Oasis is 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 ...

in northeastern

Millard County Millard County ( ) is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 12,975. Its county seat is Fillmore, Utah, Fillmore, and the largest city is Delta, Utah, Delta. History ...

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. The population was 58 at the 2020 census. Once the main rail shipping point in Millard County, Oasis declined in importance after the establishment of

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

, now the county's largest city.

Geography

Oasis is located in the eastern

Sevier Desert The Sevier Desert is a large arid section of central-west Utah, United States, and is located in the southeast of the Great Basin. It is bordered by deserts north, west, and south; its east border is along the mountain range and valley sequences ...

of Millard County, approximately southwest of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. Oasis lies some southwest of Delta, and east of the village of Deseret, with which it has always been closely associated. About north is Gunnison Bend Reservoir, the last impoundment of the

Sevier River The Sevier River (pronounced "severe") is a -long river in the Great Basin of southwestern Utah in the United States. Originating west of Bryce Canyon National Park, the river flows north through a chain of high farming valleys and steep canyon ...

. The area consists of irrigated farmland on the edge of harsh desert, an oasis east of

Swasey Mountain Swasey Mountain is the north section of the House Range of northwest Millard County, Utah, United States; the extreme north of Swasey Mountain extends into south Juab County. The Swasey Mountain section contains a north-trending ridge at the ...

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, Oasis 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.Climate Summary for Oasis, Utah
/ref>

History

The

Utah Southern Railroad Extension The Lynndyl Subdivision is a rail line owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in the U.S. state of Utah, running from Salt Lake City southwest to Milford, where the Caliente Subdivision continues towards Los Angeles. Effective Fe ...

reached the Oasis area in October 1879, and by 1880 a settlement had begun to develop. Originally named Deseret Station, it became known as Oasis by 1885. In the early years, a small dam near Deseret provided all the irrigation water. Then in 1886, the Oasis and Riverside Canal Company and the Gunnison Bend Canal Company were organized, with ambitious plans to expand the cultivation of the surrounding land. The canal projects took years longer than expected, but supported steady population growth. In the meantime, Oasis's main economic activity was as a railroad station. The precious metal mines of Frisco and

Joy Joy is the state of being that allows one to experience feelings of intense, long-lasting happiness and contentment of life. It is closely related to, and often evoked by, well-being, success, or good fortune. Happiness, pleasure, and gratitu ...

provided substantial freight traffic to the shipping point at Oasis. The station served communities as distant as

Baker, Nevada Baker is a census-designated place in southeastern White Pine County, Nevada, United States. It is located east of the main entrance of Great Basin National Park at the junction of State Routes 487 and 488. The town is named after an early se ...

, away. It also made an attractive location for shearing sheep, shipping livestock, and outfitting ranches. A small commercial center began to develop, with a general store, hotel, restaurant, saloon, bank, and other small businesses. In 1891, the Deseret Ward of

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

was divided into three congregations, for

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England, administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughborough, and is about halfway between L ...

, Deseret, and Oasis. It is from this time that Oasis is usually regarded as a separate community, an outgrowth of Deseret. The location for the town that became Delta was chosen at a 1905 meeting of the Melville Irrigation Company held in Oasis. Originally named ''Burtner'', the new town boomed. The Oasis Land and Water Company was organized in 1908 to develop water and land west of Burtner, but it failed due to flooding and financial problems in 1910. The Burtner project, on the other hand, was wildly successful, selling thousands of acres per month. In the 1910 census, Burtner's population was nearly double that of Oasis. Homesteaders streamed into the makeshift railroad depot, which by 1911 was the busiest in the county. That year Burtner was renamed ''Delta'', and the railroad built a new Delta Station, the largest south of Salt Lake City. The centrally located Delta permanently supplanted Oasis in prominence. Its railroad business gone, Oasis returned to agricultural industries.

Alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial plant, perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, ...

seed, lumber, and

sugar beet A sugar beet is a plant whose root contains a high concentration of sucrose and that is grown commercially for sugar production. In plant breeding, it is known as the Altissima cultivar group of the common beet (''Beta vulgaris''). Together with ...

s were important products. A few businesses rounded up and trained

Mustang horse The mustang is a free-roaming horse of the Western United States, descended from horses brought to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadors. Mustangs are often referred to as wild horses, but because they are descended from once-Domesticati ...

s for sale. A creamery was established in 1913. A

coal-fired power plant A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide there are about 2,500 coal-fired power stations, on average capable of generating a gigawatt each. They generate a ...

was built in Oasis in the 1920s. Small and inefficient, it served Deseret, Hinckley, and Delta until 1930. The last years of the 1920s were hard on the entire region. Drought, insects, and frost damaged crop yields, and numerous farms closed down under financial difficulties. The Oasis State Bank went out of business in 1928. Continuing drought conditions in the 1930s severely reduced the available irrigation water, and large tracts of farmland in the Oasis area had to be abandoned. In June 1983, about 400 people in the Deseret–Oasis area were evacuated when the Gunnison Bend dam and the DMAD dam above it failed due to that year's excessive spring runoff. Some of water inundated a large area with Oasis approximately in the center, leaving about of farmland with no means of irrigation that year.

Demographics

As of the census of 2010, there were 75 people living in the CDP. There were 28 housing units. The racial makeup was 78.7% White, 4.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 14.7% from some other race, and 2.7% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.3% of the population.

References

External links