Beaver - Utah

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Beaver, Utah

Beaver, county seat for the county of the same name, is one of a series of cities extending along the fertile central belt of Utah, all of which are a day's horseback ride apart. This distance translates into 48 km or 30 miles.

Beaver was settled in 1856 by George A. Smith and occupied at the first by ranchers. A swelling population, mostly Mormon pioneers expelled from other states, prompted growth in the form of added town buildings, modest homes, fences and a schoolhouse. In 1873 a military barracks, Fort Cameron, was established.

About 30 buildings still stand from that time and onwards, varying from log cabins to basalt rock houses. The opera house is build of pink volcanic tufa block which is a carbonate sediment formed by volcanic activity and often carrying fossils of plants. Incidentally, the volcanoes that left behind the basalt and tufa also made the land associated with them very fertile.

Beaver is the birthplace of two outstanding personages. Philo T. Farnsworth was the inventor of the cathode ray tube which gave rise to the development of the television, as well as other electronic devices. Butch Cassidy is another. The oldest of 13 children, born on Friday the 13th, 1866, he is famous for his amiability and his criminal activities which were mostly bank and train robbery. His notoriety lives on in a local festival that bears his name and the local Butch Cassidy Best Western Inn.

Beaver Territorial Courthouse Museum
park with statue of Philo T. Farnsworth, restoration project underway on his nearby home
about 30 historical buildings
Beaver City Opera House
Beaver Cheese Factory
fishing and hunting
Butch Cassidy Festival, July