Category Archives: Pioneer cemeteries

Iosepa Settlement Cemetery

Published May 2, 2022 / by Cooper Bolton / Leave a Comment
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Write-up and photos by Cooper Bolton

Placed by: Iosepa Historical Society

GPS Coordinates: 40°32’31.5″N 112°44’00.7″W

Historical Marker Text (1):

This hallowed place was dedicated on August 28, 1890 by President Wilford Woodruff for all the nations in the isles of the seas, the Polynesian pioneers, their descendants and the faithful church leaders who left their home in the mid 1800’s and migrated to this gathering place in Zion to be married in the holy temple for time and eternity.

   For 28 years (1889 – 1917) Iosepa was their home. In spite of the climate, isolation, loneliness, sickness, hardship, and death, their faith and courage never faltered. They overcame the cold winter, the summer heat, enjoyed the new life of spring and the bounteous harvest of the fall.

Their native songs and dances filled this beautiful valley, which they made “bloom as a rose” with love and aloha. A few remained in Utah, some on this consecrated spot, while the rest returned home to their beloved isles of the sea. The seeds of our Polynesian pioneers bore fruit in Hawaii – the Laie Temple, Brigham Young University – Hawaii, and the Polynesian Cultural Center. Holy temples stand firm in New Zealand, Western Samoa, Tonga, and Tahiti as monuments to the testimonies of the faithful Polynesian pioneers. We close this memory with their song of love:

Iosepa kuu home aloha

Iosepa kuahiwi ika nani

Iosepa ka home no ka’oi

Iosepa my home of love

Iosepa with it’s beautiful mountains

Iosepa my best home

DONORS

THE FIRST PRESIDENCY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS PRESIDENT EZRA TAFT BENSON • GORDON B. HINCKLEY • THOMAS S. MONSON • PRINCESS ABIGAIL KEKAULIKE KAWANANAKOA • POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER LAIE, HAWAII – BOARD OF DIRECTORS & EMPLOYEES • IOSEPA HISTORICAL SOCIETY LAIE, HAWAII • IOSEPA HISTORICAL ASSN, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH • AL HARRINGTON FAMILY & FOUNDATION • RIVERTON 6TH WARD A.P.Y.M. + Y.W. 1988-89 • SKULL VALLEY RANCH CO. & EMPLOYEES • ZIONS SECURITIES CORP., LAIE, HAWAII • SALT LAKE MONUMENT CO. – MIKE ELLERBECK + FAMILY • MONTEREY SCULPTURE CENTER – CHARLES L. FISCHER • SCULPTOR–DR. JAN G. FISHER • HISTORIAN – DR. DENNIS ATKINS • ELDON P. & RUTH J. MORRELL • NORMAN & NANCY SWALLIE & CHILDREN RALPH & BETTY A. MAUGHAN & FAMILY • BERNICE W. THOMAS • IRMA W. MACDONALD MALU & CUMA S. HOOPIIAINA • JOSIAH, GEORGE, WILLIAM & CAROLINE HUBBELL & OHANA • ANDREW, FLORENCE, LOTTIE + JOHN KAMAUOHA & OHANA • EDWIN LEROY & TUSIPEPA KAMAUOHA & CHILDREN • LEROY PUKAHI + MALEKA MAHIAI + CHILDREN • LU & SCULLY ROGERS • GEORGE, WILLARD, BARBARA & CLIFFORD KEKAUOHA OHANA • WILLIAM AH QUIN & MABEL POEPOE & CHLN. • ANNIE KANAHELE TAUA & CHLN. • MARGARET K. LOPES VANAMAN + CHLN. • ELWOOD K. ALAPA & CECELIA HO’A • DESCENDANTS OF CLARENCE H. ALAPA, EDITH L. ALAPA, TUIA (OUR MOTHER) OHANA OF KUAHUA & KAAU A. FRANK & LA VINH MOELLER • CRAIG PETERSON • MARIE, MATILDA & STAN ALAPA OHANA • RALPH AND EMMA MAKAIAU & CHILDREN • LUCY PUKAHI AND WALTER TASHIRO & CHILDREN • MAGGIE BROAD & WILLIAM WALLACE OHANA • JOHN NAUAHI • LARRY AU + W. M. J. HART • CHARLES & HANNAH HALLIWELL & OHANA • WILLIAM J. AND PATRICIA CLARK • REP. LEE & BERNICE ALLEN

National Register

Utah Historic Site

IOSEPA SETTLEMENT CEMETERY

The Iosepa Community developed after Polynesian converts to the Mormon faith were employed as laborers by the Iosepa Agriculture and Stock Company in 1889. After numerous hardships, including bouts with leprosy, the colony attained a degree of financial independence and its population reached 228. In 1915 when the L.D.S. Church began to build the Hawaiian Temple, the need for “gathering” subsided. The Iosepa project was allowed to end and most of the settlers and their children returned to the Islands by 1917.

Division of State History N-38

Historical Marker Text (2):

ADMINISTRATION

HARVEY H. CLUFF 1889-1890 & 1893-1900

WILLIAM KING 1890-1892

THOMAS A. WADDOUPS 1901-1917

ORIGINAL SETTLERS

HARVEY H. CLUFF • FREDERICK A. MITCHELL • ELIHUE BARELL • FRANK W. MARCHANT • FRANCIS M. LYMAN, JR. • JOHN W. KAULAINAMOKU • KAPUKINI KAULAINAMOKU • JOHN MAKAULA • MARIA MAKAULA • KAPELA • CHARLES NAAU • JANE NAAU • EMILY S. NAAU • HAIKI • MOKE KALIMA • OLIVA ALAPA • JOSEPH KEKUKU • MILIAMA KEKUKU • HATTIE KEKUKU • IVY KEKUKU • VIOLA KEKUKU • EDWIN KEKUKU • PETER KEALAKAIHOUNA • PELEKANE KEALAKAIHOUNA • KAHAIANA KEALAKAIHOUNA • PETEROPIO KEALAKAIHOUNA • PIIPIILANI SOLAMONA • MOSES SOLAMONA • MAKAOPIOPIO • WILLIAM COLES • JOHN MAHUALII • ELIZABETH MAHUNALII • KALAWAI • KAPAINUI • JOHN K. N. MAHOE • HANAH MAHOE • LUCY MAHOE • DAVID MOKUILIMA • HOOKAIA MOKUILIMA • MARY MOKUILIMA • DAVID MOKUILIMA JR. • JOHN MAKAKAO • LUCY E. MAKAKAO • JOSEPH KEKUKU • WILLIAM K. HALEMANY • ELLEN HALEMANU • JAMES HALEMANU • JONATHAN NAPELA • MOCHAHO NAPELA • H. NAPELA • GEORGE KAMAKANIAU • V. MAHUNALII • KEALOHANIO KAMAKANIAU • GEORGE W. NIAU • HARVEY ALAPA • N. POMARIKAI

Here lie the honored Polynesian pioneers who have sealed their testimonies in the dust, that God lives, Jesus is the Christ, all the presidents of the church are prophets of God, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.

There are 79 graves in the cemetery. Only the names listed below are recorded. The rest are unknown, honored souls.

HARVEY O. ALAPA • MARY KAHOOHIG ALAPA • JOE ANTONE DRUMONDA • WILLIAM S. FREESTONE • PETER N. GEORGE • DORA KAILIAHI HALEMANU • EDWIN IOBA HALEMANY • EMMA PURCELL HALEMANU • GEORGE DELAWARE HALEMANU • MARIAH IHUNA HALEMANU • MATILDA KAMEHAILILANI HALEMANU • WILLIAM NIEWALANI HALEMANU • LEVI HANAKAEA • NAPAPALE HALEKAEU • CLARA KALIMAHII MAHOE HOOPIIAINA • CONNIE HOOPIIAINA • JOHN HOOPIIAINA • DAVID HALEAKALA HUBBELL • ELIZABETH KAAHU HAILI HUBBELL • JULIA KAAHU KAWAHINEKAWAI HUBBELL • EDWARD APUA IMAIKALANI • HARVEY K. IMAIKALANI • MARY POMAIKAI IMAIKALANI • JOSEPH K. O. KAIHIWAI • MARJORIE LAIE KAILIKEA • JOHN K. KAINI • KAPAINUI KALAVAO • JOHN KAMAUOHA • JOHN W. KAULEINAMOKU • EMILY KEALAKAIHOUNA • KEALAULA KEALOHA PAUOLA • HOSEA NAHINU OPIO KEKAUOHA JR. • MAKAOPIOPIO • JOHN. H. MAKAULA • MARIA K. MAKAULA • MOSES NAKUAAU • NAPAPALE • CECELIA NAWAHINI • ISAAC KEAHI NAWAHINI • MARTHA KAHOKUWAHILANI NAWAHINI • LEHI PAAHAO • BESSIE PETERS • ANNIE HULIA PUKAHI • SAMUEL KAUIHOU PUKAH • MARIA PAKAIAH MAKAIAU • KALEHUA MAKANOE • KEEPA MAKEHAU

PROJECT COORDINATOR – EDWIN L. KAMAUOHA

BUILT BY WILLING HANDS AND LOVING HEARTS

Historical Marker Text (3):

IOSEPA

HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

TIME CAPSULE

OPEN 28 AUGUST 1990

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2015

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2040

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2065

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2090

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2115

Historical Marker Text (4):

This lonely fire hydrant serves as a landmarker for the townsite of Iosepa, Utah, located on the desert floor between Cedar Mountain & the Stansbury Range in Skull Valley. Iosepa was named after Joseph F. Smith, 6th. President of the L.D.S. church. About 50 Hawaiians left Salt Lake City via Garfield by train, then by 20 wagons, to Grantsville, spent the night, arriving in Iosepa August 28, 1889.

The public square consisted of 16.9 acres, with 4 center streets, 132 ft. wide on four sides of the town park. A row of trees were planted in the center of each street. All the other streets were 66 feet wide and the blocks were divided into 4 lots, each containing ¾ acres.

All the streets had Hawaiian names. The original purchase consisted of 1,920 acres, of which 200 were under cultivation, the next two years accumulated to 5,273 acres. The water came from five streams collected in an open ditch put into a concrete conduit that furnished culinary water to each home. A fire hydrant and irrigation ditch went with each lot. The cemetery, about ½ acre, is located a mile northeast of the settlement. Iosepa won the state prize in 1911 for the best kept town and most progressive city in the state of Utah.

Only the Hoopiiaina family and J. Palikapee Nawahine remained in Utah. The rest returned home to Hawaii to settle and help build the Laie temple (1917-1919). Iosepa returned to dust, leaving a heritage of the faithful Polynesian pioneers, and closed a chapter in the great western American history.

IOSEPA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

EDWIN L. KAMAUOHA OHANA

PLAQUE & MARKER DONATED BY REX & PHYLLIS CROSLAND MAY 28, 1990

HOOPIIAINA OHANA

MALU, CUMA, WILFORD, CLIFFORD, CORY

Extended Research:

The Iosepa settlement was established by and for the Polynesian (mainly Hawaiian) members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which wished to live in Utah. It was founded with the arrival of 56 settlers to the site on August 28, 1889 and was abandoned by 1917.1 The town was settled out of a desire to relocate Polynesians in Salt Lake City to somewhere outside of the city. This was spurred on growing animosity towards Polynesians which was largely the result of controversy over Polynesian applications for American citizenship as well as fears over a rumored leprosy outbreak among native Hawaiians.2

Iosepa residents pickup up goods at Timpie Station
Photo Credit: Utah State Historical Society (accessed on 3.2.22)

The colony was originally settled as a joint stock company incorporated as the Iosepa Agriculture and Stock Company, being owned by the L.D.S. Church. Harvey H. Cluff was the president of the corporation and manager of the company, while a person by the name of I. W. Kauleinamoku was the leader of the Polynesian Mormons. The land was dedicated by then L.D.S. Church President Wilford Woodruff on August 28, 1890, exactly one year after colonization, as a “gathering place for the natives of the islands of the sea.” Contrary to the story told on the marker, Iosepa was not self-sustaining and relied heavily on the L.D.S. Church to cover expenses, likely due to its isolation (The closest settlement to Iosepa, Milton, was about 40 miles away. After 1906, Timpie Station, a station at which trains stopped only if signaled to do so, was established, but it was still roughly 15 miles north of Iosepa). Furthermore, the colony saw a number of crop failures due to the climate of the region. This, combined with the scorching heat of summer, the freezing cold of winter, and disease took a massive toll on the settlers.3

Iosepa residents in front of one of the original homes
Photo Credit: Utah State Historical Society (accessed on 3.2.22)

Despite these setbacks, life in Iosepa was reportedly pleasant. The L.D.S. Church was incredibly important to the colony and as such, the residents followed a schedule of annual holidays, including their own version of Pioneer Day, celebrated on August 28, and Church leaders visited the colony often. The diversity of cultures in the settlers could be seen especially in their festivities. Settlers prepared traditional Hawaiian food which was eaten alongside Euro-American food and eventually, the practices of the colony became unique in Utah while differing greatly from their Polynesian origins.

Welcome sign outside Iosepa cemetery

The people of Iosepa also made the education of all residents a priority, eventually hiring a teacher from outside the town. Additionally, the town was designed to provide enough space for everyone as well as to make freshwater available in every home.4 This can be seen in the townsite plat that was filed at the Tooele County Courthouse on July 31, 1908 based on the original townsite survey conducted by Frederick A. Mitchell and Francis M. Lyman.5

The historical marker within the Iosepa cemetery was dedicated on August 28, 1989, 100 years after the town’s founding, by then L.D.S. Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. All that remains of the settlement is the cemetery and a fire hydrant. The settlement reached a peak population of 228 in 1915 but was gradually depopulated as the L.D.S. Church began to build the Laie Temple in Hawaii and most of Iosepa’s residents chose to return to Oahu to assist in the Temple’s construction.6

[1] Dennis H. Atkins, “A History of Iosepa, the Utah Polynesian Colony,” 1958

[2] Matthew Kester, “Race, Religion, and Citizenship in Mormon Country: Native Hawaiians in Salt Lake City, 1869-1889,” Western Historical Quarterly 40, no. 1 (2009), 52; Matthew Kester, Remembering Iosepa: History, Place, and Religion in the American West (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

[3] David L. Schirer, “Iosepa,” Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994

[4] Dennis H. Atkins, “A History of Iosepa, the Utah Polynesian Colony,” 1958

[5] “Big Event for Iosepa Colony,” Deseret Evening News, September 1, 1908, 5.

[6] Scott Lloyd, “Iosepa Memorial Honors Utah’s Hawaiian Settlers,” Deseret News, August 29, 1989; Dennis H. Atkins, “A History of Iosepa, the Utah Polynesian Colony,” 1958

For Further Reference:

Primary Sources:

Diary of Harvey H. Cluff. Digital scan of original manuscript. 1889. Digital Collections, Special Collection Miscellaneous 3. BYU Library. https://cdm15999.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15999coll24/id/30510

Secondary Sources:

Atkin, Dennis H. “A History of Iosepa, the Utah Polynesian Colony,” 1958. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5488&context=etd.

“Big Event for Iosepa Colony.” Deseret Evening News. September 1, 1908. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045555/1908-09-01/ed-1/seq-5/.

“Iosepa Memorial Honors Utah’s Hawaiian Settlers.” Deseret News. August 29, 1989. https://www.deseret.com/1989/8/29/18821578/iosepa-memorial-honors-utah-s-hawaiian-settlers.

Kester, Matthew. “Race, Religion, and Citizenship in Mormon Country: Native Hawaiians in Salt Lake City, 1869-1889.” Western Historical Quarterly 40, no. 1 (2009): 51–76. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40505603.

Kester, Matthew. Remembering Iosepa : History, Place, and Religion in the American West. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. https://utah-primoprod.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/dtufc4/UUU_ALMA51536031950002001

Schirer, David L. “Iosepa.” In Utah History Encyclopedia, edited by Allen Kent Powell. Accessed March 2, 2022. https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/i/IOSEPA.shtml. 

Aunt Libby’s Dog Cemetery

Published April 25, 2020 / by Shannon Gebbia / 2 Comments on Aunt Libby’s Dog Cemetery
2 Replies

write-up by Shannon Gebbia

Placed by: Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Associations, No 95

GPS Coordinates: N 40° 07.123, W 112° 34.660

Historical Marker Text:

BURIAL PLOT

Enclosing graves (west side) of two men and a child emigrants of the early eighteen sixties.

Original wall erected in 1888, By Mrs. Horace (Aunt Libby) Rockwell to shelter graves of her beloved dogs. 1. Jenny Lind, 2. Josephine Bonaparte, 3. Bishop, 4. Toby Tyler, Companions in her lonely, childless vigils here about 1866 to 1890.

Erected by enrollees U.S. grazing division C.C.C camp g-154, company 2517.

Utah pioneer trails and landmarks association Tooele tourism tax grant

Sons of Utah pioneers

-settlement canyon chapter

SUP No. 239     Rededicated 2017

Extended Research:

Sometime between 1860 and 1870, Horace Rockwell and his wife Elizabeth “Libby” Rockwell moved to Skull Valley, a 40-mile long valley in what is now Tooele County, Utah. They operated the Pony Express station known as Point Lookout then continued living on the property in a log cabin built by stage workers after the station had closed.[1] They became horse and cattle ranchers and garnered a reputation as “rough frontiers folk” and “two strange characters.”[2], [3] Over time, the pair came to be known affectionately as Uncle Horace and Aunt Libby.

Uncle Horace and Aunt Libby owned one of the only sources of water along their stretch of the Overland Trail and charged travelers a fee to access it. Many riders and locals remembered Aunt Libby for smoking a pipe and treating her dogs better than her hired men.[4] Her “colony of dogs” were described as black and tan, short-haired, possibly of the “Fiste” breed (perhaps a misspelling of Feist, a small hunting terrier).[5] Aunt Libby liked to name some of her dogs after popular characters of the time, both fictional and real. Her variety of name choices reveals a wide range of interests in music, history, and popular literature: Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale” of the mid- to late-19th century opera scene; Josephine Bonaparte, the first Empress of France; and Toby Tyler, the 10-year-old protagonist of the children’s novel, Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks with a Circus.[6]

Photo of the site in August, 1941, prior to restoration by the UPTLA.

 As testament to her devotion for her dogs, Dr. W. M. Stookey, a member of the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks association, recalls an instance when Aunt Libby called upon Tooele’s Dr. William Bovee Dods to tend to one of her dogs, which had fallen ill. When Dr. Dods refused, Libby forced one of her workers, Elijah Perkins, to play sick, thus tricking Dods into paying a visit to the cabin. Once there, he reluctantly tended to the dog, and she paid him $100. Aunt Libby’s trick only worked once—the next time a dog got sick, the Rockwells had to travel roughly 70 miles to Salt Lake City.[7]

Photo of the site in August, 1941, prior to restoration by the UPTLA.

When one dog died en route for treatment in Salt Lake City, Aunt Libby brought him back to Point Lookout and buried him near a collection of three graves belonging to immigrants who had died while passing through Skull Valley.[8] She then hired a stone worker, Gustave E. Johnson, to build a wall around the small graveyard.[9] As her beloved dogs passed on over the years, Aunt Libby buried each one in her cemetery.

The Rockwells moved to California sometime after May 25, 1890 and lived there for the remainder of their lives.[10] Aunt Libby’s Dog Cemetery is the only structure still standing on the property known as Point Lookout.

View from Hwy 36 Pony Express Road

The historical significance of this cemetery seems to be centered around its location among the Pony Express stations along Utah’s section of the Overland Trail. Unlike Horace’s brother, Orrin Porter Rockwell, Horace and Libby Rockwell were not major figures in Utah or Mormon history—monuments haven’t been built in their name, we don’t learn about them in history lessons. But one story about a rough, pipe-smoking woman who tricked a Tooele doctor into treating her sick dog has survived the test of time and given historical value to this cemetery. Dr. Stookey explains that the reason for including the cemetery as an “extra in the line, both in design and significance,” was due to a “growing increase in its unique history,” and perhaps because it is one of the only remaining structures along this section of the Overland Trail.[11] Regardless of the reasoning, by including the cemetery among Utah’s historical markers, the UPTLA created an avenue for Aunt Libby’s stories to be retold forever. Within the chasm between the details of each recollection, we find the personality of that “strange character” Aunt Libby. According to most of the people who described her over the years, she was a rough, childless, pipe-smoking woman, unafraid of outlaw Porter.[12] But by way of the legacy of pet cemetery and the stories about her dogs, we see a giving, loving, motherly woman whose cultural knowledge reached far beyond the secluded scope of the Wild West.

For Further Reference:

Primary Sources

“Fatally Burned.”  Los Angeles Times. March 26, 1901. Accessed February 24, 2020. https://www.newspapers.com/image/380059910/?terms=Mrs%2BRockwell.

Sharp Manuscript: Stories published by James P. Sharp. Compiled by Shirley Sharp Pitchford and Susan Sharp Hutchinson. Utah State Division of History Archives.

Sharp, James P. “The Pony Express Stations.” Improvement Era (February 1945): 76–77.

https://archive.org/details/improvementera4802unse/page/n21/mode/2up

Stookey, W. M. “They Died But Lived Again! Aunt Libby Rockwell’s Doggone Dogs and Their Lonely Cemetery Beside the Historic Overland.” Salt Lake Tribune. August 31, 1941. Accessed February 24, 2020. https://www.newspapers.com/image/598747615/?terms=libby%2Brockwell

Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association marker records, ca. 1930–1990s. MSS B 1457, box 1. Utah State Division of History Archives.

Secondary Sources:

Bluth, John F. “The South Central Overland Trail in Western Utah, 1850- 1900.” U. S. Bureau of Land Management. https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/DownloadFile/101963?Reference=61466

Bluth, John F. “Supplementary Report on Pony Express Overland Stage Sites in Western Utah.” https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/DownloadFile/101965?Reference=61468.

Fike, Richard E. and John W. Headley. “The Pony Express Stations of Utah in Historical Perspective.” Cultural Resources Series Monograph 2. Bureau of Land Management of Utah, 1979.

https://archive.org/details/ponyexpressstati00fike/mode/2up

Jessop, J. D. “The Ghost of Aunt Libby May Be Nearby.” Tooele Transcript Bulletin, October 2, 2014. http://tooeleonline.com/the-ghost-of-aunt-libby-may-be-nearby/.

[1]Bluth, John F. “The South Central Overland Trail in Western Utah, 1850-1900” (U. S. Bureau of Land Management), p. 4. (accessed February 10, 2020) https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/DownloadFile/101963?Reference=61466; Jessop, J. D. “The Ghost of Aunt Libby May Be Nearby.” Tooele Transcript Bulletin – News in Tooele, Utah, October 2, 2014. (accessed January 29, 2020) http://tooeleonline.com/the-ghost-of-aunt-libby-may-be-nearby/; Stookey, W. M. “They Died But Lived Again! Aunt Libby Rockwell’s Doggone Dogs and Their Lonely Cemetery Beside the Historic Overland.” The Salt Lake Tribune, August 31, 1941. (accessed February 24, 2020). The exact date is unknown as several accounts differ, but they all agree the Rockwells lived at this location until sometime in 1890.

[2] Stookey.

[3] Sharp, James P., “The Pony Express Stations ,” Improvement Era, (February, 1945), 76-77. (accessed Feburay 10, 2020) https://archive.org/details/improvementera4802unse/page/n21/mode/2up

[4] Stookey.

[5] Sharp.

[6] Jessop, Stookey.

[7] Stookey, Jessop. Several newspaper stories reported this story, but the accounts differ as to which dog was ill, who called for Dods, and the amount he charged.

[8] Stookey, Bluth. Three unknown emigrating travelers died and were buried here.

[9] Stookey.

[10] Jessop; Stookey; Los Angeles Times, “Fatally Burned.” March 26, 1901. (accessed February 24, 2020) https://www.newspapers.com/image/380059910/?terms=Mrs%2BRockwell. Again, much is contested about the date, but one fact stands out: Aunt Libby burned in her house after falling asleep smoking her pipe.

[11] Stookey’s article explains the UPTLA’s haste in using the nearby CCC camps to help place markers and monuments along the difficult terrain, and that most Pony Express stations had “little or nothing remaining of the originals.” The survival of this cemetery and its story provide a picture of life along the trail.

[12]Lloyd, Erin. “Colors of Life Paint Rich Past in Rush Valley.” Tooele Transcript-Bulletin, 9 Dec. 1998, pp. 25–27. The article states Porter Rockwell owed $500 to his brother Horace, and Libby vowed to cut off Porter’s hair if the debt remained. LDS history states Porter’s hair long hair held significance to his faith. https://www.newspapers.com/image/545721374/?terms=libby%2Brockwell