In 1776, a Spanish entrada under the direction of Franciscan Friars, Silvestra Velez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Dominguez, passed to the south near what is now the Utah and Arizona border. They probably saw the pink cliffs in the distance.

Jedediah Smith passed by the Sevier and Virgin rivers, while on his way to Spanish California, in 1826. In 1830, frontiersman George Yount passed through the present sites of Circleville, Panguitch and Cedar City. Captain John C. Fremont passed the present sites of Cedar City, Parowan and Circleville. In 1844. Mormon scouts, looking for favorable farming and grazing lands, visited the Sevier River near Panguitch in 1852.

In 1866 a group of men, under the direction of Captain James Andrus, traversed the upper Paria Valley.