When the Mormons fled to Utah in 1847, they sought a place nobody else wanted. From Salt Lake City, Brigham Young called them to colonize towns and cities across the great West. The last call came on August 22, 1877, when he asked Mormons in the Sanpete Valley to colonize Castle Valley, between the foot of the Wasatch Plateau and the edge of the San Rafael Swell. Many who came were young and hopeful, seeking pastureland and a chance to build a new life, but the land was harsh and arid. One of the first women in the valley, Hanna Olsson Seely, expressed that hardship bluntly, yet she remained and, like many others, made a home there.