Day Trip to a Ghost Town

On October 23rd, we went on a day adventure to a ghost town near us- Grafton, Utah.

 When Ken was at Dixie College, he wrote a research paper for his English class on Grafton- a ghost town up near Zion National Park.  He ran across that paper as he went through his things preparing to do his personal history (which he is working on diligently) recently. He got an A+ on it with very positive comments from his tough-grading teacher.  In fact, she thought it was so good she put it in the Dixie College library- with his permission.  Since he wrote it, he found that his great, great, great grandfather Samuel Stanworth (the father of Nancy Alice Nutter Stanworth Hinton Eager) lived up there and is buried up there.  It is a rough dirt road to get there, but, sure enough, there is a ghost town out there.  There is a church (which also served as the school and community center) and several old homes.  It is the site of where they filmed a part of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”  For that movie, a log cabin was built that fits the time period.  Anyway, it was all so interesting to see.  There is an old cemetery and we found Samuel’s headstone.  His 19-year-old son is buried next to him.  We were surprised at how many other visitors were there on a Friday morning.  There were probably 20 kids running around, having a blast playing house in the little cabins and running on the powdery dirt.  It looked like several families had joined together for an outing.  There were others, too.  It was difficult to stay socially distant.  Here are some pictures from our fun and interesting day:

In front of the church/school/ community center.

We are on the porch of one of the old homes.  Behind Ken is the property that his great great great grandfather owned.  The home is gone.

Inside one of the old homes.

Ken in front of that home

This is the cabin built for the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."  Much of that movie was filmed in this area.

A Mrs. Tenney lived in Grafton.  She went into labor during one of the times that the Virgin River was flooding.  She was in a wagon bed similar to the one here while she was in labor.  The water rose so high that the wagon was floating.  The men in the community risked their lives and entered the water and roped and pulled the wagon to safety.  The baby was born soon thereafter.  Mrs. Tenney named her baby son Marvelous Flood Tenney.  He went by Marv his whole life.
It was these floods that eventually drove everyone from Grafton, making it a ghost town.

 

The view from Grafton.  You can see how dusty the road is.

The old Grafton Cemetery

Have you ever seen a more ghost town-looking cemetery?  I was thrilled to get to see it.  What a treasure.

The grave of Ken's great, great, great grandfather, Samuel Stanworth and his son, John.

I thought this picture was the perfect mix of ancient and modern.  As Ken stood on his grandfather's grave, he went to familysearch and looked up his great, great, great grandfather and his son.

I thought this was an interesting name.

Most of the graves had coins on them.

This is an interesting and sad story.  The fenced area of the cemetery contains the graves of the Berry family.  The family was coming to Grafton when they were attacked by and murdered by Indians.  The parents were tied to their wagon and executed.  This changed things in Grafton and surrounding small communities.  They all moved their families to Rockville, living in tents, hastily built cabins, and lean-tos.  They felt they would be safer from Indian attacks if they were together.  They lived this way for a couple of years until they felt it would be safe to return to their homes.  During this difficult time, the men traveled together the several miles back to Grafton to tend their crops and later, harvest them.  Eventually, they felt it was safe and returned to their homes.

Berry family graves within the fenced area.

We then drove up to Springdale park and ate our picnic.  It was a perfect, lovely day.  We found a table right by the river.  It was just so nice and relaxing.  We decided not to even try to drive through the park as it was packed with people.  Americans are taking their vacations to national parks and they had record numbers at Zion this fall. 

 It was just such a nice outing.  I can’t believe I have lived near Grafton most of my life and have never gone up there.  So glad we did this day.