Leeds, where the silver came out of sandstone

A town of about 864 people at roughly 3,500 feet on the old US-91 alignment, with two Interstate 15 exits of its own, settled in 1867 by families who moved up from Harrisburg, where farmland and water were short. There is no school, no grocery store and no restaurant row, and St. George is twenty minutes south with Hurricane twenty southeast. What it has instead is history at unusual density and a protected red rock reserve on the town boundary.

Because it came out of sandstone, and silver in sandstone was thought impossible at the time. In 1866 a prospector named John Kemple found silver in a sandstone reef near Harrisburg. Assayers doubted him, and the district was not organized until 1874. It became the only major field in the country where silver was mined from sandstone.

It is the only one of its kind left in the state, which is a strong argument. Four stone administrative buildings from Civilian Conservation Corps Company 585 stand at 96 West Mulberry Lane on about two and a third acres, built in coursed rubble masonry from local red orange sandstone in 1933 and used until 1942. The Washington County Historical Society records them as the only CCC camp buildings still standing in Utah, and the site is on the National Register.

Because three completely different economies passed through the same square mile. Agricultural settlers arrived in 1867 and left dry stone field walls. A silver boom ran just northwest of town from 1876 and left a museum, a jail and a set of foundations. A federal work programme put a camp here in 1933 and left four stone buildings. Very few places this size hold record from three eras, and each of the three is covered on its own page.

From the town's private water company, a shareholder owned company supplied by one well and one spring, rather than from a municipal utility. Because it is share based, the water arrangement on a specific property is a genuine transaction detail rather than a formality, and the connection and any shares should be confirmed with the seller and the water company as part of a purchase. Most parcels are on septic rather than sewer.

In the old town, no. There is no municipal sewer system there, and septic systems permitted through the Southwest Utah Public Health Department are the norm, with minimum lot sizes applying to new systems. That makes septic condition a standard inspection item on a resale and septic feasibility the question that decides whether a bare parcel is buildable. Confirm the current position with the town rather than assuming it has changed.

Eleven feet nine inches. The two Interstate 15 underpasses on the access road to the Red Cliffs Recreation Area cap at that height, which is under a great many motorhomes and fifth wheels, and there is no alternative route from this side. It catches people who did not measure first. Check the sticker on your own vehicle rather than estimating, and remember the reserve's leash and designated trail rules apply once you are through.

A steep, narrow forest road that climbs about eight and a half miles from the Leeds exit beside Leeds Creek to a campground at roughly 6,800 feet on the southern edge of the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness, to the northwest of town. Civilian Conservation Corps crews from the camp in Leeds cut it during the 1930s. As of 2026 the road has been closed to vehicles for fire danger since late June, so call the Dixie National Forest on 435-688-3200 before you drive up.

St. George is about 16 miles and 20 minutes south on Interstate 15, and Zion National Park is about 31 miles and about 40 minutes east. Hurricane is about 20 minutes and Cedar City about half an hour north. That position on the corridor is the whole practical case for the town: two freeway exits of its own, a metro one run south, a national park one run east, and neither of them out the front door.