Paris, a pioneer Idaho town, was founded on September 26, 1863, when a wagon train brought more than 30 families of Mormon colonizers. More pioneers soon followed, some living in huts of quaking aspen and others building log cabins for the mild first winter. The next spring, 700 more people arrived in the valley. The second winter was terrible, but the settlers persevered. They thought they were in Utah until an 1872 boundary survey showed this was part of Idaho. When Bear Lake County was created in 1875, Paris became county seat.