Historic Markers
Historic markers installed on Kaysville and Fruit Heights trails, pathways, and sidewalks bring art and history to a different audience than traditional museum exhibits. The signs are designed to provide visual interest to the walking and hiking public with images of paintings and photographs illustrating historical places and events. Locations identified by the Kaysville – Fruit Heights Museum of History and Art in coordination with individual properties and city administration are placed to memorialize early individuals and locations key to the area’s development. QR codes will direct passersby to explore each event or location in more detail.
Stories include how a photograph by Major Andrew J. Russell of a local Bunting family gathering was used as 19th-century propaganda. Others tell of the Samuel Ward family’s encounter with the Shoshone and their brickyard, the establishment of the Raymond stagecoach station, how the Green Gas Station was central to the incorporation of a town, and when the Rock Loft cherry packing plant near Bair Canyon sustained orchards along the mountain, as well as the development of early water infrastructure by the Harvey family.
Paintings illustrative of Miles Goodyear’s horse drive, Osborne Russell’s exploration of the Wasatch Mountains near Kaysville, the circumnavigation of the Great Salt Lake by trappers, Peter Skene Ogden’s encounter with rival trappers, and overwintering by natives and trappers are shown. Each sign or QR Code relates how those events impacted pioneer settlers locally.
Bunting Family Cabin
Ann Slater Bunting’s family is shown gathered in front of a cabin near the mountain at the north end of the current Mountain Road in Fruit Heights. In 1855, Ann emigrated to the United States and made her way to Kaysville, Utah. After arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, she traveled to Kaysville with her…
Horse Drive
Miles Goodyear obtained a herd of horses with the intent to trade with emigrants along the Overland Trail. Goodyear was a mountain man who gave up fur trapping to trade and build Fort Buenaventura in 1845 on the Weber River, in what is now Ogden. He lived in this first permanent structure built by white Euro-Americans on the Wasatch front with…
Osborne Russell Meets Wolverine
During the winter of 1840-41, trapper Osborne Russell wintered with a group of mountaineers, their families, and several Shoshone lodges. They likely camped somewhere along the Weber River between Weber Canyon and Kaysville. Russell described the banks of the streams and rivers of the area as being…
Circumnavigating the Great Salt Lake
In 1826, a bull-boat was used by four men attempting to navigate the circumference of the Great Salt Lake beginning at the mouth of the Weber River. During this journey, they discovered that the lake had no outlet. While many trappers claimed…
Encounter at Mountain Green
A tense confrontation between members of the British Hudson’s Bay Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company trappers, and a company of French-Canadian trappers occurred near the Weber River in Mountain Green in May of 1825. The geopolitical implications of the clash, as well as native-trapper relations, extended to the…
Trappers Winter Camp
A typical over-wintering settlement strategy utilized by Rocky Mountain fur trappers in the 1820s to 1840s required access to game, timber and water. The availability of these items made the areas around the Great Salt Lake and Cache Valley attractive for encampments during cold months. Trappers often spent the winters with…
Harvey Pond
Between 1863 and 1870, Daniel and Hannah Smuin Harvey acquired approximately 360 acres of mostly steep, rocky, brushy, and mostly dry property on the southeast corner of Kay’s Ward. The Harvey Family of east Kaysville, later Fruit Heights, homesteaded land on the southern end of the old mountain trail and…
Orchards and Brickyard
After the Samuel Ward family established their first log home above Kaysville, they soon found that one group of Shoshone often traveled along a habitually used north-south trail that passed along on the lower mountain bench above the cabin. Ward made it a practice to…
Bair Canyon Enterprises
he Bair, Raymond, and Green pioneers gravitated to the land near the mouth of Bair Canyon. This canyon from which Haight’s Creek flows was later named after John Bair who built an early sawmill on its north bank. The water flowing from the mountain peak was a valuable natural resource for orchards and industry but also…
Bunting Family Cabin
Ann Slater Bunting’s family is shown gathered in front of a cabin near the mountain at the north end of the current Mountain Road in Fruit Heights. In 1855, Ann emigrated to the United States and made her way to Kaysville, Utah. After arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, she traveled to Kaysville with her…
Horse Drive
Miles Goodyear obtained a herd of horses with the intent to trade with emigrants along the Overland Trail. Goodyear was a mountain man who gave up fur trapping to trade and build Fort Buenaventura in 1845 on the Weber River, in what is now Ogden. He lived in this first permanent structure built by white Euro-Americans on the Wasatch front with…
Osborne Russell Meets Wolverine
During the winter of 1840-41, trapper Osborne Russell wintered with a group of mountaineers, their families, and several Shoshone lodges. They likely camped somewhere along the Weber River between Weber Canyon and Kaysville. Russell described the banks of the streams and rivers of the area as being…
Circumnavigating the Great Salt Lake
In 1826, a bull-boat was used by four men attempting to navigate the circumference of the Great Salt Lake beginning at the mouth of the Weber River. During this journey, they discovered that the lake had no outlet. While many trappers claimed…
Encounter at Mountain Green
A tense confrontation between members of the British Hudson’s Bay Company and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company trappers, and a company of French-Canadian trappers occurred near the Weber River in Mountain Green in May of 1825. The geopolitical implications of the clash, as well as native-trapper relations, extended to the…
Trappers Winter Camp
A typical over-wintering settlement strategy utilized by Rocky Mountain fur trappers in the 1820s to 1840s required access to game, timber and water. The availability of these items made the areas around the Great Salt Lake and Cache Valley attractive for encampments during cold months. Trappers often spent the winters with…
Harvey Pond
Between 1863 and 1870, Daniel and Hannah Smuin Harvey acquired approximately 360 acres of mostly steep, rocky, brushy, and mostly dry property on the southeast corner of Kay’s Ward. The Harvey Family of east Kaysville, later Fruit Heights, homesteaded land on the southern end of the old mountain trail and…
Orchards and Brickyard
After the Samuel Ward family established their first log home above Kaysville, they soon found that one group of Shoshone often traveled along a habitually used north-south trail that passed along on the lower mountain bench above the cabin. Ward made it a practice to…
Bair Canyon Enterprises
he Bair, Raymond, and Green pioneers gravitated to the land near the mouth of Bair Canyon. This canyon from which Haight’s Creek flows was later named after John Bair who built an early sawmill on its north bank. The water flowing from the mountain peak was a valuable natural resource for orchards and industry but also…