The City of Provo was founded in 1849 by Mormon pioneers.

A group of about 30 adult men – a few with their families and others with teenage sons – left Salt Lake City on Saturday, March 31, 1849, arriving the next day at the Provo River near what is now Geneva Road and 200 North.

Under the direction of Bishop John S. Higbee and his counselors, Isaac Higbee and Dimick Huntington, the group began building Fort Utah on April 3.  The 1.5-acre fort was built south of the Provo River, and extended on both sides of what is now I-15.

The initial fort consisted of two rows of eleven homes facing each other, forming the outside walls of the fort.  The colonizers finished this enclosure in six weeks.

Families of the workers began arriving later in April.  Surveyors divided land south of east of the fort into 55 five-acre plots, including one for the fort and one for a cemetery.  By the fall of 1849, Fort Utah was a thriving, bustling frontier community.

But a year later the colonists began moving from Fort Utah to a new, higher location at what today is known as North Park at 500 North and 500 West – and became known as Fort Provo.

This is plaque #1 in the Series of Events from Provo’s History and is located in Rotary Park in Provo.