Utah Travel Center
  • Home
  • Travel Center
    • Activities
      • ATV Riding
      • Biking
      • Cross-Country Skiing
      • Fishing
      • Golf
      • Hiking
      • Horseback
      • Hunting
      • Jeep Tours
      • Snowboarding
      • Snowmobiling
      • Sports
      • Rock Climbing
      • Watersports
      • Winter Activities
    • Destinations
      • National Parks
      • BLM Lands
      • Counties
      • National Forests
      • National Historic Site
      • National Monuments
      • National Recreation Areas
      • Points of Interest
      • Scenic Byways
      • State Parks
    • State Info
      • Transportation
      • Travel Regions
      • Wildlife
    • Travel Info
      • Entertainment
      • Lodging
      • Trip Planning
      • Weather
    • Cities
      • Cedar City
      • Green River
      • Kanab
      • Logan
      • Moab
      • Ogden
      • Orem
      • Panguitch
      • Park City
      • Price
      • Provo
      • Salt Lake City
      • Sandy
      • Springdale
      • St. George
  • History
  • Search
  • Menu

Fort Davy Crockett

In 1836 William Craig, Philip Thompson, and Previtt Sinclair built a fort at Brown’s Hole, where Vermillion Creek merges with the Green River. Brown’s Hole was a favorite wintering place for mountain men and Indians because of the mild winters and abundant forage and game animals. After news of the fall of the Alamo and the death of Davy Crockett reached the mountains, the owners named their fort after that fallen hero. However, the mountain men usually referred to the place as “Fort Misery” because of the deplorable condition of the place. Described as a “hollow square,” the fort was built of logs and had a dirt roof and dirt floor which quickly turned into a quagmire in foul weather. It was termed by one contemporary as “the meanest fort in the West,” yet, for a short time Fort Davy Crockett became the social center of the Rocky Mountains. Business at the fort included trading with Indians and free trappers, while other hunters and trappers were hired at the fort. Also, it was a place for travelers headed west to obtain supplies.

Fort Davy Crockett went out of business in the late summer of 1840. After the 1839 rendezvous, many of the trappers went to the fort to winter. Demoralized over the prospects of poor trapping, and destitute with even poorer prices, Philip Thompson and some of free trappers turned to horse stealing. After a visit to Fort Hall, Thompson and a group of eleven others stole over thirty horses from friendly Shoshone Indians. When the thieves arrived at the fort, Thompson’s partners and the other mountain men were outraged. The miscreants fled southward with the stolen horses. Joe Meeks, William Craig, Robert Newell, Kit Carson, and twenty-five others led by Joseph Walker pursued and caught up with the thieves at the junction of the Duchesne and Green rivers. After a short battle, the horses were recovered and the thieves fled the country. The partnership broke up over this incident and the post was abandoned. Never well built, upon abandonment the fort quickly fell to ruin. When Captain John C. Frémont, heading west on his 1844 trip to California, camped at the site of the fort he recorded that little was left standing.

John D. Barton

© Copyright - Utah Travel Center
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings

How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our site functions. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds: