Fort Alma

A fort is easy to picture as walls; this marker fills it with people. It lists the roughly fifty families who lived inside Fort Alma between 1864 and 1867, the years the Black Hawk War kept them behind a stockade, and the names tell you who was settling this stretch of the Sevier. Allreds and Barneys and Giffords from the American frontier stand beside a wave of Scandinavian converts — Christensen, Mortensen, Nielson, Olsen, Rasmussen, Sorenson — Danes who had crossed an ocean to crowd into the same walls. When the danger passed, the town became Monroe.

What the plaque says

Pioneers and Families who lived in Fort Alma (later Monroe) 1864-1867 Major Allred, Parley Allred, Wiley Allred, Andrew Anderson, Israel Bale, Benjamin Barney, Walter Barney, Joseph Besswick, George Blacket, John W. Bohman, Thomas Broadbent, John Caldwell, Christian Christensen, Christian Christensen Jr., George Crowther, Benjamin Davis, Richard Davis, Edward Duffin, John Edmonds, Henry Gifford, Moses Gifford, David Gifford, Andrew Hendrickson, Joseph Howe, Joseph Howe, widower, Thomas Hunt, Augustus Johnson, Walter Jones, John Knighton, Henry Lamb, John McPhearson, Knute Mortensen, Jeppa Nielson, Frederick Olsen, Andrew Rasmussen, Anthon Robinson, George Robinson, James Sims, Matthew St. Clair, Niels Sorenson, Elisha Stevens, James Stevens, John Swain, George Swindle, Adolph Thompson, George D. Wilson, Wm. Zabriskie. Small plaque below Additional names John J. Davis, Thomas Davis, Michael Johnson

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Rock Candy Mountain — 5.5 mi
  The real mountain that inspired the famous hobo folk song
• Fremont Indian State Park — 12 mi
  The largest known Fremont Indian village ever discovered
• Fishlake National Forest — 22 mi
  Home to Pando — the largest living organism on Earth

More markers nearby

• Camp Alma Relic Hall — steps away
• Monroe Pioneers/Old Fort — steps away
• Elsinore Pioneers — 3.7 mi
• Town of Joseph & Pioneer Log Cabin — 5.0 mi