Duchesne County · County profile
Duchesne County, Utah
Duchesne County is the western half of the Uinta Basin, oil-and-gas and ranch country on US-40 with the Uinta Mountains rising along its north edge and the Ute Tribe's reservation country in its east. It holds 20,856 people on ~3,241 sq mi, nearly all of them in two highway towns, and its home values run well below the rest of Utah, which is the honest draw for most buyers here. I am Scott Buehler, a Utah resident of more than twenty years, licensed in real estate and lending, and this is the county read a local would give you: the prices, the drive, and what a Saturday in the Basin actually holds.
Duchesne County is the western half of the Uinta Basin, the high desert bowl east of the Wasatch where the Uinta Mountains come down on the north and the Tavaputs Plateau rises on the south. It holds 20,856 people on ~3,241 sq mi, a thin count on a lot of ground, because most of that ground is federal, state, or tribal and is not for sale. Nearly everyone lives on the strip of US-40 that crosses the county, in and around the seat at Duchesne and the market town of Roosevelt to its east. Past the pavement the county is ranch land, oil-and-gas country, sagebrush, and open public ground running up into the mountains.
The fact that explains the whole county is distance. Duchesne County sits about two hours from Salt Lake City over the divide, beyond the commuting reach of the Wasatch Front, and prices here answer to a local economy: energy work in the basin, ranching, the school district, the hospital, the tribe, and the university campus. That is why the county median home value, ~$283,700, sits far below most of the state, and why growth runs a slow +6.4% since the 2020 census rather than a boom. People do not move here to commute. They move here because the basin, the prices, and the open land fit what they are actually after, and that is a different decision than choosing a suburb.
This page puts the county in one place: the at-a-glance table, the towns along the highway, what the lower home values buy, how the county moves, the ranked list that exists today, and how Duchesne County compares with its neighbors. It is written in my voice, but I am the connector here, not the local agent. I have lived in Utah for more than twenty years and I know how this market reads, and when you are ready to tour the basin, I introduce you to a partner agent who works eastern Utah every week.
In one line
US-40 country with lower home values and a longer road to the city
At a glance
Duchesne County at a glance
The same thirty facts every county page on this site carries, so any two counties can be set side by side without a number changing between pages. Open any matchup in the Compare section to see them in two columns.
County offices in: Duchesne · Land area: ~3,241 sq mi · Density: ~6 per sq mi
- Population
- 20,856
- #15 of 29 counties
- Growth since 2020
- +6.4%
- 1,252 people · 2026 outlook 21,106
- Median home value
- ~$283,700
- #18 of 20 profiled
- Household income
- ~$78,400
- #13 of 20 profiled
- Property tax
- ~0.62%
- effective, primary home
- Sales tax
- ~6.45%
- combined, where the county offices sit
Climate and land ~5,710 ft, Uinta Basin
High desert basin, cold winters, warm dry summers. ~25 inches of snow a year at the seat.
Getting around
- Interstates
- None; US-40, US-191
- Transit
- None; regional bus only
- Airport
- Vernal Regional Airport (VEL) ~50 min for limited service; SLC ~2 hr
- Drive to SLC
- ~2 hr from Duchesne via US-40
Outdoors
- Ski areas
- None
- State parks
- Starvation State Park
- National parks
- None in the county; Dinosaur National Monument ~1 hr 30 min
Schools
- Districts
- Duchesne County School District
- Colleges
- Utah State University Uintah Basin (Roosevelt campus)
Health and work
- Hospitals
- Uintah Basin Medical Center, Roosevelt
- Largest employers
- Duchesne County School District, Uintah Basin Medical Center, Ute Indian Tribe, Duchesne County, Utah State University Uintah Basin
On MovingUtah
Everything this site holds for the county, one level down.
Population: Census Bureau county population estimates, Vintage 2025 (July 1, 2025). Growth measured from the April 1, 2020 estimates base in the same Census table. 2026 outlook: a straight-line outlook from the 2020 to 2025 Census trend (the Census Bureau does not project county totals). Home values and income: American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year, county medians. Sales tax: Utah State Tax Commission, combined rate in the town that holds the county offices, first quarter 2026. Federal and private land: Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, Utah Land Ownership, July 2025. Figures checked September 2026 and rounded; the population figures are exact.
Where the people are
Two towns on US-40, and a county of open ground between them
The county offices and the biggest towns
The Duchesne County offices are in the city of Duchesne, the small county-government town where US-191 comes down out of Indian Canyon and meets US-40 at the west end of the settled strip, and there is no city guide for it yet on this site, so I will be plain about that here. The market is east of it: Roosevelt, the largest town and the place where the county's jobs and services actually gather. Roosevelt is the town this page keeps coming back to, because it holds the hospital, the university campus, the school district offices, most of the county's stores, and the large majority of its home sales.
Roosevelt sits about half an hour east of the seat on US-40, and between them the two towns hold most of the county's people. North of Duchesne the road climbs toward the mountains past Altamont, a small ranching town on the way up. East of Roosevelt the highway passes Myton, and by Fort Duchesne it is crossing the Uintah and Ouray Reservation of the Ute Indian Tribe, which runs on east into Uintah County. Beyond the pavement in every direction the county is ranch country and sagebrush, with the Uinta Mountains along the north edge and the Tavaputs Plateau rising to the south.
The character of the place comes from the land between the towns. This is oil-and-gas and ranching country first, settled along the river and the highway rather than spread across the basin, because the county is 45% federal and 29% private, with much of the rest reservation or state ground and the private holdings sitting mostly in the US-40 strip and up the side canyons. That scarcity is why the county still feels open after a century of settlement. A lot outside town often runs to several acres, and the nearest neighbor can be well down the road.
Every city guide in the county
Roosevelt is the one city in the county with a full guide on this site so far, and it is a complete one: what the town is like, its homes for sale, its price pages, and its feature searches. That single chip below is the county's whole city-guide list for now, and I would rather show you that than pretend there are more.
| School district | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roosevelt | ~7,030 | ~$282,500 | ~0.62% effective | ~5,100 ft | Duchesne County School District |
Population, value, tax, and elevation figures come from each city's own guide on this site; click a column to sort. Largest city first by default.
Before the freeway
Duchesne County was carved out of Wasatch County by the Utah Legislature in 1914 and became official on January 1, 1915. Its land had been part of the Uintah Ute Reservation, set aside by President Lincoln in 1861, until the federal government opened the former reservation to homesteading in 1905 under the Allotment Act, and settlers filed 160-acre claims across the basin. The county takes its name from the Duchesne River that runs through it. Livestock, alfalfa, and hay carried the early economy, and commercial oil production began in 1948, expanding sharply with the 1970s energy boom. Roosevelt, now the county's largest city, grew up as a service hub for the Uinta Basin oil and gas fields, and that same energy economy still sets the pace for the towns along the highway today.
How the county grows now
- In the towns. New streets go in a few lots at a time on the edges of Roosevelt and Duchesne, paced by how busy the basin economy is that year.
- With the rigs. Oil and gas work pulls workers into the basin and lets them go again, so the housing market tightens when energy is busy and loosens when it is not.
- On scarce land. The county is 45% federal and only 29% private, so new building stays on the thin private strip along US-40 and up the side canyons.
- The count. The county grew +6.4% between the 2020 census and the 2025 estimate, about 1,252 people, with the straight-line outlook near 21,106 in 2026. Steady, not dramatic.
New homes, where they still exist
- New construction in RooseveltWhere most of the county's new houses actually go in.
- The new-construction hub
What a budget buys
Basin home values sit well under the state's line
Home values
The county median home value is ~$283,700, low for Utah and, unusually, a number that tells the truth about the county. Nearly every home in Duchesne County sits in or beside the two towns on US-40, so the county figure is not hiding a rich corner or a poor one the way it does in bigger counties; it is simply what a basin house runs. The low number is the map talking. The county is beyond the commuting reach of the Wasatch Front job market, the resale pool is small, and prices answer to the local economy, energy, ranching, schools, and hospital, rather than to buyers streaming in from the city. You are not so much finding a bargain as buying the honest price of distance.
The price pages for Roosevelt, the county's one market town, show what the lower numbers mean on an actual listing. There is a real market in the under $250,000 price range, a rare sentence anywhere in Utah, and the county's working market centers around under $500,000. The top end, over $750,000, is where the newer acreage houses sit, and even there the figures stay far under Front pricing. For what is listed today, Roosevelt's homes-for-sale page is the one list to watch, and the county's full inventory shows on the statewide search.
At those prices the money buys space, and often newer construction on bigger lots. Basin houses sit on larger basin lots, many of them outside town with room for a shop and an RV, and the county's RV and shop-friendly and single-story searches sort for exactly that. What the price also buys is a real basin climate: summer highs near ~87 °F with dry air and cool nights, and January lows near ~8 °F, because a high desert bowl drains and holds the cold. If the house sits outside town, count on a well, a septic system, and your own stretch of road, so read the rural-living guide before you fall for the space.
Taxes in this county
Property tax here runs ~0.62% effective on a primary home, with a primary residence taxed at 55 percent of its market value, and on values this low that lands as a small bill by Utah standards. The certified rate that reaches your mailbox is set by the school district, the county, and the special districts, so it moves a little by address; check the exact figure on the county assessor's site before you write an offer. The lower price does not come with a tax surprise waiting in this county, which is not something every rural county can say.
Sales tax at the register in Duchesne is ~6.45%, on the low side among the county-office towns on this site. The honest counterweight is that some of what a household buys is bought elsewhere: the basin does not carry the full range of stores a Wasatch Front suburb does, so bigger purchases and much of the shopping happen on trips out. For the whole cost picture beyond the house, the cost-of-living guide lays the state out by region, and the affordability calculator turns a median like this into numbers you can plan around.
Listings, largest markets first
Run the numbers
- Affordability calculator
- Conventional mortgage calculator
- Rent vs buyWorth a close look when the rental pool is this thin.
- All eleven calculators
Getting around
One highway carries the whole county
Interstates and transit
There is no interstate in Duchesne County, and that is the first thing to understand about getting around here. US-40 is the county's main street. It comes over the divide from Heber City at the west end, drops past Starvation Reservoir, runs through the seat at Duchesne and on through Roosevelt, and carries east toward Vernal and, past the county line, to Dinosaur National Monument. US-191 joins US-40 at Duchesne from the south, climbing over Indian Canyon down to Helper and Price, the shortest road toward the Front's south end; from Duchesne the two routes run east together.
Transit is close to nonexistent. There is no rail and no fixed-route city bus; the only public option is the regional bus that links the basin towns and runs out toward the Front a few days a week, so a household here plans on driving for work, school, shopping, and the airport alike. Winter is the season that makes the roads honest. US-40 over the divide west of the county and US-191 over Indian Canyon to the south both see snow and wind, locals watch the forecast before they commit to a trip out, and a storm can turn a routine drive into a long one.
The airport and the drive
Air travel means a drive to someone else's airport. The nearest scheduled flights are at Vernal Regional, over the county line to the east, and the service there is limited; from the seat that field is about fifty minutes up US-40. The full schedule sits at Salt Lake City International, and it is ~2 hr from Duchesne via US-40. Most basin households make that drive when they fly and bundle it with a trip to the stores, because nobody runs the pass for a single errand if they can help it.
Drive times, off-peak
- Duchesne to Salt Lake City International
- About two hours west on US-40, longer when the passes are snowy.
- Duchesne to Roosevelt
- About 30 minutes east on US-40.
- Duchesne to Starvation State Park
- About 10 minutes west on US-40.
- Roosevelt to Vernal
- About 40 minutes east on US-40.
Things to do
One ranked list for a county of wide-open Saturdays
Only one town in Duchesne County has a ranked things-to-do list on The Local so far, and I will not pretend otherwise: the list belongs to Roosevelt, the county's one city guide, while the seat and the smaller communities show up in the basin's other pages rather than in lists of their own. Roosevelt's seven are a genuine basin weekend. Five of them sit in or beside town, UBIC and its celebration at the end of July, the parks, the pump track, and the evening squares, and the other two are the reason to get out, Bottle Hollow on the tribe's permit and the drive up to Moon Lake.
Region reads
The county-wide pages that no single town owns.
- The Uinta Mountains' south slope, one canyon at a time
- Bottle Hollow Reservoir, and the tribe's permit
The honest read
The honest read is that this county's weekend is deep in one direction and spread out in the other. The list count is one, but a Saturday here rarely needs a list: Starvation State Park on the county's west side is the water day, the Uinta Mountains' south slope is the mountain day, and the events and parks in Roosevelt hold the rest. The downside is distance. The bench is not stacked the way it is on the Wasatch Front, where a dozen towns sit twenty minutes apart; here a good day is often one destination plus the drive, and that is the point of the place rather than a flaw in it.
The county's year
The events that anchor the calendar here, month by month.
August
Uinta Basin in Celebration (UBIC) in RooseveltA community celebration around the first Saturday of August with a Main Street parade, concert, and fireworks.
August
Duchesne County Fair and RodeoLivestock shows, a rodeo, and a demolition derby in Duchesne.
Schools and services
One district, one campus, one hospital for the whole basin
School districts
The county runs a single school system: Duchesne County School District, and the district line is the county line, so there is nothing to decode about boundaries. Every address in Duchesne County feeds the same district, from the US-40 towns to the ranches up the side roads. I do not rate schools, here or anywhere on this site: I name the district, link the facts, and leave the judgment to you and the district's own published data.
| District | Where it runs | Enrollment |
|---|---|---|
| Duchesne County School District | The whole county, from Roosevelt and Duchesne out to the smaller basin towns | ~5,300 students |
Enrollment: Utah State Board of Education, latest published fall count, rounded. Facts and official links only; I do not rate schools.
Colleges and hospitals
Higher education and acute care both sit in Roosevelt, for the same reason the rest of the county's services do. Utah State University Uintah Basin (Roosevelt campus) runs degree and technical programs for the whole basin, and Uintah Basin Medical Center, Roosevelt is the county's hospital, the place the roads lead when something serious happens close to home. On a county this spread out, the services gather where the people are, and the people are on US-40.
Largest employers, by the county's own list: Duchesne County School District, Uintah Basin Medical Center, Ute Indian Tribe, Duchesne County, Utah State University Uintah Basin. The school district and the medical center anchor it, the county and the university campus sit underneath, and the Ute Indian Tribe is the other big name, with tribal government and enterprises spread across the reservation ground in the county's east. For specialized care and the biggest shopping, the road points west, to Provo or Salt Lake, which is part of the rural math this county asks you to do honestly.
Guides for this move
- Rural living in UtahWells, septic, the fire district, and the real cost of the quiet.
- Moving to rural UtahWhat changes when the nearest big store is an hour away.
- First-time buyers in Utah
- Buying land in UtahCommon here, where a house often comes with acreage.
- Pre-approval, explainedWorth doing before you make the drive to look.
Moving here: the county offices
The offices and providers a new Duchesne County homeowner actually contacts, each linked at its official site.
- County government
- Duchesne CountyDepartments and county services.
- Assessor
- Duchesne County AssessorProperty values, exemptions, and motor vehicle registration at the Duchesne and Roosevelt offices.
- Recorder
- Duchesne County RecorderDeeds, plats, and land records.
- Treasurer
- Duchesne County TreasurerProperty tax billing and payment; real property taxes are due November 30.
- Driver license and DMV
- Utah DMV office locationsNew residents register vehicles here; the county assessor offices in Duchesne and Roosevelt also handle vehicle registration.
- Voter registration
- Duchesne County Clerk and AuditorElections and voter registration; the county votes all by mail.
- Power
- Moon Lake Electric AssociationMember-owned rural electric cooperative serving the Duchesne and Uintah basins since 1938.
- Natural gas
- Enbridge Gas UtahThe former Dominion Energy Utah; many rural county homes use propane.
- Water
- City and district systemsRoosevelt City and Duchesne City run their own culinary water; rural areas are on wells and small systems.
Compare it
Duchesne County against its neighbors
The full side-by-side pages built so far for this county. The matchup tool on the county hub builds any other pair, and routes you here if the pair is not built yet.
Any two counties
The county matchup tool
Line Duchesne County up beside any of the other 19 counties and read the same table side by side.
Build a matchupCity vs city
Compare the county's cities
Roosevelt is the county's one full city guide, and the compare tool sets it against any other town on the site.
Compare citiesAlready own here?
What a Duchesne County home is worth
A value built by hand from Uinta Basin sales, not an algorithm, and a way to get featured where eastern Utah buyers are looking.
Start the valuationCommon questions
Duchesne County, answered
What towns are in Duchesne County?
Duchesne is where the county offices are, a small government town on US-40 at the west end of the settled strip, with no city guide on this site yet. Roosevelt, about half an hour east on US-40, is the largest town and the real market: the hospital, the university campus, the school district offices, most of the county's stores, and most of its home sales sit there, and it has a full city guide. Altamont sits north toward the mountains, Myton and Fort Duchesne lie east where the Uintah and Ouray Reservation begins, and beyond them the county runs to ranch, federal, and tribal ground.
How much do homes cost in Duchesne County?
The county median home value is ~$283,700, among the lowest of any county on this site, and unlike many county medians it does not hide much, because nearly every home sits in or near the two US-40 towns. Roosevelt carries most of that market, with low price ranges that reach well below what the same home costs on the Wasatch Front, which is hard to find in the rest of Utah. The choice is the same one the whole county makes: a thinner resale pool and a longer drive to the big job centers, in exchange for space and a price that lets a house and land fit the budget.
Why are homes here less expensive than the rest of Utah?
Because price in Utah tracks distance from the big job centers, and Duchesne County is far from them. Salt Lake City is about two hours away over the divide, there is no interstate, and the economy turns on energy, ranching, the school district, the hospital, and the tribe rather than on commuters. Household income, ~$78,400, is not far under the state's, which is the tell: the price gap is geography, not wages. The land is also mostly not for sale: the county is 45% federal and 29% private, so building stays small and gathered in the towns.
What is there to do in Duchesne County on a weekend?
The county's one ranked list belongs to Roosevelt, and it points at the real weekend: UBIC and its celebration at the end of July, the drive up to Moon Lake in the Uinta Mountains, fishing Bottle Hollow on the tribe's permit, and the town parks and squares. West of the seat, Starvation State Park is the basin's water day, and the canyons on the county's north side hold the hiking and the high country. Things sit farther apart than they do on the Wasatch Front, so a good day usually means one destination and an unhurried drive out to it.
How do people get to a big city or an airport from Duchesne County?
By car, and they plan the trip. Salt Lake City International is ~2 hr from Duchesne via US-40, and Vernal Regional, over the county line to the east, runs limited commercial service about fifty minutes from the seat. US-40 is the county's main road, and winter is the variable: the pass west of the basin and Indian Canyon on US-191 to the south both earn respect when the snow flies. There is no rail and no fixed-route transit, so a household here expects to drive for work, school runs, shopping, and the airport alike.
Next step
Thinking about the Basin? Let's weigh the trade honestly
Tell me whether the work is local, how often you would need the Front, and what the house and land need to do. I will give you the honest read on whether Duchesne County fits, and connect you with a partner agent who works the Uinta Basin every week.
If you buy or sell outside Southern Utah, I connect you with a trusted local partner agent and stay involved through your move. If you work with that agent, their brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. It comes out of the agent's compensation, not as an added cost to you, and you are always free to choose your own agent.