Lake Shore Fort

When the Black Hawk War reached Utah Valley in 1865, the settlers along the lake's south shore built a place to run to. A mile up the Spanish Fork River they raised an adobe fort, an acre inside walls four feet thick at the base, tapering as they rose nine feet high, a porthole in each corner. It sheltered travelers and gave families somewhere to wait out the danger. The danger passed, as it does, and the fort emptied. A man named Thomas Draper dug himself a home in the ground inside the old walls and moved in.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Payson Lakes — 15 mi
  Three alpine lakes in the pines, twelve miles up Payson Canyon
• Thistle Landslide — 15 mi
  The ruins of a town destroyed by a massive landslide in 1983
• Bridal Veil Falls — 16 mi
  A dramatic double waterfall cascading 607 feet into Provo Canyon
• Thanksgiving Point — 16 mi
  A massive complex with dinosaur bones, gardens, and a curiosity museum

More markers nearby

• Leland Historical Monument — 3.1 mi
• Keele Monument — 5.7 mi
• The Pioneer Mother — 6.9 mi
• The American Family — 8.5 mi