Pahranagat Valley is named after a local Shoshone Native American Tribe. Three local springs fill the valley’s lakes, which farmers have used for irrigation since the mid-nineteenth century.
In the late 1860s, outlaws pastured hundreds of head of stolen cattle in the valley meadows.
In 1865, ore was discovered in the area. The following year, a stamp mill was established at Hiko, twenty miles to the north to crush the ore. Hiko became the center of activity for the valley and the county seat between 1866 and 1871, when local mining declined and Pioche claimed the county seat.
The valley received international notoriety in 1867 when Dan De Quille of the Territorial Enterprise published an article titled “The Rolling Stones of Pahranagat,” about magnetic traveling stones. De Quille was notorious for publishing comedy and satire, sometimes mistaken by his readership for truth. In this case, De Quille described these round stones as having a magical quality that, when scattered on the floor, would immediately began travelling toward a common center. De Quille published similar articles on the stones in 1876, 1879, and 1892.
The town of Alamo before you, established in 1900, is the valley’s largest present-day settlement. Watered by Pahranagat Creek, the area includes several ranches and the Pahranagat Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
This is Nevada State Historical Marker #38, see others on this page: – Nevada Historic Markers
There is little evidence today that Fort Sanford once existed. A land survey indicates it stood approximately 1.5 miles to the south of this marker.
The Fort was built in 1866 to protect the settlers in Circleville and Panguitch during the Black Hawk Indian War and to prevent the Indians from stealing livestock. Fort Sanford also served as a supply depot for cavalry troops.
Fort Sanford was designed, built, and named by Major Silas Sanford Smith and his troops. It was constructed entirely of cedar (juniper) pickets that stood eight feet above the ground. A deep ditch at the base of the wall encompassed the entire Fort. The dimensions were 363 feet by 363 feet, or approximately three acres with “block houses.”
Within just three months of completion, President Brigham Young directed the evacuation of smaller towns for great protection. Most Panguitch residents moved to Parowan; Circleville settlers went to Beaver. With the evacuation of these two communities, the need for the Fort also ended. Eventually farmers would salvage the poles of the stockade to build houses, outbuildings and fences.
Original Homesite of a Las Vegas Pioneer Charles “Pop” Squires 1865-1958
Charles “Pop” Squires, often referred to as “the Father of Las Vegas,” lived at this location, with his wife Delphine, from 1931 until his death in 1958.
Squires first arrived in the Las Vegas Valley in February 1905. He and his partners established a lumberyard, a tent hotel, a real estate firm, and the First State Bank. In March 1906, “Pop” assisted in the formation of the Consolidated Power & Telephone Company, bringing electricity and phone service to the new town.
In 1908, Squires and his wife purchased the community’s only newspaper, the Las Vegas Age. Squires campaigned for the creation of Clark County in 1909. He subsequently worked on incorporating Las Vegas into a city. With his wife and the voice of their newspaper, the couple became advocates for women’s suffrage. As a member of the League of the Southwest and the Colorado River Commission, Squires helped advance plans that eventually led to the construction of Hoover Dam.
Upon “Pop’s” passing, Las Vegas Sun reporter Bob Faiss wrote, “It seems strange that Las Vegas, a modern boomtown … should owe so much to the foresight of one man. But there is little we have today that wasn’t given an initial shove by ‘Pop’ Squires.”
This is located at 400 South 7th Street, Las Vegas, Nevada.
The first yearlong abode of white men in what is now Utah, was Antoine Robidoux’s Indian and fur trading post (Fort Wintey or Uintah), which was built 8 miles north of here in 1832. It was on the trail from Taos, New Mexico to the Pacific Northwest, and from Utah Lake to the Platte River region. Many Trappers traded and wintered here. Several distinguished travelers sojourned here, including Kit Carson, Joseph Williams, Rufus B. Sage, Marcus Whitman, A. L. Lovejoy and John C. Fremont, all prior to the burning of the post by Indians in 1844.
You are standing on ground once considered a part of the “traditional” hunting and fishing grounds of the Ute Indians.
During the 19th century, tensions multiplied when white settlers began to hunt, fish, farm and fence these traditional areas. Between 1853 and 1872, many people were killed in battles for this land and its resources.
In 1873, a Mormon delegation arrived at Fish Lake to make peace with the Utes. This treaty, signed along the southwestern shores of Fish Lake, has never been broken.
Today, fish Lake is visited and enjoyed by people from many cultures. To protect this beautiful lake and its resources, learn from the wisdom of those who used this land before you. Dispose of your garbage properly and practice proper hunting and fishing etiquette.
In 1905 William H. Smart, Uintah Stake President, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, supervised the colonization of reservation homesteaders. Ephraim Lambert was appointed bishop. Dry Gulch Irrigation Co., organized, R.S. Collett, President. In 1906 townsite, in center of Uintah Basin, platted by Edgar F. Harmston, Ward E. Pack, and J.C. Holmes; Roosevelt Mercantile built, Joseph Hardy, Manager. School began 1907, N.C. Cable, teacher. First flour mill built by C.C. Larsen.
Just west of this monument is the former town-site of Clear Lake. This town was not sponsored by the Mormon Church; instead, it was created by the coming of the railroad. Both the railway grade and tracks were laid at this site in the Spring of 1880. It was then the name “Clear Lake” was first used on a railway siding, then a station, and later the small town of Clear Lake.
Before Clear Lake siding was established, there was an Indian trail running west from East Milliard, past a swampy area and a big spring known as Clear Lake, to the Deep Creek Mountains near the Nevada stateline.
As early as 1871, there was some ranching or farming activity along the lower Beaver River south-west of Pot Mountain. Before dams were constructed and water diverted for farming upstream, water from spring runoff would flow past this area and into the West Desert.
The siding was built here because the railway line crossed a wagon road running west from Fillmore and East Millard, to the West Desert ranching communities of Garrison and Gandy. This was where anyone wanting to board a train for Salt Lake City, or Milford and the Frisco mines in the south, would come.
Few records exist for those early years, but Clear Lake siding soon had activity so a station or depot of some kind was constructed for people using the trains. Also, it appears someone likely created an inn or boarding house with a corral and barn for animals. The first people to set this up was the Crockwell family (a father and grown son and their wives). On March 28, 1881, the first post office (Called Clair Lake) was opened with Mrs. Millie Crockwell as postmaster. On May 18, 1881, the name was changed to Clear Lake to correct the error. On April 5, 1883, the post office was closed for unknown reasons.
In about 1890 or a little later, the Charles J. (father) & Charles W. (son) Aldrach families moved from Kansas to Utah. By 1893, they along with about 100 Quakers, began work on the Swan Lake Reservoir project west of Clear Lake. Sometime later, the Swan Lake dam burst, ending that attempt at settlement. In the same time period, the Aldraches bought out some of the settlers in the Clear Lake area and created the Clear Lake Land & Irrigation Company. They were the first to develop land around Clear Lake which seems to have been coupled originally with the Swan Lake project.
In November 1893, the C. L. L. & I. Co. was sold to the Trust Company of America with Timothy B. Sweet, president. On October 25, 1894, the Clear Lake post office was reopened with C. J. Aldrach as postmaster. The Aldrach families stayed in Clear Lake for several years, but C. J. and his wife died sometime before 1904 and are buried next to the road at the base of Pot Mountain. An 8 foot (2 1/2 meter) high metal cross marks their gravesite.
Throughout the years, people were coming and going from Clear Lake. Emory John arrived for the first time in 1893. He was a Quaker from Illinois and was likely involved in the Swan Lake project. Sometime after he left, but returned with a younger brother, Barclay John, in 1897. They helped build a canal from the lake to the townsite of Clear Lake. Virgil Kelly was hired to supervise that project. This new water helped create a farm & ranch at Clear Lake town. Their main crop was alfalfa. In 1898, Emory and Barclay’s parents, Hugh & Laura John, arrived and bought land west of Pot Mountain but they didn’t stay long.
In 1905, Sweet hired Hyrum Bond of Meadow to come work on the Ranch in Clear Lake. Emory John was the Ranch foreman until 1908, then Hyrum Bond took the job until 1912. In 1912, Timothy B. Sweet sold the Ranch to J. C. Gafford, another man from Kansas. Gafford brought a man named Snyder and his family to manage the place and tried hard to promote Clear Lake as a wonderful place to live and farm. In 1920, Gafford sold out to Dan H. Livingston, a Mormon from Salt Lake City. He owned property all over Utah but beginning in about 1930, the Great Depression took hold and by 1932, banks took possession of his property and it went into receivership. Livingston was gone by 1932. Some farming continued at the Ranch while it was in receivership, but the town of Clear Lake began to die.
Fore many years, the State of Utah wanted all the water in the Lake to be part of a wildlife refuge, so they took the water the town of Clear Lake depended on for farming (drinking water was always brought in by the railroad). In the end, the Bonds turned over their holdings to the John family in 1937; the Johns took the State to court. The Johns won in court but Clear Lake town lost its water — and died. In the 1937 time period, all the homes and school were hailed away to Fillmore, Deseret, Sutherland or Delta. Barclay John and his family moved to Salt Lake City in 1937, but Emory stayed until the early 1940’s. Hyrum Bond and his family had moved to Meadow in 1935. Floyd Hardy became section foreman for the railway in 1947; then he and his wife Donetta lived in the section foreman’s house until 1952. They were the last people to live in Clear Lake. The railway depot was taken to Delta in 1952, made into apartments, then torn down in October 1991.
The Clear Lake Hotel
Soon after Clear Lake siding was established in the spring of 1880, the Crockwells had some kind of boarding house. In the early or mid-1890’s, Aldraches built a hotel west of the Clear Lake Station. Over the years, the known hotel owners were the Aldraches, George & Laura Marley, Margaret A. Dorrity, Carl Gordon, Jack Watson, and finally, Hyrum & Lovita Bond.
The Bonds bought the Clear Lake Store & Hotel in 1909 while he was foreman at the Ranch. In 1912, the Bond family moved across the street from the Ranch into the store & hotel, which included the post office. Hyrum Bond was postmaster from 1909 until 1935. Other members of the Bond family lived there through 1937. The Clear Lake Post Office closed forever on December 31, 1937. The last official postmaster was Hyrum’s son, LeRoy (Roy) Bond.
Clear Lake School
The Clear Lake School was built on 1900 and school was taught until 1930-’31. Only one teacher taught 1st through 8th grades in the 2-room building. However, during the 1921-’22, 1923-’24 and the 1927-’28 school years, there were not enough students to fund the school, so there were no classes taught in those years. During those tomes, families with children had to move to another town or send their children to live with relatives in towns with schools. For this reason, few of the kids who grew up in Clear Lake ever went to high school. For the most part, it was the many children of the John & Bond families who sustained funding for the school over the years.
This is D.U.P. historic marker #577, located at about 16000 South Highway 257 between Delta, Utah and Milford, Utah.
Administrative and main classroom building 1891-1970
History of Weber College
1889-1933 Run by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1933 Turned over to the State of Utah
1947 State Legislature authorizes acquisition of land on east bench
1954 Present campus opened on Harrison Blvd.
1959 Became four year college.
1964 Buildings on this block sold.
1970 Moench building torn down.
1991 Became a University
Weber College was know by various names:
Weber Stake Academy (1889-1908)
Weber Academy (1908-1918)
Weber Normal School (1918-1922)
Weber College (1922-1964)
Weber State College (1964-1991)
Weber State University (1991)
This monument is #104 in the series by the S.U.P., (see other SUP Markers on this page) it is located at 2465 S Jefferson Avenue in Ogden, Utah – across the street from the Weber County Main Library and outside the building at 580 25th Street.
Public Land Survey Monument Tri-State corner of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado Lat. 41° 00′ 42.616″ N Long. 109° 02′ 42.158″ W. Elevation 8402′
This point was monumented by U.S. surveyor, Rollin J. Reeves, on July 19, 1879, while completing the survey of the western boundary of the State of Colorado and the east boundary of Utah Territory. The boundary line separating Wyoming Territory from Colorado and Utah Territories was surveyed by U.S. surveyor, A.V. Richards in 1873. The original monument was found to be disturbed in 1931 and was remarked by U.S. Cadastral Engineer, E.V. Kimmel, with a brass tablet seated in a concrete monument. This monument is one of the corners of the national Rectangular Cadastral Survey System, inaugurated in 1785, that has aided the development and orderly settlement of the public lands in the western states. From these monuments, state and local governments and private citizens are provided with easily identifiable boundaries. Such monuments serve as a base for the work of private surveyors in making accurate land subdivisions and descriptions.
This historical tri-state monument was erected by the Kiwanis Club and Boy Scout Troop 166 of Craig, Colorado in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management dedicated on September 18, 1999.
Soon after the first white families settled at Box Elder, they built a temporary fort to protect themselves from Shoshone Indian attacks.
The Davis Fort was named after their leader, William Davis and consisted of a row of simple log cabins.
The people moved out of the fort in the spring of 1852.
This historic marker is located at 403 W 700 N in Brigham City, Utah and is #1 in the Brigham City Historic Tour and #200 of the S.U.P. historic markers.
