La Verkin lies on the north banks of the Virgin River opposite Hurricane, and three miles south of Toquerville. The Zion National Park-Grand Canyon Highway (State Highway 9) bisects the town, while the La Verkin Hot Mineral Springs, a popular bathing resort, is located in the Rio Virgin Canyon immediately south of the community. Rich farmlands make up La Verkin bench between La Verkin Creek on the west and the Hurricane Fault on the east.

The origin of the name is somewhat confusing. In a letter from John Steele and J.C.L. Smith to the Deseret News, dated 26 June 1852, La Verkin Creek is referred to as the "Leiver Skin." Perhaps it originally was "Beaver Skin"; it would have been easy for pioneer writers to transpose an "L" for a "B." Others, however, say that La Verkin is a corruption of the Spanish "La Virgen," referring to the nearby Virgin River. Whatever the source of origin, early Washington County Court records also list the creek as "Leiversking." In time it was shortened to La Verkin.

The La Verkin bench was observed by Erastus Snow when his party explored the Virgin River Valley from Zion Canyon to Santa Clara during the fall of 1861. They were attempting to locate lands suitable for the Cotton Mission farmers. Snow opined that Virgin River water could be conveyed to the bench land, however, the others felt that the labor involved would be too expensive.

Almost thirty years later, Thomas Judd and Thomas P. Cottam had a survey made and started work on a canal. In June 1889 the La Verkin Fruit and Nursery Company was incorporated with a capital stock of $25,000.00. Its objectives were to establish nursery orchards and vineyards, to manufacture wine and liquor, and to promote fruit raising, stock raising, and general farming.

Work on the canal and tunnel was most difficult; a major part of the canal was made through the solid rock limestone of the precipitous cliff wall, other portions through talus slides that had broken off the limestone ledges above. A tunnel through the Kaibab limestone escarpment east of the bench was eight hundred feet in length. It was worked on from both sides, and when the two crews met, the sections fitted together almost perfectly. A row of lighted candles from each end was used as a mark to keep the lines straight as the men on both sides of the ridge drove toward the center. They built a dam two miles up the river from the place where the tunnel penetrated the mountain. Water was turned into the ditch in April 1891.

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