Editing Emery County, Utah (section)

===Early explorers===
The first Americans to come to Castle Valley were fur trappers, including the "lost trappers", James Workman and William Spencer, who had been separated from their trapping party by [[Comanche]] Indians and had wandered to the Moab crossing of the Colorado River hoping that they would find Santa Fe. They met a Spanish caravan of forty or fifty people going to California. They joined the caravan and traveled through Castle Valley in 1809 and went on to California. In 1830, William Wilfskill came to Castle Valley along the Spanish Trail. He and his party were fur trappers but found little in the area to keep them here.<ref name=JO/>

Following the trappers in the late 1840s and early 1850s, government explorers came to the valley seeking usable overland routes across the continent. [[Kit Carson]] was the first of these famous men. He was looking for a direct route for the mail to be carried overland from St. Louis to California. Carson carried through Castle Valley to the nation the news of gold being found in the Sierra Nevada in 1848.<ref name=RO>Roberts, David (2001), A newer world: Kit Carson, John C. Fremont and the claiming of the American west, New York: Touchstone {{ISBN|0-684-83482-0}}.</ref>

[[File:Site of Gunnison Massacre BHoU-p469.png|right|thumb|Gunnison's trail through Utah]]
In 1853 [[John W. Gunnison]], an Army Topographical Engineer came through Castle Valley, plotting a railroad route. He was commissioned for this assignment by the US Secretary of War [[Jefferson Davis]]. He left detailed descriptions of his travels and carefully laid out his route through Castle Valley. Gunnison's route first met the Spanish Trail at the Green River crossing. He followed this trail for a short distance west of the Green River, but when the Spanish Trail entered a rugged rocky region (Sinbad Reef) he charted a route around this feature.<ref>Beckwith, E.G.; Gunnison, J.W. (1856). Report of explorations for a route for the Pacific railroad: near the 38th and 39th parallels of north latitude : from the mouth of the Kansas River, Mo., to the Sevier Lake, in the Great Basin. Washington [D.C.]: War Dept. OCLC 8497072</ref>

The third government explorer was [[John C. Fremont]], in the winter of 1853–54. The cold weather heavily impacted his trip. They suffered from a lack of food and from the inhospitable landscape. There was no relief from their difficulties until they left Castle Valley and made their way to the small Mormon settlement of [[Parowan, Utah|Parowan]].<ref name=RO/>