[1][6] Scott Valley was first entered ( first Europeans) Stephen Meek, Thomas McKay, George Adolphus Duzel and 16 other Hudson's Bay trappers in 1836.

[7] Meek, who had hunted all over the West, declared the Beaver Valley one of the best places he had ever seen to trap beaver and hunt game, and returned to retire there at the Josiah Doll ranch from 1871 until his death in 1889 at the age of 90.

Dredges that operated in the Scott Valley between 1934 and 1950 did some of the most visible damage done during the mining era.

Large Yuba dredges, which also used mercury to process sand and gravel, excavated material 50 to 60 feet (15 to 18 m) below the river channel and flood plains and created piles of tailings more than 25 feet (7.6 m) high downstream of the town of Callahan.

[9] In Sugar Creek, a Scott River tributary that is usually ephemeral, local landowner Betsy Stapleton worked with Michael Pollock of NOAA to create "beaver dam analogues" by driving posts into the creekbed to attract beavers to build dams.