Virgin Valley

The Virgin Valley was a corridor before it was a home. The Old Spanish Trail ran through here from 1829, and after it the Mormon Road carried wagons between Salt Lake City and southern California, all following the Virgin River down toward the Colorado. The river's water eventually made settlement possible: Latter-day Saint pioneers founded Bunkerville in 1877 and Mesquite in 1880, coaxing farms from the desert along the river bottoms. The valley travelers had only passed through became a place worth staying. Mesquite has since grown into a small city on the Utah line.

What the plaque says

Virgin Valley was traveled by Jedediah Smith in 1826 and by Fremont in 1844. The valley served as the right-of-way for the Old Spanish Trail (1829-1848) and for the Mormon road or southern route of travel to southern California. The areas was settled by pioneers of the Latter-Day Saints Church, who colonized Bunkerville in 1877, and Mesquite in 1880. The Virgin River provided water for the development of the valley’s agricultural resources.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lost City Museum — 28 mi
  The Ancestral Puebloan metropolis Lake Mead drowned — and the museum that saved what it could
• St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm — 32 mi
  Real dinosaur footprints preserved in ancient sandstone

More markers nearby

• Old Spanish Trail — steps away
• Moapa Valley — 26 mi
• Pueblo Grande De Nevada — 28 mi
• Swiss Colony — 32 mi