BEFORE SETTLEMENT
You have an abundance of grass just springing up and buds beginning to shoot, whde the higher parts of the mountains are covered with snow, all within twelve tofifteenmiles of the valley. —DANIEL POTTS
J-iach of Utah's twenty-nine counties has unique qualities of history and geography, although all share some definite simdarities. Cache County is geographically unique because of its topography and physical characteristics. The county is also part of a self-contained valley; yet it is more than the vadey because the high mountains that surround the vadey on east and west are an integral part of the county. However, much of Cache Vadey lies beyond the forty-second degree parallel, which is the boundary between the states of Utah and Idaho. Thus, although many Utahns think of the county and the vadey as the same, they are not—a political, social boundary divides what is topographically one. Before extensive settlement the Cache Valley was viewed without any artificial boundaries, and this extended into the early years of the pioneer Mormon colonizing experience.
