Peters Nipple from: Utah Place Names

PETERS NIPPLE (San Juan County) is a geologic formation five miles southeast of Aneth*. It was named after Peter Shirts, who was an early settler in the area. Shirts was a legendary figure who seemed to appear in areas destined to be settled by others. In 1852 he founded Hamilton* on Shirts Creek, south of Cedar City*. In the winter of 1865 and 1866 he holed up with a cluster of Indians on the Paria* site. On June 2, 1879, he was visited by members of the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition at the mouth of Montezuma Wash. Shirts had gone into San Juan country in 1877. See Hamilton Fort* (Iron County), Shirts Creek (Iron County) below. >S36,T41S,R25E,SLM; 5,141' (1,567m). Bibliography: Culmsee, Carlton. Utah's Black Hawk War. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1973. Woodbury, Angus Munn. A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks. Salt Lake City: State Historical Society, 1950.

HAMILTON FORT* (Iron County) is four miles south of Cedar City*. The settlement was founded in 1852 and known as Shirts Creek* after the creek the fort was founded on. The fort and creek were both named for Peter Shirts, a noted Mormon pioneer and scout. After the Indian wars of 1853, Shirts sold the fort and his land to his neighbor, John Hamilton. At that time it was known as Fort Walker*, supposedly in honor of the noted Indian Chief Walker. It was during the Indian wars with Chief Walker that the settlers moved out and into nearby Cedar City. When the settlers returned in 1857 they renamed the settlement Sidon* "after the Phoenician City of Asia." In 1869 the settlers moved one-half mile north of the old fort and renamed the site Hamilton* in honor of John Hamilton. >S31,T16S,R11W,SLM; 5,647' (1,721m). Bibliography: Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Utah, 1540-1886. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1964. (1st ed. 1889). Carr, Stephen L. The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns. Salt Lake City: Western Epics, 1972. Our Pioneer Heritage, 17 vols. Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. (v13). Jenson, Andrew. Encyclopedic History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Publishing Co., 1941. Thompson, George A. Some Dreams Die, Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures. Salt Lake City: Dream Garden Press, 1982. Utah State Historical Society. Unpublished Archives on Geographic Names.

SHIRTS CREEK (Iron County) originates in the Cedar Mountains at the head of Shurtz Canyon, five miles southeast of Hamilton Fort. It drains northwest into Quichapa Lake. The creek was named for Peter Shirts (Shurtz), a pioneer from Europe. The early Utah Territory places that were named after Shirts were spelled with a European spelling. Shirts later anglicized his name, so both spellings are used on more recent maps. Sidon Creek was an early name for the creek. >S24,T37S,R11W,SLM to S27,T36S,R12W,SLM. Bibliography: Brooks, Juanita, ed. Journal of the Southern Indian Mission, Diary of Thomas D. Brown. Logan, UT: Utah State University Press, 1972. Hole-in-the-Rock. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. 1966. Peterson, Charles Sharon. Look to the Mountains: Southeastern Utah and the La Sal National Forest. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1975. Utah State Historical Society. Unpublished Archives on Geographic Names. Woodbury, Angus Munn. A History of Southern Utah and Its National Parks. Salt Lake City: State Historical Society, 1950.

EXPLANATION OF SYMBOLS... 1. An asterisk (*) following a place name indicates past or present inhabitation. 2. When a series of letters and numbers are present towards the end of an entry after the ">" symbol, the first group indicates section/township/range as closely as can be pinpointed (i.e., S12,T3S,R4W,SLM, or USM). A section equals approximately one square mile, reflecting U.S. Geological Survey topographic map sections. Because Utah is not completely mapped, some entries are incomplete. In this case, whatever information is available will be provided. The second group, when present, is altitude in feet followed by meters in parentheses [i.e., 6,000' (1,829m)]. Altitude is not included with canyons or deserts with varying altitudes.

______SOURCE... Utah Place Names. Salt Lake City, Utah : University of Utah. University of Utah Press, 1990.

AUTHOR... Van Cott, John W.

USE RESTRICTIONS... The contents of this article may be repurposed for non-commercial, non-profit, educational use.

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