It is believed that the lands of Mae Hong Son had already been settled before the arrival of Lord Kaeo of Ma; Chao Kaeo Mueang Ma) and his consequent resettlement in the area. However, there is no evidence as to what time or period they arrived, nor of their migrations thereafter. These former inhabitants have left evidence of their activity in the area and are believed to have been Lua, or Lawa, hill tribes' people. Evidence to date includes gravesites and discarded housing structures such as those found in the vicinity of the Mae Hong Son Municipal Hall nowadays the Morning Markets and Dharma School by the Chong Klang and Chong Kham monasterial compound. These first settlers were likely depopulated by either malaria or war, with survivors then dispersing out to safer areas.
The old, pre-Rattanakosin lands of Mae Hong Son was merely a collective of forest settlements without a central government, with Shan peoples who had crossed into the area from beyond the frontier with the Union of Burma in search of a means to find food, working in agroforestry and joint plantations as the seasons permitted. During this period the area was significant only as a passage for Burman troops marching on the capital at Ayutthaya or to the various Siamese capitals of Northern Thailand.
Mae Hong Son historical records state that in the year 1831, which corresponds to the reign of King Nangklao (Rama III) of the Rattanakosin Period, in the mueang of Phing Nakhon known today as Chiang Mai, in the lands of the Kingdom of Lannathai, was Phraya Chiang Mai Mahawong, who was later to ascend to the rank of Phra Chao Mahottraprathet Racha Thibodi, who knew that to the west of Chiang Mai, which meant the lands of today's Mae Hong Son, was a geography of tall mountains and dense forests inhabited by a myriad of forest creatures of which wild elephants in particular were in great abundance, and thus ordered Lord Kaeo, who was a relative of his and a local military chief and
