Prior to 1881 the Monument area was inhabited only by Ute Indians, but
it was visited from time to time by a few fur trappers, explorers, and
geologists. In 1776 an expedition led by Fathers Dominguez and Escalante
passed northward across Grand Mesa, the high plateau just east of the
area, which is pointed out in many of the photographs. A trading post
was built by Joseph Roubidoux about 1838 just above the present site of
Grand Junction. In 1853 Captain John W. Gunnison, seeking a new route
for a transcontinental railroad, led an exploring party down what is now
the Gunnison River Valley, past the confluence with the Grand River (now
called the Colorado, p. 16), and on down the valley. Geologists and
topographers of the Hayden Survey found only Ute Indians in the area in
1875 and 1876, and their field season of 1875 was abruptly cut short
because of skirmishes with hostile Utes. After the Meeker (Colorado)
Massacre of 1879, believed by many to have been caused mainly by the
ignorance and shortsightedness of Meeker himself, treaties were signed
forcing the Utes out of western Colorado onto reservations in eastern
Utah, and the last of the Utes was reportedly out of the area by
September 1881. The Grand Valley was immediately opened to settlement,
and the first ranch was staked out on September 7, 1881. Nineteen days
later George A. Crawford founded Grand Junction as a townsite and formed
the Grand Junction Town Company the next month. The success of the new
town was assured on November 21, 1882, when the narrow-gage line of the
Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (now Denver and Rio Grande Western
Railroad) reached it via the Gunnison River valley. The town of Fruita
was founded by William E. Pabor in 1883 and incorporated the following
year.