Paria is also located in the southern part of Utah. It is only a few miles away from Johnson. The town was named after the Paria River, which flowed right next to where the town was platted.
Paria was settled in the 1865 by Peter Shirts, a Mormon sent here by the church to find a suitable site in the area for settlement. In 1870, William Meeks and a group of Mormon missionaries joined him. Their goal was to establish a town and try to convert the Indains. In the early days, Indians raids were frequent, and forced them to move upstream. But soon a school, a church, a post office and many other houses and buildings were constructed.
This area presented its own challenges for the townspeople. The Paria River was prone to frequent flooding and also many droughts. This made farming and ranching very difficult. By the 1890's, only about 20 or 30 people remained. In 1914, the post office finally closed for good. Today, some of the buildings remain, but many others have been washed away by the floods. A western movie set has been built 2 miles from the site too. Many westerns, including Gunsmoke, were filmed here. A 1999 flood washed away some of the buildings and damaged the rest of the set so bad, that what remained had to be torn down a couple years later. I am not sure if any good buildings still stand at the original townsite, but the cemetary is still there.
Johnson was a town in Southern Utah, that was created by the Mormon church in the 1870's. It was a farming and ranching community. It was founded by Joel Hills Johnson, who is also buried in the cemetary. From what I hear, the cemetary is the only thing left here (I haven't been here yet). There is also an old western movie set just a couple miles from the townsite, as I was told. I am not sure if they were referring to the Old Paria movie set, or another set in the same area.
Johnson and Paria are located in Southern Utah in Kane County. Paria is about 45 miles northeast of Kanab on Highway 89, then about 5 miles north on Paria road. The raod continues north to the cemetary. Johnson is off Highway 89 just a few miles to the west. They are just a few miles apart.
