Cloudy Valley Spring

Tooele Valley was originally named "Tule," the Spanish word for a water-flag which grew in abundance near the southern shores of the Great Salt Lake. The valley is bounded on the north by the Great Salt Lake and on the west by the Stansbury Mountain range. For many years, Tooele Valley was a favorite rendezvous for Native Americans, especially the Goshutes, who assembled there. The Donner Party passed to the north of this area in 1846, not knowing there were several streams and two freshwater lakes located in the Stansbury Mountains. In 1849, Captain Howard Stansbury, a government surveyor, commenced his exploration of the Great Salt Lake. He built a small adobe house by a spring in Tooele Valley about "30 rods west" of Adobe Rock. Here his herders lived while they cared for government mules and other stock. The awesome Deseret Peak wilderness, designated in 1984, contains a number of intermittent springs, shadowed by rocky outcroppings with trails leading to Deseret Peak, South Willow and North Willow lakes. May 3, 2009