Fort Kanarra

Kanarraville was assembled out of the pieces of other settlements. When the melting walls of Fort Harmony drove its people out in 1861, some of them founded Old Kanarra on the creek a mile northeast of here. A group from Toquerville soon built at the present site and called it Fort Kanarra; in 1866 settlers from Kanab surveyed the townsite proper, and the scattered groups consolidated into one, hauling a log meeting house along to serve as church, school, and social hall. The town took its name from a Southern Paiute leader, Kanarra, whose people knew this ground first.

What the plaque says

Old Kanarra, as it was called by early inhabitants, was founded in the spring of 1861 by settlers who moved from Fort Harmony. The town was situated on Kanarra Creek about one mile north and east of the present location. Later, a group from Toquerville built on the present site in the spring town fashion shown. This settlement became known as Fort Kanarra. In 1866 the present townsite of Kanarraville was surveyed by settlers from Kanab. During the same year this aggregate of settlements became one when the original group also moved to the new townsite, bringing with them a log meeting house. This building served for several years as a church, school and social hall. To build their homes, logs were hauled out of Shirts' Canyon to the east. The first child born in Kanarraville, James Wallace Pollock, son of Samuel Pollock, arrived on November 17, 1866 in his father's blacksmith shop. On September 29, 1867 Apostle Erastus Snow set apart Lorenzo W. Roundy as the first Bishop of this Mormon community. The town may have acquired its name from either of two sources. The popular belief is that the name came from an Indian Chief, Kuanar, who resided along the creek. Another origin may have been from the kind of willows that grew along the creek, Kanarra Willows

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kolob Canyons — 6.3 mi
  The quiet, uncrowded back door to Zion National Park
• Zion National Park — 19 mi
  Towering sandstone cliffs that glow like fire at sunset
• Cedar Breaks National Monument — 20 mi
  A 2,000-foot-deep amphitheater of vivid orange and red rock
• Brian Head — 21 mi
  Utah's highest town — a ski-and-bike base camp at the top of Parowan Canyon

More markers nearby

• South Rim of the Great Basin — 3.0 mi
• Fort Harmony — 5.1 mi
• Southern Indian Mission — 5.1 mi
• Military Training Camp Site — 7.4 mi