WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
HILDALE, UTAH
(formerly Short Creek; sister city of Colorado City AZ)
LOCATION
20 miles southheast of Hurricane on State Highway 59.Hildale in on the Utah side of Short Creek at the Utah/Arizona border. It's companion city, Colorado City,
is on the Arizona side of the border.
37° 0' 13" North Latitude, 112° 58' 1" West Longitude
37.0036° North Latitude, 112.9669° Longitude
5,048 feet (1,538 meters) MSL
HISTORY
William B. Maxwell established a ranch at Short Creek in 1860. It served as a stopping off place for visitorsuntil Maxwell moved his families to Mexico to avoid prosecution for polygamy.
Then in 1911, Jacob Marinus Lauritzen moved his family down from Richfield, Utah.
The were joined by the James Black family in 1918.
PHOTOS
Collection of Short Creek photosREFERENCES
Wikipedia article about HildaleMountain Bell Telephone Book, September 1972, Page 33
Kidnapped From That Land; The Government Raids on the Short Creek Polygamists
by Martha Sonntag Bradley
University of Utah Press, October 27, 1993, 286 pp.
Colordo City Polygamists: An Inside Look for the Outsider
By Benjamin G. Bistline, 1998
The Polygamists: A History of Colorado City
By Benjamin G. Bistline, 1998
SOUTHERN UTAH MEMORIES: A Brief History of Short Creek on the Utah-Arizona line to 1952
by Loren R. Webb, December 26, 2013