In 1828, one of Utah's first European-American trading posts, Fort Robidoux, was established on the outskirts of modern Whiterocks.

[3] According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 2.3 square miles (6.0 km2), all land.

1828 Four French traders from Kentucky -- William "Toopeechee" Reed, Jim Reed, Dennis Julien, and Augustus Archambeaux -- entered the Uintah Basin and set up a trading post near a spring of water just south and east of the present settlement of Whiterocks.

October 3, 1861 By order of Abraham Lincoln and the secretary of the Interior the "Uintah Valley in the Territory of Utah, be set apart and reserved for the use and occupancy of Indian Tribes.

"[5] 1868 Amos Reed, a government clerk in the employment of the Indian Service, made a trip to Whiterocks.

His guide, Chief Antero, said that since he was to be moved to the Uintah Reservation he would choose Whiterocks for his home, and he suggested to Mr. Reed that the Indian Agency be established at that place.

On the recommendation of Chief Antero, the agency was moved from Rock Creek to Whiterocks on Christmas Day 1868.

Much of the surface of the site was under cultivation at the time of excavation and was presumed to have been largely destroyed by agricultural activity.