The largest town in San Juan county, Blanding has a population of 3,800. Pioneers began work on an irrigation system in 1897 to bring water from the Abajo Mountains to the rich soil of White Mesa. The first families arrived at the townsite, then known as Sidon, in 1905. Many of the Mormon farmers who followed had been driven from Mexico by political and religious intolerance and had lost farms to floods in nearby Bluff. Residents apparently liked to change the name of the community. Originally known as Sidon, the town became Grayson, then Blanding. The story goes that in 1915 townsfolk jumped at the offer for a free library by Thomas W. Bicknell, an eastern millionaire, on the condition that they name their town after him. The town of Thurber in central Utah also wanted a library, so it was divided between the two communities; Thurber became Bicknell and Grayson became Blanding, the maiden name of Mrs. Bicknell.