Willden Fort

Last updated May 05, 2019

Willden Fort was a wooden-palisade fort constructed on Cove Creek in Utah in 1860 by Charles William Willden and his son Ellott. It was occupied from 1860 to 1865, abandoned, then occupied briefly in 1867 during the construction of Cove Fort.

A palisade—sometimes called a stakewall or a paling—is typically a fence or wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks and used as a defensive structure or enclosure.

Cove Creek is a stream in Beaver County and Millard County, Utah. It originates at the head of its canyon southeast of Cove Fort at 38°38′09″N112°29′34″W in Beaver County. It drains north down through the Tushar Mountains then turns west at the foot of Sulphur Peak running between the south end of the Pavant Range and the Tushar Mountains, past Cove Fort, from which it received its name. It then runs west past the north end of the Mineral Mountains to disappear into the sands of the desert at Beaver Bottoms.

Utah is a state in the western United States. It became the 45th state admitted to the U.S. on January 4, 1896. Utah is the 13th-largest by area, 30th-most-populous, and 11th-least-densely populated of the 50 United States. Utah has a population of more than 3 million according to the Census estimate for July 1, 2016. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which contains approximately 2.5 million people; and Washington County in Southern Utah, with over 160,000 residents. Utah is bordered by Colorado to the east, Wyoming to the northeast, Idaho to the north, Arizona to the south, and Nevada to the west. It also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast.

Siting and construction

In 1852, Mormon leader Brigham Young sent Charles Willden to Cedar City to work in the ironworks The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was attempting to establish, since Willden had worked in the steel industry in Sheffield, England, prior to immigrating to the United States of America. While traveling between Salt Lake City, and Cedar City, the Willdens camped at Cove Creek and observed it to be a nice place to settle.

Brigham Young was an American religious leader, politician, and settler. He was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877. He founded Salt Lake City and he served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also led the foundings of the precursors to the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.

Cedar City is the largest city in Iron County, Utah, United States. It is located 250 miles (400 km) south of Salt Lake City, and 170 miles (270 km) north of Las Vegas on Interstate 15. It is the home of Southern Utah University, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Summer Games, the Neil Simon Theatre Festival, and other events. As of the 2010 census the city had a population of 28,857, up from 20,257 in 2000. As of 2016 the estimated population was 31,223.

An ironworks or iron works is a building or site where iron is smelted and where heavy iron and steel products are made. The term is both singular and plural, i.e. the singular of ironworks is ironworks.

When the ironworks failed in 1859, Willden decided to settle Cove Creek. He and his son Ellott built Willden Fort near what would later be the site of the still-present Cove Fort. They first constructed an adobe house, then enclosed it with a 150-foot square cedar-post stockade. The posts were 8 to 10 ft high, placed close together to form a solid wall.

Adobe is a building material made from earth and organic materials. Adobe is Spanish for mudbrick, but in some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, the term is used to refer to any kind of earth construction. Most adobe buildings are similar in appearance to cob and rammed earth buildings. Adobe is among the earliest building materials, and is used throughout the world.

A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall.

Occupation

Willden Fort was first occupied during the spring of 1860, and the Willden family lived there continuously until 1865 when a combination of Indian attacks due to Utah's Black Hawk War and a very harsh winter that killed most of the family's livestock convinced the Willdens to return to Beaver, Utah.

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the Pre-Columbian peoples of North, Central and South America and their descendants.

Livestock is commonly defined as domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce labor and commodities such as meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The term is sometimes used to refer solely to those that are bred for consumption, while other times it refers only to farmed ruminants, such as cattle and goats. Horses are considered livestock in the United States. The USDA uses livestock similarly to some uses of the term “red meat”, in which it specifically refers to all the mammal animals kept in this setting to be used as commodities. The USDA mentions pork, veal, beef, and lamb are all classified as livestock and all livestock is considered to be red meats. Poultry and fish are not included in the category.

Beaver is a city in eastern Beaver County, Utah, United States. It is also serves as the county seat. The population was 3,112 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Beaver County.

While the Willdens occupied the fort, they received a continuous stream of visitors, because Willden Fort was located along the Mormon Road, a major travel corridor between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, and was at a convenient stopping place. Some of the prominent visitors who stayed at the fort were Brigham Young, Lorenzo Snow, John Taylor and Ezra T. Benson. After the abandonment of Willden Fort, Brigham Young directed Ira Hinckley to construct a new fort on the same location. The Willden family returned to Willden Fort to assist with the construction of Cove Fort. Willden Fort also briefly housed the telegraph office during the construction of Cove Fort, making it the site of the first telegraph in Millard County, Utah.

Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail, was a seasonal wagon road first pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of Spanish explorers and the Old Spanish Trail across southwestern Utah, northwestern Arizona, southern Nevada and the Mojave Desert of California to Los Angeles in 1847. From 1855, it became a military and commercial wagon route between California and Utah, called the Los Angeles - Salt Lake Road. In later decades this route was variously called the "Old Mormon Road", the "Old Southern Road", or the "Immigrant Road" in California. In Utah, Arizona and Nevada it was known as the "California Road".

Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L.A., is the most populous city in California, the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, and the third most populous city in North America. With an estimated population of four million, Los Angeles is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. The city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, Hollywood and the entertainment industry, and its sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles is the largest city on the West Coast of North America.

Lorenzo Snow President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Lorenzo Snow was an American religious leader who served as the fifth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1898 until his death. Snow was the last president of the LDS Church in the nineteenth century and the first in the twentieth.

Archaeological excavation

In 1996, the Archaeology Department at Brigham Young University organized and conducted an excavation at the location where Willden Fort is thought to have been located. Willden family descendants were interviewed to determine the most likely location and teams of students and professors from the university carefully excavated the site. No remnants of the fort or house were found.

Brigham Young University is a private, non-profit research university in Provo, Utah, United States owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and run under the auspices of its Church Educational System. The university is classified among "Doctoral Universities: High Research Activity" with "more selective, lower transfer-in" admissions. The university's primary emphasis is on undergraduate education in 179 majors, but it also has 62 master's and 26 doctoral degree programs. The university also administers two satellite campuses, one in Jerusalem and one in Salt Lake City, while its parent organization, the Church Educational System (CES), sponsors sister schools in Hawaii and Idaho.

Recognition

On September 21, 1996, the LDS Church organized a ceremony and provided a plaque to commemorate the history of the site and honor the Willden family for their contributions to the history of the region and to Cove Fort. The ceremony was attended by 850 descendants of Charles and his wife Eleanor.

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References

"Fort Willden". Archived from the original on 2007-12-24. Retrieved 2007-12-08.

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