Johnson Canyon Cemetery

Johnson was a town for two generations — founded in 1871 by four brothers Brigham Young sent up this canyon from the Virgin River, its post office gone by 1937. What remains is the cemetery, and in it lies Joel Hills Johnson: inventor, judge, and the pioneer poet who wrote the hymn 'High on the Mountain Top.' The founder outlasted the town he named. Today the graves, twenty-odd headstones, sit fenced in a field behind a ranch, unmarked from the road, a flag-patterned windsock the only sign, two miles from the Gunsmoke set that made this canyon famous instead.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Kanab — 8.8 mi
  Little Hollywood — where hundreds of Western movies were filmed
• Best Friends Animal Sanctuary — 17 mi
  The largest no-kill animal sanctuary in the United States
• Mount Carmel Junction — 19 mi
  The crossroads where the road to Zion meets the highway to Bryce
• Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park — 20 mi
  Sweeping dunes of coral-colored sand framed by red cliffs

More markers nearby

• Kane County Veterans Memorial — 8.8 mi
• Powell Survey — 8.9 mi
• Jacob Hamblin — 9.2 mi
• Fort Kanab — 9.2 mi