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. Nelson’s 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
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
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
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
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
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 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
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
The construction of the Hurricane Canal is one of early Utah’s 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 . . . — — Map (db m59369) 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
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
The Black Ridge .
The toughest, heartbreaking barrier to the colonization of “Utah’s 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
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
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
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
