Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Russian Ghost town in Utah







Russian Ghost town in Utah.







May 17th, 2011







In the North West Corner of Utah, there is a place called Russian Knoll. People know it as summit in Box Elder County. Next to this place in early 20th century was a little town founded by a group of Russian immigrants. There were members of Jumpers and Molokans religious orders, who were seeking isolation and wanted to create their own homestead with their own customs. The colonists did not come directly from Russia, but they came from California where most of them lived after departing Russian empire ten years earlier. There were two groups of settlers. One from Los Angeles area, called “the Flats” near the Los Angeles River just east of the city's Central Business District, place which in the beginning of 20th Century was known as Russian Town. The other - from so called “Steadfast” community, who settled earlier in the Century in San Francisco area, mostly on Portrero Hill.

 The catalyst for migration from California to Utah was a decision of Los Angeles judge to annul marriage of recently married couple. The marriage was entered according the rules of the Community, but it was illegal according California judge.   After this, the elders decided to look for a different more isolated place, where they cannot be influenced by anybody. Around that time, the Pacific Water and Land Company was promoting area of Park Valley, Utah.  In Russia they were excellent farmers, so the possibility of a building a farm and new town in relatively isolated place in Northern Utah was interpreted as an opportunity to start anew.  One of the leaders of the Russian group was Andrew Kalpakoff, who was respected merchant in Los Angeles, respected not just by the Russian Community, but by everybody he had business with. The people in Box Elder County viewed creation of a new community as an area “booster”.

 In  March of 1914  a group of 20 men  came to Utah and  business negotiations  resulted in a purchase of “several thousand” acres of land, actually about 4 sq. miles  ( about 10 sq. kilometers)  along the Dove Creek and on a second place to the North near the village of Rosette.  Price: “…. $17.50 an acre, with twenty percent down payment and five yearly installments at seven percent interest…”

The plan was to start building a settlement from early spring in order to have winter shelter ready by the end of summer or early fall.  In April 1914, at the train station of Kelton, Utah another group arrived, this time they were men, women and children, total about 100 people. After arrival they boarded horse-wagons and travelled to the area along of Dove Creek.

Like in every Western town a Main Street was central point. Community had an account in Park Valley store. By August 1914 there were 19 families with 40 children living in the settlement. During its peak there were 24 families.  A small school was put on foundation in February 1915  on a two- acre plot near the northwestern edge of the village, and by March same year  Pacific Water and Land Company decided to hire a teacher, member of the Community. Children in the northern settlement went to school in the village of Rosette with LDS children. Within first year, there were eight children born, most of the women had given birth to at least one child during the 3 years of settlements existence, but some had more. Nadejda Karyakin had 2 daughters one year apart, and Dunya Potapoff gave birth to a daughter and sixteen months later to a son.

 Neither group built a church structure.

Unfortunately, dreams of staying forever in this place did not realize. Tragedy struck just a month after arrival. In May 1914, during cleaning Andrew Kalpakoff’s 22 caliber rifle discharged killing his wife. Less than a year later, another member of Kalpakoff’s family, his brother’s wife died during child birth.  Those two deaths were not the reason town failed. The lack of water decided its faith, like for many other small towns in the area water was not enough. Water wells were very few. Practically, there was no harvest for two years, the area became overgrazed. The settlement to the North near Rosetta had more water, but very few people and there were no more new arrivals from California.

In order to keep town running, Kalpakoff and Potapoff borrowed $400 each in the summer of 1915 by putting their horses and cows as collateral, but it was not enough to safe the town.

In November 1915, School board in Box Elder County asked if there is a reason to keep school open because settlers were leaving. Beginning of the end for this town was August 1916 when the stove from the class room was removed and moved to town of Lucin and just a month later the Russian school was disassembled and moved to Promontory.  Last family moved out in 1917. Today there is nothing left of this place, except decayed school foundation and small cemetery with the graves of Anna and Maria Kalpakoff. The gravestones are relatively new; their grandson put them there in 1966. There is nothing left of the Northern settlement near Rosetta, Utah as well.

Interesting thing is that while trying to build this town, the settlers did not name it, so it’s a ghost town with no name. People call the area Russian Knoll (Russian Hill), it refers to a general area and the summit.

Here are the surnames of the settlers, taken from county records and the store records: Kolpakoff, Kalpakoff (Колпаков), Kobseff, Kobzeff (Кобзев), Shegloff (Щеглов),  Boldereff  (Болдерев), Dmitrieff  (Дмитриев) Karyakin (Карякин), Kunakoff ( Кунаков) , Chernobaeff (Чернобаев), Volkoff  (Волков) , Shubin (Шубин), Eleen, (Ильин), Melnikoff  (Мельников) , Clepoff (Слепов), Homenoff  (Хоменов), Slavin, Slevin (Славин), Потапов (Potapoff),  Rudometkin (Рудомёткин ), Uraine (Юрин), Sokoloff (Соколов), Valoff (Валов), Bulvan (Булван) and an American with last name Tabbot (Табот).





Alexander ILIN-Bennett 



Credits: Marshall E. Bowen (Mary Washington College); http://www.molokane.org/places/USA/Utah/ ; http://www.themorrisclan.com;

Standard-Examiner, Ogden








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