Editing Washington County, Utah (section)

==History==
The earliest settlement was [[Fort Harmony, Utah|Fort Harmony]] in 1852. [[Santa Clara, Utah|Santa Clara]] was established in 1854 as a mission to the natives who lived on the [[Santa Clara River (Utah)|Santa Clara River]].  [[Hamblin, Utah|Hamblin]] and [[Pinto, Utah|Pinto]] were settled along the [[Mormon Road|Los Angeles - Salt Lake Road]] in 1856, as was [[Gunlock, Utah|Gunlock]] in 1857.

Next came the settlements established as colonies to grow cotton before the beginning of the [[American Civil War]] (1861-1865). They were located along the [[Virgin River]], in the warmer climate below the central [[Great Basin]], which was for decades called "[[Utah's Dixie]]". The first settlement was [[Virgin, Utah|Virgin]], and [[Washington, Utah|Washington]] in 1857. Heberville,<ref name=PCU/> [[Pintura, Utah|Pintura]] and [[Toquerville, Utah|Toquerville]] followed in 1858, [[Grafton, Utah|Grafton]], [[Harrisburg, Utah|Harrisburg]] and [[Pine Valley, Washington County, Utah|Pine Valley]] in 1859, [[Adventure, Utah|Adventure]] in 1860, [[Duncan's Retreat, Utah|Duncans Retreat]], [[Northrop, Utah|Northrop]],<ref name=NU>[http://sites.rootsweb.com/~utwashin/towns/shunesbu.html Shunesburg and Northrup, Utah (accessed April 1, 2019)]</ref> Shonesburg<ref name=SU>[http://wchsutah.org/towns/shunesburg.php "Shunesburg UT" Washington County Historical Society (accessed 1 April 2019)]</ref><ref name=NU/> and [[St. George, Utah|St. George]] in 1861.<ref name=wchsutah>[http://wchsutah.org/towns/towns.php Cities, Towns, and Villages in Washington County Utah] from wchsutah.org Washington County Historical Society, accessed December 4, 2015</ref>

Fort Harmony, Adventure, and Northrup were abandoned, and Santa Clara, St. George, Washington, Harrisburg, Heberville, Grafton, and Duncans Retreat were nearly destroyed by the [[Great Flood of 1862]] that followed 44 days of rainfall in January and February 1862.<ref>P. Kyle House, '''Ancient floods, modern hazards:''' principles and applications of paleoflood hydrology, Vol. 1, American Geophysical Union, 2002, p. 297</ref> [[New Harmony, Utah|New Harmony]], [[Springdale, Utah|Springdale]] and [[Rockville, Utah|Rockville]] were founded in 1862 by settlers flooded out of Fort Harmony, Adventure, Northrup and other places in the vicinity. Harrisburg was relocated.

[[Hebron, Utah|Shoal Creek]] later called Hebron, was a ranching community established in 1862 west of the county. [[Leeds, Utah|Leeds]] was settled in 1867, and [[Silver Reef, Utah|Silver Reef]] was a mining town begun in 1875 and abandoned by 1891 due to the collapse in silver prices.<ref name=wchsutah/>

The old federal [[Utah Territory]]'s territorial legislature created Washington County on March 3, 1852, in the southern border area of the Territory, adjacent to the then old federal [[New Mexico Territory]] of 1850-1912. It was not fully organized at that time, and so it was attached to [[Iron County, Utah|Iron County]], which was adjacent to the north for temporary administrative and judicial purposes in its [[county seat]] town and courthouse of [[Parowan, Utah|Parowan]], for its first four years. This continued until February 23, 1856, when the organization was completed, Saint George was listed as the newly designated [[county seat]] and site of a courthouse, and the attachment to Iron County was terminated. The county boundaries were altered a dozen times after that; but its boundaries have retained their present configuration since March 10, 1892, four years before [[U.S. state|statehood]] was achieved in 1896.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/UT_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm |title=Individual County Chronologies/Washington County UT. &#91;&#91;Newberry Library&#93;&#93; (accessed April 1, 2019) |access-date=April 1, 2019 |archive-date=March 6, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306153326/http://publications.newberry.org/ahcbp/documents/UT_Individual_County_Chronologies.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>