La Estancia - Kanab, Utah History & Information
Kanab is in the heart of Color Country, centrally located within Utah’s “Grand Circle” of National Parks and Monuments. Famous for its wild and scenic western flavor, Kanab is often referred to as "Utah’s Little Hollywood", as nearly one hundred movies have been filmed in the area, with over twenty of them filmed right in Tom's Canyon!
Kanab is also the place where, in 1872, Major John Wesley Powell built a stone foundation, erected a tent and established the meridian for mapping the Southwest Territories. In that same tent he gave the name "Grand Canyon" to Frederick Dellenbaugh to place on the maps they created for the majestic canyon a few miles to the South. La Estancia offers the adventuresome an opportunity to live full time in this spectacular land - not just to vacation here from time to time, but to live it every day.
Movies and Television Shows Filmed in Kanab
1950 - The Lone Ranger (TV)
1950 - Death Valley Days (TV)
1952 - Westward the Women
1955 - No Place to Ride
1956 - The Rainmaker
1957 - The Dalton Girls
1957 - The Girl in Black Stockings
1957 - War Drums
1960 - Wagon Train (TV)
1960 - Gunsmoke (TV)
1962 - Sergeants Three
1966 - Duel at Diablo
1967 - The Long Ride Home
1967 - A Time of Killing
1969 - Mackenna’s Gold
1970 - Six Million Dollar Man (TV)
1971 - The Devil and Miss Sarah
1973 - One LIttle Indian
1976 - The Outlaw Josie Wales
1976 - In Search of Noah’s Ark
1976 - How the West Was Won
1979 - Donner Pass - The Road to Survival
1979 - How the West Was Won
1979 - The Apple Dumpling Gang
Kanab, Utah Links & Information
Southern Utah News - Kanab's own weekly hometown newspaper
Kane County, Utah Travel Council
Kanab Area Vacation Guide - produced by the Southern Utah News
Kanab Utah information
Utah Website Design - Evangelista Design, Kanab, UT
HISTORY OF TOM’S CANYON
Guest Editorial from the Southern Utah News, 1/26/2005
A history of Tom's Canyon from a grandchild's point of view - more than 100 years of Kanab history
by Teresa Christine (Robinson) Sprecher, descendant of Neldon A. & Heidi Robinson,
Merrill & Rose Robinson, and Thomas & Delaney Robinson.
I don't have exact dates, just approximate dates as most of what I am about to put down is from memory of conversations with my grandparents, dad and aunts.
Thomas Edward Robinson, son of Richard Smith Robinson, came to the Kanab area in the late 1880's or 1890's to help settle the area. (This time frame could be wrong as Pipe Spring had Mormon settlers in the 1860's) There are still many descendants of Richard S. Robinson in the Kanab area and a handful of Tom Robinson's family.
Tom and Delaney Robinson had two sons, Thomas Grant Robinson and Merrill Smith Robinson. In 1907, the year Merrill was born, an illness called "Goat Fever" was affecting many townspeople. Delaney helped as many families as she could and eventually became ill herself and died, leaving an infant of three and a half months and a boy of four or five to be raised by their father. Delaney's family took Merrill to raise until he was about five years old. Then Grandpa Tom figured Merrill was big enough to help with taking care of chickens and gardening and brought him back to Kanab.
Grandpa Tom never married, he was in his mid-30s when he married Delaney and she was about 18 years old herself. They had less than 10 years together. Tom lived beyond 80 years of age, always close to his sons. Kanab Canyon had belonged to Tom Robinson where he and his sons ran cattle for a long time. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary now owns this property. They have become good stewards of the land in the way much of the property has been maintained.
Now for Tom's Canyon at the northeast corner of Kanab. When Grandpa Tom began dividing his property between his sons, my grandfather Merrill Robinson was given this piece of land. Crops were raised in portions of the canyon and so was alfalfa for over 40 to 50 years. My father and his sisters helped in these farming duties and at one time Merrillin had a pitchfork stab her backside when it slid off a hay wagon.
In the 1940's Merrill built a water-wheel beside the ditch between 200 and 300 North to pump water to the area of the canyon near the big barn for irrigation. He had fashioned a pulley to be run by the tractor to pump water through a pipe up to 300 North and then through a ditch around the knoll to the barn. The water would then flow by gravity to the farmed areas.
The dikes in the canyon were utilized for the growing of crops and managed flood water. For well over 60 years these dikes had been maintained by the Robinson family, thus protecting the city of Kanab from flood waters from this section of town.
When Grandpa Merrill was too old to care of these dikes, and put in the Kanab Rest Home in the late 1990's, the dikes were no longer maintained. During this time Kanab had a very heavy rainstorm and lots of flooding occurred.
Some of the flood water did come from Tom's Canyon, down the old irrigation ditches to Highway 89 and 300 East where these converged with more water coming from the canyon where the golf course is built. From my understanding, these old irrigation ditches have not been maintained for over 20 years, which means they were overgrown with weeds and trash. I also wonder if any land owners who have canyons with potential flood plains have built dikes or some form of flood retention basin to help with water management if the need should arise. The Robinson family had.
From 1972 to 1977, my father, Neldon A. Robinson, had grown watermelons in the canyon. Many of you may remember how good they tasted on a hot summer day. I'm also sure many young men now in their 40's or early 50's remember "swiping" the occasional melon. This brings me to another issue - trespassing!
During the more than 100 years that the Robinson family had owned and maintained Tom's Canyon, many people came and went as they pleased. From the occasional watermelon to a joyride, leaving the canyon gate open and allowing the cows to get out. Then the family would get a call to come and round up the cows - these things happened for years. Domestic dogs were a constant problem for the family, as well as an individual who rented the canyon for a while to run his cattle. How many dog owners are aware of the injuries caused to livestock, especially calves during the spring, by dogs that have been allowed to run loose? Other local ranchers may have had this problem as well.
Also, there was vandalism to farm equipment and brush fires caused by the careless use of matches or fireworks by curious youngsters. The old water-wheel fell into disrepair and the place it used to be has been burned. At the Kanab City Council meeting on January 11, 2005, some of the newer Kanab residents said they wanted to maintain equestrian trails, ATV and Jeep trails. After questioning my aunts who live in other areas of the country and my two brothers who still live in the Kanab area, I have found that very few people actually asked for verbal permission to access the privately-owned land for their personal use. When my brother Norm would find someone in a Jeep, on an ATV or motorcycle in the canyon, he would ask them to leave. These ATV, Jeep and motorcycle riders were breaking down the dikes and causing other unwanted damage to the property. There are members of the community who would rather ask for forgiveness than ask for permission beforehand.
Since my grandparents have all passed away, and so has my dad, my aunts were not able to maintain the property in Kanab and take care of their own families as well. So the decision to sell the property was made.
Milo McCowan is now the new owner of Tom's Canyon. He has a proposed flood retention basin and management plan. He just needs some cooperation from the local town folk. He also has proposed parks and parking lots that will allow access to the BLM lands. He wants to keep the old barn that my dad and grandpa built in the late 60's. The tall timbers for that barn came from the old "McKennas Gold" movie set trail that had been built in the big meadows on the ranch. And, he would like to build a replica of the old water-wheel that now exists only in memory and photographs.
The descendants of Merrill and Rose Robinson appreciate all that Mr. McCowan has done and intends to do to preserve the heritage and integrity of the Thomas Edward Robinson family.