Annabella

Adapted from Bishop M. Guy,  A History of Sevier County. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1997

Annabella was founded in 1871 by two families, the Daltons and the Powells. The settlement was initially a small village known as Omni Point, due to its proximity to Richfield, which at the time was known as Omni. Early life in the settlement was far from luxurious, with the settlers living in dugouts. Log cabins followed, and a saw mill in the 1880s provided settlers with better materials for housing. The name was changed to Annabella, according to local history after the first two female settlers: Anna Roberts and Isabella Dalton. 

Like many of the settlements of Sevier county (and Utah generally), Annabella’s early history was largely shaped by its environment and its access to water. Niels M. Peterson supervised the construction of the Annabella canal, which was finished in 187. Residents later abandoned the canal in favor of the South Bend Extension Canal.

Annabella, along with most of the state, suffered from the decline in farming in the 1920s. The poor market for farming led to many residents seeking better prospects elsewhere. The population reached a peak in 1940 at 351, before dropping to 177 in the 1960s.

Since then, the population of Annabella has steadily increased, along with the rest of Sevier county. This has been helped by the strength of the county’s construction economy. Today, Annabella’s population is nearly 800.