Mormon pioneers first settled in Utah Valley in 1849. The pioneers selected the valley for settlement principally because of its water supply. Several streams from the canyons of the Wasatch range cross a gently sloping alluvial plane and empty into Utah Lake. The largest is the Provo River. Coming from Provo Canyon it cuts a half moon rim near the center of the valley and flows in a southeasterly direction to the lake. To the southeast of the river, lying between the mountains and the lake, is Provo, the Utah County seat. It was the first settlement by Mormon pioneers in the valley.

The first land to be farmed was that within easy reach of the river. The settlers constructed several small ditches in the first few years of settlement which provided the water necessary to make agriculture flourish in the immediate region. But the district north of Provo located on a high bench of land called Provo Bench remained a treeless sagebrush country for many years. Settlers had long recognized the potential value of the district if it could be irrigated, but early attempts to locate springs or dig wells produced scant results.

Finally, the homesteaders devised a plan to build a canal to convey water from the Provo River to the Bench and organized a company for that purpose. On 17 January 1853, the Territorial Legislature granted a charter to the newly formed Provo Canal and Irrigation Company. The act authorized the company to divert one-half of the waters of the Provo River as near the mouth of the canyon on the north side of the stream as possible. The Provo Bench Company became the first irrigation corporation organized in the State of Utah.

Obtaining a charter and building a canal were two different matters. It was not until 1863 that the settlers were able to construct a successful canal. The canal itself was only two-and-a-half-feet deep and about six-feet wide, but it provided sufficient water to irrigate the district adequately. Cultivation and crop production, however, increased with population and soon more water was needed. Early in June 1865, the landowners got together and pursuant to an act of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Utah petitioned for more water from the Provo River, the petition was granted. The company reincorporated as the Provo Bench Canal and Irrigation Company and established the Provo Bench Irrigation District (the area served by the canal).

The Company soon constructed a new canal to carry the increased allocation of water. The new canal was three feet deep and seven feet wide with one-third slope on each bank. The Provo Bench Company reached an agreement with the North Union Irrigation Company to provide water from the canal for distribution by the latter company. The North Union Irrigation Company's canal separated from the Provo Bench Company's about one and a half miles from its source and ran towards the towns of Pleasant Grove and Lehi.

Today there are seven hundred stockholders representing two thousand shares (32 shares equal one second-foot of water). Most of the stockholders are independent fruit farmers who rely heavily on the waters of the Provo Bench Canal. Small fruits, especially strawberries, raspberries and apples, are the district's most important crops. But many farms have been subdivided and have given up acreage to residential construction; water once utilized primarily for agricultural purposes is now increasingly diverted for industrial and culinary use.

The Provo Bench Canal and Irrigation Company is one of the few companies still existing which has spanned the entire period from original settlement through the present. Thus, the company's records are an excellent primary source in documenting Utah's water development.