Gunnison Pioneers

Settlers founded Gunnison in 1859, and by 1862 the little precinct had won weekly mail service. Then came the Black Hawk War. The conflict — rooted in the dispossession and hunger of the Ute whose land this was — reached the valley in 1865, and in 1867 the settlers threw up a bastioned fort just southeast of here, a four-block square from which Colonel Byron Pace and some fifteen hundred militia guarded the town. The war ground on until 1872. The fort is long gone; the marker recalls both the founding and the fear.

What the plaque says

Gunnison was settled in 1859. As a precinct it was granted weekly U.S. Mail service in 1862. The Black Hawk War began in 1865. In 1867 a bastion was erected 362 feet southeast of here. It was used by Colonel Byron Pace and 1500 militia men to protect the people and property of Gunnison and surrounding settlements from warring Indians. The old fort surrounded a four block square running west and south from the Gunnison Ward Chapel and Washington School block.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Gunnison — 0.3 mi
  Sanpete's southern hub, home to Utah's oldest operating theater
• Mayfield — 6.5 mi
  Gateway to Twelve Mile Canyon and the Skyline Drive high country
• Sterling — 7.2 mi
  A highway hamlet and the doorway to Palisade State Park
• Palisade State Park — 8.8 mi
  A pioneer-built lake turned central Utah's favorite state park

More markers nearby

• Gunnison Valley Veterans Memorial — steps away
• Gunnison Honor Roll — steps away
• Dover Cemetery — 5.3 mi
• Funk's Lake — 7.1 mi