GOSHUTE INDIAN RESERVATION


The Skull Valley Indian Reservation is the Goshute Indian reservation.

The reservation comprises 28.187 square miles (73.004 km²) of land in east central Tooele County, adjacent to the southwest side of the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. A population of 31 persons resided on its territory as of the 2000 census. It is the site of a proposed temporary storage facility for used nuclear fuel (sometimes also referred to as radioactive waste), causing much controversy among some Goshute Native Americans, some of Utah’s government officials and many local advocacy groups. The facility was licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but the U.S Bureau of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management refused to give the permission needed for the facility to operate. During the Dugway Sheep Incident on April 12, 1968, 6,000 sheep in Skull Valley were killed by VX gas released in a test from the nearby U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground[1]. Dugway and Skull Valley have also been featured in Rage (1972 film), The Andromeda Strain, Outbreak and Species.

Location: 45 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, in Tooele County, Utah