>Utah Construction Company.

Edmund O., William H., and Warren L. Wattis founded the Utah Construction Company in January 1900, in Ogden, Utah. Early investors such as David Eccles, Thomas D. Dee, and James Pingree helped it to become a major national (and later international) company. Much of its early work consisted of building the South Pacific Railroad but the company also branched out into ranching and dam building. In addition to being one of five companies that built Hoover Dam in the 1930s they also worked on the Grand Coulee, Pineview, Hetch Hetchy, and Wanship Dams. During WWII the Utah Construction Company completed many World War II defense contracts. After the war it became involved with mining (coal and iron), dredging, and land development. Changing their name to the Utah Construction and Mining Company, and then to Utah International, Inc., headquarters were relocated to San Francisco, California. Much of the mining was conducted in Peru and Australia, and in 1976 a friendly take over by General Electric led to another sale to Broken Hill Proprietary (an Australian company) in 1983.

Company Owned Ranches.

In 1868 a Texas cattleman named John Sparks brought a herd of Texas Longhorns into Northeast Nevada. By partnering with neighboring ranchers and buying out others, Sparks managed to create a huge, successful operation. In 1908 the ranch owned three major brands: the Shoesole, Winecup, and HD. Sparks sold the ranch (which ran east to the Minidoka Forest Reserve, west to Bruneau, Idaho, north to the Snake River, and south to the Great American Desert, Nevada) to the Vineyard Land and Stock Company. The Utah Construction Company then purchased the ranch and increased the holdings to 3 million acres. The acreage was divided into 38 ranches and occupied most of the Northeast corner of Nevada as well as parts of Utah and Idaho. The ranch was headquartered in Montello, Nevada and would be managed by Archie (A.W.) Bowman. Bowman lived at San Jacinto located thirty miles south of Rogerson, Idaho. In 1945 the Company's ranch holdings were sold to Wilkins and Wunderlich of Denver, Colorado, and eventually divided into smaller lots for resale.

Archibald Warren Bowman (1884-1967) was born on October 8th in South Weber, Utah. In 1919 he met Nora Linjer (born August 28, 1893 in Alexandria, Minnesota), a schoolteacher friend of his sister Verna. The two married on February 20, 1920 in River Falls, Wisconsin while he was the Superintendent of the San Jacinto Ranch. They would have one daughter, Verna Lou. After the ranch was sold in 1945 they moved to Elko, Nevada. Archie died in January 1967 in Salt Lake City and Nora passed away in March 1973.