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 ...

and largest city in Uintah County, is in northeastern

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 ...

, approximately east 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 ...

and west of the

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

border. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 10,079. The population has since grown to 10,432 as of the 2022 population estimate. Vernal is home to the Vernal Temple 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 ...

and one of the nine statewide regional campuses of

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public university, public land grant colleges, land-grant research university with its main campus in Logan, Utah, United States. Founded in 1888 under the Morrill Land-Grant Acts as Utah's federal ...

. The city serves as a gateway to the nearby

Dinosaur National Monument Dinosaur National Monument is an American national monument located on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains on the border between Colorado and Utah at the confluence of the Green River (Colorado River tributary), Green and Yampa River, Y ...

, Flaming Gorge, and the Uinta Mountain Range.

History

Vernal, unlike most Utah towns, was not settled by

Mormons Mormons are a Religious denomination, religious and ethnocultural group, cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's d ...

moving west, or across the state.

Brigham Young Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until h ...

sent a scouting party to the area

Uintah Basin The Uinta Basin (also known as the Uintah Basin) is a Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic section of the larger Colorado Plateaus province, which in turn is part of the larger Intermontane Plateaus physiographic division. It is als ...

in 1861 and received word back that the area was good for nothing but nomad purposes, hunting grounds for Indians, and "to hold the world together." That same year, President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

set the area aside as the Uintah Indian Reservation, with Captain Pardon Dodds appointed as

Indian agent In United States history, an Indian agent was an individual authorized to interact with American Indian tribes on behalf of the U.S. government. Agents established in Nonintercourse Act of 1793 The federal regulation of Indian affairs in the Un ...

. Dodds later built the first cabin erected by a white man in the Uintah Basin around 1868. Settlers began to filter in after that and built cabins in various spots on or near Ashley Creek. In 1879, many came close to perishing during the infamous "Hard Winter" of that same year.

Geography

Vernal is in the Uintah Basin, bordered on the north by 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 ...

, one of the relatively few mountain ranges which lie in an east–west rather than the usual north-to-south direction. The Tavaputs Plateau lies to the south and Blue Mountain to the east, while Vernal itself lies in Ashley Valley. The valley is named in honor of William H. Ashley, an early fur trader who entered the area in 1825 by floating down the Green River in a bull boat made of animal hides. Vernal is located on the northern edge of the Colorado Plateau and south of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area on the Utah-Wyoming state line. The city is in a high desert area of the

Colorado Plateau The Colorado Plateau is a physiographic and desert region of the Intermontane Plateaus, roughly centered on the Four Corners region of the Southwestern United States. This plateau covers an area of 336,700 km2 (130,000 mi2) within w ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of 4.6 square miles (11.9 km²), all land.

Climate

Vernal has a

cold desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk'') is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''BWk'') with low humidity. The average annual temperature is with a

mean A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

high of and a mean low of .

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2020, there were 10,076 people, 3,217 households, and 2,095 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was 2180.7 people per square mile (650.3/km²). There were 3,217 housing units at an average density of 696.3 per square mile (249.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 83.17%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.46%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 3.68% Native American, 0.79% Asian, 0.48%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 3.91% from other races, and 7.48% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 8.62% of the population. There were 3,217 households, out of which 37.79% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.8% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 12.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.0% were non-families. 22.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.01 and the average family size was 3.86. In the city, the population was spread out, with 30.7% under the age of 18, 11.06% from 18 to 24, 28.3% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 8.54% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30.5 years. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 122.9 males. The median income for a household in the city was $50,692, and the median income for a family was $34,453. About 14.7% of families and 19.0% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

Economy

Vernal's economy is based on extracting natural resources, including

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

natural gas Natural gas (also fossil gas, methane gas, and gas) is a naturally occurring compound of gaseous hydrocarbons, primarily methane (95%), small amounts of higher alkanes, and traces of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide and helium ...

phosphate Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus. In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthop ...

, and uintaite (more commonly known as gilsonite). This has led to the establishment of branch offices of companies such as

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's second-largest oil service company which is responsible for most of the world's fracking operations. It employs approximately 55,000 people through its hundreds of su ...

and

Schlumberger Schlumberger (), doing business as SLB, is a global multinational oilfield services company. Founded in France in 1926, the company is now incorporated as Schlumberger NV in Willemstad, Curaçao, with principal executive offices in Houston ...

. Tourism also plays a role in Vernal's economy due to the town's roots in the Old West and being a large site of ancient

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s. Vernal and the surrounding area are popular among

outdoor enthusiast Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activitie ...

s as they are situated near plentiful spots for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

fly fishing Fly fishing is an angling technique that uses an ultra-lightweight lure called an artificial fly, which typically mimics small invertebrates such as flying and aquatic insects to attract and catch fish. Because the mass of the fly lure is in ...

hunting Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

, and other outdoor activities.

Education

Vernal's public schools include Ashley Valley Education Center, Uintah High, Uintah Middle School, Vernal Middle, Ashley Elementary, Discovery Elementary, and branches of

and Uintah Basin Technical College. In 2015, the Terra Academy opened as a K–12 charter school. Private schools include White House Academy and Uintah Basin Christian Academy. In 2007, Uintah School District built new buildings for two elementary schools, Maeser and Naples Elementary, in the nearby communities to accommodate increased enrollment and eliminate unsafe older buildings. Other area schools include Davis Elementary, Lapoint Elementary, and Eagle View Elementary ( pre-K–8). The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) Rocky Mountain River Base.

Transportation

Highways

Vernal is along an east–west federal highway, U.S. Route 40, and a north–south federal highway, U.S. Route 191. (The two highways overlay each other heading west from the city.)

Airport

The city's Vernal Regional Airport has scheduled nonstop air service to Phoenix (PHX) operated by Contour Airlines with Embraer ERJ jet aircraft. Passenger service is subsidized by the

Essential Air Service Essential Air Service (EAS) is a U.S. government program enacted to guarantee that small communities in the United States, which had been served by certificated airlines prior to deregulation in 1978, maintain commercial service. Its aim is ...

(EAS) program. Twice weekly service is also offered To Salt Lake City via Redtail Air.

Public Transportation

Vernal is served by two out of the three Basin Transit Association routes, the Vernal - Roosevelt route (connection available to the Duchesne route in Roosevelt), and the Vernal Circulator, as well as a Salt Lake Express route to Salt Lake City

Attractions

Special events

The Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo is an annual PRCA rodeo held in Vernal during the second weekend of July. It has been running since the 1930s. This event has been nominated as one of the top five large outdoor rodeos of the year multiple times, and attracts over 500 contestants each year. Dinah "Soar" Days & Hot Air Balloon Festival features a growing multi-day hot air balloon festival along with numerous other community events, many of which have a hot air balloon theme. The John Wesley Powell River Festival celebrates the exploration and history of the region with live music, food trucks and activities that focus on local history. Games, Anime, and More (G.A.M.) is a biannual

fan convention A fan convention (also known as a con or fan meeting) is an event in which Fan (person), fans of a particular topic gather to participate and hold programs and other events, and to meet experts, famous personalities, and each other. Some also inc ...

. It is a multi-genre convention having video games, card games, cartoons, costumes, tournaments, tabletop gaming, and similar activities. The G.A.M. Convention is held during March and August in Uintah County, Utah. In 2015 it was the first anime convention held in Vernal as well as the first gaming convention held there, making it the first convention of its type in Vernal. In 2016 it was held in Naples, Utah, for the first time, making G.A.M. the first convention of its type in the city of Naples. The Uintah County Fair occurs Thursday through Saturday each year in the second week of June.

Point of interest

Lookout Point rests on the western edge overlooking Ashley Valley, the valley in which Vernal is situated.

Notable buildings

The Bank of Vernal (a.k.a. the 'Parcel Post' Bank) Building (3 West Main Street) is a registered historical building in the Uintah County Landmark Register. Also known as "the Bank that was sent by Mail", the Bank of Vernal was constructed in 1916–1917 by William H. Coltharp, a Vernal businessman and entrepreneur. Coltharp took advantage of inexpensive Parcel Post rates to ship some 80,000 masonry bricks in fifty-pound (22.6 kg) packages via the U.S. Post Office the from Salt Lake City to Vernal. The Parcel Post brick shipments were transported from Salt Lake to Mack,

by Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, then proceeded to Watson via the

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

Uintah Railway, finally Vernal by wagon freight through steep roads. The full trip was over 420 miles (675.9 km) long. After completing delivery of the bricks, the U.S. Post Office hastily changed its regulations, establishing a limit of per day per sender. The

United States Postmaster General The United States postmaster general (PMG) is the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The PMG is responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the agency. The PMG is selected and appointed by ...

Albert Sidney Burleson explicitly stated in a letter that ''"it is not the intent of the United States Postal Service that buildings be shipped through the mail"'' Today the building is used as a branch office of Zions Bank. The Quarry Visitor Center in

, and the Vernal Utah Temple are other historic Vernal buildings. The Vernal Temple is a small LDS temple in the old Vernal Tabernacle. It was built as the result of a local movement to save the old tabernacle when it was scheduled for demolition.

Notable people

* Ron Abegglen, former Weber State men's basketball coach, born and raised in Vernal * Earl W. Bascom, inventor; rodeo cowboy, artist and sculptor. * Texas Rose Bascom (1922-1993), rodeo performer, Hollywood actor, National Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductee * Clair Burgener, U.S. Representative from California (1973–1983) * Lane Frost, rodeo star, PRCA Bull Riding Champion of the World, attended junior high school in Vernal * E. Gordon Gee, academic who held more university presidencies than any other American * Douglas Kent Hall; writer and photographer; Academy Award winner * Dallin H. Oaks, president of Brigham Young University, Utah Supreme Court Justice * Dennis Preece, Hall of Fame wrestling coach at local high school in Vernal * James Woods, film and television actor, was born in Vernal

References

External links

* {{authority control Populated places established in 1876 Cities in Utah County seats in Utah Cities in Uintah County, Utah Micropolitan areas of Utah 1876 establishments in Utah Territory