Emery is a town in Emery County, Utah, United States. The population was 307 at the 2020 census.

History

Prehistoric

Emery sits at the base of the mountains that contain the North Horn Formation. Named after North Horn Mountain, near Castle Dale, this formation in Emery County contain numerous Cretaceous- and Tertiary-era fossil invertebrates, microfossils and palynomorphs. Flagstaff Peak, north of Emery, has abundant dinosaur bone material, prehistoric mammal remains, and petrified dinosaur footprints. The elevation is around 7000

Fremont people, the Old Spanish Trail, and exploration

The Fremont culture or Fremont people is a pre-Columbian archeological culture who existed in the area from AD 700 to 1300. It was adjacent to, roughly contemporaneous with, but distinctly different from the Ancestral Pueblo peoples. The culture received its name from the Fremont River, where the first Fremont sites were discovered. The Fremont River in Utah flows from the Johnson Valley Reservoir near Fish Lake east through Capitol Reef National Park to Muddy Creek, whose headwaters begin just north of Emery.

left|thumb|The Rochester Panel located northeast of Emery

Two significant Fremont culture sites are located north and south of the town. Artifacts such as pottery, manos and metates (millingstones), and weaponry have been found along Muddy and Ivie creeks. Coil pottery, which is most often used to identify archaeological sites as Fremont, is not very different from that made by other Southwestern groups, nor are its vessel forms and designs distinct. What distinguishes Fremont pottery from other ceramic types is the material from which it is constructed. Variations in temper, the granular rock or sand added to wet clay to ensure even drying and to prevent cracking, have been used to identify five major Fremont ceramic types. They include Snake Valley gray in the southwestern part of the Fremont region, Sevier gray in the central area, the Great Salt Lake gray in the northwestern area, and Uinta and Emery gray in the northeast and southwestern regions. Sevier, Snake Valley, and Emery gray also occur in painted varieties. A unique and beautiful painted bowl form, Ivie Creek black-on-white, is found along either side of the southern Wasatch Plateau. In addition to these five major types found at Fremont villages, a variety of locally made pottery wares are found on the fringes of the Fremont region in areas occupied by people who seem to have been principally hunters and gatherers rather than farmers. The Rochester Rock Art Panel west of Emery is a significant rock art panel left by the Fremont People and has been the target of vandalism and relic thieves.

The earliest known entrance into the region known as Castle Valley by Europeans dates back to the Spanish explorers. The oldest names in Emery County are Spanish, not Native American — San Rafael, Sinbad, and probably Castle Valley itself are landmarks of that era when Spanish padres, Spanish American explorers, fur traders, trappers, and frontiersmen followed the Old Spanish Trail through Emery. From about 1776 to the mid-1850s, the Old Spanish Trail came up from Santa Fe, New Mexico, crossed the Colorado River at Moab, then the Green River where the city of Green River now stands, across the San Rafael desert into Castle Valley, then crossed along the eastern part of the town. This became the established route of the Spanish slave traders who captured indigenous people along the route and were selling them as slaves.

left|thumb|Map of the [[Old Spanish Trail (trade route)|Old Spanish Trail through eastern Utah]]

A sizable herd of wild horses is managed east of Emery. These wild horses and burros have occupied the San Rafael Swell area since the beginning of the Old Spanish Trail in the early 19th century. Early travelers would lose animals or have them run off by native Americans or rustlers. Many of these animals were headed for California to be traded and sold and were of good stock. The herd was also augmented by releasing domestic horses from local ranches. By the early 20th century, wild horse and burro numbers had soared and were captured and sold by local mustangers. This continued until the passage of the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971. Since the passage of this act, the horses and burros have been managed under federal law and Bureau of Land Management regulation.

In the summer of 1853, Captain John W. Gunnison was sent by the War Department of the United States to explore a railroad route to the Pacific coast. Lt. E. G. Beckwith assisted him. They entered Castle Valley and passed near the town in October 1853. Gunnison described the area as follows: "Except three or four small cottonwood trees, there is not a tree to be seen by the unassisted eye on any part of the horizon. The plain lying between us and the Wasatch Range, one hundred miles to the west, is a series of rocky, parallel chasms, and fantastic sandstone ridges. On the north, Roan Cliffs, ten miles from us, present bare masses miles back, a few scattering cedars may be distinguished with the glass. The surface around is whitened with fields of alkali resembling fields of snow. Unless this interior country possesses undiscovered minerals of great value, it can contribute but the merest trifle towards the maintenance of a railroad through it after it has been constructed."

Settlement

right|thumb|Muddy Creek Gorge, east of Emery in the San Rafael Swell

One folk story about the settlement goes as follows. It is said a group of pioneers were traveling through the area. A strong wind storm appeared, and they agreed to stop until it died down. The wind never stopped in time, and ultimately decided to settle there. This story is likely a joke about the prominent wind noted by residents.

The first settlers to Emery came from Sanpete County, Utah. This is unusually notable as the settlers headed east instead of the west (like most settlers at the time), even if it was over a mountain range. The first attempt at settlement was made at Muddy Creek, a stream following down a wide canyon and eventually emptying into the Dirty Devil River. The Muddy Creek vegetation included tall grass, sage, greasewood, rabbit brush, tender shad scale or Castle Valley clover, prickly pear cacti, and yucca. Along the creek banks were giant cottonwood trees and patches of huge thorny bushes with long needle-sharp spines called bull berry bushes. These berries, when beaten off onto a canvas, could be dried, made into jams, jellies, or even eaten raw.

Among these early settlers were Charles Johnson, Marenus, and Joseph Lund families. Casper Christensen and Fred Acord also brought their families and began to build cabins and plant crops. Joseph Lund, the first to build a small one-room log cabin with a lean-to, became discouraged and left it for Casper Christensen (this building still survives and has been restored and relocated to This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City). Most travels came by way of Salina Canyon and Spring Canyon, which weren't much more than deer trails. Roads were bad at best and almost impassable most of the time. The modes of travel were by horseback, team, and wagon or on snowshoes in wintertime.

left|thumb|The earliest remaining building from Emery, relocated to [[This Is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City]]

1883 was a red-letter year for Casper Christensen. On April 15, he was set apart as the Presiding Elder of the Muddy Creek Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On August 26, his daughter, Bellette, was born, the first baby girl to be born on the Muddy Creek. On September 2, the Emery Ward was organized with Casper Christensen as bishop. Then on November 19, he was officially appointed postmaster at Muddy, in the County of Emery in the Utah Territory. His daughter, Hannah, was appointed as his assistant.

Geography and climate

Emery is in western Emery County along Utah State Route 10, which leads northeast to Castle Dale, the county seat, and southwest to Interstate 70.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all land.

Selina 24 E is a nearby weather station.

Demographics

As of the census

Notable person

  • Clay Christiansen, composer, famed organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

See also

  • List of cities and towns in Utah
  • Emery County Cabin
  • Emery LDS Church

References

  • Emery Town at Emery County's official website