Explorers, trappers, and traders were present before Brigham Young sent a group in 1861 to prepare the way for Mormon colonization, but in October 1861 the U.S. Government set apart Uintah Valley as an Indian reservation. In 1905 a portion was opened for white settlement. On June 6, 1905, A.M. Murdock's daughter Dora and Sogoosie Jack, an Indian, joined 52 men in organizing a town called Dora, later Theodore, and then Duchesne. A bell served for school, church, curfew, and as a fire alarm for many years at Camp Theodore in Duchesne County.