Beaver, Utah

Beaver is a city in Beaver County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,454 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Beaver County. Settled by Mormon pioneers in 1856, Beaver was one of a string of Mormon settlements extending the length of Utah. These settlements were, by design, a day's ride on horseback apart, explaining the regularity of today's spacing: either 30-miles separate, or 60-miles separate where intervening settlements failed or were absorbed. To wit: Brigham City to Ogden (30-miles) to Salt Lake City (30-miles) to Provo (30-miles), etc. Beaver is the birthplace of two well-known, but very different, people: Philo T. Farnsworth and Butch Cassidy. Philo T. Farnsworth was the inventor of several critical electronic devices that made television possible, including the cathode ray tube. He was also the first to create table-top nuclear-fusion. Butch Cassidy was a notorious western outlaw. Beaver also has the distinction of being the first town in Utah to be electrified. A hydroelectric generation plant was constructed on the Beaver River early in the 20th century. The plant continues to provide a large part of Beaver's power requirements today.