Cove Fort Historic Site

Story

Cove Fort is a fort and historical site located in Millard County, Utah. It was founded in 1867 by Ira Hinckley (the paternal grandfather of Gordon B. Hinckley) at the request of Brigham Young. One of its distinctive features is the use of volcanic rock in the construction of the walls, rather than the wood used in many mid-19th-century western forts. This difference in construction is the reason it is one of very few forts of this period still surviving.Cove Fort is the closest named place to the western terminus of Interstate 70, resulting in Cove Fort being listed as a control city on freeway signs, though the fort is historical and has no permanent population.HistoryThe site for Cove Fort was selected by Brigham Young because of its location about half way between Fillmore, then the capital of the Utah Territory, and the nearest city, Beaver. It provided a way station for people traveling the Mormon Corridor. A town would have been constructed at the Cove Fort site, but the water supply was inadequate to support a sizable population. Another key factor in the selection of the site was the prior existence of a wooden-palisade fort, Willden Fort, which provided shelter and safety for the work crews who constructed Cove Fort.