WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)

SILVER REEF, UTAH

Related Pages

Silver Reef Museum

Miscellaneous

Histories

About the same time Leeds was settled, silver was discovered on the White Reef. This reef, an upturned sandstone ledge, parallels I-15 from Harrisburg to a point north of Leeds. It is one of the few places where silver has ever been discovered in sandstone. Miners and immigrants, including many of Irish, Cornish, and Chinese origin, rushed to the area with the hope of making their fortunes. The boomtown of Silver Reef sprang up about a mile north of Leeds, and by 1878 was a considerably larger community than either diminishing Harrisburg or the growing farming community of Leeds. At its height, Silver Reef boasted nearly a dozen mines and six ore processing mills, plus retail stores, saloons, hotels, banks, a school, Wells Fargo express office, theater company, and other urban amenities. Leeds and Silver Reef were a study in contrasts. Despite great differences in ethnicity, religion, and culture, the mining boomtown and its agricultural neighbor formed a mutually dependent relationship. The miners at Silver Reef were sustained by produce from Leeds, and Leeds farmers flourished with cash from the miners for their crops. Silver Reef peaked from 1878 to 1882 and was pretty much abandoned by 1884. By 1900 Silver Reef had died as the most easily accessible silver ore had been mined and the price of silver plummeted; however, the farming community of Leeds survived.

At one time, Silver Reef was the largest town in Washington County and unquestionably the liveliest. There were lynchings, murders, gambling fights and all things famous in western novels but never everyday occurrences in Mormon Utah. Silver Reef was established in October, 1886, as the result of John Kemple accidentally discovering silver in the most unexpected spot, in a reef of sandstone. There was a strong belief among the Mormons that it was Divine Providence that placed it there. His servants, as the Mormons called themselves, were busily working to erect a temple. They had given their all as far as finances were concerned and now all they had left was their physical strength. They had to have cash and through the wealth the mines brought in they were able to finish the Temple. The heads of the church thundered against going into the mines but they were delighted that mines provided a ready market for everything that they had to sell. To the skeptical they pointed out that the mines played out the minute that the Temple was completed. It is the only incident where silver was found in this type of stone.

LOCATION

TBD

HISTORY

Population
1,013 in 1880

HISTORIC SITES

Beal Family Cemetery
Rice Bank Building
Silver Reef Catholic Cemetery
Silver Reef Chinese Cemetery
Silver Reef Protestant Cemetery
Wells Fargo Express Office

PHOTOS

REFERENCES

Silver Reef Website
Wells Fargo Silver Reef Museum
A history of Silver Reef
A history of Silver Reef
A history of Silver Reef
A history of Silver Reef
A history of Silver Reef
"Saga of Three Towns: Harrisburg - Leeds - Silver Reef"
"Saga of Three Towns: Harrisburg - Leeds - Silver Reef"
A driving tour of Silver Reef, Leeds, and Harrisburg
Silver Reef Interpretive Sign: Three Historic Towns
Silver Reef Interpretive Sign: Mile-Long Main Street
Silver Reef Interpretive Sign: Silver in Sandstone: A Geology Anomaly
Silver Reef Interpretive Sign: On-site Mills: A Silver Reef Necessity
Silver Reef Interpretive Sign: Mining, Milling, and Men: Barbee and Walker
St. John's Catholic Church

Paul Dean Proctor and Morris A. Shirts, "Silver, Sinners & Saints: A History of Old Silver Reef, Utah". Palmer, Inc., 1991.

Washington County Chapter, Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, " Under Dixie Sun".
1950 with 1978 Supplement.
Page 126.

Silver Reef Project: Creation of a "Historic Ethnography" For a Nineteenth Century American Mining Town on the Western Frontier
University of Pennsylvania, University Museum Research Projects, pp. 61-63
http://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/.../Silver.pdf

"Silver Reef"
Pages 33-35 in "Selected Topics Related To Hurricane, Utah"
Written and/or compiled by Victor Hall, 2003.