Russian Settlement 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 ...

in the Park Valley area of

Box Elder County Box Elder County is a county at the northwestern corner of Utah, United States. At the 2020 United States census, the population was 57,666, up from the 2010 figure of 49,975. Its county seat and largest city is Brigham City. The county was n ...

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. It is not known what name, if any, the settlers from Russia gave to their community; it has been called "Box Elder County's ghost town with no name." The settlement, which lasted about 1914–1917, was formed by a group of

Molokan The Molokans ( rus, молокан, p=məlɐˈkan or , "dairy-eater") are a Russian Spiritual Christian sect that evolved from Eastern Orthodoxy in the East Slavic lands. Their traditions, especially dairy consumption during Christian fasts, ...

Spiritual Christians Spiritual Christianity () is the group of belief systems held by so-called folk Protestants (), including non-Eastern Orthodox indigenous faith tribes and new religious movements that emerged in the Russian Empire. Their origins are varied: some ...

from Russia of mixed faiths and ethnicities. The colony failed quickly because the company who sold them the land exaggerated its quality and never provided promised facilities to make the land livable. The most noticeable remnant of Russian Settlement is a cemetery with two graves.

History

Between 1910 and 1914, the

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 ...

-based ''Pacific Land and Water Company'' acquired about (280 sq.mi.) of property in Box Elder County to resell. This land consisted of former railroad land, the property of another company absorbed by Pacific Land and Water, and tracts purchased from

ranch A ranch (from /Mexican Spanish) is an area of landscape, land, including various structures, given primarily to ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle and sheep. It is a subtype of farm. These terms are most often ap ...

ers. Pacific Land and Water misrepresented this arid land in advertising, describing it as "amongst the richest in the state of Utah" that "only awaits the plow to yield up its vast treasures." Advertising described the local climate as "energizing," and it was claimed that the heavy growth of

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia (plant), Artemisia''. The best-known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrush is native to the western half of North Amer ...

indicated that the land was fertile for farming. Land was sold for US$17.50 per acre, financed at 7 percent

interest In finance and economics, interest is payment from a debtor or deposit-taking financial institution to a lender or depositor of an amount above repayment of the principal sum (that is, the amount borrowed), at a particular rate. It is distinct f ...

, with 20 percent down and the remainder paid annually over five years. In March 1914, a group of 20 Spiritual Christian men from Russia purchased of land. These

were

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

-like Christians, mostly ''pryguny'' (Jumpers, Leapers). They had been living in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

for about a decade, and the older members of the group were becoming concerned about the effects of American urban culture on their youth, and feared that their tradition of

arranged marriages Arranged marriage is a type of marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members such as the parents. In some cultures, a professional matchmaker may be ...

was being threatened. They fled during a series of "bride-selling" cases held in Los Angeles Superior Court. The immigrants wanted to raise their children in a rural area immersed in their own

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, and traditions. The families, totaling approximately 100 to 125 people, traveled by train from Los Angeles to

Kelton, Utah Kelton is a ghost town, just north of the Great Salt Lake, in the Park Valley area of Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The town was inhabited during the period of 1869–1942. Once an important section station on the First transcont ...

. A Pacific Land and Water employee brought them by wagon from Kelton to their new town site in April 1914.

Village

The settlement was laid out in a similar fashion to row villages in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. A main street running east to west centered the town. Each lot consisted of a strip of land, with of frontage on the main road. Houses, barns, outbuildings, wells, and

root cellar A root cellar (American and Canadian English), fruit cellar (Mid-Western American English) or earth cellar (British English) is a structure, usually underground. or partially underground, used for food storage, storage of vegetables, fruits, nu ...

s were constructed. The lumber used came from a Pacific Land and Water

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

located in the nearby

Raft River Mountains The Raft River Mountains are a mountain range in northern Box Elder County, Utah, United States. The mountains are located in the Raft River Division of the Minidoka Ranger District of the Sawtooth National Forest. The highest point is Bull Mou ...

. Livestock was purchased from local ranchers, and crops were planted. Other small villages were founded by Spiritual Christian ''Molokane'' near

Rosette Rosette is the French diminutive of ''rose''. It may refer to: Flower shaped designs * Rosette (award), a mark awarded by an organisation * Rosette (design), a small flower design *hence, various flower-shaped or rotational symmetric forms: ** R ...

and Dove Creek. By August 1914, the number of school-age children had reached 40, prompting Box Elder County to establish a

one-room school One-room schoolhouses, or One-room schools, have been commonplace throughout rural portions of various countries, including Prussia, Norway, Sweden, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, and Spa ...

and provide a teacher. A portable school house was built on the west end of the main street, and the teacher, one of the settlers, was paid by Pacific Land and Water. The establishment of the school was perhaps premature; by November 1915, the

school superintendent In the American education system, a superintendent or superintendent of schools is an administrator or manager in charge of a number of public schools or a school district, a local government body overseeing public schools. All school principal ...

announced that the student population did not justify a school, and that the children would be sent by bus to Rosette for school.

Farming

The original land purchase by the immigrants consisted of , with each family receiving outside of town for farming. This land, however, was used by only one settler. Most families farmed on their house lot and grew only gardens and small plots of

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

and grain.

Irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

wells and pumps promised by Pacific Land and Water were never delivered, so most families irrigated with their domestic wells.

Decline

Repeated crop failures led to the abandonment of the town, beginning in 1915. In August 1916, the stove from the schoolhouse was sent to the Lucin school, and in September the entire school was disassembled and shipped to

Promontory A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the s ...

. By the end of 1917, Russian Settlement was a ghost town. Most of the settlers returned to the Los Angeles area.Huchel, pp.176–178. Box Elder County residents removed the buildings, moving some to new locations and salvaging the rest for materials.

Remnants

No one has lived in the area since the Russians left. Some buildings stayed standing for many years, and the pattern of town lots was visible into the 1960s. Today, the main feature that remains is a weathered white picket fence surrounding two graves. Both headstones are in

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

. One grave is of Anna Kalpakoff, who was accidentally shot by her husband. The other is of her sister-in-law, Mary Kalpakoff, who died during childbirth. The current headstones were placed in 1966 by Mary's son and grandson who resided near

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

. There are also clearly defined

foundations Foundation(s) or The Foundation(s) may refer to: Common uses * Foundation (cosmetics), a skin-coloured makeup cream applied to the face * Foundation (engineering), the element of a structure which connects it to the ground, and transfers loads f ...

, caved-in wells, and various artifacts. A

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

on horseback fell into an old well here in 1937, barely escaping with his life. A hill just to the northwest is known as ''Russian Knoll'', in honor of the immigrants who once lived in the area.

References

External links

Chapter 3—Attempts at Farming
from ''Dukh-i-zhizniki in America'' by Andrei Conovaloff
Russian Settlement Cemetery
at Utah State Division of History {{Box Elder County, Utah Christianity in Utah Ghost towns in Box Elder County, Utah Russian communities in the United States Populated places established in 1914 Ghost towns in Utah