Camp Giveout

Camp Giveout. (Crow Creek Road). Within five years after Apostle Charles C Rich was called to establish a settlement in Bear Lake Valley, 1868, he looked at western Wyoming as a possible expansion of the Mormon community. By 1879 the Bear Lake Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints extended 90-miles to encompass the Salt River Valley, as named Star Valley by visiting Apostle Moses Thatcher in 1878. The closest freight route to the railroad at Montpelier, ID was 50-miles over Beaver Divide. Star Valley, a vast beautiful wilderness, clung to its existence by virtue of the supplies hauled by freighters over the Crow Creek Road. By 1889 the population grew to more than 200 families who experienced the first severe winter since 1879. Starving animals were suffering the most, but many families were in short supply of food. Men on snowshoes, hauling flour one sack at a time on their back, were not meeting the needs of the people. By March of 1890 the unprepared snowbound Saints sought help from their Stake President, William Budge in Paris, ID. Two experienced snowshoers who had left to seek help from family and friends in the Bear Lake region, had not been heard from in more than two weeks. A road must be opened through deep and drifted snow in order that provisions and grain might be secured. On 17 March 1890 a company of 29 men with 11 teams of horses set out from Star Valley, wending their way up Crow Creek Canyon. They halted the first night 6 miles from its mouth, they made 9 miles the second day and camped below White Dugway. The following 4 days through Beaver and then Preuss Canyons they accomplished nearly 3 miles each day which landed them at what they called Camp Giveout. Men and horses were totally exhausted after shoveling and wallowing snow in a starving condition. The two snowshoers had alerted the Bear Lakers who had set out with 18 men to open that end of the road. On the afternoon of 24 March the two parties met and camped below Snowslide Canyon and traveled to Montpelier the next day. That night, the road breakers assembled at Kimball’s Hall at the request of the people of the area and held a social dance. The men of Star Valley desired to return their best thanks to the people of the Bear Lake region for their kindness. Early the next morning they started the return journey with 13 teams and sleighs laden with provisions that had been gathered from as far away as Preston, ID. Though many animals starved to death, no human lives were lost because of the monumental rescue effort. The name Camp Giveout stuck. By 1903, Giveout Station was developed to its largest size by George Mower and Charles Harris of Montpelier. It became a full scale transfer point used primarily in late fall and early spring when freighters shifted their loads from sleighs to wagons as snow depths increased or decreased. The low sheds and corrals could accommodate 35 teams and a fine cabin and cookhouse offered shelter and food for freighters. The station lasted for only a short period of time. In 1908 a brush fire swept down from the east and burned the entire post to the ground. It was never rebuilt and by 1920 all that remained was a large watering barrel and the memories of how the area got its name.