The first settler in the Cokeville area, Tilford Kutch, arrived about 1869. In 1873, Kutch operated a ferry across Smiths Fork and opened a trading post next to his ferry terminal. He did very well with the ferry operation until the Union Pacific Railroad arrived in 1882. The town started to really grow after the railroad arrived, and was incorporated in 1910. Back in those years, sheep ranching was a popular thing to do in places like this, and Cokeville was the unofficial "Sheep Capital of the World" by 1918.