Paria, Utah

Paria (or Pahreah, Pron-en|pəˈriːə) is a ghost town on the Paria River in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in central Kane County, Utah, United States. It was inhabited from 1870 to 1929, and later used as a filming location.

History

The area was first settled in 1865 by a Mormon group led by Peter Shirts.cite book | last = Thompson | first = George A. | title = Some Dreams Die: Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures | year = 1982 | month = November | publisher = Dream Garden Press | location = Salt Lake City | isbn = 0-942688-01-5 | pages = pp.73–74] This early settlement was named "Rockhouse", for Shirts's strongly-built sandstone house. After the end of the Black Hawk War in 1867 settlers began to arrive at a rapid pace. 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 1870 the residents agreed to move the settlement. They divided in two groups; half the people went about convert|5|mi upstream and founded the town of Pahreah.cite book | last = Carr | first = Stephen L. | title = The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns | edition = 3rd edition | origyear = 1972 | origmonth = June | year = 1986 | publisher = Western Epics | location = Salt Lake City | pages = pp.126–127 | isbn = 0-914740-30-X]

In 1871, John D. Lee came to the Paria area, fleeing investigators of the Mountain Meadows massacre. He constructed a dam and irrigation ditches with the help of many locals and passersby, including members of John Wesley Powell's second Colorado River expedition.cite book | last = Bradley | first = Martha Sonntag | title = A History of Kane County | series = Utah Centennial County History Series | year = 1999 | month = January | publisher = Utah State Historical Society | location = Salt Lake City | isbn = 0-913738-40-9 | pages = pp.98–100 ]

Pahreah grew through the 1870s, 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 1880s, 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, under the name Paria. 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. [cite book | last = Van Cott | first = John W. | title = Utah Place Names | year = 1990 | publisher = University of Utah Press | location = Salt Lake City, Utah | pages = p.287 | isbn = 0-87480-345-4 ] A lone bachelor prospector held out until 1929, then Paria was empty.

Filming location

In later years the film industry became interested in using the picturesque ghost town, with its canyon vista background, as a location for making Westerns. Several scenes for "Buffalo Bill" were shot here in 1943, but crews were in a constant struggle against the flooding Paria River. Producers of other movies and television programs used Paria more or less throughout the 1950s. [Bradley, pp.277–278.] Then in 1961 the old ghost town was used as a major location for the Rat Pack film "Sergeants 3", the largest western ever filmed in Kane County. [Bradley, p.281.] Not satisfied with what remained of Paria, the film's creators constructed an imitation Old West town about a mile to the west. Visitors often confuse this movie set with the real Paria.

References

External links

* [http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ut/pahreah.html Pahreah or Pariah] at GhostTowns.com