Fort Kanab

Kanab took root — and paid dearly — at this fort. Jacob Hamblin and his fellow missionaries had built it a year earlier; in June 1870, Levi Stewart brought a company of settlers down from Pipe Spring to make a permanent town, and the Kanab Ward was organized that September with Stewart as bishop. But the young settlement's first winter brought tragedy: on the night of December 14, a fire swept the fort and killed Stewart's wife, Margery, and five of their sons. Kanab endured and grew, but it began in grief.

What the plaque says

On June 14, 1870 Levi Stewart, who had been called from Salt Lake County by President Brigham Young to head a group of pioneers in settling this area, brought a party with seven wagons from Pipe Springs, where they had camped temporarily, to Fort Kanab which had been built a year before by Jacob Hamblin and Indian missionaries. Kanab Ward was organized September 11, 1870 with Elder Stewart as Bishop. Other settlers arrived, homes were built and plans made for a permanent community. A fire in the fort on December 14, took the lives of Mrs. Margery Wilkerson Stewart and five sons. —————— Erected in 1931 by Boy Scout Troop 301 of Kanab, Utah, in memory of and on the location of the first pioneer fort of Kanab. I.O. Brown, S.M., E.W. Laws, A.S.M., Ray B. Young • Carlos W. Judd • Guy Chamberlain - Troop Committee.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kanab — 0.5 mi
  Little Hollywood — where hundreds of Western movies were filmed
• Best Friends Animal Sanctuary — 8.2 mi
  The largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the United States
• Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park — 11 mi
  Sweeping dunes of coral-colored sand framed by red cliffs
• Mount Carmel Junction — 15 mi
  The crossroads where the road to Zion meets the highway to Bryce

More markers nearby

• Jacob Hamblin — steps away
• Powell Survey — 0.3 mi
• Kane County Veterans Memorial — 0.4 mi
• Johnson Canyon Cemetery — 9.2 mi