Other Communities in Sanpete
Wales, Utah
The small mining town of Wales was named for the country of the immigrants that were sent there by Brigham Young in 1859 to mine the “rock that burns.” An Indian named Tabiyuna, a prominent Ute, had showed Young a small sample. Young knew it was coal and asked if any of his group knew how to mine the coal. The immigrants were sent to the west side hills to set up mines.
The communities original name was Coal Bed, but was changed to Wales in 1869. There once was a railroad depot and it was an important and busy mining center. The mines and town were abandoned when more productive mines were discovered in Schofield. Many of the present residents are descendants of the original miners.
A four-wheel drive road up Wales Canyon leads to open meadows on the top and a dirt road down the other side to Chicken Creek Campground and into Levan.
Town Hall: 150 North State Street, HC13 Box 4274 Wales, Ut 84667 Phone: 435-436-9345 Town Website
The small mining town of Wales was named for the country of the immigrants that were sent there by Brigham Young in 1859 to mine the “rock that burns.” An Indian named Tabiyuna, a prominent Ute, had showed Young a small sample. Young knew it was coal and asked if any of his group knew how to mine the coal. The immigrants were sent to the west side hills to set up mines.
The communities original name was Coal Bed, but was changed to Wales in 1869. There once was a railroad depot and it was an important and busy mining center. The mines and town were abandoned when more productive mines were discovered in Schofield. Many of the present residents are descendants of the original miners.
A four-wheel drive road up Wales Canyon leads to open meadows on the top and a dirt road down the other side to Chicken Creek Campground and into Levan.
Town Hall: 150 North State Street, HC13 Box 4274 Wales, Ut 84667 Phone: 435-436-9345 Town Website
Fayette, Utah
Settled by five families from Springville who arrived by ox team April 8, 1861. After finding Hog Wallow (Gunnison) too crowded, they backtracked five miles to establish Warm Creek. Three families soon left, but the Joseph Bartholomew and James Mellor families stuck it out and descendants remain today.
One pioneer described the site as a lush meadow paradise abounding in wildlife. Chief Arapeen extracted two fat oxen for ceding the life-giving spring and some calves for the meadowlands. Willow-covered dugouts and wagon boxes first provided shelter, followed by log cabins and later houses of local stone and brick. Retreats were common and log buildings were moved inside the Gunnison fort during the Blackhawk War of the 1860’s. Apostle Orson Hyde urged the name change to Fayette for the New York town where the LDS Church was organized.
Town Hall: HC13 Box 300564, 100 E. 90 S, Fayette, Ut 84630 Phone: 435-528-5882 Town Website
Settled by five families from Springville who arrived by ox team April 8, 1861. After finding Hog Wallow (Gunnison) too crowded, they backtracked five miles to establish Warm Creek. Three families soon left, but the Joseph Bartholomew and James Mellor families stuck it out and descendants remain today.
One pioneer described the site as a lush meadow paradise abounding in wildlife. Chief Arapeen extracted two fat oxen for ceding the life-giving spring and some calves for the meadowlands. Willow-covered dugouts and wagon boxes first provided shelter, followed by log cabins and later houses of local stone and brick. Retreats were common and log buildings were moved inside the Gunnison fort during the Blackhawk War of the 1860’s. Apostle Orson Hyde urged the name change to Fayette for the New York town where the LDS Church was organized.
Town Hall: HC13 Box 300564, 100 E. 90 S, Fayette, Ut 84630 Phone: 435-528-5882 Town Website
Freedom, Utah
Freedom was settled in 1875 under the name of Draper, which was the name of the families who settled there. The settlement was located along Current Creek four miles north of Wales. In 1877 the Draper’s and other families formed a ward which was renamed Freedom and lasted until 1881. The arrival of the Martin Van Buren Taylor family eventually required the creation of a new ward in 1897 which lasted until 1926. The orchards, the best in Sanpete, and the Meadow View Creamery kept the small community going. Freedom is the gateway to beautiful Maple Canyon.
Freedom was settled in 1875 under the name of Draper, which was the name of the families who settled there. The settlement was located along Current Creek four miles north of Wales. In 1877 the Draper’s and other families formed a ward which was renamed Freedom and lasted until 1881. The arrival of the Martin Van Buren Taylor family eventually required the creation of a new ward in 1897 which lasted until 1926. The orchards, the best in Sanpete, and the Meadow View Creamery kept the small community going. Freedom is the gateway to beautiful Maple Canyon.
Indianola, Utah
Lying at the northeast edge of Thistle Valley, Indianola was organized as a ward and named by Apostle Erastus Snow in 1880. Then it numbered over 100 members-half Indians, half Whites. North Sanpeters had herded livestock in the valley and even homesteaded there before Brigham Young decided to set up a model Indian farm for Utes not already removed to the Unitah Basin. Eventually the church had to pay $12,000 to induce pioneers to vacate the valley.
Eventually, most of the Utes moved away, died, or simply failed to multiply, so some of the sellers eventually returned to the valley. Most of them lived on their farms rather than locate close to the brick meetinghouse (now a granary) built on the town site.
Lying at the northeast edge of Thistle Valley, Indianola was organized as a ward and named by Apostle Erastus Snow in 1880. Then it numbered over 100 members-half Indians, half Whites. North Sanpeters had herded livestock in the valley and even homesteaded there before Brigham Young decided to set up a model Indian farm for Utes not already removed to the Unitah Basin. Eventually the church had to pay $12,000 to induce pioneers to vacate the valley.
Eventually, most of the Utes moved away, died, or simply failed to multiply, so some of the sellers eventually returned to the valley. Most of them lived on their farms rather than locate close to the brick meetinghouse (now a granary) built on the town site.
Milburn, Utah
Milburn occupies a picturesque cove barely visible from the US 89 scenic overlook near Hilltop. Platted in 1886 on a rocky slope watered by Dry Creek, it was organized as a ward in 1896. The fair number of sawmills already built in canyons above it sparked the choice of name. Families began homesteading this herd ground of Fairview as early as 1876, so a majority of Milburner’s never lived in the town itself- loosely clustered around a school, church and stone store/dance hall whose walls still stand.
When Dry Creek turned wet and wiped out the town in 1903, the population spread out even more. Eventually so many moved away that the church dissolved the ward and transferred the last 33 members to Fairview in 1961. Photo of the Milburn Mercantile Building taken by Pat Johnson.
Milburn occupies a picturesque cove barely visible from the US 89 scenic overlook near Hilltop. Platted in 1886 on a rocky slope watered by Dry Creek, it was organized as a ward in 1896. The fair number of sawmills already built in canyons above it sparked the choice of name. Families began homesteading this herd ground of Fairview as early as 1876, so a majority of Milburner’s never lived in the town itself- loosely clustered around a school, church and stone store/dance hall whose walls still stand.
When Dry Creek turned wet and wiped out the town in 1903, the population spread out even more. Eventually so many moved away that the church dissolved the ward and transferred the last 33 members to Fairview in 1961. Photo of the Milburn Mercantile Building taken by Pat Johnson.
Chester, Utah
Soon after the homesteading fever hit Sanpete in 1870, polygamists and other farmers from Mt. Pleasant, Moroni and Spring City spread out onto the meadows along the bottomlands of Oak and Canal Creeks below Spring City. Despite their dispersion they formed a ward (1877) named Chester, shortened by the Post Office from the “Chesterfield” proposed by David Candland, who had immigrated from Chesterfield, England. We must forgive his lack of originality. He was only trying to improve the image of the hamlet from its original name: The Bottoms. A meetinghouse, a school, an Allred store, and a few houses soon sprang up close to the crossroads at the center of town.
Soon after the homesteading fever hit Sanpete in 1870, polygamists and other farmers from Mt. Pleasant, Moroni and Spring City spread out onto the meadows along the bottomlands of Oak and Canal Creeks below Spring City. Despite their dispersion they formed a ward (1877) named Chester, shortened by the Post Office from the “Chesterfield” proposed by David Candland, who had immigrated from Chesterfield, England. We must forgive his lack of originality. He was only trying to improve the image of the hamlet from its original name: The Bottoms. A meetinghouse, a school, an Allred store, and a few houses soon sprang up close to the crossroads at the center of town.
Axtell, Utah
Settled about 1874 by John Bosshardt, who raised the first barley and alfalfa and Lars Fjeldsted, who ran a co-op heard of sheep, and Axel Finarsen, a Danish bachelor. The town spread out on an east-west axis along Willow Creek, which was the area’s name until the railroad and post offices arrival in 1891. The place has an expansive open flavor reminiscent of the Midwest, with irrigated grains and alfalfa sweeping eastward to the foothills of the Wasatch Plateau.
Farms and houses are dispersed, as are Axtell’s “central places,” notably the post office and the ward house. Thus it differs from the typical Latter-Day Saint village settlement plan. Axteller’s have a keen appreciation of their “peace and quiet” and a sense of “in between” stemming from their county border location. Notable sites include historic and contemporary salt mines in the foothills east and west. Willow Creek Reservoir, a haven for wildlife, is about 5.5 miles east of town behind the foothills, and a graded road continues to Skyline Drive near 10,984-foot Musinia Peak.
Settled about 1874 by John Bosshardt, who raised the first barley and alfalfa and Lars Fjeldsted, who ran a co-op heard of sheep, and Axel Finarsen, a Danish bachelor. The town spread out on an east-west axis along Willow Creek, which was the area’s name until the railroad and post offices arrival in 1891. The place has an expansive open flavor reminiscent of the Midwest, with irrigated grains and alfalfa sweeping eastward to the foothills of the Wasatch Plateau.
Farms and houses are dispersed, as are Axtell’s “central places,” notably the post office and the ward house. Thus it differs from the typical Latter-Day Saint village settlement plan. Axteller’s have a keen appreciation of their “peace and quiet” and a sense of “in between” stemming from their county border location. Notable sites include historic and contemporary salt mines in the foothills east and west. Willow Creek Reservoir, a haven for wildlife, is about 5.5 miles east of town behind the foothills, and a graded road continues to Skyline Drive near 10,984-foot Musinia Peak.
Ghost Towns
Sanpete also has its share of ghost towns. Across the Sanpitch River from Ephraim and against the Sanpitch Mountains is Manasseh, which consisted of 21 families scattered from the borders of Maple Canyon to a point near Wales.
The hollow west of Sterling is where the old town of Pettyville used to be. In 1881, the people of Pettyville moved to Sterling. Dover was founded in 1875 over the hills north of Gunnison and around the point on State Road 28. If you go west of the Sevier River, you might see remnants of farms where Dover once existed.
The ghost town of Clarion, located west of Gunnison, was a settlement of Jewish immigrants, founded in the fall of 1911. They tried to eke a living from the poor, rock-strewn soil with very little resources, and abandoned the site in November, 1915.
Clarion Article
Sanpete also has its share of ghost towns. Across the Sanpitch River from Ephraim and against the Sanpitch Mountains is Manasseh, which consisted of 21 families scattered from the borders of Maple Canyon to a point near Wales.
The hollow west of Sterling is where the old town of Pettyville used to be. In 1881, the people of Pettyville moved to Sterling. Dover was founded in 1875 over the hills north of Gunnison and around the point on State Road 28. If you go west of the Sevier River, you might see remnants of farms where Dover once existed.
The ghost town of Clarion, located west of Gunnison, was a settlement of Jewish immigrants, founded in the fall of 1911. They tried to eke a living from the poor, rock-strewn soil with very little resources, and abandoned the site in November, 1915.
Clarion Article
How did Latter-Day Saint Pioneers get to the Sanpete Valley?
It all started when the Ute Chief Wakara invited pioneers to settle the San Pitch valley, named after a tribe of hunter-gatherer Indians. Wakara claimed that the Great Spirit had appeared to him in a dream, telling him to welcome the white men. Later, Wakara engaged his guests in the infamous “Walker War” from 1853-54. The Black Hawk War, named for another Ute leader, also disrupted county settlement from 1865-68.
It all started when the Ute Chief Wakara invited pioneers to settle the San Pitch valley, named after a tribe of hunter-gatherer Indians. Wakara claimed that the Great Spirit had appeared to him in a dream, telling him to welcome the white men. Later, Wakara engaged his guests in the infamous “Walker War” from 1853-54. The Black Hawk War, named for another Ute leader, also disrupted county settlement from 1865-68.
Where did Sanpete County get its name?
SUMMARY:
Sanpete means “tule” or “bulrush.” This meaning is established by numerous reliable sources and consistent lines of evidence evaluated by an eminent reliable scholar. Sanpitch and Sanpits are simply variants of Sanpete and all mean the same thing. Native Americans in the Sanpete Valley before 1849 had an extensive marsh with tules/bulrushes to use not only for food but in numerous ways Catherine Fowler has shown in her book Tule Technology. The most likely plant Sanpete refers to is the hardstem bulrush (Scirpus acutus).
Setting the Record Straight: What does Sanpete mean?
In “Where does Sanpete’s name come from?” in the 29 July 2009 Sanpete Messenger, the idea was suggested that Sanpete came from a nickname, San Pedro, given to a Native American by the Spanish. That story, we now know, is based only on someone’s imagination. The actual meaning of Sanpete is “bulrush” or “tule.” The “San Pedro” nickname story is false and was fabricated by a person who was behind bars while spinning major portions of book after book out of his imagination. This nickname story was picked up by a researcher of Native Americans and put on his website, which was then quoted by the Sanpete Messenger.
With that said, we now proceed to establish the correct meaning of Sanpete (and also Sanpitch and Sanpits) using reliable sources. The most reliable source for the meaning of Sanpete connects the name Sanpitch to its English equivalent. The “Proceedings of a Council held by O.H. Irish Superintendent of Indian Affairs…” dated June 1865 mentions various Native Americans and gives (1) their names, (2) the English meaning of these names and (3) the tribal affiliations of those individuals: "Sanpitch (Bull Rush), Pan-sook (Otter), and Que-o-gand (Bear) represented the “Utahs.” Thus Sanpitch is given the meaning of “bull rush,” which properly joined is “bulrush.” That this meaning is the correct meaning is corroborated by many other reliable sources, including Southern Paiutes by LaVan Martineau. Martineau interviewed Native Americans starting in the 1940s for his book. He says the origin of Sanpete is “Sawmpeets’,” meaning “Tule.” He also mentions in two places that “Sawmpeev” means “Tule, Bulrush Scirpus.” (Scirpus is the Latin name for the genus of plants.)
Martineau also says “Sawmpee’tutseng” or “Sawmpeetseng” means “Tule people.” (An individual, thus, would be called “Sawmpee’tuts” or “Sawmpeets,” based on the singular/plural principles outlined in his book.) “Sawmpeets” sounds very much like “Sampits,” which is quite close to the designation scholars use (i.e., Sanpits) to describe this people in the authoritative multivolume Handbook of North American Indians. “Sanpete” would be an English way of taking what appears to be a plural and making it singular, and thus Sanpete, Sanpitch and Sanpits are all variants of the same root meaning of “tule” or “bulrush.”
The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico by Virginia McConnell Simmons puts the Sanpits as among the “tule people.” She says, “East of the Pahvants were the ‘tule people,’ the Sanpits (Sahpeech, Sawmpeet, San Pitch, San Pete) who occupied the upper valley of the Sevier River where Manti and Mount Pleasant are situated. Early white observers considered this group to be comparatively poor and sometimes called them ‘Diggers,’ but the Sanpits enjoyed good hunting territory and were far from destitute. They sometimes roamed far afield to the southeast. Sanpits were eventually relocated to the Uintah Reservation.”
Thus, three reliable printed sources refer to Sanpete/ Sanpitch/Sanpits as meaning “tule” or “bulrush.” In addition to these printed sources, there are numerous other lines of evidence that could be considered. For instance, another line of evidence is the naming conventions of tribes or clans. Native Americans often had tribal or clan names based on geography or on the major resources they used (e.g., “tule people” or “cattail eaters”).
Obviously the nickname story fails to match all the reliable evidence presented thus far. Not all of the evidence can be presented here, of course, but the various lines of evidence were offered for evaluation to the most respected authority on tules/bulrushes and marsh-related plants: Catherine S. Fowler, a former professor of University of Nevada, Reno.
Fowler concurred with the “tule” or “bulrush” meaning of Sanpete and found the lines of evidence consistent. She’s an ethnobotanist who has worked for decades on numerous Native American research questions, including linguistic questions, and her opinion is one of the most reliable and respected in her areas of study. Her husband, Don Fowler, is also an eminent scholar on Native Americans. Catherine’s book, Tule Technology, shows how tules/bulrushes were used widely in the Great Basin until very recent times for a multitude of purposes. In the Great Basin there are hundreds of springs and marshes, and even more in earlier days before the settlers altered the waterways for agriculture.
It should be pointed out that most water bodies in the Great Basin have greatly shrunk in size during the last 150 years. Fowler cites one marsh having shrunk so it was 11 times smaller in 1989 than it was 90 years prior.
In The Broken Land, Frank L. DeCourten speaks of Malheur Lake in Nevada: “In the past fifteen years it has varied from five hundred to fifty thousand acres in size.” Thus it can increase/decrease 100 fold in 15 years. “Malheur by some estimates is the nation’s largest freshwater marsh,” he writes.
The final line of evidence presented here concerns the marshes in Sanpete Valley itself. In Saga of the Sanpitch, Robert D. Nielson gives a short historical report in 1998 “about the entire watershed and the environment as it existed before 1925” in Sanpete Valley. He says: “The Sanpitch River was over 50 miles long from its upper origins … to its confluence with the Sevier River near Gunnison. Its course was varied and its flow erratic, depending on winter storms and snow melt. There were broad areas called the ‘swamps’ where there was low stream flow. The main swamp was as much as two miles wide and extended northerly for ten miles above the narrows near what is now Manti. The swamp supported dense growth of sedges, bulrushes and grasses on the muck soils built up over many years. … During the flooded period, October to June, and before and after the cold, icy winter, migrating waterfowl were seasonal occupants en route to and from their winter habitats.” He also says: “Sedges, rushes and grasses were in the swamp areas.”
Confirmation of this large swamp or marsh in Sanpete Valley is found in the Bureau of Land Management’s webpages. Land surveys in 1857 of three townships (R3E T17S, T16S and T15S) in the valley show an extensive section of marsh.
Albert Antrei in The Other 49-ers writes: “The Sanpitch River … was once a respectable barrier to crossing the valley.” He continues: “In the central valley, at its lowest point, the water table is very high; in fact, of the 220 square miles that comprise the valley floor, fully seventy square miles have a water table of ten feet or less beneath the surface. A great deal of acreage on both sides of the Sanpitch River north and south of Ephraim actually is a swamp, with the water table at or above ground level. Paradoxically for an arid region, the water problem over a large percentage of the valley floor is one of drainage, rather than irrigation.”
Albert Smith, an early settler in Sanpete Valley, wrote in his journal, “There are 10 miles and, perhaps more, of marsh that is covered with rushes and grasses.” Smith arrived in the valley in November 1849 (quoted in Albert Antrei, High, Dry, and Offside). He called the Native Americans “Sanpeters” and describes them.
We have very few archaeological sites in Sanpete County that have been examined by archaeologists to establish sufficiently what the Native Americans’ culture was like. However, the knoll on the west side of the southern terminus of 300 East in Ephraim has been investigated, and the findings were published in 1941.
In addition, tule mats have been found in locations throughout Utah. The original publication on “Fremont” Indians in 1931 by Morss refers to “tule mats” that were found in seven of the 27 caves they examined. All of these are within about 75 miles of Sanpete Valley (as the crow flies).
Marwitt in Handbook of North American Indians says: “Along the Basin-Plateau boundary, the typical Sevier Fremont site is a small hamlet or open settlement situated on an alluvial fan near a canyon mouth and convenient to a dependable source of water in the form of a perennial stream. With the exception of … sites of debatable classification discussed above, the settlements also tend to be relatively close to marshes.” He adds, “At Backhoe Village [in Sevier County] and perhaps elsewhere in the Sevier area, marsh resources appear to have been the primary component in the subsistence economy and the most crucial factor that allowed sedentary villages to be present in the locality.”
Thus, “permanent settlements were made possible in large part by exploiting productive marshlands.” Evidence indicates that Native Americans in Sevier County seemed to have used corn and cattails as food sources.
We know, however, based on investigations of early sites in nearby areas, that Native Americans were also able to remain in this valley by taking advantage of one of the major resources available in the large marsh in Sanpete Valley: tules/bulrushes.
More information on what Native American life was like before the settlers arrived in 1849 is available in Steven R. Simms, Ancient Peoples of the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau. From these reliable sources, we now know Native Americans in the area were taking advantage of the extensive marsh with bulrushes and were known as the bulrush people or the tule people.
Thus, the name of the people and their valley sounded something like Sanpits or Sanpitch and became Sanpete. Sanpete Valley or Tule Valley or Bulrush Valley. It all means the same. Or does it?
The question “What does Sanpete mean?” cannot be answered solely by traipsing back into history. Doesn’t the name Sanpete also mean what the people in the valley choose to make it mean by the ways they live?
by Lyle Fletcher
SUMMARY:
Sanpete means “tule” or “bulrush.” This meaning is established by numerous reliable sources and consistent lines of evidence evaluated by an eminent reliable scholar. Sanpitch and Sanpits are simply variants of Sanpete and all mean the same thing. Native Americans in the Sanpete Valley before 1849 had an extensive marsh with tules/bulrushes to use not only for food but in numerous ways Catherine Fowler has shown in her book Tule Technology. The most likely plant Sanpete refers to is the hardstem bulrush (Scirpus acutus).
Setting the Record Straight: What does Sanpete mean?
In “Where does Sanpete’s name come from?” in the 29 July 2009 Sanpete Messenger, the idea was suggested that Sanpete came from a nickname, San Pedro, given to a Native American by the Spanish. That story, we now know, is based only on someone’s imagination. The actual meaning of Sanpete is “bulrush” or “tule.” The “San Pedro” nickname story is false and was fabricated by a person who was behind bars while spinning major portions of book after book out of his imagination. This nickname story was picked up by a researcher of Native Americans and put on his website, which was then quoted by the Sanpete Messenger.
With that said, we now proceed to establish the correct meaning of Sanpete (and also Sanpitch and Sanpits) using reliable sources. The most reliable source for the meaning of Sanpete connects the name Sanpitch to its English equivalent. The “Proceedings of a Council held by O.H. Irish Superintendent of Indian Affairs…” dated June 1865 mentions various Native Americans and gives (1) their names, (2) the English meaning of these names and (3) the tribal affiliations of those individuals: "Sanpitch (Bull Rush), Pan-sook (Otter), and Que-o-gand (Bear) represented the “Utahs.” Thus Sanpitch is given the meaning of “bull rush,” which properly joined is “bulrush.” That this meaning is the correct meaning is corroborated by many other reliable sources, including Southern Paiutes by LaVan Martineau. Martineau interviewed Native Americans starting in the 1940s for his book. He says the origin of Sanpete is “Sawmpeets’,” meaning “Tule.” He also mentions in two places that “Sawmpeev” means “Tule, Bulrush Scirpus.” (Scirpus is the Latin name for the genus of plants.)
Martineau also says “Sawmpee’tutseng” or “Sawmpeetseng” means “Tule people.” (An individual, thus, would be called “Sawmpee’tuts” or “Sawmpeets,” based on the singular/plural principles outlined in his book.) “Sawmpeets” sounds very much like “Sampits,” which is quite close to the designation scholars use (i.e., Sanpits) to describe this people in the authoritative multivolume Handbook of North American Indians. “Sanpete” would be an English way of taking what appears to be a plural and making it singular, and thus Sanpete, Sanpitch and Sanpits are all variants of the same root meaning of “tule” or “bulrush.”
The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico by Virginia McConnell Simmons puts the Sanpits as among the “tule people.” She says, “East of the Pahvants were the ‘tule people,’ the Sanpits (Sahpeech, Sawmpeet, San Pitch, San Pete) who occupied the upper valley of the Sevier River where Manti and Mount Pleasant are situated. Early white observers considered this group to be comparatively poor and sometimes called them ‘Diggers,’ but the Sanpits enjoyed good hunting territory and were far from destitute. They sometimes roamed far afield to the southeast. Sanpits were eventually relocated to the Uintah Reservation.”
Thus, three reliable printed sources refer to Sanpete/ Sanpitch/Sanpits as meaning “tule” or “bulrush.” In addition to these printed sources, there are numerous other lines of evidence that could be considered. For instance, another line of evidence is the naming conventions of tribes or clans. Native Americans often had tribal or clan names based on geography or on the major resources they used (e.g., “tule people” or “cattail eaters”).
Obviously the nickname story fails to match all the reliable evidence presented thus far. Not all of the evidence can be presented here, of course, but the various lines of evidence were offered for evaluation to the most respected authority on tules/bulrushes and marsh-related plants: Catherine S. Fowler, a former professor of University of Nevada, Reno.
Fowler concurred with the “tule” or “bulrush” meaning of Sanpete and found the lines of evidence consistent. She’s an ethnobotanist who has worked for decades on numerous Native American research questions, including linguistic questions, and her opinion is one of the most reliable and respected in her areas of study. Her husband, Don Fowler, is also an eminent scholar on Native Americans. Catherine’s book, Tule Technology, shows how tules/bulrushes were used widely in the Great Basin until very recent times for a multitude of purposes. In the Great Basin there are hundreds of springs and marshes, and even more in earlier days before the settlers altered the waterways for agriculture.
It should be pointed out that most water bodies in the Great Basin have greatly shrunk in size during the last 150 years. Fowler cites one marsh having shrunk so it was 11 times smaller in 1989 than it was 90 years prior.
In The Broken Land, Frank L. DeCourten speaks of Malheur Lake in Nevada: “In the past fifteen years it has varied from five hundred to fifty thousand acres in size.” Thus it can increase/decrease 100 fold in 15 years. “Malheur by some estimates is the nation’s largest freshwater marsh,” he writes.
The final line of evidence presented here concerns the marshes in Sanpete Valley itself. In Saga of the Sanpitch, Robert D. Nielson gives a short historical report in 1998 “about the entire watershed and the environment as it existed before 1925” in Sanpete Valley. He says: “The Sanpitch River was over 50 miles long from its upper origins … to its confluence with the Sevier River near Gunnison. Its course was varied and its flow erratic, depending on winter storms and snow melt. There were broad areas called the ‘swamps’ where there was low stream flow. The main swamp was as much as two miles wide and extended northerly for ten miles above the narrows near what is now Manti. The swamp supported dense growth of sedges, bulrushes and grasses on the muck soils built up over many years. … During the flooded period, October to June, and before and after the cold, icy winter, migrating waterfowl were seasonal occupants en route to and from their winter habitats.” He also says: “Sedges, rushes and grasses were in the swamp areas.”
Confirmation of this large swamp or marsh in Sanpete Valley is found in the Bureau of Land Management’s webpages. Land surveys in 1857 of three townships (R3E T17S, T16S and T15S) in the valley show an extensive section of marsh.
Albert Antrei in The Other 49-ers writes: “The Sanpitch River … was once a respectable barrier to crossing the valley.” He continues: “In the central valley, at its lowest point, the water table is very high; in fact, of the 220 square miles that comprise the valley floor, fully seventy square miles have a water table of ten feet or less beneath the surface. A great deal of acreage on both sides of the Sanpitch River north and south of Ephraim actually is a swamp, with the water table at or above ground level. Paradoxically for an arid region, the water problem over a large percentage of the valley floor is one of drainage, rather than irrigation.”
Albert Smith, an early settler in Sanpete Valley, wrote in his journal, “There are 10 miles and, perhaps more, of marsh that is covered with rushes and grasses.” Smith arrived in the valley in November 1849 (quoted in Albert Antrei, High, Dry, and Offside). He called the Native Americans “Sanpeters” and describes them.
We have very few archaeological sites in Sanpete County that have been examined by archaeologists to establish sufficiently what the Native Americans’ culture was like. However, the knoll on the west side of the southern terminus of 300 East in Ephraim has been investigated, and the findings were published in 1941.
In addition, tule mats have been found in locations throughout Utah. The original publication on “Fremont” Indians in 1931 by Morss refers to “tule mats” that were found in seven of the 27 caves they examined. All of these are within about 75 miles of Sanpete Valley (as the crow flies).
Marwitt in Handbook of North American Indians says: “Along the Basin-Plateau boundary, the typical Sevier Fremont site is a small hamlet or open settlement situated on an alluvial fan near a canyon mouth and convenient to a dependable source of water in the form of a perennial stream. With the exception of … sites of debatable classification discussed above, the settlements also tend to be relatively close to marshes.” He adds, “At Backhoe Village [in Sevier County] and perhaps elsewhere in the Sevier area, marsh resources appear to have been the primary component in the subsistence economy and the most crucial factor that allowed sedentary villages to be present in the locality.”
Thus, “permanent settlements were made possible in large part by exploiting productive marshlands.” Evidence indicates that Native Americans in Sevier County seemed to have used corn and cattails as food sources.
We know, however, based on investigations of early sites in nearby areas, that Native Americans were also able to remain in this valley by taking advantage of one of the major resources available in the large marsh in Sanpete Valley: tules/bulrushes.
More information on what Native American life was like before the settlers arrived in 1849 is available in Steven R. Simms, Ancient Peoples of the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau. From these reliable sources, we now know Native Americans in the area were taking advantage of the extensive marsh with bulrushes and were known as the bulrush people or the tule people.
Thus, the name of the people and their valley sounded something like Sanpits or Sanpitch and became Sanpete. Sanpete Valley or Tule Valley or Bulrush Valley. It all means the same. Or does it?
The question “What does Sanpete mean?” cannot be answered solely by traipsing back into history. Doesn’t the name Sanpete also mean what the people in the valley choose to make it mean by the ways they live?
by Lyle Fletcher