CLARION

Clarion (Sanpete) was four miles west of Centerfield and five miles southwest of Gunnison on the west side of the Sevier River. In August 1911, the Jewish Agricultural and Colonial Association of Philadelphia purchased six thousand acres of land from the Utah State Land Board. The Jewish association dispatched an engineer and an advance party of twelve men (some with families) to survey the area and prepare the ground for homes and crops. Homes, a church, and a school were built, followed by a canal, then a post office in 1915. After six years of crop failures, the colony was declared bankrupt in 1917. The soil was alkaline and inappropriate for intensive cultivation, so the settlers gradually dispensed. Japanese families then moved into the area in 1921, but World War II disrupted their settlement and the land reverted to the local citizens. Most of the foreign residents of Clarion were gone by 1934.

John W. Van Cott