Ephraim Settlement

Isaac Behunin and his family camped on Pine Creek in 1852, and within two years seventy-seven families had joined them to build Ephraim. They walled themselves into a fort, incorporated as a city in 1868, and got on with the ordinary business of a settlement — a school where, for want of anything better, the children wrote with soft yellow rock for pencils. Only after the Black Hawk War ended did the men feel safe enough to farm twenty-acre plots outside the walls — the conflict having grown, across Sanpete, from the Ute's loss of their land.

What the plaque says

In 1852 Isaac Behunin and family came to Pine Creek. By 1854 seventy-seven families had arrived. Branch L.D.S. Church organized, Rueben W. Allred was presiding elder. Reddick N. Allred captain of militia. Ft. Ephraim incorporated as a city 1868, George Taylor Sr., Mayor. Agnes Armstrong, schoolteacher. Pupils used soft yellow rock for pencils. After Indian raids ended, each man was alloted 20 acres of land outside fort. Home, built near this spot, had the above engraved rock over the door.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Ephraim — 0.4 mi
  Utah's Little Denmark and the home of Snow College
• Ephraim Co-op — 0.4 mi
  The 1871 cooperative store that outlived the economy it was built to replace
• Manti Temple — 7.1 mi
  A striking pioneer-era temple crowning a hilltop above the Sanpete Valley
• Manti — 7.4 mi
  Sanpete's first settlement, crowned by an 1888 oolite temple

More markers nearby

• Snow Academy Building — steps away
• Ephraim Co-op Building — 0.4 mi
• Ephraim Carnegie Library — 0.5 mi
• Indian Massacre — 0.5 mi