The drive out to the fort was on a dirt trail and was heavily trafficked by ATV’s, motorcycles, and other off-road vehicles.  You don’t necessarily need 4 wheel drive but it would be useful if it’s muddy.  A high clearance vehicle is probably best for getting to the fort.

I won’t go in to too much history about Fort Pearce.  I will say it was mostly created to protect the livestock during the Utah Black Hawk War from about 1865-1870.  The fort is small but also served as protection for settlers from “Navajo raiding parties” who would cross through this area.  No battles were ever fought at the fort but it proved most useful in corralling livestock.  For a great read on the history of the fort please read this article from the Washington County Historical Society.

The fort itself is located just a short inclined walk from the parking lot and it is completely open to exploring inside and out.  You can immediately see that the walls have been crumbling for a long time now, so please be respectful and not further the crumbling by taking stones or damaging the structure.

According to the Washington County Historical Society article, the fort never had a roof built on it.  The walls are only six feet tall now, but may have been closer to eight feet.

It might seem silly to build such a small fort out here, but there is still sometimes running water in the wash below and the fort was situated near a popular route for people coming to St. George from Arizona on the Honeymoon Trail back in the day.  So it was theoretically a great location to watch over the creek and provide a safe place for those coming to St. George.

Here are some pictures of the wash which had running water in it while we visited.

Near the fort there are many Native American petroglyphs, pictographs, and even signatures from pioneers and settlers.  Just like the Native Americans, the settlers also carved in the rock but the settlers sometimes used axle grease to record their names too.

GPS Coordinates for the petroglyphs:

More photos of rock art and inscriptions

When we came back to our car there were already several groups of people!  It got crowded real quick but they were soon all gone after seeing the fort.