In recent times, Tooele County has seen an unbelievable growth spurt as new subdivisions pop up on every corner and empty field available. That growth brings valuable diversity to the area, but we shouldn’t forget the diversity of our shared past as well.

The early settlers of the county came mainly from the United Kingdom and Scandinavia, but mining and smelting also brought people from Eastern Europe, the Near East and Asia. Still, one Skull Valley settlement stands apart as one of the few Hawaiian colonies ever established outside Hawaii.

Between 1868 and 1869, a number of Hawaiians and their families, converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came to Utah to be near the Salt Lake Temple and the headquarters of the church in Salt Lake City. By 1889, quite a number of Hawaiians were living in Salt Lake City and Bountiful, and so the church decided to create a ranch specifically for the Hawaiian people in Skull Valley.

The ranch consisted of 960 acres of range and farmland with sufficient water to irrigate all the acreage that could be cultivated. It was called the Iosepa Agricultural Stock Company. The ranch was named after the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith and for Joseph F. Smith, who served a mission to the Hawaiian islands in 1854.

The first group of 46 settlers arrived at Iosepa on Aug. 28, 1889. They drew straws for the land they would occupy. Additional settlers arrived, built houses, a schoolhouse, a general store, and an irrigation system, which drew water from the Stansbury Mountains to water a variety of crops including alfalfa, beets, wheat, oats, barely, corn, potatoes and squash.

By 1901, the population stood at about 80, and reached 228 by 1915. Most of the residents were Hawaiians, but other island groups also gathered at Iosepa. They raised pigs and fished for carp in ponds in the vicinity. A few Anglos resided in the town as well, working on the Skull Valley farm.

The colony was not self-sustaining and LDS church leaders were forced to allocate church funds to cover expenses. Following a series of crop failures, many of the men began to work in the gold and silver mines, which prospered in the nearby mountains during the late 1890s.

In addition to economic difficulties, there were other problems for the settlement. In 1896, three cases of leprosy were discovered and the victims were isolated in a special house, although the fears of the spread of leprosy were unfounded.

The lack of ranching experience, and the extremely rigorous climate, to which they were unaccustomed, was a severe handicap for the Hawaiians, but the colony did eventually become self-supporting. The mortality rate was high however and the harsh environment — burning heat in the summer and extreme cold in the winter — took its toll on the settlers, as can be witnessed by the large number of graves in the Iosepa cemetery.

In 1916, the LDS church announced the imminent construction of a temple in Hawaii, and offered to pay cash for all holdings of any kind in the colony. Transportation back to the islands for those unable to obtain their own was also provided.

Most of the colonists did return to the islands and settled on the church’s Laie Plantation on the island of Oahu.

Iosepa was sold in 1917 to a livestock company and the cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

ntripp@tooeletranscript.com