Things to see - Adair Springs

In early 1857 Brigham Young called a group of Southerners on a cotton mission to Southern Utah to raise cotton. Samuel Jefferson Adair, the leader of ten families, arrived at Adair Springs on April 15, 1857, after leaving Payson, Utah on March 3. They camped here a short time and then moved down near the Virgin River on what became known as the Sand Plot. Apostle Amasa M. Lyman who was passing through the area recommended they move back to the spring area which they did. Robert Dockery Covington arrived here May 5 or 6, 1857, with 28 more Southern families. They left the Salt Lake area shortly after the LDS Spring Conference held around April 6. On May 6 or 7 a two day meeting was held at this site under the direction of Isaac C. Haight, President of the Parowan Stake. They sang songs, prayed and selected Robert D. Covington to be the President of the LDS branch, and Harrison Pearce and James B. Reagan as assistants. Wm. R. Slade and James D. McCullough were appointed Justices of the Peace, John Hawley and James Matthews as constables, G.R. Coley as stray pound keeper and Wm. R. Slade, Geo. Hawley and G.W.Spencer as school trustees. They named their city Washington. It was too late to plant wheat, so they prepared the ground for corn and went right to work making dams and ditches to water their crops. Their homes were their wagon boxes, willow and mud huts and dugouts dug in the bank east of the Adair Springs monument. Their new home soon was called 'Dixie'.