Lower Big Horn Basin
East of Lovell on Highway 14A

John Colter visited this area in 1807. Many trappers and hunters followed later. The first wheeled vehicle was brought into this region in 1860. Permanent ranches were established near the mouth of the Shoshone River before 1888. Other ranchers soon settled along the Shoshone and Big Horn Rivers, and on Crooked, Gyp and Sage Greeks.

Later homeseekers settled in the lower Shoshone Valley, notably a large Mormon colony in 1900 which constructed irrigation systems and thriving towns. This log house, erected before 1894, and once occupied by one of Big Horn County’s first officers, William F. Hunt, is typical of the homes built by the early settlers of this region.