Tourism in Moab Utah Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Tourism in Moab Utah - Research Paper Example The town’s population increases to over 100,000 mountain bikers annually. The surroundings are characterized by stark red rock, and a hot and arid environment. â€Å"The La Sal Mountains nearby provide a cooler escape† (Buckley 423), and Moab also functions as a minor destination for amenity migrants. The town has been transformed as a result of tourism. Moab is located in a valley fifteen miles long and three miles wide within the heart of the Colorado Plateau, in the American West. â€Å"The biblical name Moab was adopted in 1880 when a mail route was established between Salina, Utah, and Ouray, Colorado† (Moabhistory, 2011). Moab was among the last parts of colonized America to be â€Å"civilized†, with the first permanent white settlers appearing well after the Civil War, in the 1870s. Prior to their arrival, Native Americans had inhabited the valley. â€Å"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the Hole in the Wall Gang, and the Wild Bunch rode to hide-outs around here† (Ricks 50) after robbing banks in Colorado mining towns. Farms, ranches, a community school, railroad and ferry services across the Colorado river were established by 1885, and a three-span steel bridge by 1912. In 1890 Moab became the county seat of Grand County, was designated as a town in 1903, and as a third-class city in 1936. The area’s economy based on farming, ranching and Utah’s finest fruit growing industry declined with the uranium boom of the early 1950s which brought in an influx of prospectors, miners, speculators and workers. New facilities such as markets, schools and businesses developed. In 1911 the first commercial oil well was drilled, and the oil boom that enriched the Moab economy lasted into the 1960s. With the demand for uranium declining by the early 1960s, potash became the next boom industry. A modern potash plant and a railroad spur line to connect vital points were constructed in 1963 (Moabhistory, 2011). For over the last quarter of a