The first Marysvale families arrived in 1864, 18 years before Moore's Old Pine Inn was built. A fort built near the Inn protected settlers in the Black Hawk Indian war. Two settlers were killed so the town was abandoned. In 1869, two prospectors found waterfalls, gold and the mysterious remains of an old arrastra (possibly Spanish in origin) and the Bullion Canyon gold rush began.

    Moore's Old Pine Inn, Utah's oldest hotel and the original Pines Hotel, was built in 1882 in a forest of Ponderosa trees. New York Times Newspapers from 1882 are still glued to the rafters.

    Marysvale was at the end of the historic Denver and Rio Grand Railroad making Marysvale a railroad and gold mining town. During this boom, Zane Gray wrote Riders of the Purple Sage while staying in the Pines Hotel and Butch Cassidy rested here between exploits.