Grafton, Utah

16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1999. It stands in the Hurricane census division. It lies in ZIP code area 84763. It stands on South Wash. The Survey maps it on the Springdale West quadrangle. It stands 3,665 feet above sea level.

Grafton within Washington County

On record in Grafton

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register within a mile 1 record

The National Register names another town for these. They stand within one mile of this settlement's coordinate.

Grafton Historic Districtlisted 2010 · 0.5 miles away

Topographic sheets covering this place

8 surveys from 16 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

1885 USGS St. George quadrangle1:250000
1891 USGS St. George quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
1953 USGS Cedar City quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
1958 USGS Cedar City quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
1962 USGS Cedar City quadrangle1:250000
1980 USGS Springdale West quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
1980 USGS St. George quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
1999 USGS Springdale West quadrangle1:24000

Photographs

2 photographs, 2022

Taken for the Office of War Information and the Farm Security Administration, who photographed the country between 1935 and 1944. Works of United States government photographers, with no known restriction on use. Each opens its catalogue record.

A surviving freight wagon in Grafton, a ghost town, but a well preserved, not decayed and falling-down one, south of Zion National Park in the western U.S. state of Utah
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress

Window detail of the Louisa Russell Home in Grafton, a ghost town, but a well preserved, not decayed and falling-down one, south of Zion National Park in the western U.S. state of Utah
Highsmith, Carol M, 2022. Library of Congress

Fires near this place

120 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 120 fires within 5 miles of Grafton between 1992 and 2020, burning about 930 acres in total. 83 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	83
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	13
Recreation and ceremony	8
Debris and open burning	6
Equipment and vehicle use	4
Fireworks	3
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2011	Natural	under an acre	Zion National Park	PETRIFIED
9 September 2004	Natural	4.0 acres	Zion National Park	COUGAR
28 September 2008	Natural	under an acre	Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands	DOUBLE TREE
28 September 2008	Natural	under an acre	Zion National Park	SERENDIPITY
28 September 2005	Natural	under an acre	Zion National Park	JENNINGS
27 September 2011	Power generation/transmission/distribution	2.7 acres	Utah Division Forestry Fire State Lands	APPLE VALLEY ASST 2
2 September 2016	Natural	under an acre	Cedar City Field Office	GRAFTON
2 September 2005	Natural	under an acre	Cedar City Field Office	SMITHSONIA

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Washington County

Mines and quarries near this place

7 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 7 workings within 5 miles of Grafton: 4 past producers, 3 occurrences. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Vanadium, Uranium, Volcanic Materials, Pumice. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Cinder Deposit	Volcanic Materials	Occurrence
Cinder Deposit	Pumice	Occurrence
Wright & Thubber	Vanadium, Uranium	Occurrence
Gravel Pit #27019	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sand
Gravel Pit #27020	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer	Sand
Ut Dept Hwys Gravel Pit No.27019	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Ut Dept Hwys Gravel Pit No.27020	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Washington County

Storms near this place

3 since 2011

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Grafton in 3 storm reports between 2011 and 2018: 3 flash flood. The reports record 13 deaths and 3 injuries. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
September 2015	Flash Flood	Grafton	13 killed, 3 hurt, $750,000	A thunderstorm producing heavy rain moved over Hildale, Utah in the early afternoon, producing flash flooding along Short Creek and other neighboring drainages. This water flooded Highway 59, and portions of the road were closed and gated off, as this is a somewhat common occurrence for the community. However, a second strong thunderstorm trained through the area, producing very significant flooding out of Maxwell and Jans Canyons.\|\|This second flood swept across a group of 16 people who had been waiting for the initial flood waters to recede. When the second flood began, the group retreated to the two vans they had been traveling in, and the large flood swept the vans away and down the channel. Three of these people were rescued and survived, but the remaining 13 people were killed by the flood. Three of these 13 victims were women, while the remaining 10 were children under the age of 12.\|\|Property damage was also extensive across the area, including damage to water lines, area roadways, power lines, bridges, and other infrastructure. In addition, multiple private homes had flood and mud damage, while several others had minor water damage. Multiple vehicles were also destroyed in the flood.
August 2018	Flash Flood	Grafton	$50,000	Heavy rain flooded several homes in Apple Valley.
September 2011	Flash Flood	Grafton	-	Flash flooding occurred in many locations of Zion National Park, with floods reported over a large portion of the southern half of the park. Pine Creek and Spry Canyon both experienced large floods, with water in Pine Creek reportedly 6 to 7 feet high. Large rocks and other debris impacted some of the roads around the park. In addition, many of the smaller drainages that flow south to Rockville experienced flooding.

Every storm recorded in Washington County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Place	Distance	Sheets
Rockville	2.2 miles	16
Springdale	4.6 miles	16
Shunesburg	5.5 miles	16
Oak Creek Residential Area	5.8 miles	16
Apple Valley	5.8 miles	17
Watchman Residential Area	5.9 miles	16
Virgin	6.4 miles	15
Big Plain Junction	8.3 miles	17

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on Grafton	An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2229353	The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1437570. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.