Alton Valley
aka Sheep Creek
Information comes from Treasured Tidbits of Time Volume I by Jens Patrick Wilde and is a condensed version
Within a score of years following the original settlement of the Bear Lake Valley, pioneers had filtered into the lucrative little side valley of Sheep Creek. Not long after the Oregon Short Line went through the lower end of the Alton Valley, the first settlers were getting established. As early as 1877, Grandison Raymond, Henry Evans and others of the Thomas Fork valley had used the area as cattle ranch. By 1900 a dozen families had homesteaded on the land.
Among the first in the area were Lucius Bingham, Arnold Zumbrenna, Jake Hirschi, John Wuthrich, John Moni, Marion and Jess Perkins, Martin Phelps and Albert Kunz. In 1902 the John Eschler family moved into the valley. Schools began functioning in private homes in the mid 1880s. For the first six years the homes of John Wuthrich and Arnold Zumbrennan rotated as "school houses".
In 1892 the first school house, a single room made of logs was constructed. Its location was on the south side of U.S.30 on the corner leading to the Lee Rigby ranch (1977). In 1902 the population was large enough to merit a post office. Marion G Perkins became the first postmaster. By then the name of Sheep Creek had begun to fade from the picture. In 1901 the school teacher, Orson F Alton, was stricken with a disease and forced to leave the valley. In his honor the people of the valley held a farewell party and during the event John Wuthrich made the proposal that the community be names after this teacher. Thus Alton became the official name of the post office as well.
During 1906 a branch of the LDS Church was organized and the first building for the church was also doubling as a school building. John Eschler was set apart as the first presiding elder of the community. About this time a meeting was held to discuss a system of cooperative living. A dairy herd was organized and that method of living became the prominent income of the valley. Cheese was made, both American and Swiss with John Wuthrich as the first cheese maker and Gottfried Eschler aiding him. But the dairy community failed. Thereafter individual farmers established their own. A loading platform was located at the railroad tracks near the present Marriner Jensen ranch. At least four major dairies developed. In the southern end of the valley near Bear River, the Kunz and Phelps family had large dairies. In the northern end John Wuthrich and Gottfried Eschler had dairies.
By 1906 33 children attended regular school but five years later had dropped to 11. Mail came in by horseback and snowshoe from the Raymond area but once every two weeks, a trip to Montpelier brought the mail. One of the earliest mail carriers was Alma Escher who served as a carriers before the official post office was established.
In the first years of the 1920s the people of the valley incorporated to build a large reservoir for better irrigation. Sheep Creek provided the main source of water. Ditches were dug and fields leveled. The number of farms grew smaller and the acreage larger. In 1929 Alton boasted its first service station, a store, a post office and bids were let for a new brick school house. However the improvements proved a little late in coming. The depression caused many families to move out. By 1940 the number of people had decreased so much that Alton and Pegram Valley shared a school. The Alton School closed in 1946 and was torn down in 1956.