A Tale of Three Towns

The histories of Harrisburg, Silver Reef, and Leeds were closely connected, with water and its availability and accessibility determining whether each town survived or declined. Harrisburg, the first settlement in the area, was founded in 1861 by Moses Harris and a few Mormon families along Quail Creek, but despite a 5-mile-long irrigation canal dug along what is now Leeds Creek, rocky soil and limited farmland hindered growth, and by 1876 the town was losing population and essentially failing. In 1867 many Harrisburg families moved north to Road Valley, where water could be diverted more effectively and farmland cultivated; under the direction of Mormon leader Erastus Snow, they dug an irrigation ditch, organized a town on December 1, 1867, named it Bennington after Bishop Benjamin Stringham, and in May 1869 renamed it Leeds at Stringham’s request after Leeds, England. Around the same time, silver was discovered on the White Reef, and a boomtown called Silver Reef grew about a mile north of Leeds as miners and immigrants, including many of Irish, Cornish, and Chinese origin, came seeking fortune. By 1878 Silver Reef had become much larger than either declining Harrisburg or the growing farm community of Leeds, and at its height it had nearly a dozen mines, six ore processing mills, stores, saloons, hotels, banks, a school, a Wells Fargo express office, a theater company, and other urban amenities. Though they differed greatly in ethnicity, religion, and culture, Silver Reef and Leeds depended on one another, with miners relying on produce from Leeds and Leeds farmers prospering from miners’ cash purchases. By 1900 Silver Reef had died after the most accessible silver ore was exhausted and silver prices fell, while Leeds endured and Harrisburg became a ghost town.

Leeds, Utah · United States