When they arrived in the upper Virgin River watershed on October 14, 1776, they encountered Southern Paiute farmers who greeted them with ears of corn.

"[6] Early Mormon settler John D. Lee described the Southern Paiutes' farming of the land in 1852, "The Santa Clara River is 1 rod wide and 20 inches pure, clear water-rich bottoms, though narrow, and heavily timbered for the distance of 30 miles.

On this stream, we saw about 100 acres of land that had been cultivated by the Pintes [sic] Indians, principally in corn and squashes; and judging from the stocks, the conclusion would be that heavy crops are and can be raised in these valleys.

It is located in the west central portion of Washington County, directly southwest of the communities of Ivins and Santa Clara and east of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes Reservation.

Critical habitat for threatened and endangered plant species including the dwarf bear claw poppy (Arctomecon humilis) and the Holmgren's milkvetch (Astragalus holmgreniorum) are also found in the SCRR.

The historical eyewitness observation of Thomas D. Brown summarizes how aboriginal Paiute farming was interdependent with the beaver dams, "There appears many patches of good wheat land on this stream, across which Beaver dams are built every few rods, & the banks being low, the water overflows much & renders the bottoms good grazing patches".