Editing Spanish Fork, Utah (section)

==History==
Spanish Fork was settled in 1851 by members of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] as part of the [[Mormon Pioneers|Mormon Pioneers']] settlement of [[Utah Territory]]. Its name derives from a visit to the area by two [[Franciscan]] friars from [[Spain]], [[Silvestre Vélez de Escalante]] and [[Francisco Atanasio Domínguez]] in 1776, who followed the stream down Spanish Fork canyon with the objective of opening a new trail from [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]], to the [[Spanish missions in California]], along a route later followed by fur trappers.{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}} They described the area inhabited by [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] as having "spreading meadows, where there is sufficient irrigable land for two good settlements.... Over and above these finest of advantages, it has plenty of firewood and timber in the adjacent sierra which surrounds it—many sheltered spots, waters, and pasturages, for raising cattle and sheep and horses."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vélez de Escalante |first=Silvestre |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/44963604 |title=The Domínguez-Escalante journal : their expedition through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in 1776 |date=1995 |publisher=University of Utah Press |others=Ted J. Warner |isbn=0-585-19728-8 |location=Salt Lake City |oclc=44963604}}</ref>

In 1851, some settlers led by William Pace set up scattered farms in the Spanish Fork bottom lands and called the area the Upper Settlement. However, a larger group congregated at what became known as the Lower Settlement just over a mile northwest of the present center of Spanish Fork along the [[Spanish Fork (river)|Spanish Fork]] river. In December 1851, [[Stephen Markham]], who was severely wounded outside [[Carthage Jail]] in [[Carthage, Illinois]] while attempting to defend [[Joseph Smith]] and other church leaders from a mob in 1844, became the [[branch president|president]] of the first church congregation (branch) at the Lower Settlement.<ref name=jenson/>{{rp|823}}

In 1852, Latter-day Saints founded a settlement called [[Palmyra, Utah|Palmyra]] west of the historic center of Spanish Fork. [[George A. Smith]] supervised the laying out of a townsite, including a temple square in that year.<ref name=jenson>{{cite book|last=Jenson|first=Andrew|date=1941|title=Encyclopedic History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|location=Salt Lake City, Utah|publisher=Deseret Book}}</ref>{{rp|631–632}} A fort and a school were built at the Palmyra site in 1852.<ref name=jenson/>{{rp|824}} With the onset of the [[Walkara|Walker War]] in 1853, most of the farmers in the region who were not yet in the Palmyra fort moved in.<ref name=jenson/>{{rp|631}} Some of the people did not like this site and so moved to a different site at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon, where they built a structure they called "Fort St. Luke".<ref name=jenson/>{{rp|256–257}} Also in 1854 there was a fort founded approximately {{convert|2|mi}} south of the center of Spanish Fork that later was known as the "Old Fort".<ref name=jenson/>{{rp|823}}

Between 1855 and 1860, the arrival of pioneers from [[Iceland]] made Spanish Fork the first permanent Icelandic settlement in the United States.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jackson|first=Thorstina|date=1925|title=Icelandic Communities in America: Cultural Backgrounds and Early Settlements|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3005071|journal=The Journal of Social Forces|volume=3|number=4|pages=681|doi=10.2307/3005071|jstor=3005071 |s2cid=147332269 |access-date=2022-08-09}}</ref> The city also lent its name to the 1865 Treaty of Spanish Fork, where the [[Ute people|Utes]] were forced by an [[Executive order (United States)|Executive Order]] of President [[Abraham Lincoln]] to relocate to the [[Uintah Basin]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}}