In The Beginning, Rexburg Was Settled By Fur Trappers |
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In its beginning, Rexburg was sparsely settled with only a few fur trappers
and an occasional cattle operation. Interest in the area grew in 1879 when John
Poole spent time hunting around Menan while employed by the Utah Northern
Railroad.
Poole returned to Utah
and told of the good farmland. Area Mormons heard Poole's praises
and in 1882 the Mormon president, John Taylor, arranged a trip to
the Upper Snake River Valley to scout out a settlement site.
Another group of young Mormon men from Cache Valley, Utah, also
organized to form a settlement in the area. Among these were Thomas
E. Ricks, founder of both
Rexburg and Ricks College (now BYU). The settlers first called their town
Ricksburg after their settlement leader, Thomas E. Ricks. However, since the
German ancestral name of Ricks is Rex, the
town's name was changed to Rexburg.
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