Jonathan Heaton, who became known as "The Father of Alton," owned the land known as Oak Flats. He hired Lysander Porter to survey the land into nine ten-acre blocks, dividing each into four lots or thirty-six two-acre lots. Jonathan donated the central block for the community's town square. The first house in town came in the winter of 1907 when James Glover moved his Sink Valley ranch house three miles up the valley to the newly established town site. The move began by placing the house on two logs used as runners chained to twenty-four of the community's best horses. After ten days of hard labor in four feet of snow, the home came to rest on the chosen lot. Ira Heaton built the first new home in 1908.
The town of Alton, named after a Norwegian fjord town that had similar severe winters and high altitude, was dedicated by Apostle Francis M. Lyman in the newly completed one room school house on Saturday, September 1, 1908.
Donated July 4, 2008, by the family of John Stanley and Clarissa AmyHeaton Glover, in commemoration of Alton's 100th birthday.
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