Page last updated 31/05/07
Extracts from the Utah History Encyclopedia
SEVIER COUNTY
Area: 1,976 square miles; population: 15,431 (1990); county
seat: Richfield; origin of county name: after the Sevier River, from
the Spanish Rio Severo; principal cities/towns: Richfield (5,593), Salina
(1,943), Monroe (1,472); economy: livestock, manufacturing, trade;
points of interest: Fremont State Park in Clear Creek Canyon, Fish Lake, Big
Rock Candy Mountain, Elsinore White Rock School.
Sevier County is located in the high plateau country of central Utah. Most of
the towns lie near the Sevier River in a fertile valley bordered on the west by
the Pahvant Range and on the east by the Wasatch and Fish Lake plateaus.
National forests cover almost half of the county. The area is seismically
active, and a number of earthquakes have centered in the southern part of the
county on the Sevier Fault.
Many prehistoric Indian sites have been found. Sudden Shelter, an Archaic site
on Ivie Creek, contains the oldest time record in Utah east of the Wasatch--B.C.
5080 to A.D. 1900. Fremont and Sevier Culture sites continue to be found,
especially during construction projects. Fremont State Park preserves a recently
uncovered Fremont Culture prehistoric village.
Travelers on the old Spanish Trail and mountain man Jedediah S. Smith were among
those who crossed the county before white settlement. The Southern Exploring
Company under Mormon Church apostle Parley P. Pratt visited the area during the
winter of 1849-50, and George W. Bean explored the Sevier Valley in 1863. Early
in 1864 ten men settled in the Richfield area, and several other towns were
founded in the next few years. However, violent confrontations with the Ute
Indians during the Black Hawk War (1865-68) forced the abandonment of all the
Sevier settlements in April 1867. Attempts to resettle did not succeed until
1870.
The area settlement thereafter grew rapidly. Richfield, with eight families and
twelve men in 1871, had 753 people by 1874 and was on its way to becoming a
major regional commercial center and, eventually, the provider of hospital,
airport, and other services for a large area. Many of the county's early
settlers were Scandinavians, who brought distinctive building styles and
cultural practices with them.
The Deseret Telegraph extended its line from Gunnison to Monroe in 1872,
providing a vital communications link for the area's larger cities. The Denver
and Rio Grande Railroad reached Salina in 1891 and Richfield in 1896, improving
the marketing of Sevier County agricultural products. The building of Interstate
70 in the 1980s linked the county to the national freeway system.
Sheep and cattle remain important to the local economy, as do also dairy
products, field crops, and, in recent years, turkey raising. Trade and
manufacturing--including food processing and building product
manufacturing--have contributed to the county's growth as well. Sevier County is
the state's leading producer of gypsum, a mineral used in building products such
as plaster and plasterboard, which is produced at plants in Sigurd. The county
has coal mines and natural gas reserves in the northeast and major geothermal
resources that could be tapped for energy production.
A significant impact to the county came in the 1980s with the completion of
Interstate 70 through the county, skirting the cities of Richfield and Salina.
Construction of the interstate highway uncovered a large Fremont Indian village
in Clear Creek Canyon. This led to the establishment of the Fremont State Park,
which opened in 1987.
The county is served by three high schools located in Salina, Richfield, and
Monroe. The population of the county has shown a continued increase since 1970
when the population was at 10,976 to 1990 when it had climbed to 15,431.
Miriam B. Murphy
http://www.media.utah.edu/uHE/s/sEVIERCT.html
MONROE
In the summer of 1863, Latter-day Saint apostle George A. Smith called upon
George Washington Bean to take a small company of men and explore the valley of
the Sevier River in south-central Utah. As a result of this early exploration, a
small community named Fort Alma was founded on the east side of the Sevier
River. Indian hostilities during the Black Hawk War drove the original settlers
from Alma during 1866. By 1871 Moses Gifford, Walter Jones, Andrew Rassmussen,
and several other men reclaimed the abandoned fort, planted crops, and built
homes in preparation for moving their families to the Sevier Valley.
They made application to the federal government for a post office. The
permission was soon granted, and the community was renamed Monroe after the
fifth president of the United States. Monroe was incorporated in 1898, with
Andrew Larson elected as the city's first mayor.
Early Monroe was an amalgamation of peoples. Its founders hailed from
Scandinavia, Great Britain, and numerous American states. Two noted features of
nineteenth-century Mormonism were highly visible at Monroe--plural marriage and
the communal life of the United Order. In many ways, Monroe typified small-town
Utah Mormonism of the late 1800s.
Monroe soon developed into one of the more prosperous and thriving
agricultural communities in the Sevier Valley. The cultivation of hay and wheat
were basic to Monroe's farming activities. In order to guarantee farming success
in a marginally productive semi-arid country, the residents of Monroe
constructed two lengthy irrigation canals on the eastern side of the Sevier
River. These canals, along with natural water sources, including Clear Creek,
Monroe Creek, and Glenwood Springs, sustained life in this harsh land. By 1880
Monroe had grown to be the second largest community in Sevier County. Today, in
the late twentieth-century, its population numbers approximately 2,000 people
and it continues to be touted by local boosters as the "center" of south-central
Utah's farming region.
M. Guy Bishop
http://www.media.utah.edu/uHE/m/mONROE.html
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