Brigham Young's ambitious but failed Layton water project of 1857

                           Weber Basin Water District's facility in northeast Layton.

TODAY'S Weber Basin Water Conservancy District supplies drinking and irrigation water to a large portion of Utah north of Salt Lake City.

The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District covers over 2,500 square miles within five counties: Davis, Weber, Morgan, Summit and a part of Box Elder.

Weber Basin’s primary facilities were constructed from 1952 to 1969 by the Bureau of Reclamation. However, there was an earlier, failed attempt to bring extra water from Weber Canyon to the benches of Davis County.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune of May 28, 1916, Brigham Young came up with an idea in 1857 to tunnel through the ridge on the Mountain Road northeast of Layton and carry Weber River water to the benches of what is now Layton City, Kaysville and Fruit Heights.

Considerable work was done on this project by Davis County residents. Lumber was hauled from Salt Lake by oxen to line the tunnel. However, a large amount of quicksand was encountered. It could not be controlled and undermined the tunnel project.

Ditches were then envisioned to carry water from Kays and Holmes Creek instead, but the “Utah War” of 1857-1858 started and most residents moved southward to avoid Johnston’s Army and that alternate project was not done. AND, it would pretty much be another century before Brigham’s water vision would be fulfilled.

Today, Weber Basin delivers about 220,000 acre-feet of water annually: 60,000 acre-feet for municipal and industrial uses and another 160,000 acre-feet for irrigation – including some secondary pressure irrigation systems.

Weber Basin also operates seven large storage reservoirs -- Causey, East Canyon, Lost Creek, Pineview, Smith & Morehouse, Wanship and Willard Bay. All total, these can store approximately 400,000 acre-feet of water.

Weber Basin also operates and maintains over 79 miles of canals, a trans-mountain tunnel, two multi-county aqueducts, hundreds of miles of raw water and culinary pipelines, and nine major pumping stations.

OTHER SOURCE: Weber Basin Water Conservancy District history.