The ghost town Enterprise
Settled 1862, renamed 1868, gone by 1905
Hebron, and the six miles that decided it.
A ranching and freighting town on Shoal Creek that supplied the silver camps of eastern Nevada, ran out of water it could deliver, and was finished by a magnitude 6 earthquake in November 1902. Its people moved six miles east and built Enterprise.
Start here
Six miles west, a town that had everything except enough water.
Hebron stood on Shoal Creek about six or seven miles west of where Enterprise is now. Two brothers, John and Charles Pulsipher, came into the country in 1862 herding livestock for the church, liked the look of the creek, and settled their families there. The place was called Shoal Creek at first, and the Paiute people already living in the area encouraged the settlement rather than opposing it. Zera Pulsipher, the brothers' father, arrived that autumn as the local church leader.
It grew properly. In 1868 Erastus Snow formally organised the settlement and John Pulsipher renamed it after the biblical Hebron, at which point 75 people lived there. There was a fort by 1866, a schoolhouse by 1867 and a telegraph office by 1872, plus a hotel, stores and freight offices, which for a small settlement in this country is a remarkable list.
The freight offices are the clue to what Hebron actually did. It sat on the road to the eastern Nevada silver camps and supplied them, Pioche in particular, and later supplied the Silver Reef mines on the other side of the county. This was a ranching and hauling town in a mining economy, not a farm town, and that is why it worked on a creek that could never have irrigated much.
Hebron, at a glance
1862
settled on Shoal Creek
1868
organised and renamed, population 75
1902
the Pine Valley earthquake, 17 November
1905
largely abandoned
How it was losing before the earthquake
A collapsed flume, and a better valley six miles east.
Hebron's problem was that it could never irrigate enough ground. Shoal Creek carried water in bursts rather than steadily, the flat around the town was limited, and the infrastructure that carried water to the fields was fragile. A wooden flume, the sort of structure a small settlement builds because it cannot afford anything better, collapsed under weather damage in 1885 and had to be rebuilt.
Around 1891, a farmer named Orson Huntsman surveyed a competing townsite six miles east where the prospects for storing and delivering water were far better. That is Enterprise. Hebron's leaders did not simply give up: they built new aqueducts and kept improving what they had. But families started moving to the better ground anyway, one at a time, over a decade.
So by the autumn of 1902 the argument was already going one way. What the earthquake did was end it.
| Hebron | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|
| Water | Shoal Creek direct, fragile delivery | A reservoir holding the flood water |
| Ground | Limited flat to irrigate | A valley floor that could take it |
| Economy | Freight and ranching for the mining camps | Farming, from the start |
| Outcome | Abandoned by 1905 | Still here |
The two towns were only six miles apart, which is close enough that the same families could and did move between them.
17 November 1902
A magnitude 6 centred at Pine Valley, and rock houses do not bend.
The Pine Valley earthquake struck on 17 November 1902 and is believed to have been around magnitude 6, with a large aftershock following on 5 December. It damaged houses across a wide area, and in Hebron most of the rock homes were ruined beyond repair. Stone and adobe construction is durable in every way except this one, and a town built out of it does not recover from a shock like that by patching.
For a healthy settlement that would have meant a hard few years of rebuilding. For a declining one, with better ground already surveyed six miles east and neighbours who had already moved, it was the end of the argument. Water rights were sold to the Enterprise Reservoir Company, with the final sales completed in 1904, and by September 1905 the place was largely abandoned.
The departing settlers took their buildings apart for the materials, which is the practical thing to do and the reason there is so little standing today. The town did not decay so much as get carried east one wagon load at a time.
The 1902 quake is a regional fact, not just a Hebron one. It is one of the more significant historical earthquakes recorded in southwestern Utah, centred at Pine Valley and felt widely. Anyone reading about the geology of this corner of the state will meet it again, and it is worth knowing that the Hurricane Fault system runs through this region.
What is out there now
A cemetery, some rubble, and a lot of quiet.
The cemetery is the reason to go. It is small, it is reached by a side road off the dirt track west, and it is maintained enough to walk through. Beyond it, the townsite is foundations and rubble in the sage, and finding them takes either local directions or a lot of patience. There are no interpretive signs, no parking area and nothing that has been restored.
That is worth setting expectations around. Anyone arriving expecting the sort of ghost town that has a boardwalk and a museum will be disappointed. Anyone arriving expecting an empty valley with a graveyard in it and a story attached will get exactly what they came for.
A practical note that matters more here than at most historic sites: much of the surrounding ground is private or grazed under permit, the road out is dirt and gets greasy after weather, and the artefacts on a historic townsite are both legally protected and somebody's family history. Look, walk, leave everything.
Hebron did not fall down. It was taken apart by the people who had built it, and carried six miles east to a valley with better water.
Keep reading
More of Enterprise on The Local.
Things to do
The top 8, ranked
Eight picks, ranked, from a stocked reservoir to a ghost town an earthquake ended.
Read the guideThe water
The Enterprise Reservoirs
Two reservoirs, a campground among volcanic rock, and a dam that took sixteen years.
Read the guideThe site
Mountain Meadows
A memorial site ten miles south, and the markers that took 150 years to say it.
Read the guideThe town holiday
Cornfest
The one Saturday a year this town has four thousand extra people in it.
Read the guideMoving here
Forty miles either way
An hour to either metro, and a state groundwater plan that decides the rest.
Read the guideThe companion
Enterprise, from a local
The reservoirs, the memorial site, the ghost town and the corn, in one place.
Read the pageQuick answers
Hebron, answered.
On Shoal Creek about six to seven miles west of Enterprise, in the far northwest corner of Washington County. What remains is a small cemetery and rubble in the sage, reached by a dirt road. There is no signage, no parking area and nothing restored.
In 1862, by John and Charles Pulsipher, who came into the area herding livestock for the church and settled their families on Shoal Creek. Their father Zera Pulsipher arrived that autumn as the local church leader. It was called Shoal Creek at first and was renamed Hebron in 1868 when Erastus Snow formally organised the settlement.
It was a ranching and freighting town rather than a farm town. It sat on the road to the silver camps of eastern Nevada, Pioche in particular, and supplied them, and later supplied the Silver Reef mines elsewhere in the county. That is why a settlement of its size had freight offices, stores and a hotel.
Water first, then an earthquake. Shoal Creek could never irrigate much ground and the delivery infrastructure was fragile, with a wooden flume collapsing in 1885. Around 1891 Orson Huntsman surveyed a better sited townsite six miles east on far better water prospects, and families began moving. The Pine Valley earthquake of 17 November 1902 ruined most of Hebron's rock homes beyond repair and ended the argument.
It is believed to have been around magnitude 6, centred at Pine Valley, with a large aftershock on 5 December. It damaged buildings across a wide area, and in Hebron most of the rock houses were irreparably ruined. It is one of the more significant historical earthquakes recorded in southwestern Utah.
They were sold to the Enterprise Reservoir Company, with the final sales completed in 1904. That transfer is a large part of why the story ended the way it did: the water followed the people east to the valley where a reservoir could hold it.
Because the departing settlers took the buildings apart for materials rather than leaving them. Stone, timber and fittings were worth carrying six miles east to a town being built. Hebron did not decay so much as get dismantled and moved.
Yes. It is small, reached by a side road off the dirt track west of Enterprise, and maintained enough to walk through. It is an active historic burial ground, so walk it and do not disturb it, and be aware that much of the surrounding land is private or grazed under permit.
Foundations and rubble in the sage, if you know where to look, and a very quiet valley. There are no interpretive signs and nothing restored. Artefacts on a historic townsite are legally protected as well as being somebody's family history, so take photographs and nothing else.
Two towns, six miles apart, and water decided which one survived.
That is not only history out here. The Escalante Valley aquifer is actively managed by the state, irrigation shares still convey with some parcels, and water is the first question on a rural listing in this valley rather than the last one.