This photograph shows two unidentified men transporting provisions by horseback, across the ford before "Black Ridge". Kahuterawa Valley is located near Palmerston North in the foot of the Tararua Ranges. One of the earliest European owners of the land was the Wellington - Manawatu Railway Company, which named the area the Fitzherbert Block. Originally the land had been granted to he company by the government in return for completing a railway from Wellington to Longburn. The Company sold the 20,000 acre valley for land settlement in 1885. During the early settlement and bush felling era, eight residences from a one room whare to three bedroom houses were built in the valley.