WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
ZION, UTAH
(in what later became Zion National Park)
LOCATION
This settlement was located below the Emerald Pool, about 100 yards north of where the Zion Lodgein Zion National Park is now.
HISTORY
This was a small settlement of about 5-9 families sent by Brigham Young. Although all the families were religious, it is believed that Isaac Behunin is the one who proposed the name, Zion, for the area.The Heaps had their farm on the west side of the Virgin River at the mouth of the Emerald Pool Canyon (their log cabin was on the north side of the Emerald Pool stream).
The Behunins were on the east side of the river, across from the Heaps.
John Rolph was a polygamist and located one of his families near the Behunins and the other at the site of the current grotto camp.
In 1872, Isaac Behunin was getting old and sold out to William Heap for 200 bushels of corn. Behunin then moved on to Mt. Carmel where he settled for the rest of his life.
With the establishment of the United Order in Rockville in 1874, Heap and Rolph joined, turning over their property in Zion to the corporation. With the collapse of the Order in the Fall of that year, Heap and Rolph withdrew their share of the proceeds and moved to Bear Lake and later on to Star Valley, Wyoming.
Floods and collapse of the United Order resulted in most of this group moving north and eventually settling
in the Bear Lake Valley and then at Freedom and Thayne in Star Valley Wyoming.
Residents:
The Isaac Behunin Family
The William Heap Family
The John Social Rolph Families