The Central Utah Project (CUP) is a massive and complicated water development project. It is the largest in the State of Utah. The ultimate plans for the CUP were among the largest and most complex contemplated by the Bureau of Reclamation. To make the project more manageable, Reclamation broke the initial phase of the CUP into four independent projects which could be united by the ultimate phase. Of the four units authorized by Congress as the initial phase, the largest and most complex is the Bonneville Unit, which itself is broken into interconnected parts. Reclamation's plans called for ten new reservoirs; enlargement of two existing reservoirs; 140 miles of aqueducts, tunnels, and canals; three power plants; nine pumping stations; and 200 miles of pipe drains. Because of its size and complexity, it is the Bonneville Unit that people most frequently associate with the CUP, sometimes to the exclusion of the Vernal and Jensen Units, which have been constructed to benefit communities in the Uinta Basin.The history of the CUP is as large and complex as the project itself. And as with the project, the popular notion is that the history of the Bonneville Unit is the history of the CUP. There is some validity in this assumption. Certainly the history of the other units of the CUP, particularly those that were not built, includes colorful stories of the struggles to push forward a vision—engineering challenges, political intrigue, battles with opponents, courtroom drama, and the like. But the history of the CUP is filled with all of these. The history of the CUP is a microcosm of the large history of the battles over the Colorado River, wrapped with a thick layer of its own unique history.Project Location * Historical Setting * Project Authorization * Construction History * Starvation Complex * Starvation Dam * Knight Diversion Dam * Starvation Feeder Conduit * Bottle Hollow * Strawberry Aqueduct and Collection System * Water Hollow Tunnel - Channel Number 2 * Soldier Creek Dam * Layout and Currant Tunnels * Jordan Aqueduct Reach I and II * Currant Creek Dam * Vat Tunnel * Stillwater Tunnel * "Hit List" * West Fork Pipeline- Vat Diversion Dam and 404 permits * Hades and Rhodes Tunnels * Supplemental Repayment Contract Jordan Aqueduct-Reach III and IV-TPA Lawsuit * Upper Stillwater Dam * North Fork Siphon * Doc's, Hades, Win, and Rhodes Diversions and Feeder Pipelines * Jordanelle Dam * Diamond Fork Power System - Syar Tunnel and Sixth Water Flow Control Structure * CUP Completion Act * Post Construction History * Bonneville Irrigation and Drainage System - Utah Lake System * Diamond Fork System * Settlement of Project Lands * Uses of Project Water * Conclusion