Laketown, UT

Laketown is a Rich County town on the southern shore of Bear Lake, founded in 1864 during the Mormon settlement of the Bear Lake Valley. Before that, Shoshone and Bannock people hunted, fished, and traveled through the valley. The lake supplies the name, but the old local work was farming and ranching: early residents built log homes, dug irrigation ditches, raised cattle and sheep, and grew hay, grain, and vegetables through a short growing season and hard winters. Rich County's history places Laketown alongside Garden City, Woodruff, Randolph, and Argyle as the valley's early settlements.

Several buildings keep that pioneer-to-town story visible. The Old Rock Store began in 1907, opened in 1910, and later became Laketown Lodge; its upstairs served as a dance hall and recreation center. The Laketown Relief Society Hall, dedicated in 1906, was built for charitable work, sewing, meetings, and lessons and now houses the local Daughters of Utah Pioneers chapter. Laketown incorporated in 1945, and Bear Lake recreation now sits beside agriculture and ranching as part of the town's working map. The local scoop is a small lake town where irrigation ditches, old stone, ranch roads, and summer visitors all meet.