My Favorite Stories…The Hurricane Canal Took 11 Years To Complete

On August 6,1904,five or six wagon-loads of citizens gathered on the Hurricane Bench to witness a dirty stream of water pour life onto the desert soil of southwestern Utah.  The event marked the culmination of eleven years of tedious manual labor by some of the remnants of Brigham Young’s Cotton Mission colonizers (these were members of the Mormon Church whom President Young sent to southern Utah to grow cotton).  Beginning in the early 1860s these religious settlers inhabited tiny plots of land along the upper Virgin River Basin.  They relied upon the river for daily sustenance,yet it often betrayed them with angry tantrums that left their dams,ditches,and crops in chaos.  Many colonizers relocated in search of better conditions.  Those who remained also sought ways to improve their lives.

In 1893 nearly a hundred men from the basin communities met to incorporate the Hurricane Canal Company in the hope of bringing water to the desirable lands of the Hurricane Bench.

Two previous surveys deemed the project impossible,and even the surveyor hired to map the ditch was pessimistic.  He fore saw the immense amount of labor and money the canal would require and did not believe the impoverished settlers could finish it.  Nevertheless,stockholders soon began construction of the nearly seven-mile-long canal.  Workers laboriously hefted food,tools,bedding,and an anvil to the dam site at the bottom of a narrow gorge.  The canal clung to the steep hillsides and ledges of the Hurricane Hill,making horses and plows impossible tools.  Instead,the shovel,pick,crowbar,wheelbarrow,and hand-driven drill carved the ditch out of the canyon wall.  At times the workers had to hang men down from ledges to reach the ditch,but rock blasting proved even more challenging.  

Thomas Isom remembers picking dynamite out of “many a hole which misfired.”  He explained,“We had to do this,dangerous as it was;we could not afford to lose a single stick.”

Work continued slowly,only progressing significantly during winter months when men and older boys could leave their farms in care of their families.  As labor on the canal continued unrewarded many became discouraged and sold or forfeited their stock.  By 1901 the canal company had expended nearly $50,000 in labor;those still involved were not willing to waste such efforts.  Although their previous requests for help had been rejected,the canal board and George Jepson again turned to the Mormon Church for rescue.  In 1902 the board assigned James Jepson to travel to Salt Lake City and meet with Mormon President Joseph F. Smith.  The meeting proved fruitful,as the church agreed to purchase $5,000 stock in the company.  With this boost workers came scurrying back to the project and pushed the canal to completion.

In August of 1904,after the company was organized in December 1893,water was flowing onto the flat fields.  In 1906 the first residents of the new town called Hurricane arrived below.  Over the next two decades a near flood of settlers poured onto the bench eager to partake of the new land and economic opportunities the canal made possible.

We take our hats off to some of the greatest pioneers of Dixie.  The Utah State Historical Society helped provide information about this project.