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Ajax is a
ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...
located in the Rush Valley area of southeastern Tooele County,
Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
, United States. The town grew up around a unique
department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...
started in 1869 by a Welsh immigrant named William Ajax. He operated the Ajax Underground Store until his death in 1899, and the settlement came to an end as the other residents left by 1900. All that remains today is a hole in the ground, with a historical marker standing nearby.


History

The area was first settled in 1863 by a group of Welsh farmers, who called their little settlement Centre (or Center) for its location in the middle of the valley between Stockton and Vernon. As numerous mines were being developed in eastern Tooele County in the 1860s, small towns began to dot the region. In 1869, William Ajax, whose department store business in
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
was failing, moved his family to a dugout in the Centre area. He had learned of the emerging market and started growing hay to sell to the mines. He built a two-room
adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...
house as a permanent shelter close to his hay fields. More accustomed to keeping a shop than raising a crop, Ajax soon began stocking the kitchen shelf with
dry goods Dry goods is a historic term describing the type of product line a store carries, which differs by region. The term comes from the textile trade, and the shops appear to have spread with the mercantile trade across the British Empire (and Common ...
and supplies to sell to passing travelers. Business boomed; by 1870 a
post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...
was set up in his store, which had outgrown the Ajax home and needed its own location.


Underground department store

Having lived in an underground home, William Ajax chose to construct an underground store. He began digging into the desert soil and lining the hole with cedar timbers. When he had a chamber around 1800 square feet (160 m2) in area and 10–15 feet (3–4.5 m) deep, he added roof beams and an earthen roof, with a south-facing
skylight A skylight (sometimes called a rooflight) is a light-permitting structure or window, usually made of transparent or translucent glass, that forms all or part of the roof space of a building for daylighting and ventilation purposes. History O ...
. The Ajax Underground Store was open for business. From the beginning the store operated as much more than a mere
general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...
, offering expensive
textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...
s and fine imported
tableware Tableware items are the dishware and utensils used for setting a table, serving food, and dining. The term includes cutlery, glassware, serving dishes, serving utensils, and other items used for practical as well as decorative purposes. The ...
in addition to the necessities of frontier life. Local miners and ranchers could buy supplies to last through the winter, while their wives browsed through elegant cut crystal glassware and ornate
figurine A figurine (a diminutive form of the word ''figure'') or statuette is a small, three-dimensional sculpture that represents a human, deity or animal, or, in practice, a pair or small group of them. Figurines have been made in many media, with cla ...
s in comfort, protected from the harsh elements of the desert. The store became a gathering place for residents of such nearby communities as Mercur, Stockton, and Ophir, and an important stopping point for overland travelers. An above-ground hotel was soon added, with stables and corrals that could hold 100 horses, 300 cattle, and 6,000 sheep. As it began to grow into a town in its own right, the settlement was named Puckerville, but the name didn't stick. Although the post office kept the name of Centre, people called the place Ajax. William soon found need for further expansion; he kept digging until the store's main room stretched 80 feet (24 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide. Additional branching rooms eventually brought the Ajax Underground Store to a total area of 11,000 square feet (1000 m2), with over $75,000 worth of merchandise in stock. It was reported that the "Big Store", as locals called it, did more business than any similar
Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
emporium.


Decline

The store began to lose business when the
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...
was built nearby and people could easily travel to Salt Lake for a variety of errands. When William Ajax died in 1899 he left the store to his sons, but the town of Ajax quickly dissolved. By 1900 only the Ajax family remained, continuing to run the store in the face of increasing competition. The rise of
mail order Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing an order by telephone call ...
catalogs was especially bad for business. The closure of Mercur in 1913 was the final blow; the Ajax Underground Store was finally forced to close in 1914. Most of the above-ground buildings were moved to other locations, but the underground store had to stay in place. In the 1920s it became a popular refuge for passing
hobo A hobo is a migrant worker in the United States. Hoboes, tramps, and bums are generally regarded as related, but distinct: a hobo travels and is willing to work; a tramp travels, but avoids work if possible; a bum neither travels nor works. Et ...
es, but one of their fires burned it completely, leaving only a depression in the ground to mark the site of Ajax.


References


External links


William Ajax Underground Store
at Tooele County ''Guide to Historical Attractions'' {{Tooele County, Utah Ghost towns in Tooele County, Utah Populated places established in 1863 Ghost towns in Utah