Grover is another little town west of Capitol Reef National Park. It was settled in 1880 and was named for President Grover Cleveland not for the furry blue monster. It's original name was Carcass Creek. I can see why they decided to change the name. John is holding his hand because the sign post was loose and he got a sliver in his hand when he touched it.
Caineville was another little town that we weren't sure really fit our criteria for a Utah town, but we decided to include it anyway. It no longer seems to be a town but just a scattering of a few homes and one motel that caters to the tourists visiting Capitol Reef National Park.(It is situated near the eastern entrance of the national park.) It was one of the settlements that were attempted along the Fremont River in the 1880s. Like Giles further east, Caineville suffered from repeated flooding that eventually drove most settlers away. It was named after John T. Caine who was a territorial representative in congress at the time.
There isn't much left of Giles except some adobe brick foundations. This is what is left of the bell tower of the church/school house.
Not far from Lyman is the county seat of Loa. Loa was named after Mauna Loa, a volcano in Hawaii, by Franklin Young. Franklin Young served a mission in Hawaii and was impressed by the volcano there.
The town sign is on top of a hill northwest of the town. Here is what looks like from the sign.
A short distance from Bicknell is the town of Lyman. It is one more small Utah farming community. It was named after LDS apostle Francis Marion Lyman. As you can see, I look really excited to be here on the edge of town.
Sometimes, these little towns fool you. Just as you think you have found the only town sign, you find another bigger one. We almost missed this one, but John made a quick turn and stop. It is hard to skip a bigger sign. We had to dodge sprinklers to get this picture.
The town of Bicknell lies just west of Torrey. It was originally called Thurber after an early settler. In 1916, Thomas Bicknell, a wealthy educator and historian from Providence, Rhode Island, offered a library of 1,000 books to any town that would name itself after him. The townspeople of Thurber took him up on his offer and changed their town's name to Bicknell. The people of Bicknell, however, only received 500 books because another Utah town also took up Thomas Bicknell's offer. The town of Grayson changed its name to Blanding, Bicknell's wife's maiden name, and they received the other half of the library. That must have seemed an easy way to start a library.
Torrey is the only town so far that I haven't been able to find an establishment date for. All the sources that I have been using just say that it happened sometime in the 1880s. That is all I got from the Torrey website too. It is named after a Colonel Torrey, who served with Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish American War. Torrey is one more small farming community that has expanded to include tourist accommodations. It sits about 10 miles west of Capital Reef National Park.
Capital Reef National Park is one of the lesser known national parks in Utah, but it has some really nice hikes. This is a picture of Hickman's Bridge.
