The Salt River meanders through the length of the valley and runs North parallel to Wyoming Highway 89.

The 1850s and 1860s saw many emigrants passing through the upper Star Valley area via the Lander Road on the Oregon Trail.

White settlement of the area did not begin in earnest, though, until the late 1870s when LDS Apostles Moses Thatcher and Brigham Young, Jr. chose the valley for colonization.

Archibald Gardner and members of his extended family arrived in 1889, building and operating five mills of various types in the valley.

At one time in its history, Star Valley was also known as "Little Switzerland," because of the number of dairies that were opened as settlers moved into the area.

[4] Velma Linford wrote in "Wyoming Frontier State," that in 1947 the whole of Star Valley had 600 dairies milking about 8,000 cows.

Also included were characters that depicted flowers common to the valley: a pansy, a daisy, a sunflower, and a snowdrop.