Pipe Spring is a Mormon outpost in the account of John Wesley Powell’s return to the region to investigate what had happened to Oramel and Seneca Howland. It serves as a meeting point and departure place for the expedition’s journey south across the Arizona Strip.

Setting and Expedition

On September 5, Powell met in Parowan with Brigham Young, Jacob Hamblin, and about forty local Saints, among them William Dame and John D. Lee. The party accompanied Powell as far as Pipe Spring. There, Powell and Hamblin said farewell to Brigham Young and the other Saints before continuing south with an escort of Kaibab Indians.

Narrative Significance

Pipe Spring marks a change in the expedition’s company and direction: the larger group of local Saints stops at the outpost, while Powell and Hamblin proceed toward a parley with Shivwit people who were said to have killed Powell’s men. The location thus anchors the transition from a regional gathering to the journey on which Powell pursued an account of the deaths.