Introduction

Grouse Creek, Utah is a small rural ranching and farming community of about 80 people located in the Northwest Corner of Utah about 8 miles from the Nevada border and 18 miles from the Idaho border. There is a small cooperative store, an elementary school which includes kindergarten to the 10th grade, a U.S. Post Office, a Box Elder County Road Shed, a Bureau of Land Management Office, and a new L.D.S. Church. The Box Elder School District provides bus service to the students who are a distance from the community school. The older students, 11th and 12th grades, must leave the community to attend their last two years of high school.

The people of the community are ambitious, progressive and above average ranchers. Most of the heads of families make their living raising cattle and producing feed which is fed to the cattle during the winter months. The Grouse Creek and Goose Creek mountains have native grasses for spring, summer and fall grazing.Grouse Creek is probably best known for it’s deer hunting and the abundant flocks of Sage Grouse which populate their mountains. Each year, hundreds of individuals come to Grouse Creek during the hunting seasons.

If you like ranching, hunting, and isolation, this is a great area to make your home. Because of the isolated location, hospitals, shopping centers,implement dealers, and other serviced are all 1-2 hours travel from Grouse Creek. The Grouse Creek Supply has most of the necessities such as work clothes, groceries, fuel and motor oil and a limited amount of hardware.

A Brief History

The first settlers on the west side came from Tooele in the year 1875. They were attracted to the area because of the acres of natural meadows. Valison Tanner and his brother, Alma C. Tanner, were the first to arrive. They brought the co-op herds to feed in the meadow lands.

Later, Charles Kimber Jr. and William Kimber came to the valley to work with the co-op herds. While there they established the Kimber Ranch about 15 miles south of the Town of Grouse Creek. This ranch became a popular stopping point for travelers coming to and from the Grouse Creek area. About this same time, Richard Warburton Jr. and his brothers Thomas and James also came to the area and settled just south of Etna.

During the winter of 1877, Isaac Kimball of the West Fork wrote a letter to the Deseret News in which he described the Grouse Creek Valley as a good place in which to locate homes. This letter attracted the attention of William C. Betteridge, Philip A. Paskett, Robert Allen Jones, Albert F. Richin, William P. Paskett and James R. Simpson who decided to investigate the suitability of the location with the idea of establishing homes there. The first four named men were appointed to go to Grouse Creek to carry on the investigation. They left Henefer on March 15, 1877, traveling by team and reached Grouse Creek near the Buttes six days later, March 21, 1877. The following day they staked their claims on the East Fork.

Mrs. James R. Simpson and Mrs. Albert F. Richins, who arrived from Henefer on June 10, 1877, were the first Women on the East Fork.

These first settlers built log houses with dirt roofs and rock floors.

The people were advised to move closer together as a convenience for meetings and schools so the following families moved to a location about one mile from the site of the meeting house: Phillip A. Paskett, William C. Betteridge, Sr., William P. Paskett, Albert F. Richins, David H. Toyn, James R. Simpson, Marshall Grover and Rachel Lee. They called this first Settlement Cookeville.

Currently the town is primarily populated with families who are decendants of either Charles Kimber or Valison Tanner. Each year a Fourth of July celebration is held where many of the descendants of these two families return to celebrate their heritage.