Early Castle Valley

In the 1870s, Mormon settlers came east across the Wasatch Plateau to the high mountain deserts of Castle Valley and the San Rafael Swell, the last place Brigham Young called his people to settle. Seeking new grazing lands for their livestock, they found little of the lush pastureland they had known in the Sanpete Valley. Indians warned them not to come because the water was bad and had killed their women. Good or bad, water was so scarce that life here was harsh. The toughest desert cowboys and outlaws survived because they knew where every water hole and spring was hidden in the rocks and canyons, and a few built livestock ponds and somehow made a living here.

Utah · United States