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Cache Valley has always been a popular gathering place. The Shoshone Indians were the first
people to settle in the area. They called it "the house of the great spirit." The Shoshone
were followed by fur trappers that held their largest trading meetings in Cache Valley and
along the shores of Bear Lake. These gatherings drew trappers from all across the West. They
exchanged furs, purchased supplies, and swapped stories about their adventures. The Shoshone
Indians lived in Cache Valley for nearly 5,000 years. They were nomadic hunters and gatherers
who depended on the wild for food. Shoshone life changed dramatically in the early 1700s
when they acquired horses -- horses allowed them to hunt bison and other big game. The
Shoshone people called the area Willow Valley for its abundance of trees and bushes. These
early inhabitants would start grass fires to drive buffalo herds and to improve forage
for their horses. The fertile land of Cache Valley provided some of the best grazing area
in the Great Basin region. However, those fires cleared the valley of the trees and
bushes it was known for, except for those located near the rivers. The look of the valley
was changed forever. The mountain men played a critical role in the settling of Cache Valley.
Men such as Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith, Ephraim Logan, and Peter Skene Ogden left their names
to mark the areas they explored. Jim Bridger, one of the more well-known explorers, came
to Cache Valley when he was just 20 years old. He was a trapper with the Rocky Mountain
Fur Company. He floated out of Cache Valley on the Bear River in 1824 and upon tasting
the salty water he stumbled upon, he spat it out and declared, " . . . we are on the
shores of the Pacific Ocean!" He was in fact wrong in his deduction and became one of the
first known White men to see the Great Salt Lake. Fueled by high society's demand for
beaver pelts, mountain men trapped beaver. The pelts were used to line the popular top
hats worn by fashionable men on the East Coast. The word "cache" is a French word that means
"to store, or hide one's treasures." The trappers would dig a hole in the ground or on the side
of a mountain and "cache" their supply of beaver pelts until they could be sold at the
annual rendezvous. Bridger is said to have stashed nearly $150,000 worth of beaver pelts
at the south end of Cache Valley in a town called Hyrum. Fur pelts sold for $6 a pound.
The average skin weighed about 2 pounds. Ephraim Logan, for which Logan City is named, first
came to Cache Valley around 1824. He attended his first Rocky Mountain Rendezvous in 1825.
A few years later, Logan joined a hunting trip along the Snake River. While on this
expedition, the group was attacked by some Shoshone and Logan was killed. His fame spread
after his death. The Bourdon River, as it was called at the time, was renamed the Logan
River in honor of Ephraim Logan. By the 1840s fashion trends had changed, which brought
an end to the days of the mountain men. During this time, the beaver population in nearby
Logan Canyon was almost completely wiped out. The first permanent settlers of Cache Valley
were Mormon pioneers sent by Brigham Young on July 24, 1855. He sent 23 men and 2 women
to establish a cattle ranch near the Blacksmith Fork River. It was named Elkhorn Ranch because
of the elk antlers that hung over the main gate. They had plans to graze the cattle during
the summer and then move to a warmer climate for the winter months. Unfortunately, winter
came early. In a desperate attempt to save the cattle, John C. Dowdle and William Garr
drove them through Wellsville Canyon to Brigham City in a raging blizzard. The snowdrifts
were 4 feet deep in the valley and even deeper in the canyon. Only 420 cattle survived the
ordeal and Garr lost both of his feet to the cold. In 1856, Brigham Young sent another
group of Mormon pioneers to settle in Wellsville. Peter and Mary Ann Weston Maughan drove the
first covered wagon into the valley. Mary Ann scanned the lush, grassy valley that lay
before her and said, "Oh, what a beautiful valley." The first seven families settled
at Maughan's Fort in Wellsville on September 15, 1856. Eleven days later the first snowstorm
hit. Mrs. Maughan gave birth to the first child born to permanent settlers in Cache
Valley. Jim Bridger, known for telling tall tales, said that since it froze every month
in Cache Valley that crops would never grow there. However, Brigham Young promised the
settlers that Cache Valley would become the "granary of the West." In only half a century,
his prophecy came true. By 1915, more wheat was shipped from Cache Junction than any other
town located along the Union Pacific Railroad route. The history of the Bear Lake Valley
followed the same pattern as Cache Valley. It was first inhabited by the Shoshone, then
mountain men who hunted and fished there for years. The first permanent settlers were also
sent by Brigham Young. They were led by Charles Rich, whom the county was named after. Bear
Lake is famous for the legend of the Bear Lake Monster. The monster has been sighted
in the lake since early pioneer days. Cache Valley is known for its pristine beauty and
wide variety of cultural and recreational opportunities. The valley has evolved from
an area used for grazing, fur trapping, and lumbering to a place of agriculture, dairy
farming, food processing, and high-tech businesses. Nearly a century ago, novelist Thomas Wolfe
said of Cache Valley, "It was the most lovely and enchanted valley I have ever seen; a valley
that makes all that has gone before fade as nothing."