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Show wife Ann Eliza Hunter that "only men with plenty of hair on 'em are tough enough to stand the climate of Bear Lake." Climate and geography played no small part in the lives of the men and women who settled that region of Utah. Divided into two distinct areas, the county's geography has produced somewhat of an identity problem. The Bear River Valley communities of Randolph and Woodruff have traditionally shared more commonality with towns in southwestern Wyoming, while Laketown and Garden City have had more in common with the older settlements in the Idaho portion of Bear Lake Valley. This dis-parity is still evident today. Rich County is probably the only county in the state whose newspapers are published in two different states, neither of which is Utah.~xl' -P xr'b L This volume follows the course of human " interaction with the land and resources of Rich County, Utah, as it describes the county's history from the time of its earliest Native American inhabitants through the eras of fur trappers, Mormon settlement, and mining to recent developments in ;he oil and gas indus-try and in recreation and tourism A HISTORY OF Kith County A HISTORY OF Robert E. Parson 1996 Utah State Historical Society Rich County Commission Copyright O 1996 by the Rich County Commission All rights reserved ISBN 0-913738-02-6 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 96-60061 Map by Automated Geographic Reference Center-State of Utah Printed in the United States of America Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City, Utah 84 10 1 - 1 182 Dedicated to A. J. Simmonds Without whose encouragement and knowledge of Utah history sources this work would not have been possible. And to thepeople of Rich County. Con tents CHAPTE1R "The Very Land Itself. . ." Prehistory and Presettlement in Rich County ........................... 1 CHAPTE2R "The Snow Lies Too Low on the Mountains Here for Utah" The Mormon Settlements in Northern Bear Lake Valley ............... 38 CHAPTE3R "Nine Months Winter and the Balance ... Pretty Cold Weather" Life and Settlement in Rich County, 1864-1896 ............................. 67 CHAPTE4R "Like an Emerald Among the Mountains" Recreational Activities at Bear Lake and Rich County . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120 ... vlll CONTENTS CHAPTE5R "Like A Slow-Moving but Unstoppable GlacierJJ Natural Resources in the Bear River and Bear Lake Valleys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 CHAPTE6R "New Country and Untried Climate" The Agricultural History of Rich County ... 177 CHAPTE7R "Still Look to the Future in Faith" Religion and Life In Rich County . . . . . . . . . . 2 18 CHAPTE8R "To Gain the Attention of Children" Education in Rich County. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 CHAPTE9R "In An Ever Broadening Role" Local Government In Rich County ........ 273 APPENDIAX County Statistics, Prominent Educators, Religious Leaders, Civic Leaders, and Early Rich County Settlers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 1 APPENDIBX Rich County Public Health Nursing by Helen Kennedy Cornia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 19 APPENDICX School Through the Years by Annie S. Wamsley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 APPENDIDX The Bear Lake Monster .................. 327 |
