

, abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps.

Notable people

Lane Frost Lane Clyde Frost (October 12, 1963 – July 30, 1989) was an American professional rodeo cowboy who specialized in bull riding, and competed in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA). He was the 1987 PRCA World Champion bull rider ...

(1963-1989), world champion professional rodeo bull rider, hall of fame inductee *

Shawn Bradley Shawn Paul Bradley (born March 22, 1972) is a German-American former professional basketball player. A center, he was drafted with the second pick in the 1993 NBA draft and played for the Philadelphia 76ers, New Jersey Nets, and Dallas Maverick ...

Shawn Paul Bradley is a German-American former professional basketball player who played center for the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, also known colloquially as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlan ...

New Jersey Nets New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

and

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Divisi ...

of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

Archaeology

Lapoint was settled on top of a significant Fremont archaeological site known as "Caldwell Village", after the property on which it was found, excavated in 1966 by John Richard Ambler. The site comprised "22 pithouses, nine pits, seven borrow pits, two isolated hearths, nine human burials, two dog burials, and an irrigation ditch," with artifacts including "over 5,000 pottery sherds, 14 restorable vessels, several thousand ground and chipped stone artifacts, over 400 bone, antler and shell artifacts and a few perishable artifacts." A radiocarbon date of 520 AD +/- 70 years was documented from a charred roof timber at one site, however, dating of the pottery traditions suggests an occupation period of 1050 - 1200 AD. The surface of the site was almost entirely destroyed by agricultural plowing and today there are no extant remains visible.

References

External links