Bear River Valley
History
The Bear
River
Valley was originally inhabited by the Fremont and Shoshoni
Indians. The French-Canadian trappers entered the valley early in
the 1800's.
As best as can be determined DEWEYVILLE was
the first town in Bear River Valley, settled by William Empey in
1864. Later, John C. Dewey and his family settled in the
area. The post office was established in 1873 and the town was
named DEWEYVILLE.
In 1866 Scandinavian Mormon converts
were assigned by Brigham Young to live by the Bear River north and west
of Corinne. Michael Bourdon, a French Canadian trapper, named the
river because of the numerous black, brown and grizzly bears found in
the region at the time. The town was named after the river, BEAR
RIVER CITY.
In 1867 people from Wellsville, Utah, settled
just south of the Idaho state line. It first had a name of Hay
Town, which refers to the large hay fields grown there. It
was later named PORTAGE.
In 1869 PLYMOUTH
was settled, just south of the Idaho
border. It was first named squaretown, because the first four
families built homes on adjoining corners of four sections of
land. It was named Plymouth for the imagined resemblance of a
nearby large rock to the Plymouth Rock.
SNOWVILLE is near Deep
Creek and the Idaho
border. It was settled in 1871 by Idahoans who named their
community after Mormon Apostle Lorenzo Snow, who was assigned to
supervise the development of this section of the Utah Territory.
TREMONTON, the
largest town in the Bear River Valley, was
first colonized by white settlers in 1888. These settlers were
farmers that came from Nebraska, as well as a German Colony from
Tremont, Illinois. They came to farm the irrigated pastures
available in the area. Three of these farmers, John Shuman, Fred
Nihart, and John Perry, first laid out the town of Tremonton in the
spring of 1903. They chose the site due to its central location
on the crossroads of the Bear River Valley as well as for its location
on the Malad branch of the Oregon Shortline Railroad. For the
first few weeks of the town's existence, it was without a name.
Then the town manager, Fred Nihart, named the town Tremont at the
request of the German inhabitants from Illinois. After three to
four years, the town had an identity problem due to the close
pronounciation to another Utah town, Fremont. The postal
authorities requested the new town change its name. To remedy the
problem, two letters were added to the end of the name making the
official name Tremonton.
GARLAND is a
small thriving community one mile north of
Tremonton. It was originally settled in 1890 and was later named
for
William Garland who led the construction of the Bothwell Canal.
He was a leader in developing the sugar beet industry in the region.
FIELDING is a
small agricultural town originally settled
in 1892-1893. The town was officially named in honor of the
mother of Joseph F. Smith, the sixth president of the Mormon Church.
HONEYVILLE is 10
miles north of Brigham City. The
early settlement was first known as Hunsaker's Mill. Joseph Orme,
the first permanent settler, suggested the area be called
Hunsakerville, after the first Mormon bishop, Abraham Hunsaker.
Hunsaker had a large herd of cattle and milk cows. In the
mountains east of the settlement, the settlers regularly raided several
wild beehives for the honey. Hunsaker asked the settlement be
named Honeyville, because the area reminded him of the biblical Canaan,
a land of milk and honey.
HOWELL is a small
agricultural community that was first
settled in 1910. The Promontory-Curlew Land Company laid the town
out. It is named after Joseph Howell, President of the company
and Utah's Representative to the United States Congress.
ELWOOD is located
two miles southeast of Tremonton.
It was established in 1929, with an early name of Manila Ward, in honor
of Commodore George Dewey's victory in the Spanish American War.
The name was later changed to Elwood by the postal authorities to avoid
confusion with the Manila Voting Precinct.
GROUSE CREEK is a
small rural ranching and farming
community of about 80 people located in the Northwest corner of Utah,
about 8 miles from the Nevada border and 18 miles from the Idaho
border. The first settlers came from Tooele in 1875. They
were attracted to the area because of the acres of natural meadows for
their herds to feed on. The first settlers built log houses with
dirt roofs and rock floors. The families of the Tanners and
Kimbers hold a reunion each year on the 4th of July where many of the
descendants return to celebrate their heritage.