The water of Pipe Spring has made it possible for plants, animals, and people to live in this dry
desert region.
Ancestral Puebloans and Kaibab
Paiute Indians gathered grass seeds, hunted animals, and raised crops near the springs for at least 1,000 years.
Antonio Armijo discovered the springs when he passed through the area in 1829, when he established by the
Armijo Route of the
Old Spanish Trail. Pipe Spring was named by the 1858
Latter-day Saint missionary expedition to the
Hopi mesas led by
Jacob Hamblin. In the 1860s
Mormon pioneers from
St. George, Utah, led by James M. Whitmore brought
cattle to the area, and a large cattle ranching operation was established. In 1866 the
Apache,
Navajo and
Paiute tribes of the region joined the
Utes for the
Black Hawk War, and, after they raided Pipe Spring, a protective
fort was constructed by 1872 over the main spring. The following year the fort and ranch was purchased by
Brigham Young for
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). The LDS
Bishop of nearby
Grafton, Utah, Anson Perry Winsor, was hired to operate the ranch and maintain the fort, soon called
Winsor Castle. This isolated outpost served as a way station for people traveling across the
Arizona Strip, that part of Arizona separated from the rest of the state by the
Grand Canyon. It also served as a refuge for
polygamist wives during the 1880s and 1890s. The LDS Church lost ownership of the property through penalties involved in the federal
Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887. Although their way of life was greatly impacted by Mormon settlement, the Paiute Indians continued to live in the area and by 1907 the
Kaibab Paiute Indian Reservation was established, surrounding the privately owned Pipe Spring ranch. In 1923, the Pipe Spring ranch was purchased and set aside as a national monument to be a memorial to western pioneer life. ==The site today==