The Lower Canal

Nothing grew in this valley without water carried to it. The cemented ditch a few yards west is a surviving piece of the Lower Canal, dug in 1849 to bring water from Spring Creek — and later Big Cottonwood Creek — onto ground newly cleared for crops. It was also called the Church Canal, for the meetinghouse that stood close by. Digging it was collective labor: every able-bodied man in the area was asked to turn out with plow and shovel. Water like this decided where a Utah town could stand, and how much of it could live there.

What the plaque says

Westward a few yards and seen today as a cemented waterway is part of what is said to be the 1849 Lower (or Church) Canal, dug to bring water from Spring Creek, and later from Big Cottonwood Creek, to land cleared for crops. It was called Church Canal because of its closeness to the church built about 30 yards eastward. Holladay's east-end settlers dug the first water ditches, likely starting a canal also, while damming off portions of Spring Creek as it coursed to bottomlands 300 yards south of here. In 1853 east-enders enlarged and extended the Upper Canal, ultimately bringing water from Big Cottonwood Canyon 3 miles south, all able-bodied men in the area having been asked to help with plows and shovels. Eastward some 170 yards is seen the larger Jordan and Salt Lake City Canal, dug in the 1880s to take water into Salt Lake City. By the 1890s, several Holladay water companies had been formed that today still provide drinking and garden water. For more than a century, each spring all men and boys who could help set aside a day when their canal was cleaned of debris, bushes, and weeds to speed summer's waters onward.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Gilgal Sculpture Garden — 5.6 mi
  A surreal and eccentric sculpture garden hidden in a residential neighborhood
• Liberty Park — 5.8 mi
  Salt Lake Citys beloved 80-acre urban park since 1882
• International Peace Gardens — 6.1 mi
  A hidden garden where 28 countries are represented in miniature
• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 6.1 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon

More markers nearby

• Holladay's First Church & School Bldg. — steps away
• Brinton's Blacksmith Shop — steps away
• Holladay's First General Store — 0.2 mi
• The Expansion of 1849 — 0.2 mi