Grafton, Utah, Pioneer Church and home

I have to thank my brother for taking me here after our Redd pioneer reunion. After my visit I joined the the Society that is working to preserve this site. Grafton is located on a bend of the Virgin River in Souhern Utah. On Google maps you can clearly see the few town streets and the cemetery.
Notice how few the clouds are on this September Day. Notice that lack of rank weeds on the ground. This is a country with little moisture. And it is also a country subject to devastating flooding of the Virgin River. One of these floods could undo the work of several years, and the settlers were eventually so diuscouraged that they moved to other locations in Utah and Arizona.

It is also a country with an amazing natural setting. as seen here. behind this view of the large home still standing near the church:

And also here in the view across the eroded graves toward the eroded bluffs. The way the wind has blown the dirt away from the grave mounds demonstrates the bleak possibilities for farming here. It had been hoped that it would prove suitable for cotton farming.

I was reminded of my visit to Grafton today as I was looking at the new Acorn, an excellent small haiku magazine.

Here is tonight's poem:

                              winter wren
                              the unmarked grave
                              I know is here

                                                                  --Julie Warther, (Dover, Ohio) Acorn #31, Fall, 2013, page 25.