Fort Mountainville

Alpine's fort grew in three rings as fear rose. When the Walker War broke out in 1853, the settlers threw up an eight-foot mud wall around a small square and called it Fort Wordsworth. The next year a twelve-foot wall enclosed the homes of twenty-five families as Fort Mountainville. Then in 1855 came the real thing: a ten-acre square behind walls fourteen feet high, the fort ditch running inside them, gates spanning what is now Main Street. The walls are gone, but they sheltered the town through its most anxious years.

What the plaque says

Eight rods W. of this marker was the S.W. corner of a fort erected for protection from the Indians in the Walker War. The walls enclosed three separate squares: in 1853, an 8 ft. mud wall built around a 33 r. sq. was named Fort Wordsworth; in 1854, a 12 ft. wall surrounding homes of 25 families was called Fort Mountainville; but the main fort, erected in 1855, enclosed a 10 acre square with walls 14 ft. high. Fort ditch flowed inside by the walls; N. and S. gates spanned present Main St. of Alpine.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Timpanogos Cave National Monument — 3.7 mi
  Three spectacularly decorated caves connected by hand-carved tunnels
• Lehi Roller Mills — 5.7 mi
  The flour mill from the movie Footloose
• Alpine Loop Summit — 8.7 mi
  The 8,000-foot high point of the Alpine Loop, face to face with Mount Timpanogos
• Aspen Grove — 9.6 mi
  The mountain-base trailhead for Mount Timpanogos and Stewart Falls

More markers nearby

• Site of Two Alpine Churches — steps away
• Alpine City Hall — steps away
• Alpine — steps away
• Alpine Pioneer Relic Hall — steps away