What’s So Special About Grafton ?

 In 1847, Brigham Young brought his Saints, also known as Mormons, to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, in what was then Mexico, after fleeing religious persecution in the United States. He called his new settlement Deseret, which in 1850 became part of the US as a result of the Mexican American War.

Young set out to establish villages throughout the area, and he reasoned that lands further south could produce a costly and US-dependent staple: cotton. This idea flourished due to the availability of flat land and enough water from the Virgin River to irrigate. Eight farming villages were established along the upper Virgin River.  A group of five Mormon families moved from nearby Virgin to a new area nearby that they called Grafton and established a community in 1859. When the US Civil War began in 1861, Young’s vision bore fruit and cotton was in high demand. But the Grafton farmers used so much of their land for cotton that they didn’t plant enough corn, cane and other crops to feed themselves. Grafton and the other towns all had to scale back cotton production in favor of food crops.

In January of 1862, a raging flood destroyed 4 of the 8 communities established along the river, including Grafton. The settlers then moved one mile upstream onto higher ground. In 1864, a church census recorded 168 people living in Grafton, generally due to immigration of Mormons from further north in the Utah Territory.

In 1866, Grafton became a ghost town for the first time. The upper Virgin River valley had been inhabited by native southern Paiute peoples, and just to the east of them were Navajo peoples being squeezed by settlers moving in to Utah and Arizona. Competition for land and other resources led to conflict. Mormon settlers were killed in Kanab by Navajo raiders in 1866. Brigham Young ordered all Mormons to gather in communities of at least 150 men. By 1868, the “Indian Problem” ended, and Grafton residents returned.

In 1896, Utah became a state. A newly built canal in 1906 detoured water away from Grafton to nearby Hurricane, where many residents relocated to take advantage of more consistent water levels, and less flooding. 

By 1929, the town was barely inhabited. That same year, it became the setting for the first outdoor talking movie ever filmed - “In Old Arizona” starring Warner Baxter, who won the Best Actor Academy Award for his role as the “Cisco Kid”.

By 1945, the last resident left Grafton, and it became a ghost town for the second and last time. Some of the few buildings not destroyed by floods have been partially restored and remain open to visit.

Since then more film companies have used Grafton as a backdrop. They include Ramrod, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Child Bride of Short Creek, and The Red Fury.

The Grafton Cemetery attests to harsh life in the old west. There were a number of deaths from Diphtheria and Scarlet Fever, but accidents and Indians killed others.

Next - Arizona bound.