Roosevelt is a city in Duchesne County, Utah, United States. The population was 6,747 at the 2020 census, an increase of 701 (11.6%) from the 6,046 counted in the 2010 census.
The proper pronunciation of the city's name is based on how President Theodore Roosevelt pronounced his name: according to the man himself, "pronounced as if it was spelled 'Rosavelt.'"
Roosevelt is home to a regional campus location of Utah State University.
Geography
The city is on the eastern edge of Duchesne County, adjacent to the border with Uintah County. The town of Ballard borders Roosevelt to the east. U.S. Routes 40 and 191 pass through Roosevelt as Main Street, leading east to Vernal and west to Duchesne.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of Roosevelt has a total area of , all land.
|source 2 = National Weather Service
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Roosevelt had a population of 6,747. The median age was 28.5 years. 35.9% of residents were under the age of 18 and 8.5% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.3 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 96.2 males age 18 and over.
There were 2,139 households in Roosevelt, of which 51.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 58.6% were married-couple households, 13.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 20.5% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 18.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
! Race !! Number !! Percent
|-
| White || 5,425 || 80.4%
|-
| Black or African American || 6 || 0.1%
|-
| American Indian and Alaska Native || 520 || 7.7%
|-
| Asian || 43 || 0.6%
|-
| Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander || 24 || 0.4%
|-
| Some other race || 300 || 4.4%
|-
| Two or more races || 429 || 6.4%
|-
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) || 675 || 10.0%
|}
2000 census
As of the census
{| class="wikitable sortable collapsible" style="font-size: 90%;"
|-
! Largest ancestries (2015) !! Percent
|-
| English || 25.0%
|-
| American || 8.9%
|-
| German || 7.2%
|-
| Irish || 5.1%
|-
| Danish || 4.4%
|-
| Scottish || 3.5%
|-
| Swedish || 2.5%
|-
| Italian || 2.2%
|-
| Norwegian || 1.4%
|-
| Welsh || 0.9%
|}
History
In 1905, by an act of Congress, the unallotted land of the Ute Indian Reservation was opened to homesteading. Several thousand hopeful 20th-century pioneers congregated in Provo and Grand Junction with the hope of successfully drawing lots for a homestead in a fertile region of the soon-to-be-opened lands. Throughout the fall and winter of 1905–06, the settlers came to the Uinta Basin.
The town of Roosevelt was founded in early 1906 when Ed Harmston turned his homestead claim into a townsite and laid out plots. His wife named the prospective town in honor of the president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt was originally called Dry Gulch City, taking its name from a nearby gulch that only carries water during the early spring runoff season. Within a short time a store, a post office, and the Dry Gulch Irrigation Company were in business in the new town. In 1907, the Harmstons donated of ground for the town's citizens to build a school. The first class had about fifteen pupils, who had to provide books from their homes. Roosevelt soon became the economic center for the area, eclipsing Myton and Duchesne.
Roosevelt is situated on U.S. Route 40 in the northeast corner of the state, south of the Uinta Mountains, at an elevation of . The town was incorporated at a mass meeting of 44 citizens on 21 February 1913. From 1906 to 1914 Roosevelt was in Wasatch County, but in 1914 Duchesne County was formed from part of Wasatch County, and, as the largest town in the county, Roosevelt anticipated becoming the county seat. However, when the total county-wide vote came in, the seat went to Duchesne.
Economy
The population of Roosevelt is approximately 6,700 people, but the town serves as the business center for several times that number from the many small towns and farming communities in the area.
Roosevelt is located in an area of vast oil reserves spanning the northeast corner of Utah and extending into western Colorado. The town "booms" whenever oil prices go up and falls on harder times when oil prices decrease. The proposed Uinta Basin Rail project would build a new railroad line into Roosevelt for transporting oil drilled in the area.
The city used to have an oil refinery, "Plateau", named for the geographic location of the area, the Colorado Plateau. The oil from this area is known as "Uinta Basin Black Wax Crude" and has to be refined differently than most types of oil. Those in the oil business and land owners who profit from oil shares indicated during the high oil prices of 2005–2006 that refineries were cutting their profits by limiting the amount of Uinta Basin Black Wax they would refine.
Various types of farming, including beef cattle, sheep, pigs, horses, honey and hay, are prevalent in the outlying areas around town.
Roosevelt is also home of the only hospital in the county, Uintah Basin Medical Center.
Education
It is within the Duchesne County School District.
Roosevelt has become the county's educational center with Union High School, Uintah Basin Technical College, and Utah State University's Uintah Basin Regional Campus all located there. Union High School is on the east end of town and straddled the border between Duchesne and Uintah Counties, thus the name "Union".
Union High School was then partially demolished in favor of a newly built school; still named Union, but located on a road just behind the old school and a little further west. It was still on the east end of town but not crossing the border how it was. This new school was necessary as the old one could barely accommodate all of the students and was unlikely to have enough space for the next generations to come.
Roosevelt is part of the Duchesne School District. Other schools in the area include: Eagle View Elementary (Public/K-8), East Elementary School (Public/K-5), Kings Peak Elementary (Public/K-5), Centennial Elementary (Public/K-5), Roosevelt Junior High School (Public/6-8), and Thompsen School (Public/3-12).
Religion and local culture
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the dominant religious denomination in Roosevelt, with three stake centers in town; the community also includes Roman Catholic, Christian Assembly of God, Baptist, Jehovah's Witnesses, and other smaller denomination congregations.
Located near the Uintah/Ouray Indian Reservation headquarters of Fort Duchesne, Roosevelt is a multicultural and polyethnic community, with Caucasians and Native Americans being the most numerous. Roosevelt is situated in lands designated as the Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation and there are many Pow-Wows and Indian Ceremonies held throughout the summer and fall months.
The UBIC (Uintah Basin in Celebration) is Roosevelt's annual celebration. What started in the early part of the century as a yearly display of the latest in farming and industrial technology has developed into a yearly gala complete with parade, talent show, concerts, and dances.
Notable people
- Reed Cowan, Emmy-winning news anchor, film-maker and philanthropist
- Laraine Day, actress
- Colby Jenkins, politician
- Marlon O. Snow, politician
See also
- High Uintas Wilderness
References
External links
- City of Roosevelt official website
- The Uintah Basin Standard