An Early History of Cache County…

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Compiled by M. R. Hovey, Secretary, Logan Chamber of Commerce. January 1, 1923 to January 1, 1925. Also as printed in the Logan Journal, beginning August 4, 1923.

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Hudson Bay Fur Company Visits Cache Valley in 1833

According to the account of the Lewis and Clark expedition, to the sorthwest, a company of (Hudson's Bay) fur trappers camped on Summit Creek in 1833, where Smithfield is now located. These trappers lost most of their mules during the winter and were obliged to cache much of their supplies.

In his diary, Mr. John C. Dowdle states that in Los Angeles he met a German who was with this company of men and camped on Summit Creek in the winter of 1833. He reported that three miles northwest of the camp they cached their supplies in the bank of the stream now known as Cub River. They made a dug-way in order to get down with their teams and in the dug-way they dug the hole to cache their supplies. They made a box from their wagon boxes and buried it in the ground. In this they cached several cannon, some sets of blacksmith tools, picks, shovels, crowbars, plows, muskets, ammunition and whiskey. After covering the cache, they drove over the place several times in order to cover up any traces of the cache.