Moffat County was first occupied by the people of the Fremont Culture
as well as other Indian tribes. Jim Bridger and the Ashley Expedition
traveled through western Moffat County in 1825. Mountain man Batiste
Brown and his Indian wife settled in what is now Brown's Park, in western
Moffat County, from 1827 until 1845. Many other mountain men arrived
and left during the early to mid 1800's.
During
the 1870's, when the area was being populated by settlers, the isolation
of Brown's Park attracted outlaws who frequently stopped over while
running from the law. The most notorious of those outlaws were Butch
Cassidy, the Sundance Kid and a gang known as the Wild Bunch.
Craig's
current site was known as Windsor in 1880 and as Yampa in 1883. Yampa
is an Indian word for bear and what is now the Yampa River was known
as Bear River for years. The town of Craig, located in Routt County,
began in 1891 and was incorporated in 1908. Moffat County was formed
by separating from the western portion of Routt County in 1912 at which
time Craig became the county seat.
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