Iosepa- Utah Ghost Town

IOSEPA

NAME: Iosepa
COUNTY: Tooele
ROADS: 2WD
GRID: 1
CLIMATE: Mild winter, warm summer.
BEST TIME TO VISIT: Anytime.

COMMENTS: Just south of the Salt Lake.
REMAINS: The Church has dedicated it as an historical site and surrounded the grave sites with a chain-link fence. The graves themselves have been surrounded with cement curbs. There is a Monument and a plaque with all the names on them and a brief history. It is on the hillside and accessible from a dirt road off the main highway between two of the last remaining residents still being used. On the road to the graveyard are a couple of foundations. We looked around and could see rocks outlying some sort of places where the houses had been as well. Also, an old curb with a row of trees on what looks like a main street can be seen. We found some old glass that looked like it had been window-pane glass. But nothing else is left of the town - Maida Murphy.

Iosepa has a unique history in the colonization of Mormon settlements. Its inhabitants were imported from the Hawaiian Islands. Little did they know their new home would be as different from the lush foliage and fertile soil of the Islands as night is different from day. Shortly after 1844, about 50 Hawaiian converts arrived in Salt Lake City and then to Iosepa to establish a new Mormon town. The Kanakas were not used to the hard labor necessary to create a colony which was to survive on its own. Although they managed to get by most of time, much of their food was imported from Salt Lake City. New hopefuls came from the Islands only to turn away after seeing what life was like in Iosepa. Gold was being mined in the nearby mountains. Many of the men departed the colony to work in the mines and did not return. As deaths from pure hardship outnumbered births, it was only a question of time until the town itself would die. Die it did when the Mormon Church was completed in the Islands and the Kanakas returned to their homeland.	Iosepa Courtesy Bill Yanneck Iosepa Courtesy Bill Yanneck Iosepa Courtesy Maida Murphy Iosepa Courtesy Maida Murphy Iosepa Courtesy Maida Murphy Iosepa Courtesy Maida Murphy Iosepa Courtesy Maida Murphy Monument Courtesy Cole Wharton Sign seen from road Courtesy Cole Wharton Sign Courtesy Cole Wharton Storage Lockers Recently Built Courtesy Cole Wharton Modern Buildings Courtesy Cole Wharton

Iosepa has a unique history in the colonization of Mormon settlements. Its inhabitants were imported from the Hawaiian Islands. Little did they know their new home would be as different from the lush foliage and fertile soil of the Islands as night is different from day. Shortly after 1844, about 50 Hawaiian converts arrived in Salt Lake City and then to Iosepa to establish a new Mormon town. The Kanakas were not used to the hard labor necessary to create a colony which was to survive on its own. Although they managed to get by most of time, much of their food was imported from Salt Lake City. New hopefuls came from the Islands only to turn away after seeing what life was like in Iosepa. Gold was being mined in the nearby mountains. Many of the men departed the colony to work in the mines and did not return. As deaths from pure hardship outnumbered births, it was only a question of time until the town itself would die. Die it did when the Mormon Church was completed in the Islands and the Kanakas returned to their homeland.

Iosepa
Courtesy Bill Yanneck