The free-roaming Ute Indians were the first modern-day people to live in the White River valley. After mounting tensions erupted into violence and the Indian agency near present-day Meeker was attacked, the Ute were soon evicted from northwestern Colorado in 1881. By that time, adventurous people were pressing in at all sides to settle the area. Settlers drawn by land speculation and ranching populated this rural area. Ranching, hunting, guiding, and coal, oil shale, oil, and gas extraction were the ways people made their livings, or hoped to, in this region. Meeker had it all with a touch of Wild West and a promise of the American dream--and all in a setting that would lure Teddy Roosevelt himself. Inside this book are glimpses of the people, traditions, celebrations, and ways of life of those who lived here before us.