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Photograph taken June 7, 2008.
John Atlantic Burr's Cattle Trail
Trail of Many Uses
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"Coming up through there, the sand
was bad enough that you'd back up and take a run on it
and maybe you's make twenty feet, maybe you'd make a
hundred. Then you'd have to back up, you know, and get
another run, ... keep breaking the track. And we did,
we crawled right up out of there."
-- Lincoln Lyman, Boulder resident and road builder
commenting on the Burr Trail before the road was
built.
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The Burr Trail Road was originally used
to move cattle from the Acquarius Plateau on Boulder
Mountain to Bullfrog Basin, near the Colorado River.
In the 1880s, John Atlantic Burr built it for this
purpose, and thus it became known as the "Burr Trail."
The Burr Trail Road links the town of Boulder with
Capitol Reef National Park and Glen Canyon National
Recreation Ara. It follows a natural corridor of
exposed rock formations through Long Canyon, Circle
Cliffs, and the Waterpocket Fold. As you travel along
the road, note the sheer Wingate Formation that
stretches vertically toward the sky, and the alcoves
and arches that are slowly being created by erosion.
Today the study of geology is a primary focus of the
Burr Trail area in the Monument.
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Seeking Fortunes in the
Wilderness
Extractive Exploration
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The Burr Trail evolved into a road in
the late 1940s, when it served as the main corridor
for mineral exploration. Claims to oil, coal and
uranium were made by local residents and by
companiesfrom around the country. Seemingly
overnight, the population in nearby towns grew, and
newly-built wood houses were filled with employees of
the mines and their families.
The mines were scattered across the landscape. Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument is currently
surveying and reclaiming the abandoned mines and
hazardous sites, working in partnership with the State
of Utah and other government agencies.
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Article records that use this photograph:
Other photos about Geography - Utah or Utah, Garfield County.
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Date and time this page was prepared:
12/8/2024 2:14:56 PM
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Eastern Mojave Vegetation