| Clarion | |
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| — Ghost town — | |
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Clarion
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| Coordinates: | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Utah |
| County | Sanpete |
| Established | 1911 |
| Abandoned | 1915 |
Clarion is a ghost town in Sanpete County, Utah, United States. Lying about 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Gunnison, Clarion was the site of a brief, early-twentieth century experiment in Jewish rural living. The Clarion site was 6,085 acres (24.63 km2; 9.508 sq mi), extending 5 miles (8.0 km) north and south along the Sevier River, and approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) wide.
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For several decades, many Jewish reformers and Zionist nationalists had argued that Jews needed to become "a normal nation" and urged the abandonment of both urban living and occupations traditionally associated with Jews. This back-to-the-land movement urged Jews to find a purer life and to renounce sedentary jobs in favor of those based on manual labor.
The project was funded by the Jewish Agricultural and Colonial Association, an organization of some 200 Jewish families living in northeastern cities. Organized in 1910, the Association sent Benjamin Brown and Isaac Herbst as representatives in 1911 to investigate potential sites in New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. The New Mexico option proved to be impractically expensive. As the disappointed investigators were preparing to leave New Mexico, they received a telegram suggesting a stop in Utah. The state was at the time engaged in a campaign to attract settlers, and in the process of constructing the Piute Canal, which was to irrigate vast tracts of desert. The Association was also encouraged by the financially secure and politically well-connected Jewish community of Salt Lake City. Such prominent local Jews as Simon Bamberger, Samuel Newhouse, and attorney Daniel Alexander pledged their support and began to advocate for the group with area business and political leaders. The Utah State Board of Land Commissioners sent a representative to escort Brown and Herbst to inspect available land. They were favorably impressed with a parcel of state-owned land in south-central Utah below the planned Piute Canal. Brown was convinced of the soil's fertility, and with the state's assurances of available water, the Association agreed to purchase the land at auction on August 7, 1911.[1]
Benjamin Brown became the leader of the colonists, returning to the area permanently in September 1911. Although the settlement was small, with just 23 families, optimism was high. Utah had been advertising nationally to receive more settlers, and Governor William Spry was so pleased with the experiment that he journeyed the 135 miles (217 km) from the capital in order to celebrate the community's first harvest.[2]
More than 1,000 visitors celebrated with the colony settlers after their first harvest in 1912. In October 1912, there were about 150 families at the colony when the Jewish Agricultural and Colonial Association announced that fifty additional families would join the settlement.[3]
Due to problems with harvests and the inexperience of the urban settlers, the settlement faced financial problems and the state foreclosed on the property in 1915. Most of the settlers returned to New York City.[2]
After the demise of the Jewish colony, others moved into the area. Japanese families settled in the Clarion area in 1921, as did Mormons of Scandinavian descent. Brown and a few of the other Jewish colonists stayed and farmed in the area until the 1920s. There were enough persons residing in Clarion in 1925 to establish the Clarion LDS Ward.[4] In 1932, the Clarion Ward had 166 members. The ward met in the social hall constructed by the Jewish settlers. On April 1, 1934, the ward was officially disorganized, "on account of the shortage of water."[5] World War II disrupted the Japanese settlement and the land reverted to the local citizens.[6]
By 1959, the Clarion community center had been turned into a granary. The fence surrounding the small Jewish cemetery had been torn down and cows had knocked down the headstones which marked the two graves.[7]
By 2008, fences had been constructed to surround the Jewish graves. There are a scattering of foundations, as well as the broken walls of the water cistern that burst and fell apart the first day colonists used it.[8] Today, Brown Rex Dairy abuts the Clarion site and local residents continue to refer to the area as "Clarion" although it is in the Centerfield postal district.
Clarion was featured in the play "Life, More Sweet Than Bitter" which tells the story of a Jewish family from Russia which came through Philadelphia to Clarion.[9] Beth Hatefutsoth in Tel Aviv included Clarion in the 1983 exhibit, "Diaspora Farmers of the 19th and 20th Century". The community was also featured in a segment in the 2007 play Impossible Cities: A Utopian Experiment.
University of Utah professor Robert Goldberg[10] chanced upon the Clarion remnants in 1980. A subsequent interview in Los Angeles with a descendant of one of the Clarion families led to Goldberg authoring the history of the Jewish colony, Back to the Soil.[11] Goldberg placed advertisements for contacts in the Salt Lake Jewish community newsletter. He tracked down 53 families with ties to Clarion, and reconstructed the story from interviews and records.[12]
In September 2011, a celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of the settlement will take place in Salt Lake City and include a visit to the Clarion site.
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