The area we call Olympus Cove is the upper part of an alluvial fan of sediments carried out of Millcreek and Neff’s Canyons of the Wasatch Range over tens of thousands of years.
The Beginning
Before the arrival of Caucasian pioneer settlers in the Salt Lake Valley, this area was occupied seasonally and sporadically by bands of Goshute, Ute and Shoshone people, although none claimed the area exclusively.
Early Advantages
There were several advantages of our current neighborhood to early pioneer settlers: water, forests and land suitable for grazing and orchards. Millcreek was explored by Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow on July 21, 1847, three days before Brigham Young entered the Salt Lake Valley.
Pratt reported being impressed with the trees, grasslands, and water supply of our area. The lower part of Millcreek was Utah’s first settlement outside of Great Salt Lake City.
1848: The Gardeners
By spring of 1848, John Neff, Sr. And Robert and Archibald Gardner settled in the upper Millcreek area. The Gardeners started a saw mill on the waters of Millcreek near what became Highland Drive and Neff headed further east and constructed the valley’s first flour mill near present-day Evergreen Avenue And 2700 East.