Ophir

Four Miles up Ophir Canyon
South Southeast of Stockton

Ophir was first settled in the late 1860s, the town was named after King Solomon's mines of Ophir. In the 1880's, at the town's peak, Ophir had a population of over 6,000 people, 3 mills; the Pioneer (erected in 1871) the Brevoort and Enterprise, and two smelters; the Ophir and the Faucett. There was a drug store, newspaper, post office, daily stage line, two schools, theater, town hall/fire station, Community Methodist Church, Chinese laundry and even an astrologer. The chief minerals mined at Ophir were lead, silver, zinc and very small amounts of gold.

Ophir went down hill from it's peak but was never completely abandoned. Population was 560 in 1918, 76 in 1970 and 25 in 1990. Latley Ophir seems to be growing, on my last visit in 2003, there was new construction on Main Street and satellite television dishes abounded.

Ophir does not genuinely qualify as a real ghost town but I got some good pictures of ruins and decided to include them.

These pictures were taken in January of 2004. It was an unusual year and temperatures were in the 60s.

Sources:

Stephen L. Carr - The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns.

George A. Thompson - Some Dreams Die: Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures.

Utah Collections Multimedia Encyclopedia