Interesting Stops on the way to Zion including a ghost town

If you are traveling to Zion National Park from the West (Interstate 15 from Las Vegas perhaps), you’ll travel along Route 9 which as some interesting history in the towns of Virgin, Grafton and Rockville on the way to Springdale, the gateway town to Zion.

Be sure to stop at the historic pull out in front of some old horse corrals and read about the rocket testing that goes on up there on the top of the Hurricane Mesa on the other side of the road used to test rocket sleds.

Grafton Ghost Town

As you enter the small town of Rockville, look carefully on your right for a small little sign marking Bridge Street.   Follow to the end of the street, cross the one-lane bridge and look for signs for Grafton.   You’ll head right on a dirt road and eventually lead up to the foothills.  The Grafton Cemetery will be on your left and the road will continue down to the Ghost Town or at least the five or so remaining and restored buildings.

When I visited, the church was locked up but the other buildings were open to exploring and cows were roaming all over the place.

Grafton was used for filming a number of western movies including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  Most notably the famous bicycle scene (Raindrops keep falling on my head).

Brief History of Grafton

• Grafton, Utah Territory, 1859 to 1862 – Five families of  Mormon settlers start to set up a farming community especially focused on growing cotton to provide fiber for the Mormon community.
•  In January 1862, a raging flood destroyed most of Grafton
• Grafton’s settlers relocated to higher ground one mile upstream of their first town, where the current townsite now stands.
• Grafton, Utah Territory, 1862-1866 – new trouble begin at the new townsite.
• Irrigation ditches regularly filled with sand and required such continuous attention that one settler remarked, “making ditches at Grafton is like household washing; it’s a weekly chore!”
• Grafton, Utah Territory, 1866-1868 A mere two years later, in 1866, Grafton became a ghost town for the first time.
• Conflicts with Navajo tribes force the settlers to live in larger communities but they return daily to their fields.
• Grafton, Utah Territory, 1868-1945 – residents slowly move to Hurricane for better irrigation.   The last resident leaves in 1945.

Films Shot in Grafton

• In Old Arizona, 1929 (First talkie filmed outdoors). Starring Warner Baxter (who won the Academy Award for this role as The Cisco Kid), Raoul Walsh, Edmund Lowe, and Dorothy Burgess.

Ramrod, 1947. Starring Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Preston Foster, Charles Ruggles, Donald Crisp and Lloyd Bridges.

• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969. Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katherine Ross (won four Academy Awards)
• Child Bride of Short Creek, 1981. Diane Lane, Helen Hunt, Christopher Atkins, Conrad Bain.
• The Red Fury, 1984. Wendy Lynne, Calvin Bartlett, Katherine Cannon, Juan Gonzales.