Grafton Ghost Town

We had talked about visiting a ghost town while we were on our trip. Apparently there are several in the area. We chose to go to Grafton Ghost Town. It's not too far off the main road to Zion's. This is the bridge we crossed to get there. I thought it was neat.

All the kids were freaked out about going to a "ghost town". From the time we started our trip they kept on asking about the ghost town and whether or not we were going to one. They kept asking what is was going to be like and were scaring themselves just by bringing it up constantly. On the way to the ghost town is this really old cemetery. Jeremy and I wanted to stop and look at some of the grave stones, but the kids refused to get out. We left them in the car and went to take a quick look.

It was fascinating to look at the old markers and imagine what those people were like. Some of them had lost all their children, some were killed by indians, some had crossed the plains as pioneers. While we were looking through the cemetery, Athena and Samantha started yelling out to us from the car saying, "Hurry up! Come back Mom and Dad!!!" When we were done we came back to the car and I said, "Why do you need us to come back?" Athena and Samantha were so scared because we were at the cemetery by a GHOST TOWN. It was windy and they thought they could hear ghosts and that something was going to come and get them.

We got in and drove the rest of the way to the actual town. They didn't want to get out there either. I explained that these buildings were built by people who lived here for awhile and then moved on to different places. That's why it's a called a ghost town, because they left their buildings behind and moved somewhere else. Jeremy and I got out and none of the kids wanted to come see the buildings. Then, I think they liked the prospect of sitting in the car without parents even less, so they all jumped out and trailed behind us in a clump o' kids.

This is an old home that was actually lived in until 1945. We weren't able to go inside any of the buildings, but we could peek in the windows. It looked pretty neat inside and it also looked like someone has been in there doing work, trying to fix it up.

After walking around the buildings for a little bit and peeking in the windows, the kids got over their fears and were actually excited to be there. We sat for awhile and talked about what life would have been like when there were a lot of people living here and how it would be to live here ourselves. Here we are on the porch. :)

Here is another old building on the property. I think this one was a home too.

This is the schoolhouse. From the side we could peek in the windows of this building too. It looked pretty neat - wish we could go inside!

I like this picture because it looks so pretty with the mountain in the background!

Overall there were only 4 main buildings. This one was built away from the other ones and is another house. We also saw some foundations of buildings that were no longer standing. We can only imagine when this was a bustling settlement.

When we were done looking at everything, the kids didn't want to go. Funny how they warm up to something as the experience is ending! They even asked if we could go to another ghost town. On our way back to the main road we stopped at the cemetery again because the kids wanted to get out this time and look at everything. They ended up having fun going around reading all the grave stones and the information posted in the cemetery. I'm glad it turned out to be a good experience instead of a miserable memory.