In 1863 Charles C. Rich and others explored Bear Lake Valley. In September, a group of settlers in eleven wagons traveled through Emigration Canyon and founded Paris. Log huts with dirt floors and roofs sheltered 48 men, 40 women, and 30 children during the winter, and church services were held in homes until a log building was erected. The next year 790 pioneers entered the valley and established other settlements. Their main food was fish and wild game, men on snowshoes carried communication between the settlements, and a treaty of peace and friendship with the Indians made by Charles C. Rich was faithfully kept.