Mount Carmel Junction, Utah
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Mount Carmel Junction and Mount Carmel form a Utah rural area located 12 miles east of Zion National Park and 17 miles north of Kanab, in Kane County.
The resort community of Mount Carmel Junction sits at the junction of U.S. Route 89 and State Route 9 in Southwestern Utah. Mount Carmel is one mile north of the junction. Mount Carmel is set in the high desert of the Colorado Plateau.
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[edit] History
The Virgin River Anasazi were the prehistoric settlers in the area. Among other areas, nearby Parunuweap (East Fork of the Virgin River) contains evidence to their presence. This group occupied the area until about the 13th century. The people were agriculturalists who maintained a consistent diet of mostly maize.
[edit] Mormon Settlement
Doctor Priddy Meeks settled the town of Winsor in 1864. This was part of Brigham Young's plan to settle all of Utah Territory. In 1865 more settlers were sent by the church. Nearby Orderville and Glendale (called Berryville at this time) were also being settled. Before long Indians forced them to leave the area. It was not until 7 years later in 1871 that the settlers returned and this time settled down permanently. This time the town was settled in the name of Mount Carmel to honor a mountain in Israel. In 1875 Elder Howard O. Spencer presided over Mount Carmel and Glendale. He reported that most homes were temperary but permenent structures were underway. Doctor Meeks moved to Orderville in 1876 where he died at the age of 91. He left behind two wives and several children.
[edit] John Wesley Powell - Parunuweap
John Wesley Powell visited the area as part of the Powell Survey of 1872. He was the first European-American to descend the East Fork of the Virgin River from the current location of Mount Carmel Junction to Shunesburg. A plaque can be found just east of the Zion National Park boundary in the East Fork, that reads:
"Major John Wesley Powell 1834-1902 explorer, scientist, Steven V. Jones 1840-1920 teacher, topographer, Joseph W. Young 1829-1873 Mormon pioneer leader, Descended Labyrinth Falls 1/2 mile below Monday, September 30, 1872 during first Parunuweap Canyon traverse. Powell named this canyon from the Paiute Indian word 'Parunuweap' which means roaring water canyon. Dedicated September 30, 1972."
[edit] Historic Rock Church
The Historic Rock Church in Mount Carmel was used to school the children living in the Mount Carmel area. The log building was built in 1890 and used as a church and a school house. In 1919 it burned down. In 1923 it was rebuilt, this time with rock. After the small building was rebuilt, the rock structure was used almost entirely as a church. The kids that once attended school in the log building were hauled to nearby Orderville in a covered wagon each day to attend school. The Historic Rock Church is on the National Register of Historic Places.
[edit] Zion-Mount Carmel Highway History
In 1919, a Congressional bill designating Zion National Park was signed into law. In 1923 the task of finding a way to open Zion Canyon to the other side of the park began. There were four different routes that were considered including two different options through Parunuweap and another through North Creek. The choice was made to build the new highway from the east boundary of Zion National Park to Highway 89 at Mt. Carmel Junction. The work began on the construction of the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel and the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. This was a huge chore for the times and consisted of boring 5,613 feet through solid rock to construct the tunnel. This was considered quite an engineering feat for the time. In 1929 the highway was open for work vehicles but it was still closed to the public. July 4th, 1930, the tunnel and highway were dedicated, linking Zion Canyon to the land east of the park and making it easier to visit Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon National Parks.
[edit] Settlement of Mount Carmel Junction
Jack Morrison contemplated the idea that a road must be built connecting Zion Canyon to the east side of the park. Jack explored the area and came to the conclusion that the road must come down in the area now known as Mount Carmel Junction. There were old wagon trails that Jack used to navigate his way down to the valley. The hills were steep forcing Jack to attach a Cedar tree to the back of his Model-T-Ford. Jack came home excited and declared to his wife, Fern that: "I think I know where the road from Zion is going to come down. I'd like to use my Veteran and homestead rights to file on that land."
A cattle rancher had filed grazing rights on the land, but Jack was patient and in 1931 he was able to homestead the land now known as Mount Carmel Junction. The land was unkind. It was covered with gullies, quicksand and many layers of sand. The area was also prone to violent flash floods. The task was difficult but Jack set to work building strategic dams to aid in landscaping the area. To support their endeaver and his family Jack had to work on the railroad, leaving his wife and four children often. Fern Morrison, enjoyed baking and constructed a lean-to so she could sell pies to passers by. In 1940, Jack and Fern built a restaurant. This was still a remote and wild area and it was hard to survive before the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway was completed. Jack and Fern lost two children in the flash floods of the East Fork of the Virgin River that runs through the junction. The East Fork is now known as Parunuweap or the Barracks and is popular hike that is similar to the Zion Narrows but in a remote and pristine area just outside of the park boundary. Jack died in 1961, from cancer after spending much of his life working in the coal mines. Fern, a strong willed and hard working woman continued to build. She lived to the age of 90, dying in 1998. What stands at the junction today was done in her lifetime and was rare for a woman to do at those times. Fern kept the original little home she gave birth to her children in and built around it. There are also two original Zion Canyon cabins that are a part of that home.
[edit] Maynard Dixon Historic Home
The Maynard Dixon home located in Mount Carmel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Maynard Dixon was a popular southwest artist who loved the area east of Zion National Park. In 1939, Maynard Dixon and his wife, Edith Hamlin, built a log home in Mount Carmel. The Dixons fell in love with picturesque Mount Carmel and spent their summers there. Maynard Dixon died in 1946 and his ashes are marked by a bronze memorial sitting at the home with their famous Thunderbird symbol.
- "To me, no painter has ever quite understood the light, the distances, the aboriginal ghostliness of the American West as well as Maynard Dixon. The great mood of his work is solitude, the effect of land and space on people. While his work stands perfectly well on its claims to beauty, it offers a spiritual view of the West indispensable to anyone who would understand it." - Thomas McGuane
[edit] Geology - Carmel Formation
Geology is diverse in the Mount Carmel area which lies near the Sevier fault. Sandstone cliffs lie to the south and the magnificent White Cliffs of the Grand Staircase can be seen to the east. About halfway between Mount Carmel Junction and Kanab is the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. North on U.S. Route 89 are hoodoo formations similar to those in Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. The Carmel Formation, named after Mount Carmel, is abundant in this area. Wonderfully unique mountains are found at the junction where crinoid fossils are abundant. Crinoids have pentameral symmetry (Five-sided) and here, the stalks have broken down into tiny, individual star shaped fossils.
- "“This is the first systematic and paleoecological study of a crinoidal limestone (encrinite) from the Jurassic System of North America. The encrinite is part of a shallow-water tidal facies of the Middle Jurassic Carmel Formation located at Mount Carmel Junction (southwestern Utah, U.S.A.) and may represent one of the youngest shallow-water encrinites in the geological record. In the past, the crinoid at this locality was referred to as Pentacrinus asteriscus, a name used to describe almost all of the crinoid columnals found throughout the Jurassic of the U.S. western interior. However, systematic work indicates that the crinoid is Isocrinus nicoleti and is the first non-endemic crinoid to be reported from North American Jurassic strata. Although articulated pinnules and arms have been found, I. nicoleti occurs predominantly as well-preserved, partially articulated columnals. The crinoids occur within a tidal complex consisting of ooid shoal, tidal channel, and lagoonal facies. The unique environmental and ecological conditions which existed in the southernmost end of the Jurassic North America seaway may have allowed for the development of this crinoid colony and subsequent deposition of the encrinite.” from the department of Geology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
Local Slot Canyons - Interesting Geology
Utah has the densest population of slot canyons in the world, due to the easily eroded soft Navajo sandstone that characterizes the Colorado Plateau. Mount Carmel Junction is home to upper and lower Red Cave (Upper and Lower Sand Wash - Slot Canyons). Other slot canyons in the Mount Carmel area included Red Canyon (Peek-a-Boo) and Red Hollow and Parunuweap Canyon.
- "“The canyon is steadily becoming deeper and in many places very narrow -- only 20 or 30 feet wide below, and in some places no wider, and even narrower, for hundreds of feet overhead . . . . Everywhere this deep passage is dark and gloomy and resounds with the noise of rapid waters . . . . The Indian name of the canyon is Paru'nuweap, or Roaring Water Canyon" -- John Wesley Powell
[edit] References
- Zion National Park
- East Zion Tourism Council
- John Wesley Powell Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons (1895)
- The Institute of Archaeology,University of California, Los Angeles, CA
- Department of Geology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
- Chronic, Halka (1990). Roadside Geology of Utah. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87842-228-5.
- Zion National Park Interpretor: Tom Haraden.
