There are numerous ghost towns in the western part of the U.S. Most were mining boom towns that went bust when the mines ceased to produce. This is not the case for Grafton near the village of Rockville, west of Zion National Park in southern Utah. Grafton was a religious, agricultural community founded in 1859 by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as Mormons.
Brigham Young, the president of the church, sent church members to colonize the area near what is now St. George, Utah, to grow cotton. Some families were sent farther up the Virgin River to establish farming communities there. In 1859, six families from the community of Virgin moved upstream and established the first Grafton along the Virgin River. In 1862 a flooding river destroyed this community and the inhabitants moved about a mile upstream to higher ground and rebuilt. The ghost town of today is the remains of this second Grafton. A church census in 1864 recorded 168 people in the town.
Grafton didn’t have the colorful history of many other ghost towns. There were no saloons, houses of ill repute, gunfights in the streets, murders, catastrophic fires, etc. However, life in the town was far from easy. The early settlers struggled to have enough food. They quickly shifted the emphasis on growing cotton in favor of food and feed crops to sustain their existence. The river was both a friend supplying drinking water and crop irrigation and a foe whose muddy flood waters continued to be a hazard. Constant effort was required to rebuild washed out irrigation dams and removing silt from the ditches.
It is difficult to imagine what their lives were like without all the comforts that we consider basics. Good drinking water and food were daily concerns. There was no electricity so no lights except candles or oil lamps, no refrigeration except for a root cellar or basement if you had one, nothing to cool the air in the often brutal heat. Washing clothes was a difficult task. There was no doctor or emergency medical help. It was a long wagon trip to anyplace with a general store for supplies. This life made them dependent upon each other and they must have had a strong sense of community. Grafton had one advantage and that was that the community had a band, the Russell Brothers Orchestra, and there were regular dances held, probably in the Meeting House.
Gravestones in the town’s cemetery record the tragedies of this small settlement. Two young girls were killed when the tree limb their rope swing was hanging from broke falling on them. A young boy was dragged by a horse and killed. Several very young children died from diphtheria, numerous infants under one year old died, and several adults also succumbed to disease or age.
In 1866, conflict between settlers and the Navajo near Pipe Springs on the other side of the mountains led Brigham Young to order the small settlements along the Virgin River to consolidate in Rockville for safety in numbers . Grafton was unoccupied for a couple of years although the fields were still worked until the hostilities ceased and the residents returned. As children grew into adults they often moved to other areas with more land and possibilities for them. In 1906, a canal was completed to deliver Virgin River water to the flat, tillable land near Hurricane, twenty miles away. Many Grafton families decided to seek an easier and better living situation there and moved, some even dismantling their houses and rebuilding them near Hurricane. The last person moved from Grafton in 1945.
The town site was discovered by Hollywood and it has been the filming location for parts of several movies including In Old Arizona (1929), The Arizona Kid (1930), Ramrod (1947), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Child Bride of Short Creek (1981), and The Red Fury (1984).
The village is being preserved by the Grafton Heritage Partnership, a nonprofit organization. They have done a great job of stabilizing and restoring the remaining historic structures. Thirty-two structures and the cemetery of the original town were known to exist and there were probably other farm structures and outbuildings. Of the known historic features, the cemetery and eight structures still exist, two of which are on private property and not open to the public. The buildings not on private property may be entered, except for the school/church. I have visited Grafton many times and although it is not part of my heritage, I have always felt a sense of serenity and reverence here. Some people report experiencing paranormal activities here but that has never been my experience. The dusty streets and abandoned homes and church are silent now, but the surviving orchards still produce fruit, cattle still graze, and the river still flows. The story of these faithful saints is part of history now. May they rest in eternal peace.