Town #65: FILLMORE est. 1851

Fillmore was settled when Brigham Young, then governor of the territory of Utah, decided to have the the capitol in a centralized location. Fillmore was named for President Millard Fillmore who appointed Brigham Young as governor. Fillmore was the territorial capital for several years before they moved it back up north to Salt Lake City. They had started building the capitol building before they left, but only one wing was finished. That wing is now a state park. Fillmore is the capitol of Millard county, which was also named for the president. Now Fillmore is just one more sleepy farming community in central Utah.

Town #60: HOLDEN est. 1855

Holden is a small farming community north of Fillmore in Millard county. It was also called Cedar Springs and Buttermilk Fork at one time. Holden was named for Elijah Holden, a member of the Mormon Battalion, who froze to death in a nearby canyon. John had some ancestors who settled here early on. One was a sea captain. I have always wondered how a man who had always made his living on the sea liked living in a desert.

Towns #12, #13 and #14: ABRAHAM, SUTHERLAND & SUGARVILLE

We hit the jackpot of town signs just northwest of Delta. There is a cluster of small farming communities here making the desert blossom if not as a rose but as alfalfa. They are obviously proud of their ability to grow the stuff. Abraham started as a "church farm" that was land bought by a company of Salt Lake men such as Wilford Woodruff and George Q. Cannon in the late 1870s, but it soon broke up into a group of smaller farms. During World War II, the government bought up most of the farm land for the Japanese internment camp of Topaz. Sutherland was established in 1910. It was named after the U. S. Senator George Sutherland. Sugarville was established in 1911. It was named after the sugar beet factory that was there in its early years. It was also briefly called Alalfa and Omaha. There was also another community between Sutherland and Sugarville once called Woodrow that was named after President Woodrow Wilson.

Town #11: OAK CITY est. 1868

Oak City is a small farming town south of Leamington. It is situated at the mouth of Oak Creek Canyon. If I had to pick a little isolated town to live in this could be it. Oak City has a charm to it that appeals to me with its tree lined streets. The settlers of Deseret would come here in the summers to graze their flocks of sheep before the town was established. When it was settled, you could buy a lot for $2.50. The settlers wanted to call the town Oak Creek, but when they petitioned for a post office, the government called the post office the Oak City office. Eventually, the residents accepted the name change.

The town sign is placed in front of the cemetery. After taking a picture, our girls wanted to go into the cemetery to see one of the headstones. Several of John's ancestors were settlers of Oak City and are buried here. This is the grave of Eliza Partridge Lyman. It is nice to know that some of my cemetery wandering has worn off on them.

Town #10: LEAMINGTON est. 1871

Here we are in Millard County once again. This time we were visiting some of the towns that we missed on our first trip. Leamington is a small quiet community. The quiet was the first thing that I noticed. When I stepped out of our car, all I could here was crickets. It is a farming town, but there has been other industries such as charcoal production, lumber and a limestone quarry. Leamington is east of Lynndyl. It is named after a town on England.


This church in the middle of town was a treasure to find. The oldest part of the church was built in 1903, and it was used as a church until the mid 1980s when the town bought it and turned it into a museum. The museum is only open on Labor Day except by appointment. (Labor Day is the time that the town holds Leamerado Days.) I was disappointed, but what can you do? I would love to see the inside of this beautiful building. The plaque on the bell says that the bell cracked the third time it was rung. It was a gift from Millard County. I would be cautious about accepting gifts from the county after that.


We also found this truck with a rocket made of roofing tin. What is with that?

Town #5: Lynndyl est. 1904

Lynndyl was our last stop on our trip to the Great Stone Face. Lynndyl is different from the other towns that we had stopped at that day because it wasn't started as a farming community. It started as a railroad station. The trains didn't even stop here at first unless they were flagged. The town was called Lynn at first, but they had to change the name when they established a post office since there was already a Lynn, Utah. So they added the "dyl" to the end of it. Residents lived in tents for several years. I'm not sure how they managed that in the heat. It was really hot when we stopped for this picture. It reached 107 degrees in Delta that day.

Town #4: Oasis est. 1860

Our next town, Oasis, we found by accident. On our way back to Delta from Hinckley, we saw a sign pointing south to Oasis. Neither John nor I had ever heard of Oasis. (See I told you it would help to do a little preparation before these trips.) We did a quick turn, and after a few miles, we found ourselves in the very small town of Oasis or what was left of it. There was not much there. You can tell from the picture of the green sign that it doesn't look much like an oasis. We were glad that we could even find a town sign. We weren't sure that we would find that.

Then, on the north side of town, we found this great old wooden town sign with the zip code on it. Isn't that a handy thing. We knew that this was the sign that we had to get our picture taken by. It is a great picture of the sign, but not such a wonderful picture of us. The building behind us was the seed plant.

Here is what is left of downtown Oasis. I later found out that Oasis was in 1914 the biggest community in Western Millard County. At that time it had a bank, two hotels, two lumber yards, two confectioneries, three stores, a big railroad station and a seed plant. It was a big stop on the railroad between Salt lake and Milford. The Oasis State Bank served the whole area until the Depression when it went under like so many other banks. This store and the seed plant were pretty much the only businesses left in 1950. Now those are gone, too.

Here is one of the homes in Oasis. I took a picture of this because it still has an outhouse in the back. Do you suppose that they still use it? While drove thru town, a man came out of one the houses bare chested and sporting a long shaggy beard. I think I have now had my first bigfoot sighting.

By the way, I have been getting my information about these Millard towns from a book called Milestones of Millard which was put out by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers in 1951. It has been a very helpful book. I wish I had a book like this for each county in Utah.

Town #3: Hinckley est. 1876

Hinckley is north of Deseret and west of Delta. It is another sleepy farming community, but it has a great town sign. This is where the Pioneer Days celebrations are held every year for all the local communities. At least that is what the tourist brochure says. It was a big educational center for Millard county for awhile when they built the Millard Academy here in 1909. I don't know if the building is still standing since when we were there, we didn't know that the highway did not go along Main Street. If we had known that, we would have probably driven around Hinckley some more to find it. There wasn't much to see by the sign but a gas station and a few farm houses. Sometimes it would be nice to go to these towns with a little bit of knowledge beforehand.

p.s. Since I first posted this, I have discovered that the Academy building does still stand and is now in the process of being restored. I am sorry that we missed seeing it. John and I love to see old buildings. John is a 'old building hugger'. For more information on the restoration project click here.

Town #2: Deseret est. 1860

Deseret was our next town. It is a small farming community southwest of Delta, and it was one of the first places settled in the area. The Sevier River runs close by, and in the early days, the people of Deseret ate a lot of fish. Just north of town is an alfalfa cubing plant. Our oldest daughter thought it smelt like grapes when we drove by. Our youngest daughter didn't like the smell. Deseret doesn't have a fancy welcome sign, so we had to take our picture by the small green town sign. Our son elected to stay in the car. B is standing on one leg because she said that the dry grass made her leg itch.

Here is the Great Stone Face. It towers over an old lava flow southwest of Deseret. This is what we drove down south to see. It does indeed look like the face of Joseph Smith just like everyone says. That is pretty cool! Look at it closely, and you can see him smiling. In the 1950s, there was a local 65-voice male chorus named after it called "The Desert Sentinels".

Something else we saw while near Deseret was the old Fort Deseret. It sits just south of Deseret. It is an adobe fort built by the settlers during the Black Hawk War in 1865. They were afraid that the natives were getting restless. They built it in 18 days. The work force was spilt into 2 groups each with one half of the wall to build. There was a deal struck that which ever team could build their section of wall the fastest would be treated to dinner and entertainment by the losers. One group won by half a day, but when part of their wall collapsed it was call a draw. They had a big opening celebration on July 24, 1865. Not even hostile neighbors can stop a party.

This is the monument erected in the 1930s about the fort. I like it because of the variety of rock in it including a piece of petrified wood. Each rock was donated by a descendant of one of the builders of the fort.

Town #1: Delta

Our first town was Delta. We found this welcome sign as we neared the town. I say neared and not in because we could barely see Delta in the far distance. Delta must be one of those towns that is optimistic about its expanding real estate. This was the most impressive town sign we saw all day. Delta is the largest town in the vicinity, but we found out at the Great Basin Museum in Delta that it was one of the last towns to be established (in 1907).

Here is Delta's old welcome sign as it looked in 2004. The new sign is more impressive but less informative. I'm not sure what John is holding in his hand.

Oh, by the way, Delta is in Millard county in western central Utah. At some point I hope to include a map of Utah with these posts so that it is more obvious where we are at in the state.