The Little Town of Leeds, Utah

We stayed at Leeds RV Park for several nights last week. It was a home base to places like Zion, Quail State Park, and Snow Canyon. It was an adorable town, one I would live at if I had to.

There is lots of history here. There were 3 towns. Harrisburg was built, then failed because it couldn't get water back in the 1800's. Silver Reef was a boom and bust silver mine. Leeds stayed because it had good access to water. Leeds became a town on December 1, 1867. It was first called Bennington, after their bishop, but he renamed it Leeds after the town of Leeds in England where he had been a missionary.

Just a short walk from the RV park is the Stirling Home.

William Stirling, a prominent and early settler of Leeds, came into what seemed, for the times, a fortune. Stirling, a farmer and winemaker, was also the chief executive officer for the Leeds Water Company. In 1872, on a cold winter day while riding his horse through Silver Reef, he observed that the Christy Mill, a five-stamp silver ore processing mill, was overheating as a result of the routine water supply freezing solid. An explosion was inevitable. He moved swiftly into action, opening head gates which directed water from the Leeds ditch system to cool the overheating mill. A disaster was averted. The owners of the Christy Mill demonstrated their gratitude to Stirling by placing him on the payroll with a handsome salary for a year with no expectation that he work for the wage. Stirling used the wage to build this two-story brick home. The Stirling home was built in 1876 by Samuel Worthen and Sons at a cost of about $5,000. Found on a plack by the home.

Private Residence.

Red rock is very prominent in this area and is used along walkways. This bush is a rosemary sage. Smells so good!

The house above is situated on a corner. The four corners each had historical plaques. There is a geo-cache here, and four poke-stops.

One corner talked about irrigation ditches and getting water to the farmer's fields. One corner talked about the history of the area going from a Native American trail to Highway I 15.

The last corner talked about the Tithe House for the Mormons.

This was a private residence.

The above house was also a historical house. This friendly lady and two dogs greeted me at the gate. Click on the picture with the dog to enlarge it and see the cute bird bath.

This blogging site makes it so hard to place pictures, sometimes they get in odd places. The beetle in the above picture is first showed upside down. When I turned him over he pulled in his feet like a turtle. He was very shiny. Probably not appreciated in this area.

This house was my favorite in Leeds.

THE NEXT DAY

You all know how pictures just don't show how big and beautiful some sights are. This was just a block away from our RV Park. Farming fields and red cliffs. So pretty and relaxing.

My walk this day took me to Leeds CCC Camp. This was cool! Young men got jobs, got paid. Wish there were programs like this for young men. I walked to the building that you see in the picture sitting on top of the hill.

This is the view up top. There is I 15. The tall trees there are where a cemetery is. Can you see the baby prickly pear cactus in the picture on the right?