Beaver, Utah

Beaver was founded in 1856 by a group of Mormon pioneers as the Mormons were busy occupying the most fertile and productive areas of Utah Territory, shortly after they arrived in Utah. Two very different people were born in Beaver. One of them we know as "Butch Cassidy" (1866-1908). The other was Philo T. Farnsworth (1906-1971), the inventor of several electronic devices without which television wouldn't be possible. Beaver was also the first electrified town in Utah. A hydroelectric plant was built on the Beaver River in the early 1900's and still provides power to the city of Beaver.

The area around Beaver has several identified prehistoric (Archaic and Sevier Fremont) sites, including an obsidian quarry in the nearby Mineral Mountains. When the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition came through in 1776, the area was inhabited by the Southern Paiutes. The Mormon settlers who finally came and stayed entered the Beaver area from the Parowan area to the south, early in 1856. The population was boosted Mormons who came in from San Bernadino, California at the beginning of the Utah War. By 1869, the LDS Church counted enough Mormon settlers in the area to organize a local stake. The U.S. Army established Fort Cameron in the area in 1873, about the same time the local stake was trying to establish a dairy industry, a tannery and a woolen mill. The Utah Southern Railroad arrived in Beaver in 1880 and that increased development a bit. Some mining was happening sporadically in the mountains but there was never a big find and that activity dwindled by World War I. Fort Cameron had already been abandoned by that time. Back in those days, stock raising and agriculture were the building blocks of local business. Beaver's retail businesses built up slowly, at first functioning as supply houses for the prospectors in the mountains. There are still operating sulphur mines about 20 miles north of Beaver

Interstate 15 between Las Vegas, Nevada and Salt Lake City, Utah passes right through Beaver. The Tushar Mountains with their excellent hunting, fishing and camping opportunities are east of Beaver. The Tushars rise above 12,000' in several places for those who might like a high alttude challenge. Zion and Bryce National Parks are to the south and the Mineral Mountains (a favorite spot for rockhounds) rise to the west.