If you'd like a lesson in perseverance, visit Hurricane.
If you'd like a lesson in faith, devotion and community cooperation, visit Hurricane.
If you'd like a lesson in making history meaningful, in honoring the past while envisioning the future, visit this little town in the southwest corner of the state where the story of the Hurricane Valley Pioneer Heritage Park is all that and more.
Not only was Hurricane founded under trying circumstances, but the story of the park itself is equally inspiring.
Although Hurricane has grown a lot in recent years, many descendants of the original pioneers still live there, says Verdell Hinton, president of the Heritage Park foundation that created the park and museum, and they wanted to preserve their history.
Hurricane now is a pretty, green oasis among all the red rock country, adds Cleora Covington, who volunteers at the museum. "But when the first settlers came, there were no houses, no trees." When her grandfather came, she said, "he lived in a tent until he could build a granary. Then he lived in the granary while he built his house. He used to say that when he went in the granary, the flies had to go out — there wasn't room for both."
Settlement came late to Hurricane, compared to other towns in southern Utah. The flats, where houses could be built and crops could be planted, are high above the Virgin River, and in the days before pumps and pipelines, that presented a challenge. What they needed, they decided in 1893, was a canal. But even that was no small undertaking for folks with little equipment and even less money.
Eleven years and eight miles later, the canal brought water to the edge of what is now the town.
Even now, says Laura Thomas, who is spearheading an effort to restore the canal (it has been replaced by pipes and pumps) as a hiking trail, "it is difficult to appreciate the magnitude of the undertaking. There was no road into the canyon. Supplies had to be carried down from the top on the north side, across the river; food, tools, bedding, even an anvil, were carried on the backs of the men who worked there. All the work, all the tunnels were done by hand."
But the canal was built, and water came, and the town was established and prospered.
And if you visit today, and see all the trees and buildings, you might not realize the work and sacrifice that were required to make a town here. Unless, of course, you visit the Heritage Park. There you can read plaques that tell about the canal and the early settlers and wander on paths that pass rippling water.
You can go into the museum and see a silk worm machine, and a display on the sheep industry and early agricultural tools. You can see an old buggy and one of the first cotton mattresses and the first printing press and a wedding cake baked in 1907. Across the street in the restored Bradshaw house, there's a frontier doctor's office and dolls collected by Rose Frasier and old farm machinery.
In all, you can see hundreds of the bits and pieces that make life meaningful — and you can't help but come away with an appreciation for the hardy settlers of Hurricane.
Which is just how Hinton and the Heritage Park foundation would have it.
"This was a tremendous undertaking," he says of the museum and park. "And it was mostly done by volunteers." With a little help from "upstairs," perhaps. "It was amazing how it all came together."
The corner lot where the park is was once the site of the "White Chapel," the first LDS church built in the town. But when the town outgrew it, the church was torn down. The building that houses the museum was once the library and city hall — a WPA project built in 1939 — but it, too, had outgrown its beginnings, and new facilities were built in 1987.
That's when some of the folks started thinking about a museum. And then, they thought, maybe the LDS church would donate the corner lot — which was by then mostly a weed patch — so they could add a park. Plans were drawn up, interest sparked, local approval secured.
Hinton, who was a descendant of one of the first families in Hurricane, "got stuck with being chairman." They went to Salt Lake City to talk to church authorities, and the outlook looked positive. So, they drew up bylaws to create a non-profit corporation, finalized plans and began soliciting donations.
Then came word that the LDS Church had decided not to donate the land, after all. It was a discouragement, admits Hinton. But rather than quit, the foundation began looking at other options, and at last was able to work out a deal for a renewable lease from the church. Work could continue.
They got the names and addresses of everyone who ever lived in Hurricane and sent them letters explaining the project and asking for contributions.
"The response was marvelous. Going to the post office every day was just like Christmas," says Hinton.
But the wonders didn't stop there. As work began on the park, one man stopped to ask if they were going to have any water or waterfalls. That was his business, and he'd like to donate the work, he said. Another man was driving by with a load of rock and stopped to see if they would have any use for the big boulders. A former resident who owns a nursery in California brought a truck-full of trees and shrubs. Three different companies donated all the sod — just as the committee was contacted by a group in Orem that was coming to a youth conference in St. George and was looking for a service project. "Some 80 or 90 kids came to plant sod," said Hinton.
In all, more than 32 Eagle Scout projects involved the park. Work on the monument, a bronze statue honoring faithful pioneers, was also donated.
And then there was the Bradshaw house — the first house built in Hurricane. "It was where they held the first school, the first church, the first socials. There's no place with more significance."
But it had been sold to the city, used for a senior citizens center for a time and had fallen into disrepair. The city decided to use it for fire practice. Two days before, the foundation found out about the bonfire and got up a petition to save the building as an addition to the park. "The city decided to give us two years to see what we could do. Within one year, we had the building restored, repainted and filled with artifacts. When the city saw that, they deeded it to us."
So, it's not surprising that folks in Hurricane take pride in what they have accomplished. They have, says Hinton, established something that will be a lasting memorial to the spirit of the town.
Roots run deep in this soil, he says. "Everyone who's ever lived here has a deep love for the place. They never seem to overcome that emotion. We think of the people who built the canal and the heavy price they paid so we can enjoy all that we enjoy."
Visit Hurricane, he invites. Come and enjoy this heritage and learn about the town's past. These are lessons you won't forget.