Pinto (Washington) is twelve miles east southeast of Enterprise and is an outgrowth of nearby Fort Harmony. The Spanish Trail passed through on its way south toward Mountain Meadows. Both the Utes and the Piutes occupied sites along the creek in this area before 1856, when Rufus C. Allen and others settled there. There are different versions of how the town received its name. First, "pinto"is a Spanish word for "speckled" or "spotted," which would describe the area's multi-colored geologic formations. In another version, Leigh writes that a Piute Indian band, the pintiats, lived along the creek and the word "pinto" comes from an Indian name rather than from the Spanish.

John W. Van Cott