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Map of the Gem Valley area. Click on image for a larger view.
Section 4, Chapter 12 -Gem Valley & Chesterfield
Chapter 12:
Gem Valley and Gentile Valley
City of Grace
Last Chance Canal
Grace Power Plant
Lake Thatcher and the Gem Valley Volcanic Field
Chesterfield-Mormon Outpost in Idaho
Mormon Families in Chesterfield

Gem Valley and Gentile Valley
The first settlers of the area between the Portneuf and Bear River Ranges(Gem Valley) were non-Mormons (Gentiles) who homesteaded in the southern end of the valley in the 1860s. The west side of the Bear River became known as Gentile Valley by 1875. The first three Mormon families settled in 1871 with impetus from Brigham Young, who was planning on the Utah-Northern Railroad Company coming through the southern end of the valley on the way to Soda Springs.

Oscar Sonnenkalb wrote, concerning Gentile Valley in the 1880s, that:

"nature had blessed it with all the features for the development of a prosperous and self supporting farming district. Deep and fertile soil in the level bottom lands, and on the lower mountain benches numerous spring branches flowing down from the mountain chains which on both sides of the long stretching valley gave protection against heavy wind storms of the inclement winter weather in these high altitudes of the Rockies, also rich pasturage on the foot hills and mountain sides,and numerous shade giving parks and copses of aspen and pine timber for animals to lie down and rest during the hot summer days, invited the settlers to engage in all the branches of a healthy farming industry, the raising of grain and hay, in dairying and stock breeding." in Harstad, editor,(1972, p. 15).
. .

City of Grace
The first bridge across Bear River north of the present site of Grace was built in 1893, and the city was established shortly thereafter. Farming on the surrounding country was dependent upon irrigation efforts of the Last Chance Canal Company, which proceeded slowly and with great effort.In 1913, the Oregon Short Line completed the Grace Branch Line. In 1915,the village of Grace was incorporated. The village was named after the wife of the land agent in Blackfoot.

Aerial view looking south at Grace, (May, 1992). The Utah Power and Light Company dam is in the left foreground, with the flume on an elevated trestle crossing under the highway to the right. Bear River occupies canyon cut in Pleistocene basalt. The East Branch of the Last Chance Canal winds east of town in the center left of the view.

Last Chance Canal
Attempts to get water to the Grace area were unsuccessful between 1895and 1902. Although the Bear River ran just to the north, it was deep in a basalt canyon, and the water was inaccessible. Furthermore, Gem Valley's winters were harsh, and wooden flumes for canals using water from Bear River were repeatedly destroyed by winter snows. On March 4, 1897 the Last Chance Irrigation Co. filed for Bear River water and a dam site was selected a mile and half below Soda Point (Sheep Rock). Construction started in1898. The canal was opened in 1902-1904 and today provides water for farmland both north and south of Bear River on the upland around Grace.

The Last Chance Canal was built without federal assistance and without outside capital by local farmers, who worked cooperatively in the best spirit of the Mormon settlers. To provide footings for the dam, the farmers built log cribs of timber and rocks which they set on the ice-covered river in the winter. They hauled huge timbers 60 feet in length.

Fred Cooper who served as secretary of the Last Chance Canal Co. from1928 to 1961 said:

"It can be said of the men who organized this company and carried out the work... that they were willing to make the sacrifice necessary without murmur of discouragement, always forging ahead and helping one another in common endeavor."
 .

In June 1917, the Utah Power and Light Co. brought suit against Last Chance Canal Co. to get a decree on waters of Bear River and Bear Lake.Litigation of the suit lasted for three years until the Canal Company won the case with the Dietrich Decree of June 1920. This case adjudicated Bear River water for the first time.
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