Clarion, Utah

Ghost town in Utah, United States 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.¹ 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. 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 from the capital in order to celebrate the community's first harvest. However, due to problems with harvests and the incompetence 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