In the spring of 1863, young merchant David Fraser came to the area with a pack string headed for Pierce City, the gold rush area, intending to open a store. Local people encouraged him to open it here because many miners had moved on from Pierce City. Fraser built a trading post two miles west of this park, and it became both a place where people made contact with one another and a post office for the area, establishing the name Fraser. David ran the trading post and post office for 21 years before leaving for Pierce to open a store as gold dredging was about to begin there and a new period of progress started. In 1884, nearby resident Pat Keane took over the Fraser post office and kept it for 14 years, then left in late 1898 for Greer, where he opened a post office as the railroad was coming there. Later in 1898, Bill Neffer became postmaster but died seven months later. Early in 1899, Fred Judd took over the post office, kept it in the Fraser store until the store burned in 1911, and then moved it to his home. Fred served as postmaster for 22 years. In 1920, Congress created rural free delivery of mail, and many post offices in the U.S. closed, including the Fraser post office in the spring of 1921, although the community continued to be known as Fraser.