Southern Utah Ghost Towns and Graveyards

When the summer heat ceases and the fall foliage ignites a kaleidoscope of color upon the hilltops, certain southern Utah towns whisper their ghostly tales. The limbs of the bare branches reach for the passers by begging them to stay as the stories of past settlers echo from the red rock landscape that is unique to Southern Utah.

Along the southern Utah I-15 corridor between Cedar City and Leeds and then a small town near Zion are early settlements which whisper such tales. It is in these early settlements that ghostly remains linger. These seven settlements trace their beginnings to the early 1850's. While some of settlements continue to persist, water, its availability, excess, or its accessibility was the determining factor in whether a town lived or simply withered away. Today, however, all of these ghost towns have stories, myths, and legends that echo in the autumn breeze.

Hamilton Fort

 

Its history, a story of cowboys and Indians is located just outside of Cedar City. It literally has its roots in Sidon Creek later known as Shirts creek. In 1852, A rancher named Peter Shirts offered John Hamilton half of the water at the creek if he would join him in the settlement there. The prospects of their ranching expedition were interrupted by the Walker Indian War. However, the men returned in 1855 joined by a handful of families. Together, they constructed a fort 95 feet square with walls three feet thick. The only present day traces of this establishment are a historical marker along the frontage road and the graveyard of the Hamilton family located on private property. What stories transpired between the Shirts and Hamilton families? Only one’s imagination can create while visiting John Hamilton and his son’s graves- they died only a year a part.

Fort Harmony

  

 In 1849, the Mormon Prophet, Brigham Young, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints called on John D. Lee and others to settle the Harmony Valley. The earliest records of visitors to this area were explorers with the Escalante Expedition in 1776. However, this valley was home to Indians who lived here and early Spanish traders who trod its path.

While John D. Lee holds a place of controversy in Southern Utah history, he was a loyal Mormon leader and an Indian Agent appointed by the U.S. Government. Through his effort and leadership, on March 1, 1853 the first wooden fort was built. Located near Ash creek, the Fort enclosed over a dozen homes, corrals, and a school. Today, all that is left are the cornerstones of the fort, pieces of the fort wall, and the approximations of the openings of the fort on either side. The remains of the fort are shadowed by Zion’s beautiful five finger landscape.

Are there ghosts here? Lee lost two of his children here when a wall of the fort collapsed. Perhaps, it is their whisperings that can be heard amongst the rubble of the fort as it is towered by a magnificent landscape.

Pintura

This community was first settled in 1858 and then abandoned because of scarcity of water, and then resettled a 2nd time. This ghost town was first known as Ashton due to its location on Ash creek and then renamed as Bellvue (the landscape resembled a bell) in !863 . However, in 1925 Andy Gregerson suggested the town’s name be changed to Pintura, a Spanish word meaning "painting," quite fitting because of its surrounding colored hills. Located just off of I-15 near the Pintura exit remains a small private family cemetery named for the Gregerson family. The headstones mark the lives of Pintura’s earliest inhabitants. This memorial pays tribute to many who lived here in Pintura’s early days..

Harrisburg

 

Mormon settlers first settled this area in 1861 led by Moses Harris who was joined by a few other families. While the settlers attempted to build a 5-mile-long irrigation canal along present day Leeds Creek, their attempts were hampered by rocky soil. Farming also became a problem due to the lack of available land. Add this logistical problem to the grasshopper plagues, flooding, and Navajo raids, all of which contributed to the downfall of this present day ghost town. While today, an RV park for "snow birds" houses this ghost town, on both sides of I-15 are the remnants of the original adobe Harrisburg homes including the restored Adams House.

 

 

                                                       Restored Adams house

Leeds

While today Leeds exists as a town complete with 21st century luxuries, it too has traces of ghosts. Once known as "Road Valley,” Leeds was the realistic alternative to the Harrisburg settlement. Its valley housed luscious farmland thus creating a better location for diverting water. The town was officially organized on December 1, 1867 and named Bennington after the town’s Bishop Benjamin Stringham. However, upon Stringham’s request the town was named after Leeds, England where he served as a missionary for the LDS church.

Silver Reef

 

Unlike its neighboring settlements, it was the discovery of silver that beckoned settlers to this community. Silver Reef was the only placed in the continental United States where silver was discovered in sandstone. At its height of boom, Silver Reef housed nearly a dozen mines, six ore processing mills, retail shops, saloons, hotels, banks, a school, a Wells Fargo Express office, a theater company, and many other urban amenities.

Although Silver Reef and Leeds were stark opposites in religion and economics, they formed a mutually beneficial relationship. The miners enjoyed the bounteous harvest farmed by its neighbors in Leeds and the farmers flourished from the miners’ cash for their crops. In 1900 Silver Reef the mining town died as the price of silver plummeted. However, present day Silver Reef shadows the remains of the once boom town. There are definitely ghost stories waiting to be told amongst the rubble of the adobe stones.

Grafton

Settled, abandoned, resettled and then abandoned again, towns like this are rare. In 1859, Nathan Tenney led five families from Virgin , the Barneys, Davies, Mcfates , Platts, and Shirts, and built present day Grafton. While the families only traveled one mile down stream, they were embarking upon a journey that would spin tales that would linger beyond their own existence.

Cotton was to be their source of livelihood but community and faith was to be the real profit. While cotton first consumed the land, flood waters competed for its territory leaving the town of Grafton in ruins. Relocation was demanded and the Grafton residents moved one mile upstream where the current town site exists.

The new location possessed its own challenges. Building irrigation dams became a daunting task as they were often washed out due to flooding. But the pioneer spirit of these settlers persisted. Grafton pioneers were optimistic and hardworking; however, survival amongst these arid conditions was difficult. The cemetery marks the graves of six babies all under age one during the first five settlement years along with the graves of two others due to Tuberculosis, and the other "poor health." Accidents also are cited as the cause of death on other gravestones.

A second glance at the cemetery witnesses the harsh conditions of 1866 after the second resettlement of Grafton (the cause of this abandonment was due to Navajo raiders. Brigham Young ordered settlements to combine into a town of at least 150 people). In 1868, following abandonment the town once again continued; Families grew, crops were harvested, and every Friday night music echoed from the settlement of Grafton.

1896 marked the year of statehood for Utah and an era of great growth for Grafton. This beautiful community bustled until just after the turn of the century when in the year 1906 the Hurricane canal delivered Virgin water with ease. Grafton settlers packed up nearly everything and left.

First generation settlers claimed the severely limited land. But once children grew up and had their own families, there was nothing available for them in Grafton. Without electricity, culinary water, or enough children for a school, the young were forced to look elsewhere to make a living. Today, Grafton is without residents.

There is a historic district here. It is complete with "ghost Stories." The physical buildings which remain stand witness to the lives and spirits which built and rebuilt this community. It is a place where memory of "a life, a way," few recall. Stand next to the river, feel of its intensity and let your mind spin the tales of Grafton, the ghost town.