In October 1875, the same need that took the Huntington stockmen into Castle Valley —scarcity of feed—sent Orange Seely and a company of men from Sanpete County with a herd of united order stock through Cottonwood Canyon to the Castle Dale/Orangeville area. The other men were John Jorgenson, Aaron Oman, August Nielsen, Jacob Jensen, Tim Fullmer and two Indians, Aub and Piggy, the latter two assisting in finding trails and establishing peace with itinerant Indians. Camp outfits and supplies were transported in two wagons drawn by eight oxen, and the herd numbered 1500 head of sheep and about 1400 head of horned stock. The journey of forty miles took fourteen days. Upon their arrival at Cottonwood Creek, the men constructed a dugout twenty by thirty feet which they used as headquarters through the winter of 1875-1876. This was the initial thrust into the Cottonwood Creek area.

The settlers who came through the canyon in 1877 in answer to the call of the Church numbered fourteen men. Among these were Erastus Curtis and his two sons, William B. and Erastus, Jr., who located a farm and built a log cabin on Cottonwood Creek about one and one-fourth miles northwest of the present site of Orangeville. Erastus, Sr., returned to Sanpete, hoping to be back before Christmas with his two families, but bad weather and deep snow prevented the return until July 21, 1878. Yet Erastus Curtis's were the first families to settle on Cottonwood Creek.