Need more adventure? Stateline Canyon and the surrounding area feature plenty of trails for ATVs and dirt bikes. However, the cemetery is well-kept and worth paying your respects. Sadly, much of what remained of Stateline burned with widespread wildfires in 2020.

It included everything you would expect of an Old West town: saloons, a couple of general stores, a daily stagecoach to the nearest town with a railroad stop and even its own newspaper.īut before long, the mines had given up all they could the town slowly faded away its last residents gone by the end of 1918. Two more mines, the Johnny and the Creole, soon followed.Īt one point, 300 people called Stateline home. The discovery of gold and silver in the area prompted a bit of a rush, followed by the establishment of the Ophir mine in Stateline Canyon in 1896. Someone discovered gold around 1894 in them thar hills - or at least in Stateline Canyon near the Nevada state line in Iron County, Utah. Welcome to Stateline, born in a Utah gold rush Follow roughly 3 miles to the historic site.įor extra credit, stop by the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum in Cedar City on your way to see artifacts from the site and learn more about the area’s early settlers. Head west on UT-56, continuing 19.5 miles, then turn left on Old Iron Town Road, which is gravel. Take I-15 to Cedar City, exiting at Utah State Route 56, also known as 200 North. The most recognizable structure is an old beehive-shaped charcoal oven, but you can also find the brick chimney that once served as part of the foundry, and an “Arastra,” a type of mill used to grind the iron ore so it could be used to charge the furnace.īe polite if you visit - there are nearby residents who call the area home. Today, you can still check out ruins of Old Irontown that tell the story of iron mining and processing. A money panic in 1874 proved too difficult to overcome. The town boasted not just the foundry, furnaces and blacksmith you would expect, but even a schoolhouse. Iron City grew quickly, filling with 97 residents within two years. However, that led to Peter Shirts’ discovery of the Iron City site in 1868, and the subsequent organization of the Union Iron Company by Ebenezer Hanks that same year. The mining operation there eventually failed and closed down, though settlers remained. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints settled Cedar City in the 1850s, with the express goal of establishing an iron works. In a way, it came about because of the establishment of Cedar City, more than a decade before. Photo: Deseret News Archivesįounded in 1868, Old Irontown was originally known as Iron City. Old Irontown was settled in the 1850s for the purpose of mining iron ore, however, the venture quickly proved unsuccessful and Old Irontown became Utah’s first ghost town. The museum is on the right at the corner of Silver Reef Drive and Wells Fargo Drive. Turn left at the “Y” in the road, which becomes Silver Reef Drive. Turn right at the “T” on Silver Reef Road, driving west about 1.5 miles. Getting thereįrom the north, take southbound I-15 to exit 23 for Leeds/Silver Reef. Feel like stretching your legs? A short trail will take you to one of the kilns once used to process silver. Today, much of the town has been overtaken by new development, making it therefore off-limits to explorers, but you can still visit the old Wells Fargo Express Office, which was turned into a museum, and the bank, now a gift shop.

While the mines generated millions of dollars of silver ore, the last mine closed up in 1891. A downturn in the silver market dealt one major blow, and decreasing wages for miners dealt another. That same year, after the mines closed in Pioche, Nev., some of its miners relocated to Rockpile, renaming it “Silver Reef.” At its peak, the town hosted 2,500 residents, nine grocery stores, six saloons and even a newspaper, which made it the largest town in southern Utah at the time.īut it wouldn’t last. Barbee, staked nearly two dozen claims and established a town he called “Bonanza City.” But miners drawn to the area by reports of silver preferred to set up camp outside of town, which they called “Rockpile.” A pair of Salt Lake bankers known as the Walker brothers hired a prospector to check it out on their behalf. Then, in 1875, word got out about Kemple’s discovery.

He returned in 1874, hoping to find the source of the vein of silver, staking several more claims, but without locating the source. A man named John Kemple discovered silver there in 1866. Like many ghost towns of the Old West, Silver Reef got its start as a mining settlement.

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