Town of Star Valley Ranch History

Town of Star Valley Ranch History
by Ronald Boulter

The history of Star Valley Ranch stems back to President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Homestead Act of 1862. During and following the Civil War, settlers migrated west to take advantage of this opportunity. The Latter-day Saints, who had settled Utah while it still belonged to Mexico, first settled Star Valley in 1879.

There are stories of the Coy brothers and the Herrick family settling in the Star Valley Ranch area as soon as 1901. However, records show that they did not officially homestead the Star Valley Ranch land until a much later date. The earliest recorded homsteaded land on Star Valley Ranch was by Truman Hebdon in 1911. Many others followed over the next decade. Over the next fifty years the Star Valley Ranch land was traded, sold and passed down through families. The land was primarily used for agriculture.

Star Valley Ranch began to take shape in 1970 when Harold Stewart bought properties from Guy Nagel, the Burton family and the Humphries family. Nagel went to Washington, D.C. and secured the water rights for the Ranch. Water rights were for 3,000 acres and came from the Prater and Green canyons. Star Valley Ranch started with 900 lots in plats 1 through 7. Starting lot prices were from $2,700.00 to $9,000.00. The property was first marketed in Las Vegas. Jim Tribbets was the broker and Ed Nelson later joined as an associate broker. Larry Taylor was the one who started developing roads.

Grover Nielson designed the Silo and construction began in the early 1980s. The real estate office used the top floor of the Silo in the beginning, but later moved to the second floor. The first golf course on the Ranch was Aspen Hills.

Due to the growing population and difficulty handling public works projects within the Ranch, the people voted for township in 2005. On December 3, 2005, Star Valley Ranch officially became Wyoming's 99th town. At the beginning of 2006, Star Valley Ranch had a population of about 1,400.

Boyd Siddoway was serving as the first mayor. The first members of Star Valley Ranch's town council were Larry Lamb, George Redlin, Kent arker and Jim Wheeler. Andy Moffet served as town clerk.

Town of Star Valley Ranch Cemetery History: Star Valley Ranch never had a cemetery.