Part of the Great Basin shaped since the time of Lake Bonneville, the Paragonah area was home to Anasazi Indian civilizations, as shown by nearby ruins. Explorers and travelers passed through it for generations, including the Dominguez-Escalante expedition in 1776 west of the valley, traders on the Old Spanish Trail through Bear Valley into Parowan Valley at Little Creek, the Jedediah S Smith expedition in 1826, and Parley P Pratt and his company in 1849 as they searched for Mormon colonization sites. In 1851 Apostle George A Smith led an expedition that colonized what is now Parowan, and that spring forty acres were cultivated near Black Rock south of town. In 1852 others joined the farming venture and built rude huts for shelter at Red Creek, as the place was originally named. The settlement was abandoned in 1853 because of Indian skirmishes and was not resettled until 1855, when a fort was erected. Originally spelled Paragoonah, an Indian word meaning many watering holes, the town stood in a landscape once dotted with artesian wells and later watered by gravity-flow sprinkling systems that supported abundant alfalfa. By 1996 it was a peaceful community marked by unity, low population density, clear spring water, clean air, nearby canyons for recreation, and historic features including old homes and barns, Black Rock Cave, and Anasazi remnants.