Silver Reef Ghost Town...

Our history lessons continued as we headed south to Leeds, Utah and its old mining town.

In 1866, a prospector discovered silver in the vicinity of the future town of Silver Reef.

Geologists and other miners refused at first to believe the news that silver had been found in sandstone. When brought an actual sample from the area, the Smithsonian Institution called it an "interesting fake".

Wells, Fagro & Co. Express Station c. 1878)

Immediately following the initial silver rush, a town site was established and by 1878, the town's one mile long business district consisted of a hotel, boarding houses, nine stores, six saloons, five restaurants, a bank, two dance halls, a newspaper and eight dry goods stores.

The mining activities around Silver Reef over the years not only changed the landscape, but left behind many other vestiges of those activities that can still be seen. There were around 500 mine openings at one time in the Silver Reef Mining District. Wow.

There are two pioneer cemeteries here. We chose to explore (and camp at) the Catholic one. There are few remaining headstones, unfortunately.

This one is the most beautiful and has the best story. Henry Clifford Clark was born in 1853 in New York. By 1870, Henry was living with his parents and brother James in Grass Valley, CA. Eventually, the Clark family followed the rough mining districts east to Pioche, Nevada and then to Silver Reef in the Utah Territory.

Henry became a very well-known gambler. His young life came to an end during a card game in the faro room of Cassidy's Saloon in here on Sunday, December 1, 1878. He was buried in the Silver Reef Catholic Cemetery. His Dad had a handsome monument erected and enclosed his son's grave in a beautiful iron filigree rectangle, shipped from Russia.

I'm always saddened to see the grave of a child. Park Morehous died in 1878 and in the 1880 census, her parents were still in Silver Reef, childless. So sad.