Joseph Samuel Adams

Joseph Adams from Kaysville to Arizonia and busted on June 6 A+D+1873.

Joseph Samuel Adams was born in Adams County, Illinois, and immigrated to Utah Territory with his family. As one of the founding families of Kaysville, they settled on a ridge overlooking the Great Salt Lake. Called by Brigham Young as a member of the first colonization effort in the Little Colorado River Valley, Arizona Territory, Joseph left Salt Lake City in the spring of 1873. Finding “nothing but sand and rock and crooked cottonwoods,” the group encamped at House Rock Valley Spring. While awaiting the fate of the expedition, Joseph carved the petroglyph shown above high in the vermillion cliffs above the spring. The party was recalled to Utah, and Joseph returned to Kaysville to a life of ranching and farming.