A History of Beaver County

Beaver county - The places that shape us

CHAPTER 1 Introduction BEAVER COUNTY: THE PLACES THAT SHAPE US i n part, my love of Beaver's countryside motivated me to write this book. It is easy to find many attractions in rural Utah, and in Beaver County these natural features abound-mountains to hike and explore, fertile farm fields and grazing land to the west, and small historic towns to investigate and learn from. For those of us who live outside the county, rural Utah has been home for significant periods of our lives, and it is where the stories of our ancestors play out. I feel privileged to have been able to help tell their stories. As have many of you, I have become increasingly concerned about the many threats to Beaver County's historically rural atmos­phere. It is possible that our state will undergo overwhelming changes that will alter the whole landscape irretrievably in the next genera­tion. In some places change is accelerating beyond our ability to imagine its impact by the end of the century. Therefore, places like Beaver County that hang onto some vestige of the hundred years of rural life are important to preserve. Technically a rural environment is sparsely populated, lies well beyond the metropolis or the suburbs, and is a place where natural HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY resources are the basis for at least some of the residents' livelihoods. Here farmers, ranchers, miners, and individuals who enjoy the forests and mountains abound. Rural environments are always more directly tied to nature, the weather, the changing seasons mark their days, and therefore a rural environment is deceptively stable. In Beaver County natural resources abound. The mineral wealth of t h e v a r i e d m o u n t a i n ranges, t h e fertile soil of t h e fields, and stretches of land perfect for grazing of stock offer numerous oppor­t u n i t i e s for employment and extraction of raw materials for use. Perhaps, more importantly, we must also embrace the idea of the community as a resource, from individual farms or landholdings, to social institutions, to the local economy as a whole. This rural com­munity, built first by the Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and later by their progenitors and newcomers, has used b o t h the natural resources at h a n d and their own talents and traditions-a substantial invest­ment in this place. Their collective investment deserves our respect and justifies this attempt to better understand and define the dimen­sions of that effort at protecting and building upon the land, enhanc­ing natural and scenic resources, preserving buildings, traditions and institutions of cultural significance, and enhancing the local econ­omy and social institutions. The colonization of Beaver County can be characterized as the settlement of dichotomy. When white settlers first came to the area, they chose to locate their homes by the proximity of their land to water, the mountains, and natural resources. The county is marked by geographic dispersion across an area that stretched to the western border between Utah and Nevada, and soon towns were built at the base of m o u n t a i n ranges across the county. Beyond these basic set­tlement motifs, Beaver County is distinguished by contradictory but complimentary patterns of settlement: agricultural vs. mining com­munities; theologically based towns vs. secular communities; coop­erative economies vs. traditional capitalist economic organization; orderly superimposed grid plans vs. unplanned geographically deter­m i n e d town settlements, a n d finally the c o n f r o n t a t i o n between Mormons and gentiles. As early as 1860 Beaver County was at the center of a coloniza­t i o n network that stretched n o r t h into Idaho, south to San BEAVER COUNTY: THE PLACES THAT SHAPE Us Bernardino and west into central Nevada. As such, efforts at settle­ment mirrored those in numerous other places. Attempts at building irrigation systems, platting towns, building homes, schoolhouses, and churches reflected community values-the larger community of the Mormon empire. But in many important ways, Salt Lake City set the model. By 1860 Salt Lake City had streets stretching from the town's cen­ter in every direction-straight, wide streets, some close into town lined with dry goods stores, blacksmith's shops, drugstores or hotels, others with houses at even intervals. Salt Lake City's cultural life afforded amenities available in Eastern cities-theatrical presenta­tions, dances, philosophical and literary societies, and numerous clubs formed around the interests of locals. This then set the model. Both physically and culturally, Salt Lake City was quickly an estab­lished town with a stratified society, relatively sophisticated repertoire of activities, and a thriving economy. During the first three decades after settlement, Beaver built a community that mirrored Salt Lake City. Virtually all services, cul­tural events, and educational facilities were available in this fledgling community in southern Utah to a lesser degree. Beaver had a theatri­cal company, literary associations, suffrage unions, and other social and cultural groups. Mormon men gathered together a School of the Prophets for religious instruction independent of their church activ­ities. Cooperative and communal activities reflected the churchwide movement for self-sufficiency. On the other hand, the county's min­ing towns-Frisco and Milford-rivaled Park City in both size and activity and had populations that were markedly diverse. Clearly, in the nineteenth century Beaver County had established itself as a place with potential and most certainly a place to be watched. The Mormons came to Utah in the effort to escape religious dis­crimination and persecution. After the death of their church presi­dent and prophet, Joseph Smith, in Nauvoo, Illinois plans began for a mass exodus into the isolated Great Basin region. Mormonism had always invited controversy, and the Mormon people had moved sev­eral times in the wake of harassment, first to Kirtland, Ohio, then to Missouri, and on to Illinois. Although Beaver County was one of many centers of settlement HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY of the Mormon pioneers, its history is unique. It isn't just another place, b u t a place w i t h a difference. What distinguishes Beaver County? Is it the clean water, the rich farmland, the dramatic moun­t a in ranges, t h e beautiful historic rock buildings, opportunities to hike and fish? Is it t h e willingness of neighbors to help one another? The unique combination of rich mineral resources and the mining i n d u s t r y alongside stock raising and farming? The resources seem endless, and yet it is the unique combination that forms the answer. Identifying community values and concerns such as these seems like a good place to start to answer this question. Certainly, each county has its own p a r t i c u l a r character and needs. This sense of place is shaped in part by the natural environment, by its place, but also by the interaction of this particular group of people with that place, the way they have collectively and individually responded to the unique challenges and joys it provided. One artist and author, Alan Gussow, suggests a list of six ques­tions in attempting to identify the unique character of a place. 1. If you took a visitor around your community, what places would you be certain to include? 2. Where would you get out of the car and walk around? Why those places? 3. What are the recurring events, both natural and human, in your environment? Are they marked or observed? How? 4. Small towns and their surrounding countryside interact with each other. What indicators, if any, do you find in your town which reveal the beneficial effects of being in a rural setting? Can you think of any good qualities in the countryside which result from the nearness to a town? 5. What part of the environment in which you live is most likely to change? Is this change for the better? If not, why not; and what could you do to prevent or lessen the impact of this change? 6. If you could change one thing about your community, what would it be? Most importantly, what would be the first step to take in order to work toward that change?1 Like many rural counties, Beaver County faces key issues during the next century. While some urban counties in Utah are facing the problems associated with inordinant growth, Beaver County must BEAVER COUNTY: THE PLACES THAT SHAPE US struggle to escape the grip of economic stagnation and decline. Future decline might be caused by local problems, as was true when the county reacted to the interstate freeway that bypassed Beaver's communities, or a national trend such as a drop in prices of certain commodities. As one business goes out of business, so do the busi­nesses they patronize. The interrelatedness of a county comes into focus with the rise and decline in fortunes. Everyone suffers with the failure of a major county business or entity. Vacant stores, abandoned gas stations, and gaping holes on streets where buildings once stood are visual evidence of the major impact that economic change has already had. Much of this has played out on the town level. Small towns form the backbone of this county. They are the economic, social, cultural, and political centers of action in Beaver County. Here, stores, schools, doctors, farm-equipment dealers, and most customers are located. Few of these towns are the diverse, largely self-sufficient communi­ties they were when they were settled. More county residents are trav­eling the distance to malls and shopping centers in Cedar City or St. George to the south. As a result, many of these towns have suffered. Not only have businesses faltered, or closed down altogether, but also key social institutions such as local schools, churches, or restaurants have changed. No longer the scene of critical social interaction, these important community functions are being displaced or replaced by new ways of interacting. It is important to remember the intercon-nectedness of community institutions. Beaver County's people are its most important asset. As each community was settled during the nineteenth century, as they grew and developed over the next several decades, their residents created a unique character based on their ethnic, religious, and occupational backgrounds. Their commitment and energy created this place, col­ored it with a special dedication to taming a wild environment and bringing it into usefulness. In part, recognized for its indigenous buildings and landscapes, Beaver County's physical environment evokes familiar and comfort­ing associations of family and community, an interesting and evoca­tive juxtaposition of traditional spaces on the natural environment. These buildings and the historic landscape conserve tangible and vis- HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY ible links with the community's past, preserve places that are impor­t a n t parts of the community's identity, and retain i m p o r t a nt resources that teach us about the past, about how this place was set­tled, developed and changed over time. This juxtaposition of building shapes and forms, the rich mix­t u r e of a r c h i t e c t u r a l styles a n d b u i l d i n g types a n d materials, the color, texture, and shape of the physical environment create a diver­sified landscape. The physical landscape is particularly rich in historic resources-houses, b a r n s , granaries, windmills, fences, and out buildings teach us h ow farmers laid out their fields, how the people joined together for irrigation projects for cooperative businesses or community wide projects. This centennial history seeks to find answers to t h e question: What is Beaver County about? It looks at government and commu­nity institutions, the built environment and settlement patterns, cul­tural and social life. It attempts to identify the way these disparate elements weave together to create a design filled with meaning and memory, history, and a sense of future direction. ENDNOTE 1. Alan Gussow, Saving America's Countryside (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989), 8.