Holt Canyon, originally called Meadow Canyon or Meadow Valley, is a
valley
A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...
in
Washington County, Utah
Washington County is a county in the southwestern corner of Utah, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 180,279, making it the fifth-most populous county in Utah. Its county seat and largest city is St. Geor ...
. Its mouth lies at an elevation of where it enters the
Escalante Valley
Escalante may refer to:
People
*Amat Escalante (born 1979), Mexican filmmaker
*Bernardino de Escalante (1537–after 1605), 16th-century Spanish writer, author of one of the first European books on China
*Enrique Escalante (born 1984), Puerto Rica ...
. Its head lies at an elevation of 5,600 feet at west of the site of the ghost town of
Hamblin, Utah (1856 to 1905).
History
Meadow Canyon was the northern part of the long well watered meadow with excellent grazing, called
Mountain Meadow that was used by the merchants and drovers on the
Old Spanish Trail and later by travelers on the wagon road that followed the older trail, called the
Mormon Road
Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of S ...
. Later the canyon was renamed Holt Canyon after James Holt, who came in 1867 to visit his brother-in-law, a settler of
Hamblin, Utah. He subsequently took up land and built a house in the Canyon five miles north in what became the settlement of
Holt, Utah, now known as the
Holt Historical Site at an elevation of at . Nearby is the Holt Cemetery at an elevation of at .
References
Canyons and gorges of Washington County, Utah
Canyons and gorges of Utah
Old Spanish Trail (trade route)
Mormon Road
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