Tribal water Roosevelt
The nearest real water to town, and the rules on it are not the state's
Bottle Hollow, and the permit that comes first.
Six miles east of Roosevelt sits a reservoir the Ute Indian Tribe owns and manages, built as compensation after a 1965 agreement sent Uinta Basin water across the mountains to the Wasatch Front. A tribal permit is required to be there. Here is what to arrange, where the water came from, and how to visit a place that is somebody's home ground rather than an attraction.
Southern Utah is my home turf. Roosevelt is not, so these pages are researched rather than lived: checked against city, county and venue sources, and dated so you can see how fresh they are. For the on-the-ground work here I lean on a Duchesne County partner agent.
Start here
The nearest water to town belongs to a different government.
Bottle Hollow Reservoir sits about six miles east of Roosevelt on US-40 and about a mile west of Fort Duchesne. From the road it reads as an ordinary basin reservoir: open water on a sagebrush bench with the Uintas standing up behind it. It is not ordinary in the way that matters most to a visitor, because it is owned and managed by the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and the rules that apply on it are the tribe's rather than the state of Utah's.
That is a jurisdiction rather than an obstacle, and it is the single thing worth getting right before you drive out. A Utah fishing licence does not cover this water. A permit issued by the tribe is what covers it, and as reported in August 2026 that permit is required for a non-member to be at the reservoir at all rather than only to fish it. You arrange it in advance, with the tribe, and then the day is straightforward.
The tribe is a federally recognised sovereign government made up of three bands, the Uintah, the Whiteriver and the Uncompahgre, governed by a Tribal Business Committee, with its headquarters at Fort Duchesne a mile east of the water. It runs its own Fish and Wildlife Department, publishes its own fishing, camping and boating proclamation each year, and manages roughly 1.3 million acres of trust land. Everything on this page is written in the present tense for that reason.
Bottle Hollow by the numbers
6 mi
east of Roosevelt on US-40
1965
the deferral agreement behind it
1970
the year the resort beside it was dedicated
1989
the year it was drained for outlet repairs
The part to arrange first
One permit, and it is issued by the tribe.
What follows is what was published and reported as of August 2026. It is written down here so you know what kind of thing to expect, and it is not the authority. The tribe's current proclamation is the authority, and it is republished every year.
Non-member fishing, camping and boating permits have been available through the tribe's Fish and Wildlife Department and over the counter at Ute Plaza at 7750 East US-40 in Fort Duchesne. The department's published telephone number on utetribe.com is 435-722-5511, and a fisheries number of 435-722-3282 has also circulated in fishing coverage. A Fishing, Camping and Boating Proclamation is issued annually, and a 2026 edition was linked from the tribe's own site as of August 2026.
The reported rules are specific enough that reading them properly saves an argument. Access has been prohibited from half an hour before official sunrise until half an hour after official sunset, which ties the day to the sun rather than to a clock. The Bottle Hollow inlet has been closed to fishing. Watercraft have had to be off the water by a set evening time through the summer months. Alcohol has been strictly prohibited. And some waters on tribal land, Desolation Canyon among them, remain closed to non-members for any recreation, hiking or camping at all.
The stocking is the tribe's too. Rainbow trout are stocked regularly, and in some years lake trout have gone in for a tournament. The tribe's own Fish and Wildlife page has also addressed a parasite found in bass there, stating that the fish are safe to eat when cooked thoroughly and that it is safe to swim and recreate in Bottle Hollow. That is the sort of question a rumour answers badly and the managing agency answers well, which is the whole argument for going to the source.
| The question | As reported in August 2026 | Where the answer actually comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Do I need a permit? | Yes, and to be at the reservoir rather than only to fish it | The Ute Indian Tribe Fish and Wildlife Department |
| Does a Utah licence work? | No. This is tribal water under tribal rules | The tribe's annual proclamation |
| Where do I buy one? | The Fish and Wildlife Department, and over the counter at Ute Plaza in Fort Duchesne | Ring 435-722-5511 and confirm the current outlets |
| What hours can I be there? | Not from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset | The current proclamation, which sets the wording |
| Can I take a boat? | Watercraft have had to be off the water by a set evening time in summer | The current proclamation |
| What about other tribal waters? | Some, including Desolation Canyon, are closed to non-members entirely | The tribe, at utetribe.com |
Every row in the left column has an answer that only one body can give, and it is not this page and it is not a fishing forum. Fees, seasons, outlets and rules move with the proclamation. Ring the department, buy the current permit, and read what comes with it.
Go to utetribe.com, not to a third party listing. Fishing sites carry Bottle Hollow rules that were accurate in some earlier year, including one period when the reservoir was closed to non-members entirely before reopening. That is how a visitor ends up either turning round at the water or, worse, being somewhere they have no permission to be. The tribe publishes its own proclamation and its own contact numbers. Use those, on the day, and treat anything else as background reading.
Where it came from
This reservoir exists because a river was taken somewhere else.
Bottle Hollow is not a natural lake and it was not built to irrigate anything. It was built as compensation, and the record of why is a matter of federal agreements with dates on them.
In 1965 the United States, the Central Utah Water Conservancy District and the Ute Indian Tribe entered into what is known as the deferral agreement. Under it the tribe agreed to defer development of a portion of its reservation land, which freed up water that could be diverted out of the Uinta Basin and across to the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project on the other side of the mountains. That water is a large part of what the Wasatch Front drinks and irrigates with.
Bottle Hollow Reservoir was constructed as part of what the tribe received in exchange, specifically to compensate for economic losses associated with stream fishing, and to provide recreation, fishing and wildlife activity. The Bureau of Reclamation records its purpose as recreation and tourism for the Ute Indian Tribe rather than irrigation or flood control, which is unusual for a reservoir in this state. It is filled with water from the Uinta River, diverted through the tribally owned Bench Canal from the west.
A hotel and convention centre went up beside the water with federal money, dedicated in 1970, intended to bring jobs and economic diversity. For about two decades it worked as advertised: the convention centre hosted meetings, including ones about the Central Utah Project itself, and the site carried dinner theatre, reunions and community events through the summers. The basin's oil boom collapsed in the late 1980s and took the resort with it. Most of the buildings were demolished in 2009.
None of that is ancient history and none of it is over. The 1965 agreement and what followed from it remain a live subject in Utah water politics, and the tribe remains a party to it. A page like this reports the record and the dates. It does not grade the bargain, and anybody who tells you the grading is obvious has picked a side rather than read the file.
| Date | What happened | Who was involved |
|---|---|---|
| 1965 | The deferral agreement, freeing Uinta Basin water for the Bonneville Unit | The United States, the Central Utah Water Conservancy District and the Ute Indian Tribe |
| Around 1970 | Bottle Hollow Reservoir built and filled from the Uinta River through the Bench Canal | The Bureau of Reclamation, for the tribe |
| 1970 | The Bottle Hollow Resort, a motel and convention centre, dedicated beside the water | Built with federal money for the tribe |
| Late 1980s | The basin oil boom collapses and the resort declines with it | The regional economy |
| 1989 to 1992 | Drained for outlet works repairs, then refilled and restocked | The Ute Indian Tribe with the Bureau of Indian Affairs |
| 2009 | Most of the remaining resort buildings demolished | The site cleared |
Dates as published by the Bureau of Reclamation, contemporary newspaper reporting and Central Utah Project documentation, checked in August 2026. This is a record of what was agreed and built, not an assessment of any of it.
The empty years
It sat dry for two of them, and the core samples were the interesting part.
The reservoir was emptied in 1989 because the gate stems on the outlet works had been damaged and could not be opened fully. Fred Chavez, then the Bureau of Indian Affairs Land Operation manager, put it plainly in contemporary reporting: the stems were damaged and the gates would not open completely. Alongside the mechanical problem there was a fisheries one, with stagnant water and anchor worms in the fish, so the drain solved two things at once.
It stayed empty for about two years. While it was down, core samples were taken from the bed, because Bottle Hollow sits on ground that had been a U.S. Cavalry dump site in the late 1800s, and nobody wanted to refill a reservoir over an unknown. The results came back showing only small amounts of naturally occurring mercury. That is a genuinely reassuring outcome and it is also the closest thing there is to physical evidence for the story the place is named after.
By May 1992 the reservoir was being refilled slowly through the Bench Canal with fresh water off the Uinta River, and rainbow and brook trout restocking was projected for that autumn once levels allowed. It has been managed and stocked by the tribe since, and rainbow trout remain the mainstay. Anybody looking at photographs of a dry basin sitting under Fort Duchesne is looking at the turn of the 1990s rather than at anything current.
They drained it to fix a gate, and the core samples came back with nothing worse than natural mercury.
The name
A ravine, a garrison, and an account nobody has fully documented.
The account repeated locally and in visitor material is that soldiers stationed at Fort Duchesne in the late 1800s threw their empty bottles into a ravine on the way back to the post, since alcohol was not permitted inside it, and that enough bottles accumulated for the ravine to be called Bottle Hollow. It is a good story, it is consistent with the cavalry dump site the 1989 core samples were taken over, and it is presented here as an account rather than as a documented record.
The garrison itself is documented and dated. The site for Fort Duchesne was selected on 20 August 1886 and troops arrived three days later, having ridden 650 miles from Fort McKinney in Wyoming Territory. The 9th Cavalry, an all Black regiment whose soldiers are known as Buffalo Soldiers, was stationed there from 1886 to 1903, and for a stretch between 1890 and 1894 it was the only military presence at the post. Uintah County held the second largest Black population in Utah during that period.
When the regiment was ordered overseas around the turn of the century, local residents petitioned to keep it at Fort Duchesne. The soldiers played baseball and boxed against local teams and were part of the community that grew around the post. The original fort buildings are gone. The site itself is now the headquarters of the Ute Indian Tribe, which is the layer of the story that matters most and the one that is still going on.
How to visit it well
Five things, and four of them are about permission.
The permit comes first and it comes before the drive, not at the water. Ring the tribe's Fish and Wildlife Department, buy the current permit, and read the proclamation that comes with it rather than skimming it. Assume nothing carries over from a previous year, because a proclamation is reissued annually precisely so that it can change.
Then behave the way you would on any ground that is somebody's home rather than somebody's attraction, because that is what this is. Fort Duchesne is a mile east and it is the seat of a government. Stay where the permit says you may be, keep to the hours it sets, leave the alcohol at home given the published prohibition, take every scrap of rubbish out with you, and do not treat a tribal community as scenery on the drive past.
The last one is about what you carry away. Photographs of the water are fine. Photographs of people, of homes, or of anything happening at Fort Duchesne are a different matter and the answer is to ask, or not to take them. That courtesy costs nothing and it is the difference between a visitor and a nuisance. If you would like the wider picture of what living beside this boundary means for a buyer rather than a visitor, the movers page takes it.
Buy the permit, read the proclamation, and treat the whole area as somebody's home ground.
Keep reading
More of Roosevelt on The Local.
Things to do
The top 7, ranked
A festival that closes Main Street, a 14 acre nature park, and water you need a permit for.
Read the guideThe campuses
USU's first regional campus
USU's first regional campus, a building everyone calls The Church, and 60 degrees.
Read the guideThe city park
Constitution Park
Two pavilions, a pump track, lighted fields, and the week the parade fills Main Street.
Read the guideThe mountains
The Uintas' south slope
Moon Lake, Uinta Canyon and Yellowstone, and where the pavement stops on each of them.
Read the guideMoving here
The checkerboard address
What a title company checks here that it does not have to check anywhere else.
Read the guideThe companion
Roosevelt, the whole picture
The basin town, the canyons behind it, the campuses, the park and the title work, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
Bottle Hollow, answered.
Yes. Bottle Hollow is owned and managed by the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, and as reported in August 2026 a permit issued by the tribe is required for a non-member to be at the reservoir rather than only to fish it. A Utah state fishing licence does not cover this water. Permits have been available through the tribe's Fish and Wildlife Department and over the counter at Ute Plaza in Fort Duchesne.
Non-member permits have been sold through the tribe's Fish and Wildlife Department and at Ute Plaza at 7750 East US-40 in Fort Duchesne. The department's published number on utetribe.com is 435-722-5511, and a fisheries number of 435-722-3282 has also circulated in fishing coverage. The tribe issues a Fishing, Camping and Boating Proclamation each year, and a 2026 edition was linked from its own site as of August 2026. Confirm the current outlets and fees with the tribe.
As reported in August 2026, access has been prohibited from half an hour before official sunrise until half an hour after official sunset, the inlet has been closed to fishing, watercraft have had to be off the water by a set evening time through the summer, and alcohol has been strictly prohibited. Rules are set by the tribe's annual proclamation and change with it, so take the current version from the tribe rather than from any travel page.
As compensation. Under a 1965 deferral agreement between the United States, the Central Utah Water Conservancy District and the Ute Indian Tribe, the tribe agreed to defer development of part of its reservation land so that water could be diverted out of the Uinta Basin to the Bonneville Unit of the Central Utah Project. Bottle Hollow was constructed to compensate the tribe for economic losses associated with stream fishing and to provide recreation, fishing and wildlife activity.
A motel and convention centre built beside the reservoir with federal money and dedicated in 1970, intended to bring jobs and economic diversity to the tribe. Its convention centre hosted business meetings including ones about the Central Utah Project, and the site carried dinner theatre, reunions and community events through the summers. It declined when the basin's oil boom collapsed in the late 1980s, and most of the remaining buildings were demolished in 2009.
It was emptied in 1989 because the gate stems on the outlet works had been damaged and could not be opened fully, and because stagnant water had left the fishery in poor condition. It stayed empty about two years. Core samples were taken from the bed, since the reservoir sits over a late 1800s U.S. Cavalry dump site, and the results showed only small amounts of naturally occurring mercury. Refilling through the Bench Canal was under way by May 1992.
The account repeated locally and in visitor material is that soldiers at Fort Duchesne in the late 1800s discarded their empty bottles into a ravine on the way back to the post, since alcohol was not allowed inside it, and that the ravine became known as Bottle Hollow. It is presented here as an account rather than as a documented record, though it is consistent with the cavalry dump site the 1989 core samples were taken over.
Rainbow trout are stocked regularly, and in some years lake trout have been stocked for a tournament. Rainbow and brook trout were restocked after the reservoir refilled in the early 1990s. The tribe's own Fish and Wildlife page has addressed a parasite found in bass there, stating that the fish are safe to eat when cooked thoroughly and that it is safe to swim and recreate in Bottle Hollow. Confirm current stocking and limits in the tribe's proclamation.
About six miles east on US-40, and roughly a mile west of Fort Duchesne, which is the headquarters of the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. It is the nearest substantial open water to Roosevelt. Because the permit is arranged with the tribe rather than bought at the water, the practical distance is the phone call rather than the drive, so plan that part first.
Water six miles east on ground with its own government.
That is a normal fact of life in the Uinta Basin and it is also the fact that surprises out of state buyers most. If you are looking at property here, the same underlying question shows up in title work rather than at a boat ramp: what exactly is this parcel, and did the minerals come with the surface. Tell me what you are looking at and I will get a Duchesne County partner agent on it.
Referral disclosure. Outside Southern Utah, I connect home sellers and buyers with partner agents I trust in their area. If you choose to work with an agent I refer, that agent's brokerage pays my brokerage (Real Broker, LLC) a referral fee. The fee comes out of the agent's compensation; it is not an added cost to you. You are always free to choose any agent you wish, and using a referred agent is never required.