Parowan Cotton Factory

The first spinning wheels of the West turned in Parowan. In 1862, years before Utah's Dixie sent its cotton to the mills downstate, Ebenezer Hanks built a cotton factory on this ground, and William Marsden designed and ran it — the first such factory in the West, where, the town claimed, the first ball of cotton yarn west of the Mississippi was wound. The work was done by young women. The plaque keeps their names: the Newmans and Mortensons, the Coombs and Dalton and Grimshaw girls, who spun Parowan's cotton into thread before most of them had married.

What the plaque says

On this site, in 1862 the first Cotton Factory was erected in the west. Designed and operated by William Marsden and owned by Ebenezer Hanks. Here the first ball of Cotton Yarn was made west of the Mississippi River. Girls That Worked in the Cotton Factory Caroline Newman (Mitchell) • Laura Marsden (Benson) • Maria Coombs (Taylor) • Caroline Mortenson (Durham) • Ellen Newman • Elizabeth Lewis (Fish) • Mary Mortenson (Wardell) • Amanda Dalton (Mortenson) • Annie Lewis (Whitney) • Ellen Hobbs • Christiann Scogard • Lizzie Hobbs • Hanna Taylor (Mickelman) • Lizzie Grimshaw (Benson)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Parowan Gap Petroglyphs — 10 mi
  An ancient rock art gallery hidden in a desert canyon
• Brian Head — 10 mi
  Utah's highest town — a ski-and-bike base camp at the top of Parowan Canyon
• Panguitch Lake — 13 mi
  A Blue Ribbon trout lake at 8,400 feet on the Patchwork Parkway
• Cedar Breaks National Monument — 14 mi
  A 2,000-foot-deep amphitheater of vivid orange and red rock

More markers nearby

• John C. Fremont — steps away
• Pioneer Sundial — steps away
• First School & Council House in Iron County — steps away
• Pioneer Rock Church — steps away