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Show Cove Fort now owned by LDS Church COVE FORT, UTAH The deed to historic Cove Fort, the only pioneer Utah fortress still standing, was presented to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Latter-day Saints Aug. 13. Situated on U.S. Highway 91 in Millard County, adjacent to the I-15 I-15 and 1-70 interchange, the stone fort was built in 1867 by Ira Nathaniel Natha-niel Hinckley, then of Coalville. Hinckley was given the assignment by Brigham Young, who had been the first governor of the territory and was at the time serving as president pres-ident of the Church. The property has changed hands over the years, but descendants of Ira Hinckley recently organized the Cove Fort Acquisition and Restoration Res-toration Foundation and acquired the fort and eleven surrounding acres with water rights, all to be deeded to the Church. Representing the church was Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley, first counselor in the First Presidency, whose grandfather built the fort and whose father, Bryant S. Hinckley, Hinc-kley, spent his boyhood years there. Brigham Young very early decided de-cided on a policy of feeding rather than fighting the Indians, Arza Hinckley said. Nevertheless, as settlements spread from the Great Salt Lake Valley, it was deemed desirable to build forts for protection protec-tion in many of the outlying colonies. col-onies. In a letter to Ira Hinckley, dated April 12, 1867, Brigham Young told the young colonizer: "We wish to get a good and suitable suit-able person to settle and take charge of the Church Ranches at Cove Creek Millard County. Your name has been suggested for this position, as it is some distance from any other settlement, a man of sound practical judgement and experience is needed to fill the place." In the letter, the Church leader said one of the reasons the fort needed to be built was "to afford protection from Indians to the Telegraph and mail stations and to travellers..." The concern over the potential threat of hostile Indians was real U.S. 91 was known in the early days as The Arrowhead Trail but, ironically, the fort never suffered suf-fered an attack. The Cove Fort location , on Cove Creek, was ideally situated between be-tween Fillmore on the north and Beaver on the south and the fort became a welcome sight for travelers, travel-ers, as well as a mail and telegraph station. Fillmore and Beaver were two days journey apart in those days. For a decade after the fort was built, Ira Hinckley managed it and raised his family there. The Church maintained ownership until the early 1900s when then President Joseph F. Smith sold the property, which had grown to several hundred hun-dred acres (farming and livestock) to the William H. Kesler family and the fort for many years continued to be a major way station and hostelry hos-telry between Salt Lake City and St. George and Los Angeles. Each of the four walls is 100 feet long and 18 feet high from the foundation. A gateway on the east is 14 feet wide and there is a smaller one on the west. Among other early Utah forts were those built in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Vernal, Union, Tooele, Grantsville, Clover, Springville, Mount Pleasant, Deseret, Cedar, Paragonah, Enoch and Harmony. Only Cove Fort remains. |
