Ghost Town: Knightsville, Utah

[SteveJackson]

Site: Knightsville, Utah
County, State: Juab, Utah
Years of Occupation: 1896-1940
Status of Site: Open
Classification: Class 1 - Barren Town
Type: Mining
Remnants: Dirt tracks and a few foundations
GPS Coordinates: 39.951361 -112.097486
NRHP Reference #: 79003485 http://focus.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/79003485
Date of Last Visit: 11/26/2016

Knightsville was a private town owned by Jesse Knight, known as the "Mormon Mining Wizard". Knight was known for finding valuable ore bodies in places where according to scientific reasoning none should exist. He eventually owned several valuable mines in the area including the Uncle Sam, the Humbug, Iron Blossom, Black Jack, Dragon and Star, closer towards Silver City.

At it's peak around 1907, Knightsville was home to a population of over 1,000. The town had 65 homes, boarding houses, several general stores, livery stables, a post office, church, confectioneries, restaurants, and a fine brick schoolhouse. But one thing was noticeably missing. Knightsville was famous for being the only mining town in the country without a saloon. Knight was a devout Mormon and wouldn't allow drinking in his town.

Eventually the ore dried up and most of the houses were moved down to Eureka. By 1940, it was as empty as it is now. One of the only remaining foundations was for the schoolhouse.

Further Reading:
The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns by Dr Stephen Carr
https://www.amazon.com/Historical-Guide-Utah-Ghost-Towns/dp/091474030X

Directions to Get There:
From the eastern edge of Eureka, take Knightsville road to the south/east off Highway 6. About a mile up from Highway 6, the road spurs off in many directions. This was the town of Knightsville.

Modern Pictures:

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Awesome, glad to have that site report. We've been there a few times as a pm ExpUt group and somehow never managed to document it.

 

[SteveJackson]

Also site of a recent Outdoor Magazine online photo shoot

 

[TroyDeMill]

also was one of few mines which closed operations on Sunday. He paid workers extra to compensate for them having only a 6 day work week instead of 7. No weekends would be rough, this forums trip report section would suffer for sure. Couple pictures I found too.

 

[SteveJackson]

Thanks Troy! The school house is in the first photo, the furthest building, the foundation is all that is left of this town now.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

Really neat Troy, that adds some neat historical context

 

[Skylinerider]

I thought we did a trip report when we went out there Kurt. Can't seem to find it, oh well. I would encourage anyone who goes to go to the museum in Eureka. They have some great stuff.

 

[TroyDeMill]

Really neat Troy, that adds some neat historical context

and of course I should point out Jesse was my Great, Great, Grandma's brother. So I have that going for me, which is nice.

 

[peteybob35]

Thanks for all the info on this site. My daughter and I are on Spring Break this week and ran out to Eureka to check out the ghost towns. We hit Knightsville and Silver City. I was hoping to find something cool with my metal detector but the number of beer parties at these sites made detecting nearly impossible with my cheap detector. We had a great time exploring and eating at the diner.

Stu

 

[eprobe]

Just out there on 5-4-2020. Unbelievable, considering the historic photo, that there is almost nothing left except the school foundation and a few boards. Did they just build their houses and businesses on packed dirt? I think some of the buildings were moved to Eureka, but the rest have just been wiped out as if they never existed.