A bond passed in 2011, ground broke in 2014, and a school called Skyridge went up where there had been nothing.
Last reviewed 10 September 2026 · A two-minute read · 1849–2021
The short answer
Skyridge High School in Lehi opened in August 2016 after a 2011 bond measure and a 2014 groundbreaking, on ground that had been empty. The land lies near the site of the 1849 killings at Battle Creek Canyon and the defensive wall later built at American Fork against feared Timpanogos reprisal.
2011 to 2014
Voters funded a high school that did not yet exist
Voters in the Skyridge High School passed a bond in 2011 to build a new high school. There was no school here yet. There was barely a neighborhood.
Crews broke ground in 2014. Two years later, in August 2016, the doors opened on a building that had not existed when the bond passed. A grant in 2015 paid for a driver's education range. Students could learn to drive on school property before they ever touched a real road.
The school picked a mascot before it had much else. A falcon named Flash became the face of a place that was, at that point, mostly steel and drywall and a parking lot.
A school with no history had to make one fast.
2016 to now
A young school won five straight state tennis titles
Skyridge did not wait long to start winning. The girls' tennis team took the state title in 2020, then again in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, five years running. The football team won its own state championship in 2022. Boys' cross country took it in 2020, boys' swimming in both 2023 and 2024, competitive cheer in 2023, and lacrosse more recently still.
None of that was inherited. A school with a decade of existence built a run of championships almost as fast as it built its hallways. The falcon on the gym wall predates most of what it now stands for.
March 1849
Settlers killed four Timpanogos men and named the ground Battle Creek
The land Skyridge now sits on was empty ground long before it was a bond measure. Two miles south, about 35 Mormon settlers rode into Battle Creek Canyon. They killed four Timpanogos Ute men. Brigham Young had ordered the attack after accusations of cattle theft. Settlers named their new town after that killing. They called it Battle Creek.
The name did not last. Later residents renamed it Pleasant Grove, after the cottonwoods that grew there. The older name fell out of use. The Timpanogos had their own name for the area: Mepha, meaning Little Waters. None of the three names survives on a street sign today.
The valley's first town name came from a killing, and the second town name was built to forget it.
1849 to 1853
American Fork built a 12-foot wall against feared reprisal
Fear did not end with the new name. Settlers at American Fork, a few miles from where Skyridge now stands, built a 12-foot wall around their township. Militia commander Daniel H. Wells ordered the work. They expected Timpanogos reprisal for the killings at Battle Creek. The wall went up in pieces, incomplete in places, finished in others. A town built defensively before it had proper streets or stores.
1860 and after
Lehi-born artists made their careers far from home
James Taylor Harwood was born in Lehi in 1860. He grew up to become one of Utah's notable etchers and painters. He trained abroad and exhibited far from his birthplace. Lehi-born artists and leaders formed a small cluster. Their careers played out somewhere else entirely. Their names are now attached to galleries and pulpits and legislatures far past the town line.
1953 to 2001
A Lehi-born runner competed nationally before returning to die
Paul Cummings went further than most. He was born in Lehi in 1953. He became a distance runner who competed at a national level. He spent his career on tracks and courses well outside Utah County. He died in Lehi in 2001, back in the town he'd left decades earlier to run.
The falcon on the gym wall watches a town that keeps building new ground over old names.
Open this place in Strata
Every person, building and event in this story opens into its own dig in the app — and it will dig the ground you are standing on instead, wherever that is.
Sourced records, high and medium confidence. Era background is marked as such.
Modern
March 5, 1849
In March 1849, a Mormon militia of about 35 men, acting on orders from Brigham Young, pursued and killed four Timpanogos Ute men at Battle Creek Canyon a couple of miles south, over accusations of cattle theft.
The nearby settlement, first called Battle Creek after the 1849 killings, was renamed Pleasant Grove for its cottonwood trees; the Timpanogos had called the area Mepha, or Little Waters.
After the Battle Creek killings, settlers at American Fork built a 12-foot defensive wall around the township on orders from General Daniel H. Wells, fearing retaliation from the Timpanogos.
Less than a year later, Mormon militia attacked a Timpanogos encampment at Fort Utah on the Provo River, killing an estimated 40 to 100 people in retaliation for reported livestock theft.
On July 9, 2015, Perry Homes Utah Inc, which had just taken the lot from its parent development company, sold the new house to Stephen Roberts, who financed it with a mortgage from Guaranteed Rate Inc the same day.
Stephen and Charlene Roberts refinanced through America First Federal Credit Union in 2019, then sold the house to Lance and Tiffany Correa in February 2021.
What was here before Skyridge High School was built?
There was no school and barely a neighborhood on the ground before the 2011 bond measure; construction began with groundbreaking in 2014.
When did Skyridge High School open?
Skyridge High School opened in August 2016, funded by a 2011 Alpine School District bond and built after ground broke in 2014.
What happened at Battle Creek Canyon near Lehi?
In March 1849, about 35 Mormon militia members, acting on orders from Brigham Young, killed four Timpanogos Ute men at Battle Creek Canyon over accusations of cattle theft, and the killing gave the nearby settlement its first name.
Why did American Fork build a wall in the 1800s?
Settlers at American Fork built a 12-foot defensive wall around the township between 1849 and 1853, on orders from militia commander Daniel H. Wells, fearing Timpanogos reprisal for the Battle Creek killings.
What is Skyridge High School's mascot?
Skyridge High School's mascot is a falcon named Flash, chosen before the school had much of a building or a history to go with it.
Who are some notable people born in Lehi?
Painter James Taylor Harwood was born in Lehi in 1860, as was landscape painter Edwin Evans the same year, and distance runner Paul Cummings was born there in 1953.