Charleston Settlement

Sawmill workers who climbed the Wasatch in 1857 looked down on this valley and called it a paradise: high, green, well-watered, and long used by the Timpanogos Ute for summer hunts. Settlers came over the new Provo Canyon road, and in 1859 three towns took root at once: Heber, Midway, and Charleston. Charleston got the low ground, the wet river-bottom farmland along the Provo. It never grew the way the others did — no county seat, no resort, just fields and a few hundred people. Deer Creek Reservoir now laps at the edge of what they broke to plow.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Midway — 3.4 mi
  A Swiss-inspired village with a geothermal crater you can snorkel in
• Heber Valley Railroad — 4.3 mi
  A vintage steam train ride through a stunning mountain valley
• Homestead Crater — 4.4 mi
  A hidden geothermal spring inside a 55-foot limestone dome
• Cascade Springs — 5.4 mi
  Seven million gallons a day welling up through travertine terraces and clear pools

More markers nearby

• Midway Social Hall — 3.4 mi
• Midway Fort — 3.4 mi
• Midway Town Hall — 3.4 mi
• Pioneer Lime Kiln — 3.6 mi