Beaver County is located in western Utah. The 2010 census counted 6,629 residents. The county seat is Beaver City.
Humans have lived in Beaver County for at least ten millennia. Clear Creek Canyon is thought to have been a major corridor through which prehistoric peoples moved. Today, the site is preserved in the Fremont Indian State Park. Another important prehistoric site is the obsidian quarry in Wildhorse Canyon. Tools made from this excellent material were traded far and wide throughout the West. Prior to the arrival of Anglo-Europeans, Beaver County was the ancestral home of the Southern Paiute Indian Tribe.
The first Europeans to visit Beaver County were Fathers Escalante and Dominguiz in 1776. Others, including fur trappers like Jedediah Smith, subsequently traveled through the area, but no one stayed for very long until, in 1850, Parley P. Pratt reported to Brigham Young that the land was suitable for settlement. In February 1856, the first Mormon settlers moved in. In 1858 a lead mine was opened, perhaps the first mine to be established in Utah. Later on, other mines were developed including the famous Horn Silver Mine and the Cactus Mine. In 1860, Ira Hinckley built Cove Fort in nearby Millard County to facilitate and protect travel between Salt Lake City and Beaver. In 1873, the United States Army established Fort Cameron in Beaver City to help protect settlers and to ensure that the people who had committed the Mountain Meadows Massacre were brought to justice. (Fort Cameron was abandoned in 1883.) The Beaver Woolen Mills was an important enterprise from 1870 through into the twentieth century.
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