Landscape Information
The 200-acre cultural landscape surrounding the house contains many sites and features that date back to prehistoric settlement by the Virgin Anasazi and Southern Paiute. Natural resources within the landscape, including water diverted from Quail and Leeds Creeks allowed crops to be irrigated, provided clay for ceramics, and stones for tools. In the mid-19th century, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints colonized the area, building the agricultural settlements of Leeds and Harrisburg along the creeks. The sandstone masonry house was built in 1863 for the Orson B. Adams family in the westernmost section of Harrisburg. While most of the original settlers left the region by the turn of the century, the Orson Adams House was continuously occupied until the mid-20th century. Located in the Red Cliffs Recreation Area just off Interstate 15, 14 miles northeast of St. George, UT, the house and adjacent terraced fields, irrigation ditches, and other agrarian features, preserves a 2000-year record of changing land use.
