Richfield Pioneers

The pioneers who founded Richfield built their monument on someone else's town. The first ten settlers reached this valley in January 1864, with their families following that spring, and in time raised this marker to their arrival. But when the ground was opened, it gave up adobe walls, broken pottery, dried corn and wheat, and human bone — the remains of a Fremont settlement that had farmed this same valley centuries before, then vanished from the record. Two peoples chose the same good ground, centuries apart. Only the second one left its name on the map.

What the plaque says

The first ten pioneers who arrived here January 6, 1864, were Capt. Albert Lewis, Robert W. Glenn, Christian O. Hansen, Hans O. Hansen, Nelson Higgins, August Nelson, George Oglevie, Eskild C. Peterson, Andrew Poulson, and Jorgen Smith. Followed by their families and others March 14, 1864. This monument erected on site of an ancient Indian mound, later discovered to contain ruins of adobe walls, relics of pottery, Indian corn, wheat, arrows and human bones.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Rock Candy Mountain — 15 mi
  The real mountain that inspired the famous hobo folk song
• Fremont Indian State Park — 19 mi
  The largest known Fremont Indian village ever discovered
• Fishlake National Forest — 25 mi
  Home to Pando — the largest living organism on Earth
• Mayfield — 31 mi
  Gateway to Twelve Mile Canyon and the Skyline Drive high country

More markers nearby

• Richfield Carnegie Library — 0.3 mi
• Old Lime Kiln — 1.5 mi
• Elsinore Pioneers — 6.9 mi
• Fort Alma — 9.7 mi