Delta is rather unusual among the primarily agricultural towns in
the state, since it was founded in the twentieth century and owed
virtually nothing regarding its establishment to direction from the
general hierarchy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
The previously settled West Millard farming area was already
becoming prosperous from alfalfa seed production when Frederick R.
Lyman and others of his Oak City family began investigating the
possibility of diverting Sevier River water upstream from the
relatively new Gunnison Bend Reservoir, which was used for
cultivating lands at Oasis, Deseret, Hinckley, and Abraham. After
farmers from those communities claimed winter runoff water and
commenced building a larger Sevier Bridge Reservoir in southeastern
Juab County, Lyman persuaded his fellow members of the Millard LDS
Stake presidency, Orvil Thompson and Alonzo A. Hinckley, to call
attorney James A. Melville to determine the feasibility of forming
a new irrigation company in connection with this reservoir project.
The Mellville Irrigation Company was organized for that purpose on
24 March 1906. Twenty-nine of the thirty-four original
incorporators were residents of Millard County.
That spring, fifteen stockholders met at Oasis and selected a
townsite of mostly unlevel land in a section including the railroad
section-house of Akin. The townsite was named Melville, but then
the United States Postal Service objected because of its similarity
to a Cache Valley town, the name was changes to Burtner in honor of
a helpful passenger agent of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt
Lake City Railroad.
The enterprise proved attractive to many other Utahns as well.
The foremost early sources of settlers was Wayne County, sending a
dozen industrious families, including that of Hiett E. Maxfield,
former bishop of Fremont, who was sustained to the same office at
Burtner early in 1909. Nelson s. Bishop of Utah County constructed
the first house/hotel in the townsite, followed by Henry J.
McCullough, most recently from Garfield County, who log house
served also as the first post office and store. The first community
school/church meetinghouse was a one-room building hauled from
Hinckley. Not long after, construction began on a ward amusement
hall.
Melville Irrigation Company stockholders entered upon land under
the Desert Land Act, revised in 1891 to allow up to 320 acres
providing that eighty of those were brought under irritation within
a three-year period. They understood that a diversion dam,
reservoir, and delivery canals were essential to accomplish this.
Work was commenced in 1907 at a dam site town hundred yards
upstream from where the recently rebuilt San Pedro, Los Angeles and
Salt Lake City Railroad crossed the Sevier River, some four miles
north of Burtner. Many stockholders paid for portions of their
company shares through labor on the earthen-filled dam, primarily
constructed with horse team-drawn slip scrapers. Some water was
delivered to project lands late in the summer of 1908, but on 14
June 1909 the dam and spillway washed out, leaving a newly planted
crop with little chance to mature. Work immediately commenced on
rebuilding a pile-plank reinforced dam, which was completed that
August.
By that time, another group of promoters, almost exclusively
non-Mormon from the Midwest, planned to promote a project on
adjacent West Millard lands. First organized 19 March 1908 as the
Oasis Land and Water Company, a Nevada Corporation, they entered
into agreement with the Deseret and Melville companies to procure a
half interest in the Sevier Bridge Reservoir and its water rights.
The company aimed to develop lands under the Carey Act of 1894,
which authorized a state to receive up to a million acres of arid
land from the federal government on condition it was reclaimed
under the law's requirements. This was ultimately one of the most
successful Carey Act projects ever developed. Unfortunately,
another washout of the diversion dam in June 1910 not only
discouraged many farmers but also essentially ruined the Oasis
company financially. Several Melville directors induced former Utah
surveyor General George A. Snow to investigate local prospects.
Favorably impressed, Snow brought outside capitalists including
W.J. Moody of Chicago into a new enterprise named the Delta Land
and Management Company, which assumed the obligations of the
defunct company and brought the project fruition. The Delta Company
commenced elaborate promotional activities in California and in the
Midwest, and numerous land seekers flocked to the area, usually
enjoying special excursion rates offered by the railroad.
The town's name was changed to Delta at the behest of the new
company in 1911, and the extended land sales boom directly
stimulated its growth as well. By 1912 boxcars loaded with farm
equipment, furniture, and sometimes even livestock were unloading
in great numbers. While most intended to locate on their new farms,
the local newspaper noted that the area around the depot looked
like a camping ground because of the large number of settlers'
tents. Before the boom ended there were seven hotels along with
several restaurants and livery stable operations established mainly
to serve the potential land buyers who continued to flock to the
area throughout the decade.
Delta area soils were of the proper composition for good sugar
beet production. After several years of experimentation, area
farmers agreed to plan sufficient beet acreage to induce the
southern Utah Sugar Company to construct a large sugar factory at
Delta. It went into operation in 1917 and enjoyed good output for
several years. But partly because of drought, waterlogging of
frequently irrigated land, and the decline of beet prices, and
particularly the fantastic profits being earned from alfalfa seed
crops at the time, the plant closed and was eventually dismantled
and moved away.
From its early years, Delta has been the commercial center of
one of the largest alfalfa seed and hay producing regions in the
Intermountain West. The early 1920s was a time of expansion beyond
the limits of productive farmland, stimulated by exceptionally
abundant irrigation water and particularly high alfalfa see crop
prices. In 1925 the area produced more than one-fourth of the total
seed harvested in the entire nation, bringing impressive profits to
many growers. By that time, three national seed-packing companies
and several local concerns had warehouses and cleaning plants in
the Delta area, some of which continued through the difficult years
of the 1930s to prosper again later. In the decade of the 1950s,
the region produced nearly six percent of the nation's alfalfa see
output.
During the Depression years, Delta-vicinity livestock production
increased dramatically, enabling many families to survive the
difficult period. Such endeavors continued to expand until the
early 1960s the Delta Livestock Auction was the second largest in
Utah. The local economy received a boost during World War II
through employment opportunities for many residents connected with
the Japanese relocation camp at nearby Topaz. Although it was part
of a shameful episode in the nation's history, many residents
remember positive social and cultural interactions with the
internees.
Mining, particularly of fluorspar, hauled by dump truck to be
shipped from Delta by railroad ore car, also enhanced the local
economy in the late 1940s and early 1950s, as did the mining and
milling of beryllium several decades later. Completion of Highway
6/50 in the early 1950s brought new prosperity to the city's
hotels, motels, restaurants, and service stations, as well as
stimulating other enterprises. The area has long been popular with
pheasant hunters, water-sports enthusiasts, rockhounds,
all-terrain-vehicle riders, and those who appreciated a vast and
varied desert landscape. Recreational facilities in the Delta area
are exceptionally good.
In the late 1970s promoters of the Intermountain Power Project
(IPP) announced their intentions to locate a coal-burning plant
near Delta to generate electric power for southern California and
other areas. Many local water shareholders sold the company
essential water at good prices. Company and local government
officials cooperated in enhancing much of the municipal
infrastructure in preparation for the increased population expected
during the construction phase. The resultant boom was exceptionally
free from increased crime of conflict, and the IPP presence has
been a positive aspect of recent local history. Delta residents
continue to make their city an excellent place to live. They have
always taken particular pride in their schools, and higher than
average percentage of Delta students have gone on to higher
education studies and outstanding achievements. The high school
wrestling team has attained the national attention for winning an
unprecedented twenty-five state championships as of the early
1990s.