Gunlock State Park
state park in Washington County, Utah, United States
Gunlock State Park is a state park of Utah, United States, adjoining the 266-acre (108 ha) Gunlock Reservoir that impounds the Santa Clara River. The park is located approximately 15 miles (24 km) northwest of St George. The reservoir dam was constructed in 1970 for irrigation water and flood control.
Gunlock State Park is a primitive area; there are facilities. The park offers camping, swimming, boating, and fishing. The park and reservoir are named after the nearby community of Gunlock. The town was named after William "Gunlock Will" Hamblin, its first settler. Hamblin was a Mormon pioneer born in Ohio who settled in the area in 1857. Gunlock Will was a good hunter and sharpshooter, and was skillful in repairing gunlocks, which are the firing mechanisms for muzzleloaders.
The county road to the park is the Old Spanish Trail used by horsemen and raiders from Santa Fe, New Mexico to Los Angeles, California from the 1820s until 1849, when the gold fields of California became the destination and a shorter route was taken.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gunlock State Park” is state park in Washington County, Utah, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gunlock, State and Park, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “state park in Washington County, Utah, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5618858. Authority coordinates are 37.254, -113.784. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1857 and 1849.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Gunlock State Park”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Gunlock State Park primary sources, Gunlock State Park archive and Gunlock research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gunlock State Park”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Gunlock State Park” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.