Coal was discovered in Price Canyon near Castle Gate in 1888, and the Pleasant Valley Coal Co. immediately opened the Castle Gate No. 1 Mine. The Wasatch Store was built in 1890 and served the camps of Castle Gate and Willow Creek as the company store. The store and the surrounding communities shared a colorful history that included an 1897 robbery by Butch Cassidy, several mine strikes, and a 1924 mine explosion that killed 173 miners. In 1974, during a boom in the boom-and-bust coal mining economy, McCulloch Oil moved the town to the mouth of Spring Canyon in West Helper to make room for expanding operations.