This work was a case study of historical ecological change in Tintic Valley, Juab County, Utah, an area historically impacted by mining and ranching activities common to much of the American West. The temporal framework for the study was approximately 120 years, the period of direct Euroamerican influence. In recognition of the ecological implications of cultural change, however, the impacts of prehistoric and protohistoric human activity on study area landscape patterns and processes were also explicitly addressed. The study included a narrative description of historic land uses and ecological change in Tintic Valley, and examined the changes in landscape patterns and processes so revealed within the context of the state and transition model of rangeland dynamics. The case of Tintic Valley thus served as a test of the heuristic utility of the theory of self-organization in ecological systems, within which the state and transition model is embedded. This theoretical framework in turn was used to gain insight into the present state of the Tintic landscape, how that state has changed over time, and the nature of those forces leading to transitions between system states in the historic period. The study employed archival research, personal interviews, repeat photography, field surveys, aerial photographs, and a geographic information system (GIS) to identify, describe, and quantify historic-era change in Tintic Valley landscape level patterns and processes. The analysis revealed dramatic change in both the landscape vegetation mosaic and the channel network of the study area over time. Evidence was found for direct anthropogenic influence in precipitating those changes, primarily through tree harvesting associated with mining and ranching activities and through the effects of historic roads and railroads on the Tintic Valley gully network. Results supported the working hypothesis of a change in system state in the Tintic Valley landscape in the historic period. Taken together, historical narrative and theoretical context permitted a degree of prediction with respect to potential future conditions for the study area under different management scenarios. Future research directions and implications of the research results for ecosystem management are also discussed.

As part of a U.S. Geological Survey study in Juab Valley in central Utah from 1991 to 1994, the chemistry of ground - and surface -water samples was determined. Total dissolved solids in the ground water of southern Juab Valley have historically been higher , in general, than ground water in other areas of Utah . Total dissolved solids for ground-water samples from this study ranged from 623 to 3,980 milligrams/liter. High-sulfate chemical data of previous studies suggested that the major source of ground-water salinity is the dissolution of gypsum (hydrous calcium sulfate ) from the Arapien Shale. Sulfur-34 to sulfur- 32 isotopic ratio data have confirmed that dissolved Arapien Shale is the major source of salinity in southern Juab Valley water. This thesis study of southern Juab Valley had four main objectives: 1) define the present chemistry of the ground and surface water; 2) qualitatively determine the mineralogy of the Middle Jurassic Arapien Shale; 3) determine the major sources of salinity; and 4) determine the main flow path in the ground-water system. Chemical data show that the water in southern Juab Valley is predominantly of a calcium-magnesium-sulfate-bicarbonate composition. X-ray diffraction determined the mineralogy of the Arapien Shale as primarily calcite and quartz. Mineralogy of the acid-insoluble residue is illite, chlorite, quartz, and a trace of feldspar. Based on chemical, isotopic, and simple salt weight percent data, dissolution of gypsum is the major source of salinity in southern Juab Valley water. Using the chemical and isotopic data as input , a mass balance computer software program (NETPATH) helped to determine that the gypsum is derived from the Arapien Shale . NETPATH and the potentiometric surface map helped to define the main ground-water flow path as southwest across southern Juab Valley, from Chicken Creek in the San Pitch Mountains on the east side of the valley toward Chick Creek Reservoir in the southwest part of the valley.

The Canyon Range Formation (informal new name), formerly mapped as the Indianola Group within the Canyon Range, is divisible into two distinct, mappable units, A and B. Unit A is nearly all conglomerate strata, and conglomerate texture and sedimentary structures suggest an alluvial fan depositional environment. Precambrian and basal Cambrian quartzite clasts represent the erosional debris from the allochthonous Canyon Range thrust. Unit B is composed of interbedded fluvial sandstone and conglomerates with lacustrine limestones, commonly micritic and/or oncolitic. Conglomerate clasts indicate a Paleozoic carbonate provenance. Unit A, previously mapped as the Indianola, underlies Unit B and correlates with the Price River-lower North Horn Formations of the Pavant Range and Long Ridge. Marginal paleontologic and stratigraphic indicators suggest Unit B to be equivalent to the Paleocene-Eocene North Horn and Flagstaff Formations rather than the Cretaceous Indianola Group. Stratigraphic and structural relationships indicate the last major phase of "Sevier" thrusting ended by Price River (?) time.