Location: Washington County, Utah Map
Found: 1859
Abandoned: 1921
Grafton Ghost Town is situated in Washington County in Utah, United States. Grafton was found in 1859 and was eventually abandoned in 1921. Grafton Ghost Town is a historic settlement that was first settled in December 1859 by Southern Utah cotton growing farmers as part of the expansion of a religious community led by Brigham Young.
The site of Grafton was first inhabited by
settlers in 1859 as a result of a cotton growing project in southern
Utah. A group of settlers led by Nathan Tenney founded the
settlement as Wheeler. Wheeler will be completely erased cards
January 8, 1862 following a flood of the Virgin River. The locality
was rebuilt a little higher and was renamed New Grafton after
Grafton (Massachusetts).
The locality is growing quite well
in the first years. 28 families of farmers lived there in 1864. The
latter dug irrigation canals and planted orchards. The settlement
became the seat of Kane County from January 1866 to January 1867,
but a change in county boundaries placed the locality in Washington
County.
Floods were not the only problem of farmers. The
river carries in the region enormous quantities of clay which are
deposited in the channels. These last ones had to be very regularly
dredged to be released. The locality was quite isolated and the
outbreak of a Black Hawk War in Utah (1866) caused the departure of
many inhabitants before the population was completely transferred to
Rockville.
New chronic floods discouraged the return of the
inhabitants of Grafton. In 1890, only four families still reside
here. The life of the locality ended in 1921 when the local Mormon
local church closed. The last inhabitant left Grafton in 1944 and
the city became a ghost town.