The Black Hawk Indian War was the longest and most destructive conflict between pioneer immigrants and Indians in
Utah history. The war erupted as a result of the pressures that white expansion brought to Indian populations in Utah.
White settlement of Utah altered crucial ecosystems and helped destroy Indian subsistence patterns, which caused
starvation. These conditions were almost universal among western Indians during the period, and in this sense the war
can be viewed as an expression of the general Indian unrest and warfare that dominated the trans-Mississippi West
during the 1860s. The years 1865 to 1867 were by far the most intense of the conflict. During this two-year period
residents of Grafton moved to Rockville temporarily for protection as settlements were consolidated, although they
continued to farm their fields in Grafton during the day.