Located in Hurricane, Utah at the Hurricane Valley Pioneer Heritage Park next to a Carriage House display shelter built by Jaden Ruesch is S.U.P. (Sons of Utah Pioneers) historic marker # 166.

The Town Named After A Buggy Incident

Buggies, such as the one before you, were an important part of early America. As the name implies, Doctors’ Buggies were used by physicians but they were also a popular choice for many others as well. Buggies were dearly prized and generally kept in a carriage house.

In 1863, LDS Church Apostle Erastus Snow was traveling in a similar buggy from Kanab to St. George, Utah. Accompanying him were horsemen (Nephi Johnson and David H. Cannon) who told him of an old Indian trail leading over the hill. Choosing to follow the trail, they successfully descended the other side of the hill by having the horsemen restrain the buggy with their lariats. However, a strong wind came up and blew off the top of the buggy. Erastus Snow exclaimed, “That was quite a hurricane! We will name this Hurricane Hill.”

On September 1, 1893, the Hurricane Canal Company was organized and work began on a canal around Hurricane Hill, ending at Hurricane Flat. Two thousand acres of fertile land could be irrigated by building the new canal. On August 6, 1904, a celebration was held in Hurricane, near the canal at 200 North and 300 East. About 100 people attended and watched with great excitement as water began flowing through the Hurricane Canal and onto the fertile flat.

Later that day, where you now stand, people gather in a bowery on the new town square to choose a name for the town. Names suggested were Pearl City, as the town was to be a “pearl in the desert”, Lake City, because at the time, there was a lake south of town; Chaparral, due to the bush that grew so abundantly throughout the valley; or Hurricane, after the canal company, the hill, and the flat that had used that name since the buggy incident many years before.