Historical Marker · No. 1637
Pine Valley
Pine Valley, Washington County · Utah
Erected by Daughters of Utah Pioneers, 1955
Forty miles north of St. George, the red desert climbs into something it has no business being: a cool green valley of ponderosa pine near seven thousand feet. A cattleman named Isaac Riddle found it in 1855 chasing a lost cow, and word of the timber spread fast. Settlers came the next year not to farm but to cut, and Pine Valley became the lumberyard of the whole Dixie country — its beams in temples and tabernacles below, its boards in mines across the Nevada line. The mills are quiet now. People come up for the shade instead.
What the plaque says
No. 215 ERECTED 1955 PINE VALLEY IN 1855 THIS VALLEY WAS DISCOVERED BY ISAAC RIDDLE AN INDIAN MISSIONARY, WHILE SEARCHING FOR A LOST COW. THE FIRST SAWMILL SOUTH OF THE RIM OF THE GREAT BASIN WAS BUILT ON THIS SITE IN 1855-1856 BY ROBERT RICHEY, JEHU BLACKBURN AND ISAAC RIDDLE. THE FIRST HOMES IN THE VALLEY WERE ERECTED AROUND THE MILL. PINE VALLEY BECAME THE SOURCE OF MUCH OF THE LUMBER USED IN EARLY TOWNS OF SOUTHERN UTAH AND NEVADA. WASHINGTON COUNTY, UTAH
Where it stands
37.38359, -113.49299 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Snow Canyon State Park — 15 miRed and white sandstone cliffs with ancient lava flows
- Kolob Canyons — 18 miThe quiet, uncrowded back door to Zion National Park
- Hurricane Canal Trail — 18 miThe hand-dug canal that built Hurricane, now a walking trail blasted into the Virgin River gorge
- St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm — 20 miReal dinosaur footprints preserved in ancient sandstone