Paria, Utah

     Are you ready for another history lesson? It's hard for me not to go a little crazy with it because it's all so interesting to me :). And ghost towns are especially fascinating!

     The area was first settled in 1865 by a Mormon group. Farming produced good crops for several years, but irrigation was very difficult; each spring the surface runoff water was absorbed into the desert soil too quickly to properly water the fields. In 1871, John D. Lee ( the same one from Lee's Ferry) came to the Paria area, fleeing investigators of the Mountain Meadows massacre. He constructed a dam and irrigation ditches.

     Paria grew through the 1870's, gaining a general store, a church, a number of sandstone houses, and many log houses. The population grew to 47 families. The town hit hard times in the 1880's, however. The Paria River flooded every year from 1883 to 1888, washing away fields and even some buildings. People started to move away. By 1892 there were only eight families left, but for some reason the town was granted a post office that year. Not much changed until a small gold mining operation was established here in 1911. Within a year, that too was wiped out by flooding. The post office closed in 1914. A lone bachelor prospector held out until 1929, then Paria was empty.

    In the 1950's the film industry became interested in using the picturesque ghost town, with its canyon vista background, as a location for making Westerns. Crews were in a constant struggle against the flooding Paria River but several producers pushed through, up until 2007 when the last filming in Paria took place.

     According to what we'd read online, we were expecting to see a good part of the town as well as the movie set but were severely disappointed. Vandalism has been a huge issue and the movie set is completely gone and most of the town was burned a few years ago. But it's a beautiful place and well worth the visit anyhow. 

The Red Rock Saloon was right here.

The Paria River

      We could see a miner's cabin on the other side of the valley so we started off in that direction. We had to cross the river, which was fairly easy since it wasn't high at all. Many places it was wide and shallow so Eldon carried the children over and our feet stayed almost dry. Emily managed to sink in mud to the tops of her boots while waiting for us all to cross so she was wet, lol.

     The saddest part of the day happened here. My parents gave us money for Christmas and we purchased a Garmin eTrex 10. It's a fabulous little GPS device that tracks your exact steps even when you don't have cell service. It's also got elevation and a mileage tracker. We've only had it about 2 weeks and knew we never wanted to be without one again, especially in all these desert canyons! But, we are nearly positive it fell in the river when crossing. We retraced our steps and even searched in the river awhile but eventually accepted that it was gone for good. Eldon immediately ordered another one when we got home, as well as a strap this time. Highly recommend this device if you do much hiking at all!
Garmin eTrex 10

What a great living room view!

We made it to the miners cabin!

Enjoying a snack.

The cellar behind the house.

The miner's cabin. It blended in so well!

Amazing red streaks were in all the surrounding mesas.

An ugly reminder of the people who destroyed the town by fire :(.

Lonely fence posts slowly rotting.

The remains of a rock house.

In the river bed.

     Paria is a lovely ghost town even though there isn't much left. Hiking trails are also lacking but it's a peaceful valley to spend the day in. We enjoyed a picnic before heading home. I'm hoping we get a chance to go back and do more poking around. There's also a cemetery there that we didn't investigate at all and I love old cemeteries and imagining so..........another day!