Call's Fort

Out here near the northern edge of Box Elder County, a stone monument marks the southeast corner of a frontier fort that once stood on this ground. In eighteen fifty-five, under the direction of Brigham Young, the Mormon pioneer Anson Call and a handful of associates raised a defensive fort here to shelter settlers in the event of trouble with the Native peoples whose land this was. It was a serious piece of work.

The walls ran roughly one hundred twenty feet on each side, stood about eight feet high, and were three feet thick, built from rounded river stones. Some of those stones, the story goes, came from one of the first flour mills in northern Utah, run by Call's own brothers. Anson Call was one of the great settlers of the territory, helping found communities from Bountiful to Fillmore.

The fort is long gone, but his name remains fixed to this corner of Utah.