Grafton
by
GRAFTON is one of those little
class C
ghost towns that everyone has to visit at one time or another - or multiple
times. My first visit was in 1990,
and each time I go, it seems there is something new to discover. It is located on the south
side of the Virgin River, 3.7 miles west of
Grafton
dates to 1859 when the Mormon Church was in process of colonizing Southern
Utah, which they dubbed
The townsite was too good to abandon, so they resettled a
little further from the river on higher ground.
Within a couple years, several hundred acres were under cultivation with
fruit
orchards, corn & wheat, cotton and sheep. Mulberry trees
were also planted for silkworm raising. In 1868, Grafton peaked with some 28
families. The 1860s were an unsettled
period in the American West, and many times settlers and the Native Americans
had little “problems.” Grafton was not
immune, and during the mid-decade, a number of attacks occurred, killing
several settlers. Disease and accidents
also claimed a number of the folks and their kids.
In 1866,
Grafton was abandoned for a short time, and resettled in 1868 by some 28
families. This was Grafton’s peak
period, and for the next 30 years the bustling little town continued to
persist, even though the population declined from 200 to about 120 in
1900. But all good things end, and the
population decreased rapidly. By 1907
Grafton was a ghost town.
Grafton
is one of the best little ghost towns in the country, and the handful of
buildings have been restored and the site is now a National Historic
District. Remaining buildings include:
The site
has been used for filming of several movies, including the bicycle scene from
the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Remember them bicycling along the main street
while the song “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head” played?
The
vertical, bright redrock cliffs to the north, deep
green trees and unusually blue sky and oft-times boiling thunderheads, make
this beautiful, compact little ghost town one of the most photogenic in the
country. Its buildings have graced the
covers of several ghost town books. DON’T
FORGET YOUR CAMERA!
TOWN
SITE:
·
N½ Sec 3, T42S, R11W, Salt Lake Baseline &
Meridian
·
Latitude:
37.1672050 / 37°
10’ 02” N
·
Longitude:
-113.0799425
/ 113°
04’ 48” W
CEMETERY:
·
Ctr Sec 3,
T42S, R11W, SLM
·
Latitude:
37.1630385 / 37°
09’ 47” N
·
Longitude:
-113.0807758
/ 113°
04’ 51” W
This
is one of the towns featured in my newest book, GHOST
TOWNS: Yesterday & TodayTM.
This was our Ghost
Town of the Month for
Oct 2009.
***************
Visit Ghost Town USA’s Utah Ghost Town Pages
***************
Also
visit: Ghost Town USA’s
Home
Page | Site Map | Ghost Town Listings
| On The Road Again | Photo Gallery
| Treasure
Legends
CURRENT Ghost Town of the
Month | PAST Ghost Towns
of the Month
Ghost Towner's
Code of Ethics | Publications | Genealogy
| License Plate
Collecting
A few LINKS to outside webpages:
Ghost
Towns | Treasure
Hunting | License
Plate Collecting | Genealogy
THIS PAGE
FIRST POSTED: October 02,
2009
LAST UPDATED: August 06, 2010
This website and all
information posted here-in is
copyright
© 1998-2015
by Gary B Speck Publications
ALL rights reserved