Gunnison Valley Legacy Wall

Gunnison Valley Legacy Wall. . , Captain John. W. Gunnison , Captain John. W. Gunnison (1812-53), an army officer and explorer, was commissioned in 1853 to lead a mapping expedition to find a route for the Southern Pacific Railroad. After mapping the Grand River in Colorado (The Grand Canyon of the Gunnison), the company moved west. On October 19, they camped west of the “G” hill. Captain Gunnison traveled to Manti to mail a letter to his wife, Martha, passing somewhere near where you now stand. Captain Gunnison reunited with his company further west. Early on October 26, in an ambush by Pahvant Indians southwest of Delta, Captain Gunnison and seven of his men were brutally killed. In 1862, President Brigham Young visited the valley and recommended they name their permanent settlement Gunnison in honor of the slain Captain. Gunnison’s spirit of adventure and longing for the landscapes of the West survives in the valley that bears his name., Breaking Ground 1859 , Much progress has followed the arrival of Gunnison’s first settlers in 1859. Approximately 22 families with wagons and ox-teams traveled from Manti to settle on the south bank of the Sanpitch River at Chalk Hill Point. A few months later, a group from Utah County settled south of Rocky Point, naming their spot Kearns Camp. For mutual safety the Chalk Hill group joined the Kearns Camp. The winter of 1861-1862 buried the mountains in heavy snow, and the spring run-off overflowed the river banks. The settlement was flooded, collapsing many dugouts and adobe dwellings. The quagmire suggested a new name for the area, “Hog Wallow”. When President Brigham Young visited the settlement, he prompted the resident to move their village to higher ground, build a permanent community between the two original settlements, and name their village after his late friend, Captain John Gunnison, leaving “Hog Wallow” as a historical chuckle., Chief Black Hawk , Chief Black Hawk (c. 1830-1870), son of Chief Sanpitch, led the Utes against Mormon settlers during the Black Hawk War, the longest and bloodiest war in Utah history. After numerous raids on cattle, the war broke out in Manti on April 9, 1865. About 150 skirmishes resulted in the deaths of 75 Mormon settlers and hundred of Indians over the next 7 years. A fort was built on Center Street in Gunnison. In 1866, the Mormon Militia arrived to defend the people and property of Sevier Valley, relocating them to Fort Gunnison. Although Black Hawk made peace in 1867, other bands continued raiding until 1872 when the US Army intervened. Black Hawk died on September 23, 1870, as a result of a gunshot would from 1866. Shortly before his death, he visited every white settlement from Cedar City to Payson to plead with the settlers to make peace., Gunnison Valley Bank , Gunnison Valley Bank opened for business on October 23, 1909, and has been locally owned and operated ever since. As of 2017, the 4th generation of Andersen family members currently manage and operate the Bank. As one of the last remaining community banks, it has bolstered local enterprise and has been known to accept anything from dairy cows to water share for collateral. The Bank led Utah in establishing a matching, dollar-for-dollar loan program to support development of the turkey production industry in the 1920s and 1930s. After President Roosevelt declared a national bank holiday in the spring of 1933, the Bank was one of the first to re-open its doors for business. The Nation’s Digest, published in New York, praised the Bank for its fine condition after passing through one of the nation’s worst financial periods. The Bank’s only robbery occurred on January 23, 1929. “Yeggs” nabbed a small sum, only to be caught by the “Gunnison Posse” soon after., For more information go to GunnisonLegacy.com