Grafton Ghost Town: A Restored Pioneer Townsite Near Zion

Grafton began in 1859 when Mormon pioneers, answering a call to settle southern Utah, homesteaded five families along the south bank of the Virgin River and planted cotton and crops in irrigated fields. The hamlet grew to about 168 people in 28 families, with log cabins, a church, a post office, and an adobe school. But the river that sustained Grafton also doomed it: a series of devastating floods damaged the town repeatedly, and one family after another moved on until the last couple left in 1944.

Preservation came late but thoroughly. The Grafton Heritage Partnership, organized in 1997, works in cooperation with the Bureau of Land Management, the Utah State Historical Society, and the Utah Division of State History to protect and restore the townsite. Their work has stabilized and restored the adobe schoolhouse and church, the well-preserved Russell home, and other structures, while the quiet pioneer cemetery sits just up the road.

Set against Zion's pink sandstone cliffs, Grafton is often called the most photographed ghost town in the West, and it served as a filming location for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There is no admission fee. Many visitors park in Rockville and walk or bike south on Bridge Road, crossing a 1926 iron lattice-truss bridge over the Virgin River. For RV travelers basing near Zion, it's an easy, scenic detour into Utah's pioneer past.