Category: Ghost Towns

Harrisburg is a ghost town in Washington County, Utah (roughly 12–16 miles northeast of St. George, along what is now the I-15 corridor near Leeds and Quail Creek Reservoir). It was a short-lived Mormon pioneer agricultural settlement that flourished briefly in the 1860s before declining due to environmental hardships, water scarcity, and the rise of nearby communities.

Founding and Early Settlement (1859–1862)

In 1859, Moses Harris—a Mormon pioneer who had earlier helped establish a colony near San Bernardino, California—settled with his family near the confluence of Quail Creek (and associated Cottonwood Creek flows) and the Virgin River. This was part of broader Latter-day Saint efforts under Brigham Young to create self-sufficient agricultural colonies in southern Utah’s “Dixie” region. Other families soon joined, and the small community was initially known as Harrisville (or sometimes Cottonwood).

An accidental fire and irrigation difficulties disrupted the original site. In 1862, severe flooding by the Virgin River forced residents to relocate farther upstream along Quail Creek to higher ground. The new settlement was renamed Harrisburg in honor of Moses Harris. Apostles Orson Pratt and Erastus Snow helped organize it as a formal church branch. Early arrivals in the early 1860s included families headed by James Lewis, Hosea Stout, William Leany, Dr. Priddy Meeks, John Brimhall, Orson B. Adams, Elijah K. Fuller, Samuel Hamilton, William Robb, and others.

Growth and Daily Life in the 1860s

By 1864 the population stood at 128 people (about 16 families). It peaked around 200 residents (roughly 25 families and some 30 homes) by 1868. Buildings were largely constructed of local sandstone because rock was abundant; stone fences marked property lines. The schoolhouse was more rudimentary, built of cedar posts set in the ground with a roof of cedar logs, bark, and soil.

Residents dug irrigation ditches, including an ambitious roughly five-mile canal along what became known as Leeds Creek, to water fields. They grew corn, cotton, sorghum (for molasses), alfalfa, fruits, vegetables, orchards, and vineyards (including for wine production as a cash crop). The rocky soil and limited arable land constrained expansion. Harrisburg also served as a stop for freighters traveling between Salt Lake City and St. George. A post office operated from 1863 to around 1900.

Notable structures included homes built by stonemason Willard G. McMullin (from Maine, arrived 1862). The Orson B. Adams House (constructed 1864), a two-room stone dwelling, housed Adams, his wife, sons, and granddaughters. Prospector John Kemple stayed there en route to Nevada; he is credited with early silver discoveries that led to the nearby Silver Reef boom. The Adams property later passed through several owners and was farmed into the mid-20th century before BLM acquisition and restoration around 2001.

Ties to Silver Reef and Economic Role

Silver was discovered in the sandstone reefs nearby (White Reef, later Silver Reef) in the mid-to-late 1860s. The Harrisburg (originally Union) Mining District was organized in the early 1870s, with the Harrisburg schoolhouse as a reference point for its boundaries. Between about 1875 and 1888, Silver Reef’s mining population created a cash market for Harrisburg’s agricultural produce.

Decline and Abandonment

Hardships mounted quickly. Recurring floods damaged fields and infrastructure. In 1869 a grasshopper plague devastated crops, and Navajo raiding parties added insecurity. Drought and, critically, water shortages worsened as upstream diversions for the new settlement of Leeds (organized 1867 as Bennington/Road Valley, later renamed Leeds after a town in England) reduced flow in Leeds Creek. Rocky soil and limited farmland further hindered viability. Many residents petitioned church leaders (including Erastus Snow) and relocated to Leeds or the booming mining town of Silver Reef, taking water rights with them.

By 1876 Harrisburg was already declining significantly. In 1892 only six families remained; by 1895 the town was essentially abandoned (some sources note a couple of holdouts into the early 20th century, with the last activity fading by the 1920s). Many houses were dismantled for building materials. The school and meetinghouse closed.

Later History and Present Day

For decades the site stood in ruins. In 1958 it served as a movie set for They Came to Cordura (starring Gary Cooper); remnants of a constructed Mexican village set were visible for a time. Interstate 15 was later built through the old townsite. A mobile home/RV community known as Harrisburg Estates developed, and the area falls within the boundaries of Hurricane, Utah. Quail Creek Reservoir (and associated recreation) lies nearby.

Visible remnants include sandstone house ruins and foundations (some on both sides of I-15), stone walls, the restored Orson Adams House (managed in connection with BLM/Red Cliffs National Conservation Area lands), and the historic pioneer cemetery (with markers for early settlers and many infants/children, reflecting the hardships of frontier life). Interpretive signs and historical markers (from groups such as the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and Sons of Utah Pioneers) recount the story of Harrisburg, Leeds, and Silver Reef as interconnected communities shaped by water availability.

Harrisburg exemplifies the challenges of Mormon colonization in arid southern Utah: ambitious irrigation efforts, reliance on agriculture to support mining booms, and ultimate vulnerability to floods, pests, conflict, and water competition. Primary contemporary accounts and local histories (including Marietta M. Mariger’s 1951 Saga of Three Towns: Harrisburg–Leeds–Silver Reef) provide further personal and community details. The site remains accessible for historical visitation, with ruins protected in places by fencing.

Silver Reef is a historic mining ghost town in Washington County, southern Utah, located about 15–20 miles northeast of St. George and roughly 1 mile west of the town of Leeds. It is one of the few places in the world where economically significant silver was mined from sandstone (specifically the Springdale Sandstone Member of the Kayenta Formation). The site is geologically unusual and culturally distinctive as a largely non-Mormon (“Gentile”) boomtown set amid predominantly Latter-day Saint agricultural settlements.

Geological Setting and Discovery

The silver deposits occur in tilted sandstone “reefs” (rocky ridges formed by the Virgin Anticline). The main productive reefs were the Buckeye (richest, yielding about 70% of production), White, Butte, and East. Silver is primarily present as nearly invisible horn silver (silver chloride/chlorargyrite), sometimes associated with colorful copper minerals (azurite, malachite) and later uranium. The metals were likely leached from underlying volcanic ash beds in the Chinle Formation by groundwater, transported upward, and precipitated in the porous sandstone where organic matter and chemistry changes caused deposition.

High-grade silver ore (float) was first discovered in 1866 by prospector John Kemple near Harrisburg while he wintered in the area. Samples reportedly assayed extremely high (one account cites over $17,000 per ton), but the idea of silver in unaltered sandstone was widely dismissed as impossible. Kemple and others organized early mining districts (Union Mining District around 1871; Harrisburg Mining District in 1874), yet development lagged for nearly a decade due to skepticism.

Founding and the Boom (1875–1883)

Interest revived in 1875. Salt Lake City bankers (the Walker brothers) sent prospector William Tecumseh Barbee, who staked about 21 claims and promoted the district. Investors from San Francisco also entered, establishing the Leeds Mine (one of the first major operations). Barbee platted a townsite called Bonanza City with relatively high lot prices. Many miners and merchants preferred cheaper ground to the north on rocky terrain, initially calling their camp “Rockpile” or “Rock Pile.” A merchant from Pioche, Nevada, popularized the name Silver Reef, which stuck. Both names appear on contemporary maps.

The “Pioche Stampede” of late 1875–1876 brought a major influx as Pioche’s mines faced difficulties; roughly one-third of Pioche’s population reportedly relocated. Experienced miners (including Cornish and Irish), merchants, and others arrived, rapidly building a town. By the late 1870s Silver Reef had a mile-long Main Street with numerous businesses: nine grocery stores, six saloons, five restaurants, a newspaper (Silver Reef Echo, later Silver Reef Miner), bank, Wells Fargo Express Office (built 1877–1879 and still standing), hotels (including the Harrison House), brewery, billiard hall, dance halls, jail, and more. A Chinatown developed southwest of the main area, populated largely by Chinese laborers who had worked on the transcontinental railroad. A Catholic church (St. John’s, the first Catholic congregation in southern Utah, founded 1879) served the community and housed a hospital in a rear wing; the town never had an LDS meetinghouse.

Population estimates for the peak years (roughly 1878–1882) range from about 1,500 to 2,000 (U.S. Census 1880 recorded 1,046; a local count around 1884 suggested ~1,500). The district supported multiple stamp mills (including Leeds, Christy, Barbee & Walker, Stormont—the largest—and others). Annual production often exceeded $1 million in ore value during the height. Silver Reef was briefly one of the largest towns in Washington County and provided a vital cash market for nearby Mormon agricultural communities that had struggled with crop failures and isolation. Relations between the mining population and local Latter-day Saints were generally symbiotic economically, though culturally distinct.

Notable events included major fires in May 1879 that destroyed roughly half the downtown buildings (quickly rebuilt) and another that damaged Chinatown; a celebrated Catholic High Mass celebrated by Father Lawrence Scanlan in the St. George Mormon Tabernacle (with local Mormon help); labor tensions; and classic frontier incidents such as shootings and a lynching.

Decline and Abandonment

Decline began around 1881. Key factors included a drop in world silver prices (from roughly $1.20/oz in the late 1870s toward $1.11 by 1883), flooding of deeper mine workings that outpaced pumping capacity, depletion of the richest ores, rising costs, and a miners’ strike after wage cuts (from $4 to $3.50 per day). Many workers left (some for Tombstone, Arizona). Major company operations largely ceased by 1888 (Christy Mill closed that year; Stormont earlier). Lessee operations continued sporadically into the early 1900s (some sources cite 1909 or final closure around 1891).

Total historic production is estimated at over 7 million ounces of silver (more than 219 tons), plus lesser amounts of other metals—valued at roughly $25 million at the time or hundreds of millions in modern dollars depending on silver price. By 1890 the population had fallen to 177; by 1900 few remained beyond lessees. Many buildings were dismantled and materials reused in Leeds and elsewhere (the school building became Leeds Town Hall). A 1908 fire and treasure-hunting (rumors of caches of coins) accelerated the loss of structures.

Later Mining and Modern Era

Revival attempts occurred periodically: around 1898, 1909, 1916 (Silver Reef Consolidated Mining Company under Alex Colbath; later acquired by American Smelting and Refining with little activity due to the Depression), and mid-20th century. From the late 1940s–1950s/early 1960s, Western Gold & Uranium and successors reworked tailings and mined for uranium (and residual silver, copper, gold), constructing a flotation mill and other facilities; production was modest. A later leach-pad attempt in the late 1970s left visible remains.

Today Silver Reef is a partial ghost town intermixed with a modern residential neighborhood (Silver Reef Estates, developed from the 1980s onward). The restored Wells Fargo Express Building (National Register of Historic Places, 1971) houses the Silver Reef Museum, with exhibits on history, mining, and geology, plus walking trails. Other remnants include the rebuilt Cosmopolitan Restaurant, Rice Building/jail, foundations, mine dumps, two cemeteries (Catholic and Protestant), and sealed mine openings (hundreds reclaimed in the 1990s–2000 by the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining while preserving historic appearance and bat habitat). The site illustrates both classic Western boom-and-bust patterns and the unique geology and cultural contrast of southern Utah.

Sources include the Silver Reef Museum historical materials and timeline, Utah Geological Survey, Utah History Encyclopedia, Wikipedia (compiled from primary and secondary sources), Bureau of Land Management, and contemporary accounts. For deeper reading, visit the museum or consult works such as Silver, Sinners and Saints and geological reports by Biek and Rohrer.