The settlers cleared and fenced between five and six hundred acres of bench land; and, since they did it as a united group, they called the new farming area the Union Field. It was not to stay a united effort. The early Indian wars, which started with the Walker War of 1853-1854, and subsequent hostilities in Utah and surrounding counties, kept the Springville farmers from effectively farming their new holdings. By the time these problems were dealt with, a new set of farming conditions existed that would change how the bench area was going to grow and develop.

A more extensive land survey was completed in the late 1860s. When the Indians who had claimed Utah Valley were moved to a reservation in 1869, the development of the Mapleton bench area began. Those farmers who had previously developed the land had the best claims to the farmland. However, it was not going to be a smooth transition from a farming program developed from a United Order communal organization to an American free-enterprise land-grab allowed under the Homestead Act of 1862. The Union Field farmers struggled to get their land claims worked out; and when the final disputes were settled by the bishops' courts, a new name was needed for the area.