In the spring of 1849, Samuel Comstock Snyder joined Parley P. Pratt in cutting a road up "Big Canyon" and first saw the mountain plateau the pioneers named "Parley's Park." That road became the "Golden Pass," a toll road used by Wells Fargo, the Overland Stage, and other travelers bound for the Salt Lake Valley or the California gold fields. In 1850, Pratt sold his claim to the valley to Snyder for a yoke of oxen, and Samuel Snyder and his family became the first settlers to build homes in the basin. Finding fertile farmland, plentiful grass for grazing, and heavily forested mountainsides, the family, who were millers by trade, built a sawmill, a gristmill, and a reservoir on Spring Creek. Snyder's Mill produced much of the lumber used to build the first homes and businesses in the new territory, and after silver was discovered in the surrounding mountains, the sawmill supplied timbers for the mines. Samuel was later joined by his brothers Chester and George, and the settlement became known as Snyderville. The family chose a prominent knoll on Chester Snyder's homestead for their cemetery. In 1874, the first burial there was Robert, the six-month-old son of Ephraim and Susannah Fullmer Snyder and grandson of Samuel Snyder. Chester Snyder, his wife Electa, and twenty-seven of Samuel's and Chester's descendants were buried there overlooking the Snyder Basin, and the last burial was in 1920. Many of the graves were marked with local sandstone, cut and carved by hand, reflecting the story of a typical family that lost many children to disease and the rigors of pioneer life.