A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks (Revised)Woodbury, Angus M. (Angus Munn)
History
A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks (Revised)
Woodbury, Angus M. (Angus Munn)
National parks and reserves -- Utah -- History; Utah -- History
After the floods subsided Old Grafton was abandoned and a new site was
selected on the south bank on a higher bench a little farther upstream.
The area was surveyed and laid off in town lots and fields. A new ditch
costing $5,000 was dug within the next year. The new townsite of
Rockville was similarly laid off into lots and fields during the summer
of 1862, and an irrigation ditch was completed in time for use during
1863. In the meantime the settlers at Adventure continued to cultivate
the land irrigated by their first ditch. At the forks of the river at
Northrop, a ditch was built by James Lemon and others to irrigate a
stretch of land below the junction of the two forks of the streams. At
Shunesburg, the town and fields were surveyed and ditches constructed to
divert the water from both Shunes Creek and the east fork of the Virgin.
The known settlers in Adventure included the following: Orson Pratt, Dr.
S. A. Kenner, John C. Hall, Henry Stocks, William Ashton, and Elijah
Newman. Those at Northrop included James Lemon, Isaac Behunin, and
probably Joseph Black. The following went to Shunesburg, all of them
having come together from San Pete Valley: Oliver DeMille, Hyrum
Stevens, Alma Millett, George Petty, Hardin Whitlock and Charlie
Klapper.
Whether anyone was located at Springdale at that time is debatable. E.
C. Behunin says that his father, Isaac, stayed at Northrop until after
the flood and then moved to Springdale where others had already located.
Nevertheless, it is the impression of several early pioneers of the
region that Albert Petty was the first settler of Springdale in the fall
or winter of 1862-3. It is related that he took his wife to the spot he
had selected beside some large springs and asked her to name it. She
called it Springdale. It is probable, however, that the lower Springdale
irrigation ditch was taken out early in 1862. It is also probable that
Joseph Black came with the main group in 1861 despite his journal date
of 1862, written in his old age.[49] His parents came in 1861 and it is
almost certain that he was with them. He is credited by three different
sources with being the first to explore Zion Canyon after the settlers
arrived, although he says nothing about it.[50]
When Albert Petty came to Shunesburg, he brought with him the rock
grinding stones for a grist mill. Not finding a suitable mill site at
Shunesburg, he and his son, George, moved to the newly surveyed town of
Springdale where they set up the mill that served as a public utility in
grinding the coarse flour for the settlers of the upper Virgin.
The fall of 1862 saw another influx of settlers. Another general “call”
for 250 men to go south was issued Sunday, October 19, and many others
volunteered to go to Dixie. Charles L. Walker describes the incident in
his journal:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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