...The society of Mormon pioneers was formally organized with Joseph S. Horne being sent from Salt Lake City to serve as bishop in 1868. Young and progressive, he directed the creation of a cooperative store, the opening of a rock-salt mine, and the formation of the Farmers', Gardeners', and Foresters' Club. In 1876 Horne was acknowledged for his role in managing "the building of schools, meeting and mercantile and private houses, grist and sawmills, salt boilers, in improvement of roads, enlargement of farming lands, extension of planting of trees and other laudable pursuits of home industry."

Like that of the other villages in Sanpete County, Gunnison's survival has depended on sustaining an agrarian economy. In the nineteenth century, irrigation brought vegetable crops and sugar beets. The success of sugar as an export crop led to the construction of a sugar beet factory in the valley. Grain crops, alfalfa, and truck farming, together with dairy products, turkeys (for which there is a local processing plant), sheep, and especially beef cattle, have kept the city viable in the twentieth century.

With the coming of the railroad, Gunnison's fortunes prospered and the city's population more than doubled in the decade ending in 1900. As it grew, Gunnison developed as the commercial center of the valley, featuring flour and feed mills, a co-op store, general and specialty stores, and the Gunnison Valley Bank. Religious, civic, and educational facilities were built as the city expanded, including several impressive Mormon and Presbyterian structures in the mid-1880s, a dance hall in 1896, and a new city hall and rock school in 1899. The telegraph had arrived in 1882 and Gunnison officially became a town in 1893. The turn of the century brought the first telephone to town, and in 1910 a new water system was installed and the first power plant was built.

By 1921 Gunnison and the surrounding environs had grown sufficiently to build a separate high school, a one-story brick facility erected on the east side of Main Street between the south of town and nearby Centerfield. The second half of the twentieth century ushered in similar improvements, including a new state prison facility built north of town. Gunnison's population has increased gradually since 1970, reaching 1,298 in 1990.

Many of Gunnison's historic sites and buildings are gone now, but several important ones remain, including the 1899 city hall, 1909 Gunnison Valley Bank (with a compatible addition), the 1921-23 high school, Hermansen's Roller Mills, the rare Beaux-Arts style Star Theatre, and many impressive residences. Considered together with the newer buildings, the town's architecture conveys a strong sense of the community's past and present.

Allen Roberts