In early September 1854, U.S. Army Col. E. J. Steptoe and his troops built an encampment on the eastern shore of Rush Lake in Rush Valley a few miles south of today’s Stockton. Col. Steptoe was sent to Utah by President Franklin Pierce to take over as governor from Brigham Young in response to the Gunnison Massacre. However, upon learning of Young’s popularity, he declined to take the position and requested that Young be retained as governor. Several hundred men, mules and horses briefly thrived at the remote location, which is marked today by a roadside monument that includes a grave of an infant who had died at the encampment.

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