Looking to the future, a parcel of land has been donated to Uintah County in the hopes that one day it will be developed into a youth camp. Uintah County issued a press release on Wednesday sharing that the Commissioners met on Monday with John P. Colton, David Colton, and board members of the Anderson Creek Youth Camp Inc. to finalize the transfer of the private parcel located in the Ashley National Forest on Anderson Creek. “The donated fifty acres had been in the Colton family since 1937,” shares Uintah County. “The family had talked about one day using the property for a youth camp and naming it ‘Hugh W. & Marguerite M. Colton Youth Camp.’ The property is on the old smelter site for the Dyer Mine. Historically the revenue from the mine helped finance the building of an elementary school in Vernal and the old courthouse. The Anderson Creek Youth Camp Board received the property from John P. Colton and family in 2004. The board members including former board chair John Millicam(deceased), DeArmon Batty, Robert Foley, Jim Boren, Wayne Jones, Cody White, and Ken Anderton(deceased) worked hard to establish a youth camp on the site.” During Monday’s meeting the current board chairman, DeArmon Batty, spoke about the Colton family and their contribution to the community. “It would be the hope of all us that served on this committee over this period of time that the Colton family would be remembered as this project at whatever point of time becomes developed for the historical things that happened there and how the Colton family have enriched and been a part of our history.”
