Issue 40
Part 3
The first recorded journey into the Kolob Canyons was by Mormon Apostle, Wilford Woodruff. Woodruff, an avid fisherman, went fishing in Taylor Creek in the spring of 1854. His journal reports his fascination with the place:
This is the summit or rim of the basin. We then rode to dry or Battle {Taylor} Creek. Here we have splendid mountain scenery of red rocks standing like pyramids 1,000 feet high. Opposite of this cite is fort Harmony to be located 6 miles from the base of the mountain on the east the fort on the west. … This is a good grazing country and splendid mountain scenery. … I went fishing but caught nothing though it was said that there were some small trout in it. I went onto the top of the canyon through which runs Ash Creek ½ mile south of the fort in company with T Bullock & Samuel Atwood & in about two hours we rolled into the canyon 1000 feet below about 50 tons of rock. We rolled one would weigh about 5 tons. It fell about 200 feet perpendicular struck a shelf of rock & took the shelf with it. It landed in the creek & sent a sh(ot) of water about 50 feet into the air. We made a good deal of thunder for a while. [Woodruff Journal 19 May 1854; Vol. 4:276-277]
Most including the National Park Service would frown on such activity today, but rock rolling was a common practice with the early pioneers. On Saturday 17 July 1847 in far western Iowa Thomas Bullock recorded the following: “About 2 P.M. H.C Kimball, W. Richards, E.T. Benson, G.A. Smith John Pack, H. Egan, T. Bullock, E. Snow, & Lorenzo Snow, & Albert Carrington, ascended a very high & steep hill, & prayed to God for the Sick to be healed, the Camps to be prospered, the Saints to be blessed &c. They amused themselves by rolling large rocks down the hill.” [Thomas Bullock Journal] Near Pipe Spring on 28 October 1854, Thomas Brown records a rock rolling episode, which scared the local Indians. [Brooks, 94] Azariah Smith of the Mormon Battalion records another rock rolling experience from a volcanic peak along the Gila River the day after Christmas, 1846: “This evening I and Father {Albert Smith} climbed a very high mountain with several others and rolled down rocks.” [Bigler, Smith Journal, 64] At present-day Palm Springs members of the battalion after washing their clothes and cleaning their guns, “amused themselves by rolling large boulders down the mountain that shook the earth and made a loud noise like peals of thunder, shaking the earth.” [N. Ricketts, The Mormon Battalion, 114] Rock rolling was a fun practice and the Kolob was a wonderful and fascinating place to visit and it gave Woodruff and his companions an excellent opportunity to express some boyhood joys. The Kolob as we shall see was also a nice place to hide. Next week we will explore one of the most famous such events, the case of John D. Lee.
This fort Harmony referred to by Wilford Woodruff would be the first fort called “Harmony” or stockade Fort Harmony, probably patterned after Fort Louisa (Parowan) which Lee and others helped build before leaving Parowan with __loads of Timber to settle the unoccupied by Native Americans part of New Harmony-Kanarraville valleys. Site close to creek bottom land near water–too near because often flooded out. What must the southern, midwestern, European transplanted convert farmers have thought of this land ruled by feast and famine, el Nino/la Nina, weather patterns?
This fort became known as Kelseys’ Ranch after it was partially disassembled for timbers that were taken to New Fort Harmony (historical site) and the adobe fort started in 1854. Kelsey’s Ranch remained operative as a ranch and way station long after New Fort Harmony population was divided and resettled to Kanarraville and New Harmony beginning in 1860-61 timeframe. New Fort melted and final New Harmony population moved by Spring 1862. Lee’s Great Hall had been begun on the Indians fields west of New Harmony long before the fort fell.
The name Old Fort Harmony became common reference for the historical site and just generic Harmony for the first Fort that became Kelsey’s Ranch. Did the pioneers talk of Old Fort Harmony referring to the first fort and it get transferred as name for the New adobe fort? Or did the longer lived adobe Fort Harmony get the name Old Fort Harmony in pity and nostalgia as Old Bent’s Fort in Colorado, NPS historical site. John D. Lee and others must have passed by Bent’s Fort in Mormon Battalion. I do not know if Truman O. Angell, Fort archtect was in the battalion. Check out the NPS site for a feel of what the New Fort Harmony called Old Fort Harmony for the ensuing 150 odd years might have looked like.
http://www.nps.gov/beol/