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Show NPS Fo rm 10-900-8 U1ah WordPertec1 5. 1 Format (Revised Feb. 1993) OMS No. 10024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. ~ Page ~ Clark Lane His toric District, Farmington, Davis County , UT The vast majority of these early settlers were members of the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose leaders discouraged this haphazard pattern of settlement which was considered ~Gentile " in fashion. As stated by Leonard: In part to counteract this trend, a town plot was surveyed in the fall of 1853. Surveyors located the village on a foothill bench wide enough from east to west for only two city blocks. They ran the main street parallel with the mountains. Six lots, each containing 150 square rods of land, were measured off in every block, and the blocks were separated by streets six rods (ninetynine feet) wide. At the time of this survey only three adobe and four log houses had been constructed within the town plot. To encourage further settlement in the town rather than upon nearby farmlands, local leaders planned a city fort. Indian troubles in central and southern Utah--tn -1853 ~ad -led Brigham. Young t~ proclaim a general policy requesting all Mormo~ communities to wall themselves in as a protective measure. The site for the fort was selected sometime prior to September, 1853 , perhaps in conjunction with the town survey. After beginning construction with stone, it was concluded that the fort be enclosed instead by a mud wall. As originally planned, the mud wall was to be ten feet high, four feet thick at the bottom , and two and a half feet thick at the top. It was to enclose a city plot two blocks east and west by about six blocks north and south. These original plans were altered to include three and a half blocks on the weste~n extension of the bench, creating an ~LtI shaped enclosure (see figures 1 & 2). Within this western extension of the fort, Ezra T. and Mary S. Clark had already begun laying the foundation for the settlement of their family. It is likely that this western extension of the fort was encouraged by Clark. Regardless of his view on the issue, he was no doubt intimately involved in the process to extend the fort since his home was impacted by its location. It is also important to note that the fort walls of this western extension were located to take advantage of the terrain which created a defensible site whereby views to the surrounding countryside were unobstructed by the walls. The fort walls were never completed as originally conceived, reaching only a height of six feet by about 1855. The seven planned entrances were left open, never having had their gates hung. By the end of the 1860's, residents began leveling out the dirt humps in their lots and lOthe wall eventually disappeared from existence except in a few scattered fragments • No portion of the wall remains at the present time. Bteonard. Glen M. Masters Thesis. A History of Farmington, Utah To 1890. Univ. of Utah. 1966. p. 86. 9 I bid. p. 87. 10lbid. p. 87. .!. See continuation sheet |
