Tag: Washington County

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.

Hebron is a ghost town in Washington County, southwestern Utah, located on Shoal Creek (at the junction of its south and west forks) about 6 miles west of the modern town of Enterprise, at an elevation of roughly 5,476 feet (1,669 meters). It was inhabited primarily from 1862 until about 1902–1905, when water shortages, economic shifts, and a major earthquake led to its abandonment. Most residents relocated to Enterprise. Today, little remains beyond the Hebron Cemetery and scattered rubble.

Founding and Early Settlement (1862–1868)

Hebron originated as part of the broader Latter-day Saint (LDS) “Dixie” or Cotton Mission efforts in southern Utah. In early 1862, brothers John, Charles, and William Pulsipher (along with David Chidester), tasked with herding livestock belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from the St. George area, explored northward toward Mountain Meadows and the lands south of the Escalante Desert. They found Shoal Creek promising due to abundant grass, mountain springs, and suitable grazing. Local Paiutes reportedly encouraged settlement.

The Pulsiphers brought their families that spring and established a ranching community initially known as Shoal Creek (named for the shallow, intermittent creek that sank into the sand in places). Their father, Zera (or Zerah) Pulsipher—a prominent early LDS leader—arrived in the fall of 1862 with additional family members and became the local presiding ecclesiastical officer. Other early arrivals included families such as the Hunts, Huntsmans, Leavitts, and others. The settlement was initially dispersed along the creek in ranch houses rather than a compact village, focused on cattle and dairying (early production included significant amounts of butter and cheese shared with livestock owners).

In 1866, during the Black Hawk War (a period of conflict between settlers and Native American groups, including Southern Paiutes and others), fears of attacks led to the construction of a small fort. Residents of the nearby Clover Valley settlement (across the border in present-day Nevada) evacuated and joined those at Shoal Creek, boosting the population. A schoolhouse followed in 1867.

In 1868, LDS Apostle Erastus Snow visited, organized a formal congregation (population then about 75), and directed the surveying of a proper townsite. John Pulsipher suggested the name “Hebron,” after the biblical city associated with Abraham (who tended flocks there). The name was accepted, and the site was dedicated. The community shifted from a scattered ranching outpost to a more structured town with streets and lots. The Hebron Ward of the Church was formally organized around 1868–1869 (sources vary slightly on the exact date; one notes November 1869 with George H. Crosby as bishop).

Growth and Daily Life (Late 1860s–1890s)

Hebron grew into a modest but functional pioneer community. Census figures show populations of 111 (1870), 110 (1880), 79 (1890), and about 100 (1900); peak estimates sometimes reach around 100. Residents built brick and rock homes, planted trees and gardens (including apple orchards that persisted into the 1930s), and established stores, a hotel, freight offices, and a telegraph office (by 1872). A mail route connected it to surrounding areas. The principal industries were ranching (cattle and dairy, supplying mines and other settlements) and limited agriculture. It served as a supply point for silver mining camps in eastern Nevada (especially Pioche) and later Silver Reef, Utah.

Life involved typical frontier hardships: droughts, floods, occasional tensions with Native groups, sickness, and isolation. The high elevation limited extensive farming, and water was chronically scarce—especially for gardens and crops—despite the ranching focus. Settlers built flumes, ditches, and canals, but these frequently failed due to weather (e.g., a wooden flume collapsed in wet conditions in 1885). Community efforts included attempts at cooperative economic systems (such as the United Order in the 1870s, which struggled). Key families included the Pulsiphers, Terrys (Thomas S. Terry later served as bishop), Huntsmans, and others who intermarried and formed the core of the settlement.

Decline and the Rise of Enterprise (1890s–1902)

Water remained the central challenge. By the mid-1880s, canals and flumes were failing. Orson Welcome Huntsman (a Hebron resident, former Clover Valley settler, and son-in-law of Bishop Thomas Terry) proposed a radical solution: damming waters (at the narrows of Little Pine Creek or related drainages on Shoal Creek) to create a reservoir that could irrigate the broader Escalante Desert flats downstream, enabling larger-scale farming at a new site.

In 1891, Huntsman surveyed a 320-acre townsite and filed a desert land claim, naming it Enterprise. He spent years recruiting investors and support from surrounding communities despite strong local opposition in Hebron (including from church leaders and family). Formal work on the Enterprise Reservoir and Canal Company began around 1893; the project ultimately took about 16 years to complete (dam finished around 1909). Hebron leaders responded by improving their own water systems, but families gradually began relocating to the better farming prospects at Enterprise.

Destruction and Abandonment (1902–1905)

On November 17, 1902, a strong earthquake (estimated magnitude ~6 or higher, intensity VIII on the Modified Mercalli scale), centered near Pine Valley, severely damaged Hebron. Most rock and brick homes were irreparably ruined; chimneys collapsed, and residents temporarily sheltered in the tithing granary or sturdier structures. Aftershocks continued for weeks. This event accelerated the exodus.

Residents met in early 1903 to discuss relocation. Church leaders supported the move. People sold water rights and stock to the Enterprise Reservoir Company (final sales around 1904). Damaged buildings were dismantled for materials, leaving mostly rubble. A deep wash later cut through the former main street. On October 19, 1905, the Hebron Ward was renamed the Enterprise Ward at a conference, marking the formal end of the community. The church bell was moved to Enterprise. Some accounts mention residual effects or later tremors (including possible impacts felt from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake), but the 1902 event was decisive.

Legacy and Present Day

Hebron’s residents and descendants largely founded and populated Enterprise, which grew into a successful agricultural community sustained by the reservoir system that still provides water today. The ghost town site itself has few visible remains beyond foundations, brick fragments, and the Hebron Cemetery (which has been maintained and restored over the years by descendants and groups such as Boy Scouts; it contains graves of pioneers from the settlement period). The surrounding area is largely private or posted against trespassing, though the cemetery is accessible. Historical markers at the cemetery and in Enterprise commemorate the settlement’s history.

Hebron exemplifies the challenges of 19th-century Mormon pioneer colonization in Utah’s arid Dixie region: the interplay of religious mission, ranching and limited farming, water scarcity, natural disasters, and eventual adaptation through relocation and engineering. Primary sources include diaries (such as those of John Pulsipher and Orson Huntsman), church records, and later historical analyses (notably works by W. Paul Reeve).

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.