Old La Sal the Oasis of the Desert-edge Southern Utah Community: The long drink of mountain water

Finding Drinking Water Around Old La Sal: Past and Present

Long before Deer Creek Retreat had a water well and running tap, families in La Sal spent their days thinking about one thing: water. La Sal a desert-edge community was built on creeks, springs, and ditches an oasis carrying snowmelt water off the La Sal Mountains. Where those same sources still shape where people live and how they thrive here.​

Personal Note:

A first time guest that comes to this corner of the desert might not understand what the landscape is really asking of them. Every mile, every home stead , every patch of green tells part of that story. The dry air here is so clear it tricks you into thinking it’s gentle—but within minutes of working or hiking, you realize why generations fretted over water before anything else. Heat and sun stroke can sneak up on you, so stand guard.

Today, the well at Deer Creek Retreat feels like a miracle. Drinking water straight from the faucet is a unique experience. It’s the same mountain melt that filled the ditches, creeks, and hand‑built reservoirs of the early settlers—a gift those before us worked hard to reach. When you fill your bottle from our tap or take a drive to Tibbits Spring on the south end of the Old La Sal valley, you’re connecting to that long persistence: people learning how to live with the land, not against it.

Out here, the desert still reminds all of us to take nothing for granted, least of all a drink of cold water. Before you set off toward Moab’s red rock or hike the trails below the La Sals, fill your jugs, sip often, and listen to the quiet mystical story each drop tells—of those who chased it, guarded it, and sometimes left when it ran dry.

The Old Problem: “They Just Plain Got Run Out Because of Lack of Water”

In the early days of ranching, many small farmers homesteaded the La Sal area—names like Ray, Maxwell, McCarty, Johnson, Day, and Wilcox appear on old maps. For a while, things looked promising: good grass, decent snows, and just enough runoff. But this is desert country. As Norma Blankenagel puts it in her oral history, “about every seven years we get a good year. In the meantime, we (water) starve, you might say.”​

Most of those small cattle outfits eventually left not because of the cold, distance, or even the Piute (Native Amerian) raids—but because they couldn’t get enough culinary water (drinking water) or stock water to survive, much less irrigate crops. That context matters when you turn on a faucet today.​

Historic Drinking Water Sources Around Deer Creek Retreat and Old La Sal

Several key water sources show up repeatedly in the history:

• La Sal Creek

  Early settlers surveyed and built an irrigation ditch from La Sal Creek “way up in the La Sal Mountains, about fifteen miles north” of the townsite. That ditch still brings mountain water down for ranches like the Wilcoxes, Redds, and Blankenagels—an early, hand‑built lifeline the community still relies on.​

  
  

• Beaver Creek and Two Mile Creek

  Families also pulled water from Beaver and Two Mile Creeks, the same streams you now follow on local drives and up toward Warner Lake. The history notes that “those streams are still in use today,” carrying snowmelt down into fields, reservoirs, and stock ponds.

• Springs and Reservoirs (Rattlesnake & Others)

  Ranches like Rattlesnake built small reservoirs and used springs—Rattlesnake Spring supplied culinary water even to mining operations like Homestake during the uranium boom. Today, you’ll still see small lakes and ponds across private ranch land, stepped down the mountain for cattle and wildlife.​

For travelers back then, water stops mattered as much as gas stations do now. Hatch Ranch (near today’s Hatch Wash crossing) was a famous stopover on rough mail and freight routes specifically because it offered water and rest for horses and people.​

What This Means for Deer Creek Guests Today

Today, as a guest at Deer Creek Retreat, you benefit from a century and a half of work to capture and move that mountain water:

• The tap water at Deer Creek and in the tiny home comes from the wells tied into these historic groundwater systems fed by La Sal snowpack and creeks.

• The creeks you see on scenic drives (like Beaver/Lasal Creek on the 2-mile loop) are part of the same network that kept early La Sal alive.​

• The ditches and reservoirs you pass are modern versions of the early La Sal irrigation ditch and stock ponds described in the oral history.​

If you choose to bring your own large jugs, you’re free to do so, but unlike the early settlers, you won’t be “run out because of lack of water.”​ It is highly recommended to fill up any jugs at Tibbits Spring, a few miles south of Deer Creek Retreat on Highway 46, for the experience of the wonderful crisp clear water.

Practical Tips: Water for Your Trip

For a modern guest:

• In the cabin/tiny home:

  The main tap water is your primary drinking source; bring reusable bottles to fill and carry on day trips.

  
  

• On day adventures (Moab, Arches, Canyonlands):

  Bring more water than you think you’ll need—desert air and elevation dry you out quickly. A good rule is at least 3 liters per person for longer hikes. (always, always carry water in the desert, you never know).

  
  

• Around La Sal:

  
  

  Streams like Beaver Creek are beautiful and historically important, but treat them with respect: no drinking untreated, pack out trash, and avoid contaminating cattle/wildlife water.

Seeing the Landscape Through Water Eyes

If you want to “read” the land like the old ranchers did, watch for:

• Ditches running along the slope below the La Sals—that’s La Sal Creek water diverted by hand‑dug channels early settlers engineered and that ranchers still maintain.​

• Clusters of cottonwoods or unusually green patches—they almost always mark a spring, seep, or old irrigation line.

• Old cabin sites and corrals near creeks—families built where they could secure drinking water first, everything else second.​

When you sit on the porch at Deer Creek with a glass of cold water, you’re quietly connected to this entire story: Elk Mountain missionaries trying to ford rivers, mail riders packing water for 350-mile routes, ranchers scratching out ditches from La Sal Creek, and families who “just plain got run out because of lack of water.”​

Your glass of water didn’t get there by accident. Come on out to Deer Creek Retreat, enjoy the fresh cold spring water straight from the tap, stay for a while and become addicted, and find your way back for future stays. It's water that heals!

Cheers!

Justin

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