Travel Adventures 2012: Final Day in Zion National Park

For our last day in Southern Utah, we decided to explore some of the area that we hadn't seen yet. We began by visiting Grafton, a historic ghost town. We figured that it was appropriate, as it was Halloween!

The Grafton Cemetery. This is home to dozens of citizens, many of which died very young. I found it interesting that settlers as well as Southern Paiute Native American Indians are buried here, showing the capacity for coexistence.

The Berry family was very prominent in the area, having founded the nearby town of Berryville. Robert (seen here), his wife Isabella, and brother Joseph were killed by Navajo Native American Indians.

Down the road from the cemetery is the actual town of Grafton. Grafton was originally settled in 1861, then fell victim to the "Great Flood" of 1862. It was resettled on higher ground in 1862. Brigham Young ordered this area to be settled for the purpose of creating Mormon cotton farming communities. This is the Church and Schoolhouse building.

Next door to the Church/Schoolhouse is the Russell Home. Built around 1862, this building housed Alonzo Haventon Russell, Nancy Briggs Foster, and their children.

Across the road from the Russell Home is the log cabin where Louisa Maria Foster lived. Alonzo Russell built the cabin to house his "second" wife (remember, polygamy was acceptable in southern Utah at the time) and their children, while he lived with Nancy and their children across the street.

The John and Ellen Smith Wood Home was built just down the road from the rest of the town, in 1877. John farmed, raised cattle, and acted as a blacksmith in Grafton, until he moved in 1909.

The view of the main town of Grafton, as seen from the John and Ellen Smith Wood Home. The town is part of an ongoing restoration project by the Grafton Heritage Partnership.

After exploring Grafton, we headed north, to the upper plateau of Zion National Park. The white rocks that you can see in the distance are the edges of Zion Canyon.