Charles W. and Eleanor Willden, English converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who came to Utah in 1849, were the first settlers in this area. Because Charles was an iron worker, Brigham Young called him to work in the Cedar City iron mission in the 1850s, and like many others he camped at Cove Creek on the way to his assignment. After the iron works closed down, Charles acquired 160 acres there to establish a farm and way station. In 1860 the Willdens planted five cottonwood trees and began Fort Willden on the bank of Cove Creek, building an adobe house and a corral enclosed within a 150-foot-square cedar post stockade, and they also raised a crop of grain. Before retreating to Beaver for the winter, they cached their grain for spring planting. In 1861 their newlywed daughter and her husband were trapped there by a late winter snowstorm, and because the adobe house had no coverings over the windows, they built a small dugout cabin for shelter and warmth and lived on the cached grain. In the spring the whole family returned and built a two-room home inside the eight-to-ten-foot-high stockade. For a few years, many travelers found Fort Willden a convenient stopover between Salt Lake City and St. George, and the ranch-fort thrived. After a harsh winter and with the growing threat of the Blackhawk war, the Willdens abandoned the fort in 1865. Early in 1867 the deserted fort was used for an office of the Deseret Telegraph, and later that year the Cove Fort pioneers arrived and for several years used Fort Willden as part of their larger complex.