Frisco is what the devoted ghost-towner seeks. It sits in the middle of nowhere, its population is zero, and it features several ruins, a forlorn cemetery, and five beehive charcoal kilns.
When rich horn silver was found at the foot of San Francisco Mountain in 1876, the mining camp of Frisco came into being adjacent to the aptly named Horn Silver Mine. Frisco, which had a peak population of about four thousand, was entirely dependent upon shipping for its existence. Everything, even water, had to be hauled to the remote desert town, originally by mule trains and later by the Utah Southern Railroad, which was extended to Frisco in 1880.
The scarcity of water apparently required alternative means to slake thirst, as more than twenty saloons operated in what became known as one of the wildest towns in the West. One wag described it as “Dodge City, Tombstone, Sodom, and Gomorrah all rolled into one.” A tough-minded marshal hired from Pioche, Nevada, was brought in. He reportedly killed six outlaws on his first day on the job. That seemed to encourage other members of the criminal element to depart, and Frisco calmed down.
When day-shift workers reported for duty at the Horn Silver Mine in February 1885, they were told to stay outside because of tremors in the ground. The night shift came to the surface, and within minutes, a huge cave-in occurred with such a jolt that it was felt in Milford, almost fifteen miles away. The timing was amazing: No one was even injured. The mine returned to production within the year but never at the level it had formerly achieved. Prior to the collapse, more than sixty million dollars in silver, gold, copper, lead, and zinc had been extracted from the mines in less than ten years. In the next thirty years, it produced only twenty million more.
Frisco declined steadily after the cave-in, and, by the turn of the twentieth century, the town had a mere handful of businesses and a population of a few hundred. It was a complete ghost by the 1920s.
WALKING AND DRIVING AROUND FRISCO
As you head west from Milford, you’ll come to the Frisco Summit. It’s easy to miss the ruins of Frisco .4 of a mile beyond the summit to your right, because they’re back over your shoulder as the highway turns (see “When You Go,” below). When you enter the townsite, at this writing you’ll find large iron vats, a wooden building still under roof, numerous rock walls and foundations, mining debris such as an old boiler, and a water tank fallen on its side. That would suffice for most ghost town purists, but the best remnants are standing on a western hill: five stone beehive charcoal kilns, used to turn wood into charcoal to feed smelters (for a more detailed explanation, see the Piedmont, Wyoming, entry, pages 136–139). Of the five kilns, three are virtually intact.
On my last visit, a protective chain-link fence around the kilns had been breached. That allowed me to photograph the kilns more effectively, but the fence needs to be repaired, as there is evidence of vandalism.
The cemetery, southwest of the townsite, features some excellent headstones. One, for Boswell W. Hopkins (1852 to 1879), has the Latin inscription from Horace, Non Omnis Moriar (“Not All of Me Shall Die”). Another, for Tommy James, who died at ten months in 1883, bears the epitaph “Whose all of life’s a rosy ray / Blushed into dawn and passed away.”
WHEN YOU GO
From Grafton, retrace your route to Exit 27 on Interstate 15. Drive northeast for 39 miles, just north of Cedar City, to Exit 62. Proceed north on Utah Highway 130 for 37 miles to Minersville. From there, take Utah Highway 21 for 13 miles to Milford.
From the intersection of West Center Street and Main Street (where Utah Highways 21 and 257 split) in Milford, go west on Highway 21 for 14.2 miles. There a turnoff heads north into the Frisco townsite. If you miss that turnoff, do not go beyond the historical marker on the right side of the highway, which is .2 of a mile past the turnoff. From there, you can backtrack to the turnoff and head in to the townsite, which will then be clearly visible. Or, heading west from that marker, you can take the southern of two roads (the northern is an old railroad bed that takes you to the locked gate of the Horn Silver Mine) for .5 of a mile to the fenced Frisco Cemetery.
Frisco is an abandoned site, one that should be on every ghost town enthusiast’s “must see” list. The town’s ruins stand beyond these charcoal kilns.
