Levan

Levan began as a second try. Its people had first settled a few miles off at Chicken Creek, but the ground there proved poor, so in the spring of 1867 the apostle Erastus Snow helped them choose this better site, and Brigham Young gave the town its name. William Dye dug the first home into the earth early in 1868; the Broadheads and Hofheinses were among the first families to follow. James Wilson taught the town's first school in a room of the Ollorton house, and William Tunbridge doctored its people. From a failed start, a town took hold.

What the plaque says

Spring 1867, Church leader Erastus Snow helped select a new site for Chicken Creek Settlement, relocated due to unfavorable living conditions. Brigham Young named it Levan. Snow appointed Wm. Morgan and James Wilson as supervisors. Early in 1868, Wm. Dye built a dug-out home. Other first families to move were Jabes Broadhead and Jacob Hofheins. James Wilson, first schoolteacher, taught in one room of the Seth Ollorton home. Wm. Tunbridge, town physician. (Small plaque above marker:) The bell atop this monument tolled the time from the belfry of Levan's school buildings for ninety years.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Nephi — 11 mi
  A quiet ranching town at the foot of Mount Nebo
• Devil's Kitchen — 18 mi
  A pocket of red-rock hoodoos high in the green Wasatch — a "little Bryce Canyon"
• Mount Nebo — 19 mi
  At 11,928 feet, the highest and southernmost peak in the Wasatch Range
• Ephraim Co-op — 20 mi
  The 1871 cooperative store that outlived the economy it was built to replace

More markers nearby

• Juab Co. Jail — 10 mi
• World War II Memorial Rose Garden — 11 mi
• Juab County Veterans Memorial — 11 mi
• First School — 11 mi