Residents named the town Moab in 1880;[8] in the Bible this term refers to an area of land located on the eastern side of the Jordan River.

There were repeated Indian attacks, including one on September 23, 1855, in which James Hunt, companion to Peter Stubbs, was shot and killed by a Native American.

[14] A new group of settlers from Rich County, led by Randolph Hockaday Stewart, established a permanent settlement in 1878 under the direction of Brigham Young.

Moab farmers and merchants had to adapt from trading with passing travelers to shipping their goods to distant markets.

[citation needed] Nevertheless, the U.S. military deemed the bridge over the Colorado River at Moab important enough to place it under guard as late as World War II.

[17][18] In 1943, a former Civilian Conservation Corps camp outside Moab was used as a Citizen Isolation Center to confine Japanese American internees labeled "troublemakers" by authorities in the War Relocation Authority, the government body responsible for overseeing the wartime incarceration program.

[19] The Moab Isolation Center for "noncompliant" Japanese Americans was created in response to growing resistance to WRA policies within the camps; a December 1942 clash between guards and inmates known as the "Manzanar Riot", in which two were killed and ten injured, was the final push.

[20] On January 11, 1943, the sixteen men who had initiated the two-day protests were transferred to Moab from the town jails where they were booked (without charges or access to hearings) after the riot.

Having closed just fifteen months prior, all 18 military-style structures of the CCC camp were in good condition, and the site was converted to its new use with minimal renovation.

[21] 150 military police guarded the camp, and director Raymond Best and head of security Francis Frederick presided over administration.

[20] On February 18, thirteen transfers from Gila River, Arizona, were brought to Moab, and six days later, ten more arrived from Manzanar.

Most of these new arrivals were removed from the general camp population because of their resistance to the WRA's attempts to determine the loyalty of incarcerated Japanese Americans, met largely with confusion and anger because of a lack of explanation as to how and why internees would be assessed.

(Five men, serving sentences in the Grand County Jail after protesting conditions in Moab, were transported to Leupp in a five-by-six-foot box on the back of a truck.

Their separate transfer was arranged by Francis Frederick, who had also handed down their prison sentences, using a law he later rescinded to charge them with unlawful assembly.

)[20][22] In 1994, the "Dalton Wells CCC Camp/Moab Relocation Center" was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and, although no marker exists on the site, an information plaque at the current site entrance and a photograph on display at the Dan O'Laurie Museum in Moab mention the former isolation center.

Charles Steen donated a great deal of money and land to create new houses and churches in Moab.

[25] Ford had been using the area in Monument Valley around Mexican Hat, Utah, south of Moab, since he filmed Stagecoach there 10 years earlier in 1939.

[citation needed] The relatively mild winters and enjoyable summers have attracted many people to build such homes throughout the area.

In a situation mirroring that of other resort towns in the American West, controversy has arisen over these new residents and their houses, which in many cases remain unoccupied for most of the year.

Many Moab citizens are concerned that the town is seeing changes similar to those experienced in Vail and Aspen in neighboring Colorado: skyrocketing property values, a rising cost of living, and corresponding effects on local low- and middle-income workers.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 12 square kilometres (4.8 sq mi), all land.

[6] Moab has a semi-arid climate bordering on arid (Köppen BSk) characterized by hot summers and chilly winters, with precipitation evenly spread over the year (usually less than one inch per month).