Last updated: December 11, 2023
Place
Defensive Breastworks, the Mormon Pioneer Trail
Quick Facts
Significance:
Mormon militiamen, fearing an attack on Salt Lake City by the U.S. Army, built the low rubble walls above the emigrant road in 1857.
Before modern highways were built, this segment of Echo Canyon was narrow, forcing wagon traffic to travel single-file. For the Mormon militia, this seemed a strategic location to stop or delay approaching federal troops. Defensive Breastworks (Echo Canyon) positioned along the rim of the cliff to the right are barely visible in several places from the canyon floor. Mormon militiamen, fearing an attack on Salt Lake City by the U.S. Army, built the low rubble walls above the emigrant road in 1857. The breastworks would protect the defenders as they fired down on approaching federal troops. Because they are made of local sandstone from the cliffs and were meant to be unobtrusive, the structures can be difficult to see.
Site Information
Location (Echo Canyon, Utah)
Pull into a turnout on the right side of the road to view a large wooden sign that describes the Mormon defense preparations in Echo Canyon. Continue to the next turnout, 1/4 mile beyond, and pause at Summit County’s brown tour sign No. 7 for Billboard Bluff. From the turnout, look up at the base of the cliff face to see 19th century roadside advertisements painted directly onto the rock. (These are unassociated with the Utah War.)
Travel 1/10 mile, watching for brown Summit County tour sign No. 6 on the left. From the tour-stop sign, face the cliff to the right of the road and look along the rim to see a low stone wall. Then turn and look east across the freeway to the bluffs on the opposite side of the canyon. Just below the alignment of telephone poles that crosses the slope, a faint horizontal line in the earth is sometimes visible, depending on the quality of the light and vegetation. The line is what remains of a defensive trench dug by the Mormon militia. Approaching federal troops were to be caught in crossfire from between the cliff-top breastworks and the entrenchment.