Cokeville

The panel ends its American Indian years in 1868 without naming the people or the reason. This valley was Shoshone and Bannock country. On July 3, 1868, at Fort Bridger, Washakie's Eastern Shoshone and Taghee's Bannock signed the treaty that set aside the Wind River Reservation and promised the Bannock a reservation that became Fort Hall, while keeping their right to hunt on unoccupied lands. The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes hold it to be a peace treaty, not a cession, and keep July 3 as a holiday. The settlers the panel welcomes came six years later.

What the plaque says

Cokeville Cokeville is situated at the confluence of the Bear River and Smiths Fork valleys. Between 1812 and 1868, these valleys were the domain of American Indians, fur trappers and traders; during the 1830s and 1840s, they became a well-traveled pathway of emigrant trains traveling to Oregon and California. Known as "Smiths Fork on the Bear River" to fur trappers and pioneers, Cokeville acquired its permanent name after the discovery of near-by coal deposits that produced coke, an intense burning, virtually smokeless product. The Mormon Church sent the first permanent settlers to the area in 1874 to found a community. Sylvanus Collett and Robert Gee arrived with their families at the Smiths Fork River, soon to be followed by the John Bourne family. The men trapped, hunted, and traded hides, furs, and extra meat for supplies in Evanston, Wyoming, about 70 miles south. The trip to Evanston was arduous; winter journeys were sometimes made on the frozen Bear River. The launching of the Oregon Short Line in 1881 made travel easier. The railroad stimulated trade, changing the center of the main settlement to the vicinity of the tracks. Prior to 1908, Cokeville consisted of two saloons, a hotel, a general store, and boarding houses. In the next nine years it incorporated and added a state bank, a newspaper, a water system, and electric lighting. In 1922, Cokeville made national headlines when Ethel Stoner became mayor and two other females won seats on the town council. The women ran on a law enforcement ticket, although, once in office, they found local police disinclined to enforce Prohibition laws then in force. After U. S. Highway 30 was commissioned through the town in 1926 then surfaced with oil in 1935, Cokeville found itself on a major cross-country route. The highway continues to play an important role in the town's economy.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Fossil Butte National Monument — 20 mi
  The floor of a 52-million-year-old lake, packed with whole fish, the oldest complete bats and the only complete freshwater stingrays.
• Bear Lake — 21 mi
  The Caribbean of the Rockies — a turquoise lake straddling the Utah-Idaho border
• Bear Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 22 mi
  The Bear River crosses this marsh twice: once in a canal into Bear Lake, and once in another canal on its way back out.
• National Oregon/California Trail Center — 24 mi
  Emigrants came down off Big Hill and camped in the clover here. Brigham Young renamed the town; the trail center brings the camp back in costume.

More markers nearby

• Old Oregon Trail (Cokeville) — 0.3 mi
• Oregon Trail Memorial (Cokeville) — 0.6 mi
• State Boundary Monument (Utah, Idaho and Wyoming) — 0.6 mi
• Tri State Survey Monument — 7.9 mi