In Memoriam
In the valley below,
between September 7 and 11, 1857,
a company of more than 120 Arkansas emigrants
led by Captain John T. Baker and Captain Alexander Fancher
was attacked while en route to California.
This event is . . . — — Map (db m46776) HM
On September 16, 1859, 17-year-old James H. Berry witnessed an event that he would never forget. He saw 15 children return to relatives and friends in Carrollton, Arkansas. Those children were survivors of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. They were . . . — — Map (db m240465) HM
In September 1874, a federal grand jury indicted nine Mormon
militiamen for crimes related to the siege and massacre. Some of those
men immediately went into hiding as fugitives from justice. About 50
other militiamen were involved in the . . . — — Map (db m284153) HM
Accounts of the Arkansas wagon train list two leaders: John T.
Baker (1805-1857) and Alexander Fracher (1812-1857).
John T. Baker was a farmer and cattleman, described as a shrewd
trader, a warm friend, and a bitter enemy. He and his family . . . — — Map (db m240467) HM
Massacre of Men and Boys
On September 11, 1857, a procession of Arkansas emigrants bound for California marched northward up this valley having been persuaded to leave their beseiged camp by Mormon militiamen, bearing a white flag, who . . . — — Map (db m60898) HM
In early September 1857, about 140 people camped in this valley. Most of them were families from northwest Arkansas. Led by Captains John T. Baker and Alexander Fancher, they were headed to new opportunities in California. Their worldly possessions . . . — — Map (db m284151) HM
Built and maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints out of respect for those who died and were buried here and in the surrounding area following the massacre of 1857. — — Map (db m152387) HM
Members of the Arkansas wagon train set up camp at this site on Sunday, September 5, 1857. On Sunday they likely rested and gathered for a Christian worship service-a pattern they had followed throughout their journey.
The next morning they . . . — — Map (db m240469) HM
The Arkansas emigrants were members of respectable families. The lists to the right and left include information about heads of household in the group. More is known about some families than others, and these are not exhaustive lists of names. A . . . — — Map (db m240468) HM
The Baker-Fancher emigrants buried the bodies of ten men killed during the siege somewhere within the circled wagons of the encampment located west of the current monument in the valley. Most of the Baker-Fancher party died at various locations . . . — — Map (db m14694) HM
Led by Captains John T. Baker and Alexander Fancher, a California-bound wagon train from Arkansas camped in this valley in the late summer of 1857 during the time of the so-called Utah War. In the early morning hours of September 7th, a party of . . . — — Map (db m46765) HM
An arduous 1,200-mile route between Santa Fe and Los Angeles, the "Old Spanish Trail" passed through Mountain Meadows during its heyday, between 1830 and 1848. The trail served traders who loaded their pack mules with woolen goods from Santa Fe each . . . — — Map (db m114259) HM
In 1859, Major James H. Carleton interviewed Mrs. Rachel Hamblin, who lived a few miles north of the massacre field. Major Carleton carefully recorded her account of the surviving children, who were brought to her home on September 11, 1857, . . . — — Map (db m240466) HM
After returning home from World War II, area veterans organized and requested membership to the National American Legion Program.
January 09, 946, national headquarters issued a charter for “Hiatt-Hunt Post 80”. The post was named . . . — — Map (db m14341) HM
The buggy was the automobile of the Horse-drawn Era. It was drawn by one horse or a team. Owners took great pride in their buggy, teams and harnesses. Thomas Sirls Terry, in his latter life, used a buggy extensively in his truck between . . . — — Map (db m263144) HM
Eliza Jane was born in Nauvoo, Adams County, Illinois, on 26 July 1840. Her parents were Zerah and Mary Brown Pulsipher. She was 7 years old when persecution drove the saints west. She walked across the plains with her family, picking up buffalo . . . — — Map (db m14344) HM
Enterprise is a continuation of Hebron located on Shoal Creek, a short distance up the mountain. In 1862 Charles and John Pulsipher and others brought their families to the village. In May 1892 Orson W. Huntsman made a plan to impound the flood . . . — — Map (db m263077) HM
Hamblin village was located about a mile northeast of here It was settled in 1856 when Jacob Hamblin started a ranch and built a house for his family. Soon after other ranchers arrived including Hamblins 2 brothers Dudley, Leavitt Jacob, Mica . . . — — Map (db m284148) HM
Between the years and 1847 and 1869 68,000 Saints made the trek to Zion. Mary Ann and Eliza Jane Pulsipher, ages 16 and 7, walked the 1030 miles to the Salt Lake Valley during the summer of 1848, arriving on September 23.
The handcart was . . . — — Map (db m263158) HM
Hannah Louisa Leavitt was born on 16 Mar 1855 at Lake Point, Tooele County, Utah, to Dudley and Mary Ann Huntsman Leavitt, she was the oldest of her fathers 48 children. In the fall of that year the Leavitts moved south to Dixie and for the next 21 . . . — — Map (db m14345) HM
The rake and the mower are both implements used in harvesting hay. It was an advancement in the livestock industry when they came out with the mechanized equipment because a man could cut and store more hay than he could cut by hand.
The rake . . . — — Map (db m263156) HM
In March of 1862 the Pulsipher brothers, John, Charles, and William, in search of a more adequate feed ground for the new Dixie Mission herds, discovered the abundant untouched grass of the Shoal Creek drainage. The three brothers were part of the . . . — — Map (db m284966) HM
May we forever remember the women, children, and wounded who died near here on September 11, 1857, as part of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. They were killed without just cause. Most lie in unmarked graves somewhere in this valley.
Only . . . — — Map (db m284150) HM
The large plow was pulled by two horses and allowed an individual to ride rather than walk behind the plow. The operator was able to set the depth of the cut by adjusting the levers. This plow is a one way plow. The next advancement in plows was . . . — — Map (db m263153) HM
Before the advent of modem commercial fertilizer the only way to fertilize and condition the soil was to add animal droppings The manure spreader is an implement designed to replace manually scattering manure with a shovel or pitch fork from the . . . — — Map (db m263154) HM
Mary Ann Pulsipher was a pioneer. She was born to Zerah and Mary Brown Pulsipher. Being born in the East (Scott, Courtland County, New York), she was old enough to realize the hardships incurred when the family became members of the Church of Jesus . . . — — Map (db m14343) HM
Shoal Creek area ranchers and Clover Valley residents built a fort here during the Indian War in 1866. Later a village developed consisting of a church/school house, telegraph office, store and about twelve houses. Most residents engage in . . . — — Map (db m284965) HM
Orson W. Huntsman founder of Enterprise; born 31 March 1849, died 16 Nov. 1981, married Mary Ann Terry 28 Dec. 1867
Thanks to his vision and unending determination; the dream of a reservoir and City, now called Enterprise, became a reality: . . . — — Map (db m263133) HM
A small plow was pulled by one or two horses depending on the condition of the soil and was guided by one man from behind. It dug deep and rolled the soil over in preparation for crops to be planted.
This plow came from the Tony Ranch on the . . . — — Map (db m263141) HM
Hundreds of tons of potatos me produced in the Escalante Valley each year. The cultivator and digger greatly advanced the production and harvesting of the potato. Thomas Sirls Terry Jr., son of Thomas Sirls and Mary Pan Terry, was involved with the . . . — — Map (db m263146) HM
The Scraper (Fresno) was the heavy earth moving equipment of its time. It was used for the construction of roads dams, canals, ditches, and to clear fields. It was operated by a man walking behind raising and lowering a long handle located in the . . . — — Map (db m263143) HM
Seeders were used to plant fields of grain, grass. It was pulled by a team and replaced a man broadcasting seed by hand.
Donated by the Family of Marian Terry, son of Thomas Sirls Terry Jr. and Roxa Wood Terry. — — Map (db m263148) HM
The Industrial Revolution enabled the farmers to use implements that were designed for very specific tasks and mass produced. The hand cultivator was one of these. It was pulled by single horse and was used in cultivating row
crops.
Hannah . . . — — Map (db m263140) HM
Made from imported red wood in 1912
Built over a cement root cellar, on the tithing lot north of the church square, when tithing was paid in kind. Donated by the Normand Laub family in 1993
They had moved it to their farm in the valley in . . . — — Map (db m263136) HM
The Fairbanks Morse, One Cylinder Engine, was used by the town of Panaca, Nevada, to generate residential power until 1936. It was then bought by H.G. Moyle and used as a deep well irrigation pump until 1948.
Donated to Heritage Park by Nellie Holt . . . — — Map (db m263139) HM
In early September 1857, about 140 people camped in this valley. Most of them were families from northwest Arkansas. Led by Captains John T. Baker and Alexander Fancher, they were headed to new opportunities in California. Their worldly possessions . . . — — Map (db m284149) HM
Thomas Sirls Terry was born in Bristol Township, Buicks County, Pennsylvania, on 3 Oct 1825 to Thomas Sirls and Mary Ann Murkins Terry. Thomas went to work at the age of 7 in a local cotton mill. At 17 he was apprenticed to learn the trade of . . . — — Map (db m14342) HM
During the Pleistocene Era (26,000-10,000 years ago), the broad valley, seen in all directions from where you are standing, was formed by Lake Bonneville. When the waters of the lake subsided, human beings moved from the shoreline at the edge of . . . — — Map (db m263152) HM
The wagon was the main transportation of the westward movement and colonization of the Saints. Wagons were drawn by teams of horses, mules or oxen. People as well as goods and freight were carried by these wagons. It is estimated that during the . . . — — Map (db m263151) HM
The Hard Year of 1866
In the four years after Grafton's founding in 1862, death came in its usual manner, taking the young, the sick, the old: Mary Lavina Andrus died at one year of age; Mary Jane York, 28, died of tuberculosis, Byron Lee . . . — — Map (db m272712) HM
Although Grafton is a ghost town, its once-thriving community spirit lives on. Its soul lives as one beholds green pastures and imagines settlers working the fields and crafting these buildings within this land's striking beauty. Grafton returns us . . . — — Map (db m272715) HM
Harrisburg Historic Pioneer Cemetery
Honoring Early Harrisburg Pioneers and Their Infants and Children
Surname Given name Middle/Maiden Birth Death
Cox Willard Glover 13 Feb 1887 7 Aug 1887
Dailey Sarah Jane Wilson 21 Dec 1830 22 Oct 1873 . . . — — Map (db m243199) HM
1893–1904
This monument is near the spot where a celebration took place on August 6, 1904. After nearly eleven years of arduous work on the canal, water was ready for diversion onto the land.
“Five or six wagon loads of . . . — — Map (db m1329) HM
This house was built in 1906-08 by Ira E. and Marion Hinton Bradshaw, lifelong residents of southern Utah. It was the first permanent house built in the town of Hurricane, which was established soon after completion of the Hurricane Canal in 1904. . . . — — Map (db m74619) HM
In 1915 prisoners from the Utah State Prison camped here among these very rocks. They were detailed to build a wagon road up the fault, directly east from here. Remnants of the road can still bee seen with its lava rocks retaining walls. The work . . . — — Map (db m59429) HM
Studebaker, McCormick and Bain wagons were popular in Utah's Dixie.
The white canvas covered wagons were used by Dixie Peddlers to haul Dixie Sorghum and Dixie Fruit and other farm products to mining and farming communities in . . . — — Map (db m249856) HM
In the early days of Hurricane and other southern Utah towns, sorghum cane was a primary crop that was grown to have its juice made into sorghum. Besides being used locally by most families as a sweetener, thousands of gallons of sorghum were taken . . . — — Map (db m250114) HM
This plow was donated to the museum by Mr. and Mrs. Leslie E. Nelson, of Hurricane,
Utah.
History of the plow is from Mr. Nelsons grandmother, Hulda Ellertson Kay, who was housekeeper for Apostle Hyde during the period of 1875.
The Nelson . . . — — Map (db m59403) HM
This twelve by fourteen foot granary been used by three families as a home for over 40 years. It was built by George and Annie Isom around the same time Hurricane was settled, in 1906.
Located on the Isom lot at 83 North State Street and . . . — — Map (db m250014) HM
This early-day grain reaper, in front of you, is a machine that farmers once used in this area to harvest grain. These horse-drawn reapers replaced sickles and cradle scythes which farmers had used
for centuries. Reapers made it possible to . . . — — Map (db m250155) HM
In 1859, after helping settle San Bernardino California, Moses Harris moved his family to Utah and settled on the Virgin River near Quail Creek. In 1862 a flood forced the settlers further up Quail Creek to the Cottonwood Creek Fork. Due to the many . . . — — Map (db m85128) HM
Harrisburg
The town of Harrisburg was founded by Moses Harris in 1859. By 1868, twenty-five families had made their homes in this little valley along Quail Creek, located three miles south of Leeds and twelve miles northeast of St. George. . . . — — Map (db m59644) HM
Original Home of Ira E. and Marion Hinton Bradshaw
Built 1906-08
(Placed on the National Register of Historic Places – 1991)
This plain carpenters Victorian eclectic style home, with a cross-wing and stone foundation and cellar was . . . — — Map (db m59406) HM
Kolob
by Owen Sanders
When lassitude tugs at your body
and robs you of zest to exist
come with me to Kolob
and walk through the mild morning mist
Huddle at dawn on a hillside
and scan the green valley below;
Listen to . . . — — Map (db m59367) HM
On July 29, 1776, Fathers Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and
Silvestre Velez de Escalante led an exploration party of ten
horsemen from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to establish an overland
route to Monterey, California, while spreading the Catholic . . . — — Map (db m250112) HM
The construction of the Hurricane Canal is one of Utah's proudest stories of pioneer determination. This canal, built completely by hand, opened the Hurricane Bench to farming and the establishment of the town of Hurricane.
In 1893 two local men, . . . — — Map (db m59363) HM
We give love and honor to the memory of the men who built our Hurricane Canal; and the ditch riders who cared for it. These pioneers were men of integrity who had a dream, an improbable dream. They built the canal high on a hill, sometimes through . . . — — Map (db m59432) HM
The construction of the Hurricane Canal is one of early Utahs proudest stories of pioneer determination. Built completely by hand, the 7.5 mile canal clings to the sheer walls of the Virgin River Canyon before leaving to follow the Hurricane Fault . . . — — Map (db m255612) HM
Hurricane had its humble beginning in the year 1906 with the coming of eleven families to establish their homes. These first settlers were the families of T. Maurice Hinton, Ira E. Bradshaw, Anthony Jepson, Thomas Ison, Bernard Hinton, Erastus . . . — — Map (db m253886) HM
This building was constructed in 1938-40 as a Works Progress
Administration (WPA) project. The WPA was one of several New Deal programs designed to stimulate economic recovery during the Great Depression while providing needed public services and . . . — — Map (db m250111) HM
In 1863 settlers of the upper Virgin River whose lands were being washed away made preliminary surveys for irrigating and occupying these lands. Erastus Snow, David H.
Cannon and Nephi Johnson came down the hill over an old Indian trail, with a . . . — — Map (db m59405) HM
The Thomas & Annie Isom Family
The Thomas and Annie Isom family came to Hurricane following the completion of the Hurricane Canal, which allowed Hurricane City to become a reality. The northwest corner of State and Main (across the Street) . . . — — Map (db m250109) HM
After eleven years of hard labor, water from the Hurricane Canal poured out onto the valley floor in August 1904. It was necessary for the builders to lay out a water delivery system to irrigate garden plots near their homes and to larger orchards . . . — — Map (db m300546) HM
With the settlement of Toquerville in 1858 by the first six families and others soon to join them, they soon realized that the pressures on the available irrigated farmland could not support the increasing population. Survival would depend on . . . — — Map (db m59446) HM
Between June 9, 1856, and July 6, 1860, ten separate Handcart Companies left Iowa
City, Iowa, or Florence, Nebraska to their land of Zion in the Utah Territory. There were
653 handcarts and 50 wagons.
Nearly 3,000 souls, some with babes in arms, . . . — — Map (db m59369) HM
A bowery was built near here in August 1904 for the celebration of the long-awaited arrival of water to the Hurricane Bench and to name this new town. After twelve years of back-breaking work, the Virgin River water, carried seven miles from the . . . — — Map (db m59430) HM
Harold H. Wilkinson, M.D., D.C., H.D., the first resident doctor in
Hurricane, graduated from Chicago College of Medicine and Surgery
May 26, 1914.
He was born July 15, 1883 at Leads, Utah. In 1907 he married Luella Naomi Fawcett in the St. . . . — — Map (db m250113) HM
When Claron Bradshaw was asked by the Heritage Park Foundation Committee if he would sponsor the expense of casting the “Pioneer Gratitude” statue in bronze and placing it on the monument in the park, he responded –
“I . . . — — Map (db m59366) HM
The pioneer hay barn, manger, and corral you see before you were reconstructed using material from three earlier pioneer barns, primarily the Sheldon Wright barn. Some posts and boards for these structures came from the Rulan Isom and Bernard . . . — — Map (db m250026) HM
Historic Temple Trail
The Temple Trail which has two parts, was used during the years 1874-1876 to bring lumber by ox-team from two sawmills at Nixon Springs on the south face of Mount Trumbull to St. George, eighty miles away, for constructing . . . — — Map (db m59362) HM
On land owned by the Hurricane Canal Company until late 1915, this Victorian Eclectic-style house was constructed during 1913-14 by Thomas R. Reeve, homeowner; Charles Cottam, carpenter; and Earl Spencer, plasterer. Like many others in the
area, . . . — — Map (db m300547) HM
Mollies Nipple was given its historic name by pioneer colonizers of Toquerville, Virgin City, Grafton, Rockville, Springdale and other communities along the Rio Virgin. The unique symmetry of this visible Dixie landmark is protected from rapid . . . — — Map (db m249855) HM
This freight wagon, bought by Harold Reeve in about 1930, was the last new wagon sold by the Sandburg Mercantile in Hurricane, Utah. Goods were hauled to the people in Hurricane from the nearest railroad in Lund, Utah, 35 miles northwest of Cedar . . . — — Map (db m250011) HM
Smith Mesa, northeast of Hurricane and nearly one-half mile higher in elevation, was named after Charles Nephi Smith, Bishop of Rockville from 1867 to 1891. He had a ranch house on Smith Creek and ran his cattle on this beautiful mesa.
Shortly . . . — — Map (db m59404) HM
The confluence of Ash and LaVerkin Creeks with the Virgin River is important in the history of this region. Footsteps long forgotten have passed through this region. Some have been remembered but most have faded with time. Roaming bands of Indians, . . . — — Map (db m59447) HM
This "home," built in 1915, is typical of the construction of homes in Hurricane during that period of time. Maurice Hinton, a carpenter, built the home for the Thomas Isom family. The building was built on the back of the lot and used as a . . . — — Map (db m250012) HM
The warm comfortable productive climate in the sheltered valleys along the meandering Rio Virgin and its lower tributaries in Washington County became known as "Utah's Dixie".
The rugged pioneer colonizers and their descendants are known as . . . — — Map (db m59365) HM
Segments of the old Indian trails between St. George and Long Valley were used by Mormon pioneers to settle Long Valley in 1864 and for its resettlement in 1871 following Indian conflicts. This trail scaled the Hurricane Fault on the Johnson Twist. . . . — — Map (db m74618) HM
When first conceived, the Hurricane Canal seemed like an impossible dream. Beginning at a point seven miles up the Virgin River, water had to travel through flumes, tunnels, and over deep ravines. The canal had to hang on steep, unstable cliffs and . . . — — Map (db m1328) HM
When first conceived, the Hurricane Canal seemed like an impossible dream. Beginning at a point seven miles up the Virgin River, water had to travel through flumes, tunnels, and over deep ravines. The canal had to hang on steep, unstable cliffs and . . . — — Map (db m74617) HM
Early History
It is believed the Paiutes moved in Utah about A.D. 1100-1200. They were hunter-gatherers with some limited agriculture. Their first contact with Europeans was probably with the Escalante-Dominguez party in 1776 and then with . . . — — Map (db m255614) HM
The Hurricane Canal runs from the dam on the Virgin River at the Narrows, to where it leaves the Hurricane Cliffs and flows through the fields located on the Hurricane Bench (a distance of approximately 6.5 miles), and to the town of Hurricane. . . . — — Map (db m255613) HM
At the turn of the 20th century, the American Bell and Foundry Company of Northville, Michigan produced bells for firehouses, churches, farms, courthouses, and schools. By 1907, one of their 30-inch bells, weighing 530 pounds, and at a cost of . . . — — Map (db m249858) HM
The Black Ridge .
The toughest, heartbreaking barrier to the colonization of “Utahs Dixie” was the Black Ridge between New Harmony and Pintura, north of Toquerville, Utah.
A deep, rough, lava flow clogged the valley from the . . . — — Map (db m1427) HM
Buggies, such as the one before you, were an important part of early America. As the name implies, Doctors' Buggies were used by physicians but they were also a popular choice for many others as well. Buggies were dearly prized and generally kept in . . . — — Map (db m59373) HM
The threshing machine is a piece of farm machinery that combines four separate operations in one unit.
1) Threshing
2) Separating
3) Cleaning
4) Stacking the straw
Power for the machine was furnished through a long belt connected to . . . — — Map (db m250158) HM
The Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) was created by Congress in response to the Great Depression and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 5, 1933. The purpose of the CCC was to create thousands of public works jobs for young . . . — — Map (db m272724) HM
July 1954. Funding approved for the construction of a U.S. Air Force Rocket Sled Test Track on Hurricane Mesa.
July 8, 1955. Initial test run completed at "Project Smart" (code name) by Coleman Engineering Co., the contract operator for . . . — — Map (db m272726) HM
In 1908 the Midland Bridge Company was awarded a contract in the amount of $3,299 to fabricate and erect the Hurricane/LaVerkin Bridge. This structure incorporates distinctive characteristics in its method of construction, is one of the earliest and . . . — — Map (db m59453) HM
In 1881 Thomas Judd, promoter, with others completed an 840 foot tunnel and 1 1/4 mile canal to bring water from the Rio Virgin for the cultivation of this valley. Excavations opened a large crystal cave of stalactite and stalagmites.
In 1903, . . . — — Map (db m59448) HM
In December of 1888, Thomas P. Cottam and Thomas Judd made a preliminary survey to determine the probable cost of a canal. Early in 1889, Isaac C. MacFarlane made a working survey, and work was started as soon as his survey was completed.
In June . . . — — Map (db m59451) HM
The confluence of Ash and LaVerkin Creeks with the Virgin River is important in the history of this region. Footsteps long forgotten have passed through this region. Some have been remembered but most have faded with time. Roaming bands of Indians, . . . — — Map (db m59449) HM
The era of the "Great Depression" began with the crash of the stock market in 1929. The economy of the United States changed dramatically. Americans were in peril; unprecedented numbers were jobless. President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in . . . — — Map (db m243202) HM
The history of three towns – Harrisburg, Silver Reef, and Leeds – is intricately connected. Harrisburg and Silver Reef are ghost towns today, while Leeds persists. Like many locations in the arid west, water and its availability and . . . — — Map (db m59662) HM
The Leeds CCC camp opened in October 1933 under the direction of the Dixie National Forest Service on the site of an existing ranger station. Leeds, a town of less than 200, more than doubled with the opening of the camp. Two hundred young men from . . . — — Map (db m59659) HM
From Native American Trail to Interstate Exit
A Local History of Passage
The earliest desert routes in the West followed water. Having drinking water for person or pack animal was critical in negotiating the extreme heat and rugged . . . — — Map (db m243204) HM
The building to your left was originally built as a schoolhouse in 1880 in nearby Silver Reef. It also served in the mining boomtown as a place for community dances and other gatherings.
Soon after the schoolhouse was built, Silver Reef began . . . — — Map (db m59663) HM
Built in 1933, the Leeds Civilian Conservation Corps Camp is significant as perhaps the best remaining example of a CCC camp in Utah. These camps were typically built of relatively temporary frame construction, and the surviving buildings and . . . — — Map (db m55807) HM
In the depression year of 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated the Civilian Conservation Corps. This program provided much needed employment for the nation's youth 18-25 years old. The men had to complete the 8th grade, and have 3-4 . . . — — Map (db m57169) HM
Between 1875 and the end of 1876, Silver Reef boomed with development, going from a boulder-strewn flat to a town of 1,500 people, one of the largest in Washington county.
Silver Reef soon became the center of permanent development, and many . . . — — Map (db m59660) HM
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