Ute Meridian

The Ute Indians of western Colorado were given a much larger reservation according to a 1868 treaty, but in 1880 it was reduced to a zigzag of township squares along the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers, to entice them into agricultural practices. No patents were ever issued to the Utes here though. Most settled elsewhere, such as the larger Uinitah Ute reservation in Utah, or assimilated. This, the last survey of the four done by the federal government on Indian reservations, was unused and unnecessary.

2413 CLUI photo.The Initial Point is inside the fence line of the Grand Junction regional airport. Land has changed a lot around it. In 1963, it was in the center of a gravel road. When Interstate 70 came through in the 1970s, fences and local roads were moved around.

 

2365 All four of the Indian reservations surveyed under the program are indicated here (in red). The Colorado Ute reservation was the smallest.