Northrop (sometimes spelled Northrup), Utah, was a short-lived Mormon pioneer settlement in Washington County that existed primarily from late 1861 into the mid-1860s. It is now a ghost town with no remaining structures.
Background: The Cotton Mission and Utah’s Dixie
In 1861, amid the American Civil War (which disrupted Southern cotton supplies), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leaders under Brigham Young launched the Cotton Mission. The goal was self-sufficiency by growing cotton and other warm-climate crops in southern Utah’s milder climate, an area known as “Utah’s Dixie.” Hundreds of families (accounts cite roughly 300) were called south that fall under apostles such as George A. Smith, Erastus Snow, and Orson Pratt. Settlements sprang up along the Virgin River and its tributaries.
Isaac Behunin (1803–1881), a New York-born pioneer, early Church member, Nauvoo veteran, bodyguard to Joseph Smith at times, and participant in the Walker War, was among those called. He had previously settled in areas including Sanpete County (he was among the first settlers of Ephraim). In December 1861, Behunin arrived at the confluence of the North Fork and East Fork of the Virgin River with his second wife, Elmina Tyler Behunin, and several of their children. He was joined by a small number of other settlers, including accounts naming James Lemon and Joseph Black. The site was chosen for its irrigation potential and agricultural promise.
Establishment and Early Life
Northrop was a modest outpost rather than a large planned town. Settlers lived initially in covered wagons and makeshift shelters while beginning irrigation ditches and preparing land for crops (cotton was the mission priority, alongside food crops). They coexisted peacefully with a nearby clan of Southern Paiute people referred to as the Perrusit Indians, learning basic communication and local knowledge from them. Permanent buildings were never fully established. Population estimates for the brief peak are low—likely a few families (one later census reference notes three families totaling 17 people by around 1864); broader claims of hundreds appear to conflate the overall Cotton Mission scale with this specific site.
The location (approximately 37°09′45″N 113°00′45″W) sat on the east side of the Virgin River, east of the later Grafton site, in what is now the general vicinity associated with Zion National Park approaches and Springdale. The floodplain soils were fertile but highly vulnerable.
The Great Flood of 1862
Heavy rains began around Christmas Day 1861 and continued for roughly 40 days (some regional accounts note longer precipitation periods into early 1862). This formed part of the Great Flood of 1862, one of the most extensive recorded flood events in the Western United States, affecting areas from the Pacific Northwest through California and inland into Utah Territory. The Virgin River and its tributaries rose dramatically, becoming raging torrents that eroded soil, destroyed irrigation works, washed away farmland, and inundated settlements.
Northrop was essentially destroyed. The fertile topsoil critical for farming was washed away, and the site became untenable. Nearby settlements including early Grafton (then Wheeler), Adventure, Duncan’s Retreat, Fort Clara/Santa Clara, and others suffered severe damage or total destruction. Survivors from several of these places relocated to higher ground.
Relocation and Abandonment
In January 1862, Behunin and his family moved farther up Zion Creek Fork (also called North Fork in some references) to higher, safer ground. He became one of the earliest settlers of what developed into Springdale, building a home and farming there. In summer 1863, Behunin and his sons constructed a one-room log cabin deeper in what is now Zion Canyon (near the later site of Zion Lodge), cleared land, and planted crops including corn, tobacco, sugar cane, melons, and an orchard. They maintained a seasonal pattern between the canyon farm and Springdale. Behunin is traditionally credited with naming Zion Canyon, remarking on its grandeur as a place of worship comparable to any man-made church.
Some accounts indicate limited continued activity or presence at or near the Northrop site by other families into the mid-1860s. By the 1864 Washington County census, only a handful of families remained associated with it. Final abandonment came amid the Black Hawk War (mid-1860s) and related Navajo/Paiute tensions, plus Church directives ordering small outposts to consolidate into larger, more defensible communities (e.g., Rockville or Springdale) for mutual protection. The site was fully depopulated by around 1866–1867 and gradually absorbed into the Springdale area’s agricultural and administrative sphere.
Behunin later sold his Zion Canyon holdings (around 1872, reportedly for 200 bushels of corn) and moved to the Mount Carmel/Long Valley area. He died in 1881 (sources vary slightly on the exact May date) and was buried in the Mount Carmel Cemetery in Kane County.
Site Today and Legacy
Nothing physical remains of Northrop. The confluence area lies in a dynamic river environment within or adjacent to the broader Zion region; any traces were erased by the 1862 flood and subsequent river action. It is listed among Utah’s ghost towns and is noted in local histories such as the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers’ Under Dixie Sun and John W. Van Cott’s Utah Place Names.
Northrop’s story illustrates the extreme environmental challenges of early Mormon colonization in southern Utah—unpredictable flash floods on desert rivers, alkaline or unstable soils, isolation, and the need for constant adaptation. While the settlement itself vanished almost immediately, its settlers (especially Behunin) contributed directly to the founding and early development of Springdale and the human history of Zion Canyon, which later became a national park. The broader Cotton Mission helped establish lasting communities in Washington County even as many small riverside outposts failed.
Primary sources are limited due to the settlement’s brevity and the destruction of records/structures; modern accounts draw from pioneer histories, Church records, census data, and secondary compilations of southern Utah pioneer narratives.