Later persecutions forced him to leave Nauvoo and join the Mormon Pioneers in a migration to the Salt Lake Valley.

He moved his family to Logan, Utah, in 1859, where he continued tanning and was involved with the area's first sawmill and gristmill.

[1] Ricks was active in the early Cache Valley community and helped establish the city of Logan.

He was treasurer of Cache County for nearly twenty-five years and an officer in the Logan Canyon Road Company.

He frequently provided equipment to the ongoing Mormon immigration and assisted in the construction of all the early community buildings.