In 1893 Mormon Pioneers started settling in the Hurricane (pronounced "Hur-a-kin") area to work on a Virgin River water diversion system; but the official "Birth of Hurricane" marker states that on August 6, 1904, when the water was ready for diversion, "Five or Six wagon loads of people came from the little town nearby [and] ...let out a big shout as the water gushed down the hill. Names for the new city-to-be were discussed and voted upon." Hurricane was selected because a whirlwind blew the top off of a buggy that Erastus Snow was ridding in and Snow exclaimed, "Well that was a Hurricane. We'll name this Hurricane Hill."
The Hurricane Valley Pioneer Heritage Park has a number of interesting outside displays and statues; however, the really interesting items are located in the Museum. One room is dedicated entirely to Indian Cultural History, and another room contains items made by local artisans. The craftsman that made all of the miniature items happened to be in the museum on the day of our visit, so we had a great visit with him and enjoyed hearing about how many hours it takes to make each miniature item. I know that I do not have the patients or skills that it takes to do this type of work!
I was kind of hungry when we went into the museum, but I lost my taste for food after we saw the 110 year old wedding cake and the 72 year old slab of bacon.
In 1907 Maria Ballard made a four-layer wedding fruit cake for Emily Wood and Joe Scow that was decorated with fresh pink blossoms of "Dew Plant" and candy flowers. The cake was never eaten and sat on a bookshelf for years. Eventually the cake was donated to the museum.
The slabs of bacon were cured in about 1945 by Grace Jepson using her special recipe of saltpeter, black pepper, brown sugar, and who knows what else. Jepson wrapped the bacon in a cloth flower sack and hung it from a rafter in her cellar until 1996 when her son discovered the bacon and donated it to the museum.
The City of La Verkin is located just on the other side of the Virgin River from Hurricane and gained national recognition in 2001 when the City Council passed an ordinance declaring La Verkin to be a "United Nations-Free Zone." La Verkin is known as the "Bridge to Zion" because Utah State Route 9 is the western entrance to the main part of Zion National Park. The 1908 pony-truss style bridge that connects Hurricane and La Verkin is about 200 feet above the Virgin River.
Although I have been to Fort Pierce and the Warner Valley Dinosaur Tracks before (see RonnieAdvenutre #0150, May 1, 2015), we decided to do a revisit with the grandchildren.
Fort Pierce was located on "The Honeymoon Trail," which is a historic trail that was used by the Mormon pioneers on their way to the St. George Temple to be married. Because there was a reliable water source at Fort Pierce, many pioneers camped in the area and wrote their names on the cliff walls downstream from the Fort. There are also numerous Indian petroglyphs and names of soldiers written on the canyon walls.
Our granddaughter even found a fossilized dinosaur that she could ride!
The Warner Valley Dinosaur Tracks are always interesting and as the sand shifts new tracks are exposed as old tracks are covered by the shifting sands. Although you would never know it today, millions of years ago this area was the shoreline of a large lake and as the dinosaurs walked along the lake's edge they left their footprints in the soft mud. The mud eventually turned to rock and preserved the dinosaur tracks. As rocks in the area fracture with time, and the sands shift, additional dinosaur prints will probably be located in this area.
Although we did not visit Sand Hill on this trip, we did visit the area a few years ago on some 4-wheel drive ATVs. It had just rained during the night, and we were the first group of people to visit the area in the morning; so all of the previous tracks left by other people had been washed away. We had one "family" ATV, but it kept getting high-centered. That is when you need a lot of help from your friends!
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