Washington County, Utah, and surrounding regions have experienced tremendous change and growth over the decades. This compilation of images and quotes highlights these changes.

Change From Above (1960-2025)

"Our newly adapted country, to the casual eye, is sandy, rough and precipitous, rocky, naked and forbidding; and yet we think we can discern in the no distant future, with industry and energy, comfort, competence and wealth...our resources may not be considered extensive, yet we have scope enough to engage all our thoughts and our time. We are a quiet people, and need little law and few lawyers. We are remote from political exigencies and not very ambitious, so we have small use for politics. Our religion is simple..."

-"Salutatory," Our Dixie Times, January 22nd, 1868.^[1]

Santa Clara and Ivins

St. George

Washington City

Little Valley and Washington Fields

Hurricane and La Verkin

Southern Utah Scenes

Santa Clara

"On this side, the road climbed a steep hill, and had rude stone terraces on which a vineyard was planted. The ground floor seemed to be tenanted by cattle, who gazed at us from the doorway as if they owned the place. A woman came out on the wooden gallery then ran round the second story, and greeted us, as she put her milk pans out to sun. Below this house stretched vineyards, fields where the sorghum stubble stood, and cotton fields where my children eagerly picked some bolls that had been forgotten. The lanes between fields were overhung with cottonwood trees whose tender gray green hues harmonised with the soft misty sunshine. The village lay on either side of a broad brown road, the water gurgling briskly in the “ceqs", (acequias), and each little house standing apart in its garden, half-buried in foliage…altogether the place had such a European look that I was not surprised to learn that the inhabitants are Swiss."

-Elizabeth Kane describing Santa Clara, Utah, January 1873, A Gentile Account of Life in Utah's Dixie, 1872-1873, pp. 36-37^[2]

"For amusements, as young people, we had dances, candy pullings, shucking bees, and horseback and wagon rides. On May Day and other special occasions, we would go up to the Three Mile Place and put up big swings under the large cottonwood trees and have fine lunches and all kinds of sports. We occasionally went swimming, girls and boys separately, of course, and sometimes we caught fish in the creek. At dances we danced the quadrille, hoursles four, minuet, waltz, and schottische. The music was the violin or the accordion at first. Then a brass band was organized and it played for the dances and for celebrations. The church meetings were social occasions too. There was both a Swiss and an English choir."

-Mary Ann Stucki Hafen remembering her youth, Utah, Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860, pp. 48-49^[3]

St. George

"This city is located upon an inclined plain, in the midst of a broad valley, near the junction of the Santa Clara with the Rio Virgen [sic] rivers...It probably contains some two or three hundred buildings, and 1,500 inhabitants. It has a fine public hall and many creditable buildings and permanent improvements. The streets are laid out at right angles with lots containing near an acre of land each, broad streets, and a rivulet of water running down each beside rows of tall shade trees...The stock range near the city is very poor, and much of the tillable land here is rather inferior quality for grain, but good for most sorts of fruit, especially the grape, pears, peaches, &c."

-"St. George," Our Dixie Times, January 22nd, 1868^[4]

"There were no stores. In a desert they had to be self-reliant. Soap and shampoo were made from oose root found in the hills. Lye was made by putting cottonwood ashes in to water; baking powder was made from alkali that covered the valley; starch was made from potatoes grated and fried; candles furnished light in the darkness. Tallow candles could not be made in the summer, because of the heat, so rags soaked in grease served as flashlights. There were no matches. If the fire were not banked over night, the wife must hurry to the neighbor the next morning and borrow a live coal...Men too, used crudest implements: a scythe to cut hay; a sickle or a cradle to cut grain; a flail or tread mill to thresh the grain. Eventually machinery replaced manual labor, but that was far different from machinery used today. Water power was provided for saw mills, flour mills, tanneries, cotton gins, etc. Horses were used for most of the work on the farm, for freighting, for transportation, and caring for the cattle industry...

Characterizing the life of these pioneers was the living of the principle of plural marriage...Often two or more wives lived in the same house, each one being given a room of her own. Sometimes two homes were built near each other. Not all the men lived this law, but a large per cent of the families...practiced this principle..."

-Arthur K. Hafen, "Introduction," in Devoted Empire Builders (Pioneers of St. George)^[5]

Washington City

"I am the last one who wishes to return to that bygone era, even were it possible. Even so it is difficult to avoid being sentimental about childhood. I believe a certain degree of this is good, and as I look back nostalgia grips me; there was so much that made for self reliance in the simple activities of childhood and youth...Certainly there was a large amount of ingenuity exercised by the youngsters of my generation in the making of toys and playthings...Pa taught his boys to work just as soon as they were able to do the most simple chores about the place. We pulled the succulent morning-glories, pigweeds, redroots, and other weeds from the garden for the pigs. We fed the chickens and gathered the eggs, drove the cows to pasture below town, and at a young age learned to milk the cows...Money was scarce; practically everything we bought from the old co-op store was acquired through the barter of the eggs our hens laid. From the gingham, calico, shirting, and cotton flannel received in exchange, Ma made most of the clothing for the family on the old Domestic sewing machine. Pa traded hay and sometimes wheat to George Hall for honey. Sometimes he grew his own sorghum cane from which he recieved molasses on shares from those processing it."

-Andrew Karl Larson remembering his childhood in Washington, Utah, The Education of a Second Generation Swede, pp. 75, 81, 103^[6]

Hurricane

"At last, after 12 long, toilsome winters, the Hurricane canal is completed and the hopes and dreams of a hundred faithful heroes are realized...It is an inspiring sight to stand upon the bluffs overlooking the land and see the green patches scattered over the plain, where before the lizards and snakes held undisputed posession. Now the happy farmer can be seen going here and there, grubbing, plowing, planting, and watering...The builders of the canal are jubilant over the prospects of good homes, secure from the floods of the turbulant Virgin...The climate and soil are both especially adapted to the production of seedless raisin grapes, figs, and peaches. Experts claim that the fruit of this country cannot be excelled anywhere for flavor...Nothing that has happened for many years in this district has accomplished so much in the way of encouraging the people and making them contented, as has the completion of this canal."

-"Completion of Hurricane Canal," Deseret Evening News, April 15, 1905^[7]

Springdale

I turned and said, "Greetings, old Flanigan Peak."
A voice came back, "Take care to whom you speak,
     Brash upstart; you will not find here
The gift of immortality you seek...

"Frail man, look quickly at my alpenglow;
For you shall pass, much as the winter snow.
     Long after you have gone I'll keep my watch.
I saw the Anasazi come and go."

"Great Watchman, I look up to you," I said,
"But let me also love my kindred dead,
     And all whose sweat and toil built thoroughfares
On which the feet of all the world now tread...

Then as I left I thought about my day,
And all my friends of now and yesterday.
     I know their deeds are graven in the stone,
Instead of lightly scribbled in the clay.

-J.L. Crawford, excerpts from "The Ghosts of Zion"^[8]

Citations for Quotes

^[1] "Salutatory," Our Dixie Times (St. George, UT), January 22, 1868, Microfilm, Utah Tech University Special Collections and Archives.

^[2] Elizabeth W. Kane, A Gentile Account of Life in Utah's Dixie, 1872-73: Elizabeth Kane's St. George Journal (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Tanner Trust Fund, 1995), 36-37.

^[3] Mary A. Hafen, Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860: With Some Account of Frontier Life in Utah and Nevada, 2nd ed., (St. George, UT: Heritage Press, 1980), 48-49.

^[4] "St. George," Our Dixie Times (St. George, UT), January 22, 1868, Microfilm, Utah Tech University Special Collections and Archives.

^[5] Arthur K. Hafen, "Introduction," in Devoted Empire Builders (Pioneers of St. George) (St. George, UT: Published Privately, 1969).

^[6] Andrew Karl Larson, The Education of a Second Generation Swede (St. George, UT: Andrew Karl Larson, 1979), 75, 81, 103.

^[7] "Completion of Hurricane Canal," Deseret Evening News (Salt Lake City), April 15, 1905, 17, Utah Digital Newspapers, https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6ks7mj0.

^[8] J.L. Crawford, "The Ghosts of Zion," in Zion Album: A Nostalgic History of Zion Canyon (Springdale, UT: Zion Natural History Association, 1986), 82-84.

Images

1960 DIH Project Aerial Photograph: 7AA-33, aerial photograph, Areas A and B, Washington County, Utah, United States Geological Survey Aerial Collections, https://imagery.geology.utah.gov/pages/search.php?search=%21collection522&k=&modal=&display=thumbs&order_by=date&per_page=150&archive=&sort=DESC&restypes=&recentdaylimit=&foredit=&noreload=true&access=&go=next&offset=1350#. 

Isaac Loren Covington, Hurricane Relief Society House, Hurricane Valley Heritage Park Museum, used with permission.

Trevor Cox, 100 South, May 22, 2025. 

Trevor Cox, Hurricane Park, June 5, 2025. 

Trevor Cox, Main Street, May 7, 2025. 

Trevor Cox, St. George Overlook, May 7, 2025. 

Trevor Cox, Santa Clara Drive, May 13, 2025. 

Trevor Cox, Santa Clara Overlook, May 13, 2025.

Trevor Cox, Tabernacle Street 2025, May 7, 2025. 

Trevor Cox, Walkway Between Snow and SET, May 5, 2025. 

Trevor Cox, Washington Cotton Mill, May 29, 2025. 

Trevor Cox, Woodward School Building 2025, May 22, 2025. 

Exhibit #27 of the early days of Springdale, Utah, Zion National Park Museum and Archives, Image Series 402.06 - Historic Personalities, Museum Catalog Number ZION 14825, NPGallery Digital Asset Management System, https://npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/40dd64d9-a387-4c46-a6e7-026b7241e61d.

George Alexander Grant, Hilltop View of Hurricane, 1929, National Archives Catalog, Photographs of Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, 1929, https://catalog.archives.gov/id/520412?objectPage=3.

Don Graf, Santa Clara Overlook, undated, Santa Clara Samuel R. Knight History Museum, used with permission.

Nellie Gubler, Santa Clara in the Snow, undated, Santa Clara Samuel R. Knight History Museum, used with permission.

Horse and Wagon on Main Street, DSU photographs-St. George Related-St. George Post Office & Main Street, Accession 1900-669, Utah Tech University Special Collections and Archives.

Ken Lund, Springdale, Utah 2, December 28, 2007, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Springdale,_Utah_2.jpg.

On Campus Sights and Buildings, undated, UA-008, Box: 1, Folder: 34, Utah Tech University Special Collections and Archives, https://archives.utahtech.edu/repositories/2/resources/24.

Overlook of St. George, Mary Phoenix Collection (WASH-034), Photographs, 1860-1998, Negatives, undated. (Box 4, Folder 28), Utah Tech University Special Collections and Archives, https://archives.utahtech.edu/repositories/2/resources/50.

Delos H. Smith, Washington Cotton Mill, on Mill Creek near State Highway 212, Washington, Washington County, UT, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, 1940, Historic American Buildings Survey, HABS UTAH,27-WASH,3--1, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ut0156.photos.159272p/.

St. George Temple, 1901, McQuarrie Memorial Pioneer Museum [Daughters of Utah Pioneers], used with permission.

*Label on the frame in the museum explains that the image was taken by Federal Surveyors and that the original is in the survey archives of the Utah State Office of the Bureau of Land Management.

Tabernacle Street, Mary Phoenix Collection (WASH-034), Photographs, 1860-1998, Miscellaneous photographs, 1970-1998 (Box 4, Folder 17), Utah Tech University Special Collections and Archives, https://archives.utahtech.edu/repositories/2/resources/50.

Dylan Thomas, Hurricane, Utah, 2025, orginally posted on Facebook by Red Cliffs Desert Reserve, April 24, 2025, used with permission.

United States Geological Survey. EarthExplorer. 2025. https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/.

Woodward School from West Tabernacle, St. George Panoramic, Accession 1900-621_03 DSU Photographs, 1850-1994, Utah Tech University Special Collections and Archives.