Uintah County, Utah, established on February 18, 1880, is in the central portion of the Uintah Basin. The county has a diverse geography, including the high Uintah Mountains, the fertile Ashley Valley, and a significant portion of Dinosaur National Monument. Early visitors to Uintah County were not impressed, however. Brigham Young stated, "All that section lying between the Wasatch Mountains and the eastern boundary of the territory, and south of Green River County, was one vast contiguity of waste and measurably valueless." Consequently, no settlers were sent there. In 1861, Abraham Lincoln created the Uintah Indian Reservation to relocate many of the Utah and Colorado native Americans. Fortunes changed in 1888, when gilsonite, a thermoplastic hydrocarbon resin used in drilling fluids, was discovered in the eastern portion of this reservation. Miners quickly persuaded the federal government to withdraw 7,000 acres for mining purposes, called "The Strip", an area lacking in law and order. Today, Uintah Countys economy relies on farming, ranching and the extraction of oil, gas and minerals. During the last five years, Uintah County has averaged 1,014 state and federal tracts of land leased per year. In 2000, activity was very strong, with 1,440 state and federal tracts leased; 1998 was a low point, with just 395 tracts leased. Petroglyph Energy Inc. is the top lessee of federal and state acreage. In January 2001, the company merged with III Exploration Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Intermountain Industries Inc. The merger contributed to the firms almost two-to-one majority hold of the leased properties in the Uintah Basin. The Coastal Corp., which merged with El Paso Energy Corp. in January 2001, is another top lessee of the state and federal lands in Uintah County. Fee-land leasing is dominated by River Gas Corp., which was acquired by Phillips Petroleum in September 2000, and Phillips, which holds more than 33% of the fee tracts leased the last five years. From a production standpoint, Uintah County has three top operators. Shenandoah Energy (which was purchased by Questar Corp. in August 2001), El Paso and EOG Resources have drilled an average of 150 wells in the past three years. Of these, El Paso's Quarry #34-79 in Natural Buttes Field was the deepest well drilled, reaching a total depth of 16,215 feet. Natural Buttes is the most prolific producing field in the county, containing more than half of the wells drilled in the entire county. Uintah's other top-producing field, Wonsits Valley, has more than 22% of the wells. In a year-to-date evaluation of well completions, El Paso's #255 was the top producer, with initial potential of 3.769 million cu. ft. per day. The prominent producing zones in Uintah County are the Wasatch and Mesaverde. From the discovery of gilsonite in 1888 to today's current activity, Uintah County's mineral, oil and gas resources have been vital to its economic growth. -J. Eric Williams, supervisor, digital lease data activity and processing, Tobin International Ltd.