Adair Spring Monument

120 N 200 E

History:

In early 1857 Brigham Young called a group of Mormon converts from the southern United States on what was called 'the Cotton Mission' to go to southern Utah to grow cotton. Ten families under the leadership of Samuel Newton Adair left Payson, Utah on 3 March 1857 and traveled approximately 250 miles south and arrived in what is now Washington City on 15 April 1857. For a short time they camped at Adair Springs, a small hillside spring, and then moved down near the Virgin River. LDS Apostle Amasa M. Lyman, who was passing through the area, recommended that the company move back to the spring area which they did.

Robert Dockery Covington arrived in southern Utah on 5 or 6 May 1857 with 28 more families. A day or two later the combined company met under the direction of Isaac C. Haight, President of the Parowan, Utah stake and selected Robert D. Covington to be president of the L.D.S. church congregation and Harrison Pearce and James B. Regan as his assistants. The company formed a local government by appointing William. R. Slade and James D. McCullough justices of the peace and John Hawley and James Matthews constables. They also named Slade, George Hawley, and G. W. Spencer as school trustees. They named their city after the country's first president, George Washington. The first homes were their wagon boxes, willow and mud huts, and dugouts in the hillside east of the Adair Springs monument. They named the area Dixie in honor of their southern heritage.

--Compiled by Jacob Lee Eagle Scout Project 2011