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Show NPS Form 10-900-a Microsoft Word 2.0 Format OMS No. 10024'()()18 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section No. 8 Page 7 Grafton Historic District, Rockville, Washington County, UT Statement of Significance Abandoned in 1945, Grafton, Utah is a unique example of a nineteenth century frontier town that, except for natural decay, remains largely unchanged since its settlement period (see map of Grafton circa 1900). The few remaining buildings have never been architecturally altered, and many original fences mark the historic property lines that surround the still visible fields and irrigation ditches. Electricity, gas, plumbing, and modern amenities were never introduced into Grafton,2 and the roads that remain were never paved. Survival in southern Utah was very difficult because of the harsh climate, and mid-nineteenth settlements either failed quickly or thrived. Unlike most small towns, Grafton managed to barely survive the nineteenth century, but it ultimately failed in the midtwentieth, as technology, growth and changing ideals rendered it obsolete. The towns that did not succeed were abandoned early, leaving few remains, and those that persisted have been greatly altered over time with additions, demolitions, new construction and modern conveniences, such as paved roads and utilities. Grafton is significant as a very rare example of a frontier settlement that has survived unaltered into the late twentieth century.3 The Settlement of Utah and the Cotton Mission The Utah Territory was settled by Brigham Young and his followers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon Church) in 1847. In order to escape religious persecution, the Mormon exodus began with original Church leader Joseph Smith in Fayette, New York, and continued across the plains into the Utah Territory after his death in Carthage, Illinois, in 1844. Numerous Mormon towns were established along the way, for each time they settled down persecution would ensue, forcing them further west. Upon their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, church leaders immediately called upon many of its members to leave the city and settle as much of the territory as possible in order to claim it as their own. Following the Utah War in 1858 in which the Mormons found themselves pitted against federal troops (while also involved in localized skirmishes with Native Americans), one of the Church's primary goals was to create a completely self-sufficient society.4 This was, in part, achieved by a series of economic missions to settle areas that had the natural advantages needed for this purpose. These missions included gold, iron, silk, and cotton, among others. s Gold mining and silk production provided luxery goods; Iron enabled the pioneers to produce their own tools; and cotton was essential for the production of clothing. The Cotton Mission played a key role in the drive for self-sufficiency, for it was down in the more temperate climate of "Dixie" (southern Utah) that commodities such as cotton, flax, hemp, sugar cane, wine grapes and figs could be raised successfully. Exploration parties set out for the Santa Clara and Virgin River basins in the early 1850s, and in 1857 and 1858 small parties were sent to settle the region. By the spring of 1859, the population of Virgin City had reached critical mass, and that fall six families led by Nathan Cram Tenney were called from Virgin City to settle Grafton, located upstream, named after a town in Massachusetts. 6 _x_see continuation sheet 2Severa l personal histories state that David and Maria Ballard had a telephone in the later years, and this has been confirmed by Vilo Jones DeMille. 1 Three Native American sites have been identified at Grafton. The Virgin River Basin is rich with cultural resources that pre-date this period of significance, and it is possible that more sites exist within this project area . . 4 Leonard Arrington, Great Basin Kingdom, pp. 95-6. slbid., p. 33 6 Ronald C. Ballard. "On the Banks of the Rio Virgen [sic]", p. 6. |
