LaVerkin Pioneers

No one can quite agree how La Verkin got its name. Some say it is a worn-down Spanish La Virgen, for the Virgin River below. Others trace it to an 1852 letter that wrote the creek as 'Leiver Skin' — likely a slip for 'Beaver Skin.' The old pioneer monument splits the difference: Indian for 'beautiful valley.' Whatever the truth, the place earned the last name — a green bench of orchards and fields above the river gorge, watered by a canal hacked along the cliffs, with warm sulfur springs the Paiute held sacred nearby.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hurricane Canal Trail — 1.5 mi
  The hand-dug canal that built Hurricane, now a walking trail blasted into the Virgin River gorge
• Grafton Ghost Town — 11 mi
  A photogenic ghost town used in the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Springdale — 15 mi
  Zion's south-entrance gateway town, wedged between the Watchman and the Virgin River
• Zion National Park — 15 mi
  Towering sandstone cliffs that glow like fire at sunset

More markers nearby

• The Southern Exploring Company — 0.8 mi
• Southern Exploring Company 1849 Parley P. Pratt Southern Utah Expedition — 1.1 mi
• Look-Out Point — 1.3 mi
• Birth of Hurricane — 1.6 mi