Editing Sanpete County, Utah (section)

==History==
The Sanpete Valley may have been traversed or inhabited as long as 32,000 BP by small bands of hunters.{{citation needed|date=June 2022}}<!--this date is far earlier than generally accepted habitation of North America. A quick Google search finds oldest archeological sites in Utah are about 12,000 years old

https://www.archaeology.org/news/4685-160728-utah-prehistoric-tobacco

https://archive.sltrib.com/article.php?id=50231620&itype=CMSID

--> This habitation may have continued for about 20,000 years when the extinction of larger game animals forced a change. About 8,500 years ago, different groups{{specify|date=June 2022}} (characterized by use of [[atlatl]]s, millstones and textiles) came onto the scene. These also departed the area about 2,500 years ago, for unknown reasons, after which the area does not seem to have been visited by humans for 1,500 years.

Archeological evidence indicates that the [[Fremont people]] appeared next on the stage (from about 1-1300 CE), the first inhabitants of the area to domesticate crops and create relatively large communal settlements. In this county, the best-known Fremont site to date is "Witch's Knoll" {{convert|3|mi|km|spell=in}} SE of Ephraim. Around 1300 AD the evidence of Fremont habitation also ceases. The most recent groups of indigenous Americans in the Sanpete region are the [[Ute people|Ute]], [[Paiute]], [[Goshute]], and [[Shoshoni]], who appeared in Utah about 1300 and "perhaps they displaced, replaced, or assimilated the part-time Fremont hunter-gatherers."<ref>
National Park Service. [https://www.nps.gov/grba/learn/historyculture/fremont-indians.htm Fremont Indians]. Accessed June 7, 2022</ref> The Utes, Paiutes, Goshute and Shoshone share a common language family called [[Numic]].<ref name=HSC>{{Cite web |url=http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/History/UtahCounties/HistoryOfSanpeteCounty1996AntreiRoberts.pdf |title=Albert Antrei & Allen Roberts ''A History of Sanpete County'' (1999). pp. 19-25 (accessed 31 March 2019) |access-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401044533/http://www.riversimulator.org/Resources/History/UtahCounties/HistoryOfSanpeteCounty1996AntreiRoberts.pdf |archive-date=April 1, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Mormon pioneers]] arrived in the [[Great Basin]] in the summer of 1847. The first few years were spent establishing a base in the Great Salt Lake Valley, then groups were sent, usually by the directive of the church leaders, to settle the more outlying areas. In 1849 two Ute chiefs traveled from what is now Sanpete County about {{convert|125|mi|km}} north to the Salt Lake Valley to request a Mormon settlement be established. The chiefs, [[Walkara]] and Sowiette, asked Mormon leader [[Brigham Young]] to settle a group of his people in the valley of Sanpitch.<ref name=HSC/>  Young sent a party to explore the area in August of that year. It was deemed favorable to settlement, and Brigham Young called Isaac Morley and George Washington Bradley to organize about fifty families to move south and settle "San Pete."<ref name=HSC/> The group of 224 arrived on November 19, led by Isaac Morley, Charles Shumway, Seth Taft, and George Washington Bradley. After some debate, the first settlement in the valley was established on the present site of [[Manti, Utah]].<ref name=HSC/>

The [[State of Deseret]] enacted the county effective January 31, 1850. The region was named for the [[Ute Tribe|Ute]] chief [[Sanpitch (Ute chief)|Sanpitch]], which was changed to Sanpete.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://sanpete.com/pages/sanpete_name/|title=Where did Sanpete get its Name?|publisher=Sanpete County UT|website=Sanpete.com|access-date=July 21, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523163825/http://sanpete.com/pages/sanpete_name/|archive-date=May 23, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> According to [[William Bright]], the name comes from the Ute word ''saimpitsi'', meaning "people of the [[Schoenoplectus acutus|tules]]".<ref>{{cite book|last=Bright|first=William|author-link=William Bright|title=Native American Placenames of the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XfxzCm1qa4C&pg=PA419|year=2004|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-3598-4|page=419|access-date=October 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140111214928/http://books.google.com/books?id=5XfxzCm1qa4C&pg=PA419|archive-date=January 11, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

The county boundaries were adjusted more than a dozen times during the 19th century. These adjustments often shrank it from its previous size. As of 1880, the county of Sanpete included the area of what would later become modern-day Carbon County, as well as some of Emery, Uintah, and Grand Counties.<ref name="Mitchell’s 1880 State and County Map">{{cite web |last1=Mitchell |first1=Samuel |title=Mitchell's 1880 State and County Map of Utah and Nevada |url=https://mapgeeks.org/utah/ |website=MapGeeks |date=December 12, 2017 |access-date=November 27, 2021 |ref=23}}</ref> An adjustment in 1913 and refining of the county boundary definitions in 1919 brought Sanpete County to its present configuration.<ref>{{cite web |vauthors=John HL, etal |title=UT: Individual County Chronologies |url=https://digital.newberry.org/ahcb/documents/UT_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm#SANPETE |website=digital.newberry.org |publisher=The Newberry Library |access-date=February 18, 2022 |language=English |date=2008}}</ref>

The [[Sanpete County Courthouse]], completed in 1935 by the [[Works Project Administration]], is on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].<ref name="nrhpdoc">{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=85000811}}|title=Utah State Historical Society Structure/Site Information: Sanpete County Courthouse |publisher=[[National Park Service]]|author= John McCormick |date=1984 |access-date=August 13, 2019}} With {{NRHP url|id=85000811|photos=y|title=accompanying photo from 1984}}</ref>