page_title: Big House (Moccasin, Arizona)
section_title: Moccasin Ranch Activities & Significance
hierarchical_section_title: Big House (Moccasin, Arizona) / Moccasin Ranch Activities & Significance
caption_attribution_description: English: Old Spanish Trail early exploration routes in southern Utah and northern Arizona (map detail). Green=Dominguez-Escalante, 1776-1777. Blue=Jedediah Smith, 1826-1827. Double-Dashed=Armijo Route, 1829. Brown=Northern Route, 1831. Dashed=North Branch, 1848.
context_page_description: The Big House in Moccasin, Arizona was built ca. 1875 by Mormon pioneer craftsmen associated with the Mormon United Order based in Orderville, Utah. The house was one of the first multi-room residences in the remote northern Arizona community of Moccasin and for several decades served as a community and religious center for Moccasin and Arizona Strip residents and visitors. Many travelers on the Mormon Honeymoon Trail stayed in the Big House.
context_section_description: Emma Carroll Seegmiller, sister of Lucy Heaton, outlined activities at the Moccasin Ranch in the late 1800s:
  [T]here were fruits in abundance—peaches, grapes, plums, melons galore . . . abundant fields of sugar cane were raised from which the molasses for which the Order was famous, was made and which for a time constituted our sole source of sweetening for foods. . . .  In the Autumn girls and boys were ushered into service picking up potatoes and topping beets and carrots. . . . The beets and carrots were dumped in piles, around which we sat and as at a husking bee, we sang and talked while we worked. . . .  Farming and the care of stock were successful enterprises of Moccasin Ranch.
  The route along the Vermilion Cliffs through the Arizona Strip, passing by Pipe Spring and Moccasin Spring, had long been used by Native Americans. It became part of the Armijo Route of the Old Spanish Trail, connecting Santa Fe and Los Angeles, after it was explored by Antonio Armijo in 1829-1830. After Mormon settlement in the area, this route became known as the Honeymoon Trail, connecting Mormon settlements in southern Utah and northern Arizona to St. George.
  The Big House was an important stop on the Honeymoon Trail, where many guests and visitors spent the night. One month, the Heatons tallied 110 meals served to guests and 35 horses fed. Guests included "governors, church leaders, businessmen, important park and railroad officials, cowboys, herders, and Indians."
  In addition, the Big House served as the location of school classes, community meetings, and religious services for many years, until construction of a community school in Moccasin in 1904.
caption: Old Spanish Trail early exploration routes in southern Utah and northern Arizona. Green=Dominguez-Escalante, 1776-1777. Blue=Jedediah Smith, 1826-1827. Double-Dashed=Armijo Route, 1829. Brown=Northern Route, 1831. Dashed=North Branch, 1848.
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