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.