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The establishment of permanent communities occurred in the 1880s and 1890s. <br />Town companies were formed and towns incorporated. The town of Meeker was established <br />close on the heels of the Ute removal in 1882; Craig followed in 1889, and Hayden in 1895. <br />Craig, Hayden, Hamilton, and Pagoda lie in close proximity to the project area. <br />Craig, 5.5 miles to the northwest, was founded in 1889 as the Craig Land and Mercantile <br />Company and in 1908 was incorporated as a city. Two years later Craig was named the <br />county seat when Moffat County was created. <br />Hayden is located 10 miles northeast of the project area. It was first settled in 1875 <br />by James B. Thompson and Porter M. Smart who ran an Indian trading post. The town was <br />established in 1894 and was incorporated in 1906 (Tread of the Pioneers Museum 1979). <br />The town is named for F.V. Hayden who headed the survey party through the area for the <br />USGS in the 1860s. <br />Hamilton is located approximately seven miles southwest of the study area. Hamilton <br />oil dome caused the first energy boom in the area when drilling was initiated by the Texas <br />Company. The Discovery well produced 5,000 barrels of high quality oil a day. Hamilton <br />was only a 160 acre ranch when plans were made to expand it to a 2,000 lot townsite upon <br />the discovery of oil (Koucherik 2009). According to the Craig Courier (August 6, 1924): <br />Hamilton, once the `halfway house' for cowpunchers and freighters, has had a <br />figurative shot in the arm. The `shot' consisted of oil, and the old town doesn't look <br />the same. It has, in fact, changed the Tom Hamilton ranch into a booming little town, <br />with the sound of carpenters' hammers drowning out the coyote's wails. It is <br />conservatively estimated that Hamilton now has a population of some 200, where six <br />months ago the citizens could be enumerated on the fingers of one hand. <br />Little remains of the townsite today, which consists of a post office and community <br />building. <br />Pagoda, situated five miles south of the project area, was founded in 1890 by Horatio <br />H. Eddy, a cattleman, lawyer, and state senator. "The post office and general store were <br />established in February 1890 by James Bennett whose family continued both operations until <br />1947. A one room school served as many as 150 ranching families along the South Fork of <br />the Williams Fork, but today all that remains of Pagoda is a pioneer cemetery with graves <br />dating from the 1890's through the 1970's" (Tread of the Pioneers Museum 1979). The <br />Pagoda Cemetery is still in use today. <br />Early Transportation <br />In 1873, John Q. Rollins constructed a wagon road that was passable most of the year <br />over what had been Boulder Pass (Athearn 1977:66). Three years later, the Berthoud Pass <br />10 <br />