A small girl plays with her porcelain doll on the lilac-shaded front porch of her family home. Her mother and elder sisters bustle to prepare the evening meal while monitoring steaming pots of tomatoes and other home-grown garden vegetables for canning. The family’s men return from the wheat fields outside town, where they have toiled since before dawn. Chickens scratch the bare earth of a livestock pen, while a pig devours kitchen-generated vegetable scraps. Similar activities occur at other Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) homes throughout town as Widtsoe, Utah winds down from another day’s activity.
"That’s the picture that came into focus as we conducted our assessment," says DRI archeologist Anne DuBarton. "Understanding how people lived in other eras is a big part of what drew me to archaeology."
The word "archaeology" most often summons images of far-off countries and enormous excavations, where finds date back millions of years. But not all digs are in exotic foreign locales, and some sites are comparatively recent.
So it was last October, as DRI archaeologists traveled to south central Utah to examine the remains of a town abandoned in 1936. DRI’s Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences archaeologists DuBarton and Susan Edwards teamed up with David Valentine, of the Bureau of Reclamation, as co-investigators to map and document what remains of Widtsoe. On contract with the State of Utah Schools and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (TLA), the archeological assessment documented the town’s historical significance. The TLA owns a large portion of the town site property. Before selling the land to private parties, state and federal agencies must assess the area. Given DRI’s background in archaeological examinations for the TLA and at various historic Nevada sites, it made good sense that DRI archaeologists would perform the archaeological investigation of the site.
Joining the principal investigators was consulting archaeologist Laureen Perry. The group’s job was to survey the town site, lot by lot, mapping and recording each standing structure or foundation, documenting what they found with photographs, and collecting and logging artifacts. The trip to Widtsoe was one of discovery, of recording the town’s history—and a glimpse into our nation’s history.
Despite having two of Utah’s major destinations nearby - Bryce Canyon National Park to the south, and Capital Reef to the east - Widtsoe doesn’t get nearly the tourist traffic of many Utah landmarks. Resting on the east fork of the Sevier River in Johns Valley, Widtsoe Junction isn’t on the road to much of anywhere. It’s an out-of-the-way, tumble-down ghost town that was once a thriving farming community.
DuBarton and her associates arrived in Widtsoe to answer numerous questions about the town’s religious, political, and socio-economic framework. Specifically, the group researched the town’s structure, the residents’ living circumstances, and whether the town site was occupied after most residents left in 1936.
"We all played specific roles in gathering data," Edwards reports. "While each of us brought different expertise to the project, our complementary skills made for a great team effort." Valentine acted as field supervisor, leading and overseeing the team’s efforts. He and Perry did all the photographic documentation of the town, while DuBarton and Edwards mapped the town site, gathering and categorizing artifacts. Their work gave them a deep sense of the past.
Originally homesteaded in the late 1800s by a few LDS families, the area gradually attracted many church members (and a few non-LDS individuals) interested in the homesteaders’ successful dry farming techniques. Members of the LDS church were among the vanguard of American settlers and were masters of both dry land and irrigated agriculture. In 1910, one of the families who originally settled the area donated 40 acres of land to create a formal town site, called Winder. Seven years later, the town’s name changed to Widtsoe in honor of dry farming expert, and LDS Church Apostle, John A. Widtsoe.
By 1920, with a population of 365, Widtsoe was a bustling agricultural community that attracted increasing investment to the area. According to DuBarton, the town’s layout followed the typical "Zion" pattern of LDS towns: a large park and church in the town center surrounded by one-acre family properties in a grid pattern. Most home sites included a barn, livestock pens, and a vegetable garden. While the majority of grain farming occurred in the fields outside of town, much of the food for family consumption was home-raised livestock and home-grown fruits and vegetables.
"Given the profusion of broken canning jars," DuBarton notes with a smile, "I’d say this was a largely self-sufficient population." She and Edwards spent many late nights categorizing and logging artifacts, including thousands of glass shards from hundreds of canning jars used to prepare food for the long winters.
"Collecting documentary evidence and walking around town I could easily imagine people living there," recalls Perry. "Even in its heyday, Widtsoe was not an easy place to live. It was a hard life in a harsh environment, but the people created a good life for themselves." According to historical reports, most residents lived with no indoor plumbing, relied on wood stoves for cooking and heat, kerosene lamps for light, and hauled drinking water from nearby wells. At an altitude of 7,200 feet, walls of snow and ice cut the town off for several months each year. While some people left after the fall harvest, many stayed through the severe, isolating winters. These were tough people, used to a self-sufficiency uncommon in the United States today.
The
artifacts DuBarton’s group collected helped establish some chronology and economic
indicators. "Some artifacts we found reflected a higher or lower socioeconomic
status," reports DuBarton. "For example we found pieces of decorative
glass near one of the larger, better preserved homes. Those items indicate a
higher household income." The group also searched for indicators of non-LDS
town residents.
"Records for the 1920s indicate at least 10 people lived in Widtsoe who were not members of the LDS church," reports Edwards. "We examined the artifacts in and around home sites to see if we could find where they lived, but it seems most people in Widtsoe used tobacco, and drank coffee or alcohol." She notes the church prohibition on these substances was not enforced until the mid-1900s.
What did not last until mid-century was the one thing necessary to Widtsoe’s survival - water. The water that supported abundant dry farming in the area began evaporating. By the late 1920s, Johns Valley’s average rainfall had dropped below what was needed to dry farm, and much of the money spent on building the area’s infrastructure dried up with the landscape. Plowing and over-grazing caused erosion and hastened the town’s demise.
Wind
eroded the topsoil, and the falling water table eliminated grazing pastures
for livestock and drinking water. By 1934, only a fraction of Widtsoe’s resident
families remained. Like many towns of the Depression-era Dust Bowl, Widtsoe
simply dried up. Those families left in town formally requested federal aid
and, under a New Deal plan, were relocated in 1935 and 1936. All but abandoned,
the desiccated town site began to fall apart. With the exception of a few squatters
who ran a sawmill in the city park during the 1950s and ‘60s, Widtsoe ceased
to exist - except in the memories of those who once lived there.
Today, although little remains of the town, the bonds that created the town are still strong. Widtsoe’s former residents and their families, many of whom live in nearby Escalante and Tropic, hold an annual reunion at the town site. The Widtsoe Cemetery is still maintained and used by the town’s families. And the DRI archaeologists who studied the site found more than a ghost town.
"Discovering lilacs and irises growing in many of the front yards was amazing," says Perry. "We got a sense of life continuing as it had since the beginning of the last century, and, working together, we were able to preserve some part of that life. It created an incredible bond among us." Du Barton and Edwards agree that the field experience and deep friendships the group developed outweigh the long hours and uncomfortable working conditions they sometimes endured.
Widtsoe’s development - and its demise - is a vital part of our nation’s history. As the land is sold, and another generation of Americans creates a new vision for the area, some part of that by-gone time remains. Widtsoe lives on in flourishing lilac bushes, in the memories of farmer town folk, and in the documentation of DRI’s archaeologists.
Lynn Taylor
Overview of the Meechum house.
Woodward house overview.
Left to right: Susan Edwards, Anne DuBarton, David Valentine, and Laureen Perry in the DRI Artifacts Repository/Curation Facility in Las Vegas
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