Welcome to the

Fort Harmony
Web Site

This is your information center
for the restoration project now
being undertaken in
Southern Utah

Sponsored by the
Fort Harmony Historical Society

Registered as Historic
Site #59 by the
Utah Pioneer Trails
and Landmark Association

Historical Sites of the
New
Harmony
Valley

Here in the New Harmony Valley lies the remains of one of the few protective outposts built by our courageous pioneers. The concept and plans originated with Brigham Young in 1854; the actual construction project was supervised by John D. Lee. Fort Harmony took years of volunteer labor to complete and played an historic role in the settlement of Southern Utah. Over the course of eight years, this adobe-type structure provided shelter and protection for over 300 frontier settlers.

Why was it abandoned so early, and what were the tragic events that unfolded during this critical time in Utah history? We welcome you to explore these pages and share the experiences faced by these real pioneers as they endured the hardships of remote frontier life.

The Original Old Fort Harmony site has been Located !
Located on the south end of Harmony Valley there is a beautiful bluff that looks over Ash Creek Reservoir and fertile farm land. This site closely matches the descriptions from recorded history.
Read more here

Fort Harmony and Mountain Meadows
Recently there has been some news about the Mountain Meadows and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake Tribune, 3/29/08). When news breaks about the Mountain Meadows, often people make an association between the Mountain Meadows and Fort Harmony and the John D. Lee statue. FHHS is asking people to not make that association because there lies in the remains of Fort Harmony, fragile historical information for several hundred people that lived or visited the Fort and it is the goal of the FHHS to retrieve and document this history of ALL the people. We do not want the pioneer's historical information to become mixed up with Mountain Meadows controversial issues.

LECTURE SERIES
For those who are interested in learning more about Southern Utah's past history, we invite you to attend our lecture series at the New Harmony Library. These are usually scheduled on the last Thursday of each month. The lectures start at 7:00 p.m., and are open to the general public at no cost. When the speaker permits, we do videotape the lectures and have these available for the public at the New Harmony Library or you can purchase your own copy at our Media Store.

Fort Harmony in the news: Deseret Morning News, Tuesday May 1, 2007
The restoration project of Fort Harmony may include the bronze statue of John D. Lee. This unique and beautiful bonze statue lost it's home at the Washington Government offices. It has recently been purchased by the John D. Lee Family for future placement at the Fort. Read the whole story here.

About our Valley
The historically correct term for our valley is Harmony Valley. Harmony Valley is about 12 miles long by 5 miles wide basically from mile marker #36 to #48 at the Kannara overpass of I-15. The Native Americans named the valley "Somato" or "the cove".

New Harmony is a town, about 2 miles square. It is very small compared to the entire valley which is about 60 miles square. It is also the mailing address of everyone in the valley. Kolob Ranches, The Ridges, Harmony Farms, Harmony Heights 1 & 2 are located in Harmony Valley, not New Harmony. As the valley develops these distinctions will become more important.

The Fort Harmony Historical Society in Action. A recent effort was undertaken by the Society members in locating historical sites within the Harmony Valley. This group was led by Lyman and Karen Platt and the purpose was to find and to document places that indicated pioneer occupation. In all a total of 8 historic sites were identified.

BYU Archaeological Team at the Fort. A team of BYU archeologists under the direction of Rich Talbot began initial digging at Fort Harmony on October 15th 2007. Funds for this excavation only covered a week's worth of work for the four member crew; however, their effort - and the effort of numerous volunteers uncovered a surprising amount of artifacts and information. See the results of their efforts here.

NEWS FLASH !
The question of the John D. Lee barn has now been answered.. Yes ! The remains have been located on a section of land next to Fort Harmony.

Coming Events

The
New Harmony
Pageant

"I See Our Zion"

Our New
Brochure

A True
Pioneer Story
at the Fort

The
"Blue Willow"
Mystery
is it solved?

Be a part of the Fort Harmony research team and help us
find and research those pioneers who once lived in the Fort.

Click Here
for the
Pioneer List

Visit the
New Harmony
Heritage Page

Web Host Master
Roger Simister
last update 10/20//08