|
Before the location of Blanding was built, The Navajo Indian nation called the location "Sagebrush," because of the extensive plant growth at base of the mountains. In 1886 Francis A. Hammond, along with an exploring party began to evaluate possible locations for new economies. In 1897, Walter C. Lyman and his brother Joseph investigated the potential for the idea of a community in the local Blanding area.
Difficulties arose as it was hard to imagine how irrigation water could be obtained from the mountains. Through the help of a half-dozen people, a canal route from Johnson Creek was mapped, and soon became a reality. By April 1905, the town was surveyed and the town had started to grow in population.
 Originally, Blanding was known as Grayson. However, the town changed its name in 1914 when a man named Thomas F. Bicknell, offered a thousand volume library to any town in Utah that would accept his wife's maiden name, Blanding, as their own. However, the people of Blanding were somewhat disgruntled to find that many of the books they received were of poor quality.
 Improvements to the town came slowly, with tents being replaced by frame buildings in 1908. The next year, phone lines were sent from Monticello, successfully connecting the residents of Blanding to the outside world. Electricity was introduced in 1935, and the water system for the town became an ongoing task. In 1916 a reservoir was built and by 1921 work had started on a 5,400-foot tunnel on top of the mountain to bring more water from the north face.
The economy of Blanding has had ups and downs, including but not limited to livestock, agriculture, lumber harvesting, as well as Uranium and oil mining. With the addition of new roads and service industries, increases to the population gave rise to the cash flow that increased the opportunity for education and employment. By the 1980s, although population had subsided due to the drop in mining, the state and federal government continued to employ large numbers for those who remained. Today in Blanding, the population has grown to over 3,500 people, over a third of whom are enrolled in some type of educational program. The College of Eastern Utah, established in 1977, provides a number of two-year degrees to an average of 500 students per year, half of whom are Native Americans.
|
