RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Utah >> Grand County >> Westwater >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Utah

The Commemorative Quarter for Utah





Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Westwater. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Westwater to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Westwater, please Contact Us.

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Westwater (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Westwater. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the north contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Although our information shows that the community of Westwater is historic, it would have been located within present day Grand County.

To see how the shape of Utah's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Grand County: Garfield (CO), Mesa (CO), Carbon, Emery, San Juan & Uintah.

Below are the counties that are near Westwater. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Westwater:

  • Grand County     (The home county of Westwater)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Westwater, with the one closest to Westwater listed first.
    • Agate ‑ Historic
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Agate
      • Agate is located in Grand County
    • Cisco ‑ Historic
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Dewey ‑ Historic
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dewey have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dewey
      • Dewey is located in Grand County
    • Richardson ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Richardson. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richardson
      • Richardson is located in Grand County
  • Mesa County (CO)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Westwater, with the one closest to Westwater listed first.
    • Mack
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Loma
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Loma have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Loma
      • Loma is located in Mesa County (CO)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Loma <2>
    • Glade Park
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Glade Park have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glade Park
      • Glade Park is located in Mesa County (CO)
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Glade Park <2>
    • Fruita
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fruita have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruita
      • Fruita is located in Mesa County (CO)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 14,295 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fruita <2>
    • Redlands
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Redlands have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redlands
      • Redlands is located in Mesa County (CO)
    • Gateway
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Grand Junction
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Orchard Mesa
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Orchard Mesa have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orchard Mesa
      • Orchard Mesa is located in Mesa County (CO)

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Westwater, see our County-by-County Page for Westwater.

Newspapers Published in Westwater ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 2 newspapers that have been published in the area around Westwater.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Westwater, there are papers which were published within 21 miles [33.8 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Westwater.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Westwater:

Cemeteries Near Westwater ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Westwater.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Westwater covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Westwater, with the one closest to Westwater listed first.

  • Glade Park Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
  • Elmwood Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Sacred Heart Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Sacred Heart Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Sacred Heart Cemetery
  • Crown Point Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Crown Point Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Crown Point Cemetery
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Calvary Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Calvary Cemetery
  • IOOF & Masonic Cemetery
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the IOOF & Masonic Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the IOOF & Masonic Cemetery

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.

Westwater itself is historic and was described in the Rand McNally Atlas as having a post office and railroad service.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Westwater, with the one closest to Westwater listed first.

  • Cottonwood
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Cottonwood have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cottonwood
    • Cottonwood is located in Grand County
  • Utaline
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Utaline have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Utaline
    • Utaline is located in Mesa County (CO)
  • Agate ‑ Historic
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Agate
    • Agate is located in Grand County
  • Cisco ‑ Historic
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Fruita
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fruita have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fruita
    • Fruita is located in Mesa County (CO)
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 14,295 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fruita <2>
  • Sagers
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Sagers have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sagers
    • Sagers is located in Grand County
  • Richardson ‑ Historic
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Richardson. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richardson
    • Richardson is located in Grand County
  • Grand Junction
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Westwater. See our List of 1890's Communities around Westwater.

The official website for Grand County: www.grandcountyutah.net/

The official website for State of Utah: https://www.utah.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Westwater, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Westwater) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Westwater. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.0806, Longitude: -109.1116       In this case, the coordinates for Westwater have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).




 

Copyright 2024
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024