Russell R. Rich’s Richfield of the Desert: A History of Paris and Bear Lake County, Idaho serves as a foundational civic and colonization chronicle of the Bear Lake Valley. The narrative details how 1863 Mormon pioneer companies, directed by Apostle Charles C. Rich, established permanent agrarian enclaves directly across the summer gathering corridors and hunting domains long frequented by the Shoshone and Bannock peoples. Rich documents the surveying of wide orthogonal village grids, the digging of collaborative irrigation canals diverted from Paris Creek, and the construction of the monumental Romanesque sandstone Paris Tabernacle. The volume provides detailed records of cooperative livestock regimes, early municipal governance in Paris, and the expansion of secondary farming settlements through St. Charles, Bloomington, and Ovid.

Bear Lake County (Idaho) History, Bear Lake Valley (Idaho and Utah) History, Bloomington (Idaho), Frontier and pioneer life Idaho Bear Lake County, History, Mormon pioneers Idaho, Mormons Idaho History, Ovid (Idaho), Paris (Idaho) History, Paris Tabernacle (Paris, Idaho), St. Charles (Idaho)

Includes bibliographical references and pioneer rosters.

Includes bibliographical references and pioneer rosters.