Utah Construction Company Records

Although the Utah Construction Company was not incorporated until 1900, the Corey brothers, G. L., Warren W., Charles J. and Amos B., with their family, Edmund O. and William H. Wattis, created a partnership of Corey Brothers and Company in the early 1880s that set the foundation for what was to become the Utah Construction Company. By the 1890s, most of the Corey brothers had dropped out of the company, leaving the Wattis brothers in charge. They were joined by a number of other individuals and incorporated the business on January 8, 1900 in Ogden, Utah. Thomas D. Dee was listed as the first president of the company with W. H. Wattis as vice president and James Pingree as secretary/treasurer.

Much of the Company's early work consisted of building the Southern Pacific Railroad, but the company also branched out into ranching and dam building. In addition to being one of five companies that built Hoover Dam in the 1930s they also worked on the Grand Coulee, Pineview, Hetch Hetchy, and Wanship Dams. One of the major ranches owned by the Company was the Wine Cup Ranch. Located in Thousand Springs Valley in the northern part of Nevada on the Utah border, the Wine Cup Ranch (now known as the Winecup Gamble Ranch) is very well represented in the survey books. Up until the 1940s, the Ranch was made up of nearly three million acres of land and was one of the largest ranches in the nation.

For more information on the Utah Construction Company see the Weber State University Utah Construction/Utah International Collection.

[Partially adapted from the Utah Construction Company/Bowman photograph collection Historical Note held by Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives]