Settlement of Blanding

Blanding began as Grayson. Settlers surveyed a canal down from Blue Mountain and staked lots in 1902–03; Albert R. Lyman pitched the first tent in 1905, a tent school followed, and the Postal Service changed Grayson to Blanding in 1915. The marker also notes the 1923 "Posey War," calling it the frontier's last uprising — but it was less a war than a roundup: a settler posse seized Ute and Paiute families and penned them for weeks in a barbed-wire stockade here, and Posey, who had resisted the loss of Native land, died of a gunshot wound.

What the plaque says

A canal was surveyed from Johnson Creek on Blue Mountain to White Mesa; in 1902-3 lots were staked for homes. Two years later Albert R. Lyman and Family pitched first tent and settled one block west of this site. In 1907 a tent school was established. Population increased by families from Bluff and refugees from Mexico. Called "Grayson" Postal Service changed the name to "Blanding" in 1915. Last Indian uprising of frontier west occurred here in 1923, death of Ute Chief "Old Posey" ended the trouble. This bell rang for church, school, fires, and other occasions.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum — steps away
  An Ancestral Puebloan ruin you can climb down into

More markers nearby

• ZCMI Co-Op Building — steps away
• Blanding Veterans Memorial — 0.4 mi