Utah Centennial County History Series - Sanpete County 1999

W h i l e religious motivations brought the first pioneers to Sanpete Valley in 1849, they were able to stay and build successful communities because of the generally favorable characteristics of the land. Before the Mormons, the local Ute groups learned to subsist off the land, mostly by hunting, gathering edible native plants, and sometimes by planting a few crops. Using more advanced agricultural techniques, Mormon settlers were able to live off the land almost immediately, rather than relying on wild plants, fish, and game.

Though they were thwarted at times by terrible floods, hail storms, frosts that came too early and late, drought, grasshopper "wars," and infestations of other crop-destroying insects and diseases, it is doubtful that anyone starved or suffered too severely from malnutrition.

Perhaps the greatest limitation of the land was the unavailability of water. Although water is plentiful in the Wastach Plateau to the east, and to a lesser extent in the lower mountains to the west, securing a reliable, safe, and flood-resistant supply of water for every colony took enormous work. Even with modern equipment, the struggle to