Join us for upcoming Grafton events Annual Grafton Reunion, Saturday, September 28, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The reunion will be held at the usual location, east past the church/schoolhouse and Russell home. In the event of rain, the alternate plan is to meet at the Rockville Community Center (43 E. Main Street). The grounds will…
Mulberry Tree at John And Ellen Wood’s Home in Grafton The mulberry trees have a long history in Utah, returning to the days of Brigham Young and his vision of a self-reliant community. He brought silkworm eggs and mulberry seeds from France and encouraged the settlers to grow them for silk production. In Grafton, people…
Removing Russian Olive Trees Why are Russian olive trees bad? The slivery Russian olive tree is a nasty, thorny, hard-wood tree that easily takes over riparian (river bank) corridors and consumes a lot of water. The problem is the cottonwoods and willows are being choked out by Russian olive trees, negatively impacting riparian habitat…
Selected Timeline 1847 Mormons flee persecution, leave the United States and arrive in what’s now Salt Lake City 1848 California Gold Rush begins; Salt Lake City benefits from westbound miners 1850 Utah becomes a U.S. Territory 1851 Parowan and Cedar City, called the Iron Mission, settled by Mormons from Salt Lake City to develop nearby…
Where did Grafton get its name? This is an interesting question that perhaps may never be answered with certainty. Ron Morris wrote an article on the subject. Here are some excerpts.
Movies Shot in Grafton This year is the 50th anniversary of the filming of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The beauty of the landscape drew western movie makers to southern Utah 1927-1979. In 1929, In Old Arizona (the first talkie filmed outdoors) filmed a scene in Grafton. It stared Warner Baxter, who won the…
Grafton’s Wildlife Reserve The Grafton Heritage Partnership Project is unique because it brings historic and landscape preservation together. We are protecting historic structures as well as landscapes that include the pastures for agriculture and Virgin River floodplain habitat for the benefit of wildlife. The Grafton property was purchased in 2000 and the Grand Canyon Trust’s…
History Remembered In 1861, Sarah and William Hasting and their three children settled in Grafton. They lived in a wagon box, cooked over a campfire and lived on caneseedbread, pigweed and sego lily roots. William bought a dugout from the Romney family (Hastings Dugout). It is now just a depression in ground behind the cabin…
Ghosts Since Grafton has the label of being a “ghost town” we get a lot people asking about ghosts. ViloDeMille told her Grafton ghost story to musician Phillip Bimstein. He and his band Red Rock Rondo composed a song about it Back and Forthfrom one world to the other. Katherine Bailey sent us a copy…
