The small mining town of Wales was named for the country of the immigrants that were sent there by Brigham Young in 1859 to mine the "rock that burns". A Native American Indian named Tabiyuna, a prominent Ute, had shown Young, then president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a small sample. Young recognized it as coal and asked if any of his group knew how to mine the coal. The Welsh immigrants, having experience with coal mining in the U.K., were sent to the west side hills to set up mines.