It was about this time that the canyon received its name. The three settlers, hardy mountaineers though they were, nevertheless were of a devout and religious turn of mind. It seems to have been old father Behunin who proposed the name of Zion, to which the others agreed. Isaac Behunin had been with the Mormons ever since they left New York. He had helped build the Temple at Kirtland, Ohio, and had at one time acted as body-guard to the founder of the Church, Joseph Smith. He had been through all the “drivings of the Saints” in Missouri and Illinois and nourished the typically bitter resentment towards the “enemies” who had been responsible for such “atrocities.” Here in Zion he felt that at last he had reached a place of safety where he could rest assured of no more harryings and persecutions. No wonder he proposed the name Zion, which implies a resting place. He went even further, maintaining that should the Saints again be harassed by their enemies, this would become their place of refuge. On one of Brigham Young’s visits to Springdale, probably in 1870, he was told of Zion. He inquired how it came to be so named. The explanation, it seems, was not satisfactory to the Mormon leader after a toilsome journey into the canyon and he questioned its propriety, saying that “it was not Zion.” Some of his more literal-minded followers thereafter called it “Not Zion.” The first settlers made their way into the canyon on horseback, using the river bed, crossing and recrossing the stream. It soon became necessary, however, to provide other means of transportation. A wagon road was no problem through the flats in both the upper and lower valleys, but the precipitous canyon between was baffling. It is related[59] that Hyrum Morris, Shunesburg settler, and a companion were the first to enter the upper valley by means other than horseback. They hitched a yoke of oxen to the hind wheels of a wagon and lashed a plow and supplies on it. When they entered the canyon, near the present site of the bridge, they climbed the west bank over the sand bench, down into Birch Creek and thence into the upper Zion Valley. This did not prove to be a practicable route, and no one seems to have followed it. Today one can hardly traverse the route on foot.