Category: Ghost Towns

Ghost towns in the Western United States are abandoned settlements, often remnants of 19th-century mining, ranching, or railroad booms. Once thriving with prospectors, merchants, and families, these towns, like Bodie, California, or Virginia City, Montana, were deserted when resources depleted or economic shifts occurred, particularly after the 1860s gold and silver rushes. Characterized by dilapidated buildings, saloons, and mine shafts, they dot deserts and mountains, preserved by arid climates. Today, they attract tourists and historians, offering haunting glimpses into the West’s frontier past, shaped by ambition and transience.

Fort Harmony – Washington County Ghost Town

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Washington County, Utah, Ghost Towns
Washington County, Utah, Ghost Towns

Fort Harmony was an early Mormon pioneer settlement and adobe fort in Harmony Valley, on the northern edge of Washington County, Utah (near present-day New Harmony and Interstate 15 Exit 42). It existed primarily from 1854 to 1862 and is now a ghost town site listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Early Exploration and Initial Settlement (1849–1853)

After Mormon pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, exploring parties assessed southern Utah’s resources, including potential iron deposits. In late 1849, a party led by Parley P. Pratt explored the region and identified promising areas. John D. Lee, a prominent early settler and member of the Church’s Council of Fifty, played a key role in southern colonization efforts aimed at supporting an anticipated iron industry and establishing agricultural outposts.

In December 1852 (some accounts reference early 1853 activity), a small group including John D. Lee and Elisha H. Groves established an initial settlement called Harmony along Ash Creek (near the site of today’s Ash Creek Reservoir). They built a wooden fort with a few houses. The name honored Harmony, Pennsylvania, associated with the translation of the Book of Mormon. This site proved inadequate—too small, too close to the river (flood risk), and distant from sufficient farmland—so it was largely abandoned.

Washington County was created by the Utah Territorial Legislature in March 1852, with the Harmony area designated as the county seat (though permanent structures came later). The settlement also became linked to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Southern Indian Mission (sometimes called the mission to the Lamanites), focused on relations with Southern Paiute and other Native peoples. Missionaries taught farming and other skills while seeking conversions.

Construction of Fort Harmony (1854–1855)

In 1854, Brigham Young visited and directed relocation about four miles north to a better site in the middle of the valley. On or around May 9–20, 1854 (sources vary slightly; diaries such as T.D. Brown’s support May 20), Young personally turned the first sod for the southeast corner. Construction proceeded under John D. Lee’s supervision (with input from others, including possibly Truman O. Angell on design aspects) and was largely completed by February 1855.

It was the first fort in the Utah Territory built primarily of adobe brick (following Spanish-influenced suggestions), set on stone footings roughly 3 feet thick. Dimensions are reported variously as about 200 feet or 300 feet square (contemporary accounts and markers lean toward 200–300 feet). Walls were thick (outer walls around 3 feet; interior partitions thinner). The east side had one-story houses against a lower wall (about 10–11 feet high); the west side had two-story houses against a taller wall (about 16 feet high) for better oversight. Gates stood on the north and south sides. A deep well (reports of 86–100 feet) provided culinary water in the center; irrigation came from Kanarra and Harmony Creeks. Corrals for animals were to the south. Houses backed against the walls for defense and efficiency.

The fort housed dozens of families (estimates of population in the hundreds over time, with one mid-1850s report noting about 40 families and 260 people). It served as a hub for colonization south of the Great Basin, a way station for travelers on routes toward California (feeding and sheltering many), headquarters for the Southern Indian Mission, and the Washington County seat from 1856 until 1859 (when the seat shifted as other settlements grew). John D. Lee held local offices including probate judge, clerk, and assessor. Agriculture focused on wheat and other crops; an Indian farm was also established nearby.

Life at the Fort and Broader Context (1855–1861)

Daily life centered on farming, missionary work with local Native groups, community governance, religious activities, and defense preparations amid frontier conditions and the Utah War tensions of 1857. The fort was a key outpost for the Iron Mission region and a resting place for thousands of travelers.

John D. Lee lived there with family members during this period. In September 1857, the Mountain Meadows Massacre occurred roughly 35–40 miles away, in which a wagon train of emigrants (primarily from Arkansas) was attacked, resulting in the deaths of about 120 people. Local militia and some Native allies were involved; Lee was later the only person convicted and executed for his role (in 1877). The fort itself was not the massacre site, but it was Lee’s residence at the time and part of the regional context of high tensions.

An earthquake in 1860 cracked some walls, requiring repairs. Overall, the settlement was a productive agricultural and missionary center for several years.

Destruction and Abandonment (Winter 1861–1862)

The Great Flood of 1862 (part of a broader regional storm event that devastated other southern Utah settlements) brought nearly continuous heavy rain and snow for about 28 days in January–February 1862. The adobe bricks—made without sufficient binding materials such as straw or horsehair—dissolved and crumbled. Walls and buildings collapsed progressively. Families moved into wagons for safety.

By mid-to-late January, most residents had left. On or around February 7, 1862, while John D. Lee’s wife Sarah and some children remained, a gust of wind toppled a wall that crashed through to the lower floor, killing two of their young children: George Albert (about age 6) and Margarett Ann (about age 5). The fort was fully abandoned shortly thereafter (around mid-to-late February). It was never rebuilt.

Survivors relocated: many moved a short distance west to higher ground and founded New Harmony (the modern town); others went east/north to establish Kanarraville (in what is now Iron County). These towns share founding connections and family names from the fort era. New Harmony later developed its own infrastructure (including a schoolhouse by 1863).

Aftermath and the Site Today

The site passed into private hands (including the Schmutz family) and was used for ranching/agriculture. In 1936, the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association (with local stake members) erected corner markers of stacked rock/concrete and a monument. The Daughters of Utah Pioneers also placed a marker. The Fort Harmony Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on November 16, 1979 (reference #79003493). In 2006, land was donated to Washington County with stipulations for protection; limited archaeological work has uncovered foundations, artifacts (pottery, nails, household items, etc.), and features such as rooms and ovens.

Today, little remains above ground beyond foundation traces (visible in places amid sagebrush), the 1930s corner markers, monuments, and interpretive signs. The site lies near the New Harmony Branch of the Washington County Library, just off the road from I-15 Exit 42 toward New Harmony, with views toward the Kolob Canyons section of Zion National Park. It is a quiet historic landmark rather than a developed tourist attraction, preserving the story of early southern Utah colonization, the challenges of adobe construction in a harsh climate, and the transition to lasting towns like New Harmony.

Sources for this account include contemporary diaries and records, National Register documentation, local historical society materials (e.g., Washington County Historical Society), and secondary historical summaries. Minor discrepancies exist in exact measurements, founding dates, and details across accounts, which is typical for 19th-century frontier records.

Paria – Kane County Ghost Town

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Kane county Ghost Towns
Kane county Ghost Towns

Paria (also spelled Pahreah), a ghost town in central Kane County, Utah, sits on the Paria River within Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument. It was occupied primarily from about 1870 to 1929 and later became a notable Western film location. The name derives from Southern Paiute or Ute terms associated with the river, often rendered as meaning “muddy water” or similar.

Early Settlement and Founding

The broader area was first settled by Euro-American pioneers in 1865. A Mormon group led by Peter Shirts (sometimes spelled Shurtz) established a small community known as Rockhouse, named for Shirts’s substantial sandstone dwelling. Settlement accelerated after the end of the Black Hawk War around 1867. Early farming yielded decent crops for a time, but irrigation proved extremely difficult—spring runoff soaked into the desert soil too quickly to sustain fields effectively. Native American raids and water challenges also pressured the community.

In 1870, residents decided to relocate. They split into groups; roughly half moved about five miles upstream and founded the town of Pahreah (later standardized as Paria). Under local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints leadership (including figures such as William Meeks in some accounts), the new site developed with homes, a church, a school, and eventually a general store. By the 1870s the population reached about 47 families (roughly 100–130 people in some reports), including a number of Paiute residents. Residents raised livestock and farmed, with vegetable gardens, orchards, and cattle.

In 1871, John D. Lee (fleeing scrutiny related to the Mountain Meadows Massacre) arrived in the Paria area. He helped construct a dam and irrigation ditches, assisted by local settlers and even members of John Wesley Powell’s second Colorado River expedition. These efforts temporarily improved water management.

Peak and Decline

The town grew through the 1870s with sandstone and log houses. Hard times began in the 1880s. The Paria River flooded repeatedly from 1883 through 1888 (and in other years), washing away fields, irrigation works, and some buildings. Flooding deposited alkaline/salty soils, entrenched arroyos, and made sustained agriculture increasingly difficult. Drought compounded the problems. Population declined sharply; by 1892 only about eight families remained.

Despite the decline, a post office opened in 1892 (some sources say 1893) under the name Paria. A small gold-mining effort began around 1911–1912 but was destroyed by flooding within about a year. The post office closed in 1914 (or 1915 in some accounts). A lone prospector reportedly stayed until 1929, after which the site was abandoned. By the 1930s it was a true ghost town, with photographs from that era documenting the empty village. A small pioneer cemetery with roughly 20 graves (many with faded or illegible markers) remains nearby.

Hollywood Era

Beginning in the 1940s, the scenic canyon setting and remaining structures attracted film crews. Scenes for the 1944 biopic Buffalo Bill were shot there (crews battled flooding). The location continued in use for Westerns and television through the 1950s. In 1961–1962, the Rat Pack film Sergeants 3 (the largest Western filmed in Kane County at the time) used the area; producers built an imitation Old West town about a mile west of the original site because so little of the real town remained. This movie set was later used for other productions, including scenes from The Outlaw Josey Wales (1975–1976, starring Clint Eastwood). Episodes of shows such as Gunsmoke were also associated with the broader area.

Flash floods severely damaged the set in 1998. Volunteers and Bureau of Land Management personnel dismantled the wreckage and reconstructed structures (with interpretive signs distinguishing the movie set from the original townsite) around 1999–2001. In 2006 a suspicious fire destroyed the rebuilt set. A temporary facade was built in 2007 for the independent film The Attic Door and later moved. Little of either the original town or the movie sets survives today—mainly stone foundations, fence remnants, and the cemetery.

Present Day

The original townsite lies across the river from the main access area and has been heavily eroded by the Paria River. Access is via a roughly 5-mile dirt road turning north from U.S. Highway 89 near milepost 31 (about 33–35 miles east of Kanab). The road can be rough, steep, and washboarded; high-clearance vehicles are preferable, and it can become impassable when wet. The colorful banded cliffs (Chinle Formation and related strata) and surrounding landscape remain striking. The site is a day-use area within the national monument; there are no services, and visitors should respect remaining historic features, avoid the riverbed when flash-flood risk exists, and follow Leave No Trace principles.

Paria’s history reflects the broader challenges of Mormon pioneer settlement on the Colorado Plateau—tenuous irrigation, isolation, flooding, and soil problems—followed by a second life as a cinematic backdrop that helped define Kane County’s “Little Hollywood” reputation. Today it offers a quiet, visually dramatic reminder of both frontier struggle and Western mythmaking.

Johnson – Kane County Ghost Town

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Kane county Ghost Towns
Kane county Ghost Towns

Johnson is a ghost town in Kane County, southern Utah, located about 12 miles east of Kanab in what is now known as Johnson Canyon (historically Spring Canyon). Its coordinates are approximately 37°05′11″N 112°22′31″W. It was a Mormon pioneer agricultural and stock-raising settlement rather than a mining town.

Founding and Early Settlement (1871)

In January 1871, while visiting St. George, Brigham Young suggested to members of the Johnson family that they take over the Spring Canyon Ranch, about 12 miles north/east of Kanab, as a stock ranch and settlement site for those of the family who wished to live there. Joel Hills Johnson recorded the suggestion and the family’s subsequent exploration of the site. They found a beautiful canyon roughly half a mile wide and several miles long, with grass, small springs along the bluffs, a stream at the mouth, and extensive meadow and range land. The family accepted the offer and planned a cooperative stock association for herding, stock raising, and dairy purposes.

Settlement began in the spring of 1871. The four Johnson brothers—Joel Hills Johnson, Joseph (Ellis), Benjamin (Franklin), and William (Derby)—established the community, which was named for them. Joel Hills Johnson (1802–1882), a prominent early Latter-day Saint convert, inventor, missionary, poet and hymn composer (including “High on the Mountain Top”), politician, judge, and patriarch, was a key figure. Other family members and associates soon joined. A post office named Johnson opened the same year and operated until 1937. Residents built a brick schoolhouse that also served for church meetings and social gatherings, along with a general store and other basic infrastructure focused on agriculture and ranching.

Church leadership of the local branch began under Sixtus Ellis Johnson (a son of Joel) until 1877, when he became bishop; William Derby Johnson succeeded him in 1879. The settlement reflected typical Mormon pioneer patterns of the era, including family networks, communal cooperation, and (in some cases) plural marriage.

Peak Years and Community Life

Johnson functioned as a modest ranching and farming community in a scenic but isolated canyon bordered by sand bluffs, opening onto desert toward the Buckskin (Kaibab) Mountains. Families raised livestock, grew crops where water and soil allowed, and maintained a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Joel Hills Johnson moved more permanently to the area later in life (around 1880 from Bellevue) and died there on September 24, 1882; he is buried in the local cemetery. Other families, including Shumways and Laws, also settled and intermarried in the community.

Exact peak population figures are not well documented in available sources, but the settlement supported multiple families, a post office, school, and store for several decades. It never grew into a large town.

Decline and Abandonment

Like many remote southern Utah agricultural settlements, Johnson faced challenges from isolation, limited water, harsh climate, and economic pressures. By June 1901 only a few families remained. Ranching continued in scattered form, but the formal community dwindled. The post office closed in 1937, widely regarded as marking the end of the town as a functioning settlement. By the mid-20th century only a few ranches were scattered through the canyon. Natural factors (flooding, weather, and environmental hardship) and the pull of better opportunities elsewhere contributed to the decline; it was not a classic boom-and-bust mining failure.

Remains and Later History

Today the primary remnant of the original settlement is the Johnson Cemetery, which contains graves of Johnson family members, Shumways, Laws, and others dating to the 19th century (more than 60 pioneers by some counts). A monument was later erected by the Sons of Utah Pioneers. The cemetery is on or near former LDS Church ranch land (now private) and is accessible via Johnson Canyon Road, though visitors should respect private property. Little else of the original town structures remains beyond weathered ruins.

Johnson Canyon itself later gained separate fame as part of “Little Hollywood.” Hollywood used the dramatic scenery extensively for Western films and television from the 1930s–1970s (and beyond), including many episodes of Gunsmoke. A dedicated movie set was built in the canyon (distinct from the original pioneer townsite); its deteriorating buildings are visible from the road but are on private land and not open for close access. The area continues to attract visitors interested in both pioneer history and film locations.

Significance

Johnson exemplifies the pattern of late-19th-century Mormon colonization of southern Utah: family-based settlements encouraged by church leaders, focused on self-sufficient agriculture and ranching in challenging desert-canyon environments. Its association with Joel Hills Johnson ties it to broader early Church history, hymnody, and pioneer leadership. The surviving cemetery and the canyon’s dual identity (pioneer settlement + Hollywood backdrop) preserve its place in Kane County and Utah history.

Primary sources include Joel Hills Johnson’s journals, local histories such as Our Pioneer Heritage, post office records, and secondary compilations of Utah ghost towns. The site remains remote; access is via Highway 89 east of Kanab, then north on Johnson Canyon Road. Always respect private property and be cautious of wildlife (including rattlesnakes) and deteriorating structures.

Georgetown – Kane County Ghost Town

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Kane county Ghost Towns
Kane county Ghost Towns

Georgetown, Kane County, Utah, was a small Mormon pioneer settlement (later a ghost town) on Yellow Creek, a tributary of the Paria River, roughly three miles south of Cannonville.

Founding and Naming

Settlement began in the spring of 1886 when Seth Johnson and his sons Joseph and Eleazer built homes there. It formed part of the broader expansion into the upper Paria River country in the 1870s–1880s, after earlier nearby efforts such as the 1874–75 founding of what became Cannonville (initially involving sites like Clifton). Both Georgetown and Cannonville were named for George Q. Cannon, a prominent local Latter-day Saint (LDS) leader.

The community grew into a modest village of about 100 people. It supported basic institutions including a store, a school, and a post office. Like many Southern Utah settlements of the era, it depended on unreliable water sources for farming and livestock in an arid landscape.

Context in Kane County and Southern Utah Settlement

Kane County (created 1864 and named for Thomas L. Kane, a non-Mormon supporter of the Mormon pioneers) saw initial mid-1860s settlement attempts that were disrupted by Native American conflicts (primarily involving Southern Paiute groups and related hostilities). Permanent resettlement accelerated after 1870, with communities such as Kanab (reestablished under Levi Stewart at Brigham Young’s direction), Glendale, Orderville (notable for its United Order communal experiment), and others. The upper Paria area followed in the mid-to-late 1870s as settlers sought farmland and grazing.

Ranching and limited agriculture dominated early economies across the county. Water scarcity, isolation, and environmental challenges were constant themes. Nearby developments included irrigation efforts (such as later canal projects feeding Tropic) and the growth of Cannonville and Henrieville.

Decline and Legacy

Unreliable water supplies—typical of the region—led to Georgetown’s abandonment. It became a ghost town by the late 1940s. Remaining features include a small abandoned cabin and a nearby cemetery with headstones. The Georgetown Cemetery (sometimes associated in records with the Cannonville/Garfield County border area due to proximity and historical boundary considerations) holds pioneer burials; one documented figure connected to the broader Johnson family history in the region is Seth Guernsey Johnson (1839–1927).

Today the site is a minor historic remnant in the scenic landscape near Bryce Canyon National Park and Kodachrome Basin, reflecting the pattern of many short-lived Southern Utah pioneer villages that rose with Mormon colonization and faded under environmental and economic pressures. Sources for its history include local place-name studies (such as John W. Van Cott’s Utah Place Names), ghost-town documentation, and regional histories of Kane and Garfield counties.

Upper Kanab – Kane County Ghost Town

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Kane county Ghost Towns
Kane county Ghost Towns

Upper Kanab was a 19th-century Mormon pioneer settlement in Kane County, Utah, in the high mountain valley near the headwaters of Kanab Creek (also associated with the East Fork of the Virgin River drainage). It lay roughly three miles northeast of the present-day town of Alton, at an elevation of about 7,000–7,200 feet. The site is now considered a ghost town; the original community faded as residents shifted to the nearby planned town of Alton in the early 20th century.

Early Settlement and Abandonment (1865–1866)

In the spring of 1865, Lorenzo Wesley Roundy (a Utah pioneer of 1847) and other families from the north, including Jerad C. Roundy, Myron S. Roundy, William Ford, members of the Smith and Partridge families, and others, settled in the upper Kanab Creek valley. They built log cabins (Roundy constructed two) just west of what later became the site of a Kane County dairy. The area offered tall grass for hay, clear streams, timber, wildlife, and wild fruit, though the high altitude brought colder conditions than the lower “Dixie” settlements of southwestern Utah.

The stay was brief. In spring 1866, amid broader Indian hostilities (related to the Black Hawk War period and Navajo/Paiute conflicts that also forced the temporary abandonment of Kanab and Long Valley settlements), Apostle Erastus Snow called the Upper Kanab settlers to move to Berryville and Winsor (present-day Glendale and Mount Carmel) to strengthen those communities. Lorenzo Roundy did not return; he later settled in Kanarraville and served as bishop there until his death by drowning in the Colorado River in 1876 while ferrying supplies.

Resettlement and Development (1872 onward)

Upper Kanab remained abandoned until May 1872, when Lorenzo’s nephew Byron (Bye) Donalvin Roundy, his wife Matilda Ann (Lorenzo’s daughter), and their baby moved into one of the earlier cabins. They spent the first winter largely alone. Byron’s brother William Heber Roundy and others later joined, establishing permanent homes and 160-acre homesteads. The brothers were involved in cattle operations.

A sawmill operated in the area (with Graham Duncan Macdonald serving as bookkeeper). Macdonald acquired land nearby, married Annie Gardner of St. George in 1875, and became a pioneer of the nearby Ranch settlement (several miles southwest of present Alton). Mail for Upper Kanab and Sink Valley was addressed to Ranch, Utah, and held at Macdonald’s. The Canaan Cooperative Stock Company (headquartered in St. George) bought up many claims, though the Roundys declined to sell theirs. Dairy and livestock operations thrived due to the excellent grass and water; contemporary accounts praised the location for dairying.

In spring 1882, the David (or Daniel) Seegmiller and Edwin D. Woolley families arrived; Woolley had been called to manage the Church ranch. Mary Woolley (later Chamberlain) described a picturesque valley at the head of the Rio Virgin with lakes (including Levanger and Macdonald Lakes), pink cliffs (the same formation as Bryce Canyon), and community life that included a schoolhouse/church at a road fork and a recreation hall where dances lasted until daylight, with local musicians.

The settlement supported ranching, dairying, lumbering, and limited agriculture. It remained a scattered, primarily agricultural community rather than a densely built townsite.

Decline and Transition to Alton

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Upper Kanab was one of three small communities in the high mountain area (alongside Ranch and what became Alton). Residents sought better homes and a more formal town layout. In 1901, Jonathan Heaton bought significant land (including the Seegmiller estate) and moved his large family there. He had the “Oak Flat” area surveyed and lots sold. A schoolhouse was completed around 1908.

In 1908–1912 the new community adopted the name Alton (drawn from a hat containing suggestions including Heatonville, Oaktown, Snowville, and Klondyke; the winning name was inspired by Norway’s Alton Fjord and the local high elevation). Alton was formally planned in the Mormon village style, incorporated in 1935, and persisted as a ranching and agricultural town. Upper Kanab itself ceased to function as a distinct community and became a ghost town, with the original site largely abandoned in favor of Alton a few miles away.

Present Status and Context

Little remains of Upper Kanab beyond possible scattered foundations, cabin remnants, or landscape features associated with the early ranching and dairy operations. The high valley near the Sunset Cliffs / Paunsaugunt Plateau edge retains its scenic character. Alton continues as a small community (population historically fluctuating, around 100–200 in recent decades) focused on ranching and agriculture, serving as a quiet base near Bryce Canyon and other southern Utah attractions.

Upper Kanab’s history reflects typical patterns of southern Utah pioneer settlement: initial exploratory colonization, interruption by Indian conflicts in the mid-1860s, resilient return and economic focus on livestock and dairy suited to the high country, and eventual consolidation into more permanent townsites. Primary accounts come from local pioneer histories, family recollections (including Roundy and Woolley descendants), and Kane County histories. Note that some popular “ghost town” summaries occasionally conflate Upper Kanab details with the better-known history of Kanab itself (settled/abandoned/resettled on a different timeline farther south).