With the increase of lumber operations and livestock grazing, ecological damage increased dramatically. In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt created the La Sal National Forest Reserve out of 158,462 acres of land, approximately one-sixth of which was located in Colorado. Two years later it was made part of the Manti-La Sal National Forest. Although the Forest Service began to regulate mining and lumbering, flooding and erosion reached a peak between 1918 and 1920; thus it was natural, starting in 1933, that the Civilian Conservation Corps should spend four years in developing flood control projects, roads, and to a lesser extent, recreation facilities in the area.

Today Moab still nestles in the midst of canyon country at the foot of the La Sals. The mountains provide water, mineral, and lumber resources, as well as recreation facilities under the auspices of the Forest Service. To the people of southeastern Utah, the mountains remain an important part of the wealth and aesthetics of the region.

See: Faun McConkie Tanner, The Far Country: A Regional History of Moab and La Sal, Utah (1976); Charles S. Peterson, Look to the Mountains (1975).

Robert S. McPherson