Nine miles northwest of Flagstaff sits a beautiful area known as Fort Valley. About 200 people now live in the vicinity, and millions of travelers en route to the south rim of the Grand Canyon travel through the area annually. It is named Fort Valley because a fort was built there in 1881 by John Willard Young, third son of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Brigham Young and his third wife, Mary Ann Angell.

In January 1878, John W. journeyed to the new LDS settlements near the Little Colorado River and saw, for the first time, the area where he would build his fort. Legendary LDS explorer Jacob Hamblin led John W. and others south from St. George to Pearce’s Ferry and then east around the southern side of the San Francisco Peaks to see the area initially known as Leroux Prairie. He specifically wanted John W. to see the valley set at the base of Mt. Agassiz, surrounded by ponderosa pines and a permanent water source known as Leroux Springs, a lush grassy area about 1 ≠ miles long and 1 mile wide. Even though the trip was brief and the weather was freezing, John W. was impressed.

By 1879, John W. had laid claim to the area by putting up a cabin and building a fence. Two years later, he built the fort. It was constructed in the middle of the valley and named Fort Moroni after an angel mentioned in the Book of Mormon. The stockade was about 90 feet square with parapets on two corners, with walls consisting of ponderosa pines set vertically end on end to reach 16 feet (four feet of this was in the ground, resulting in a 12-foot high perimeter). Along one side of the interior were rows of cabins for John W.’s several wives and children.

John W. maintained a collection of the latest newspapers and magazines at the fort, and kept items like a telescope, organ, piano, bobsled and other frills not usually seen on the frontier. He was an affable host and the fort was considered one of the best locales in the West. Perhaps John W. believed this remote area would become a permanent LDS settlement.

During his time at the fort, John W. and his partners acquired grading and railroad tie contracts from the Atlantic and Pacific Railway, which was pushing hard to construct the railroad through New Mexico and Arizona. He planned to hire LDS settlers to perform the work, thereby providing them with wages as they struggled to get established in Arizona. When he received an advance for the first contract, he purchased supplies and sent them to the needful LDS. He also began the first Arizona Co-operative Mercantile Institution store specifically for the LDS.

The A&P Railway was short of funds but still needed the grading and tie work completed. The job was finished but miscommunication and chaotic railroad leadership eventually led to John W. not receiving full pay for the contracts. Consequently, he was unable to pay his LDS employees all that he owed them. He was criticized for his questionable business practices, although documents indicate that he more likely was just a scapegoat for the railway company’s bad management.

After the railroad contracts ended in 1881, John W. secured investors for Fort Moroni and established the Moroni Cattle Company. Two years later, he sold the business to Arizona Cattle and Wool Company, which brought in thousands of animals to graze on the unfenced, extensive national forests between the south rim of the Grand Canyon and Winslow.

A year later, in the summer of 1884, John W. left Arizona as warrants were being issued for polygamists in the area. He never returned.

Fort Moroni served as headquarters for the Arizona Cattle Company (at some point, they dropped the Wool from their name) until 1899, when they sold it to the Manistee Lumber Company, which then sold it to the CO-Bar (owned by the Babbitt brothers) in 1902. The old fort then was used for round-ups and exhibitions held for Flagstaff residents who wanted to spend a day in the old west. Cowboys demonstrated branding, roping and cutting followed by a chuck wagon meal.

Sometime between 1916-1920, CO-Bar cowboys may have mistakenly torn down the fort. The timbers were rotting and being used as fuel for cowboy campfires, and many people felt the area had become an eyesore. Today nothing is left of the fort except a historical marker placed near its location.—

Sources: Coody, Robert A. Historic Fort Valley, Arizona. Flagstaff: Museum of Northern Arizona Press, 1988. Olberding, Susan Deaver Fort Valley: Then and Now. Flagstaff: Fort Valley Publishing Co., 2002.

— Susan Deaver Olberding. Photos courtesy Arizona Historical Society, Pioneer Museum and USFS Fort Valley Experimental Station Archives.