Tucked away in Spanish Fork Canyon, Mill Fork Cemetery is easy to miss — but once you spot it, you won’t forget it. I first noticed it on a drive back from Moab, a weathered sign barely visible before the highway swallowed it again. A few weekends later, curiosity got the best of me, and we set out to explore.
I hadn’t done any research on the cemetery beforehand, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, other than it was old. What we found upon arrival surprised us, and honestly, it’s the oddest cemetery I’ve ever visited.
Driving under the Mill Fork cemetery sign, I had no idea what to expect. Stepping out of the car, I saw a wooden staircase leading to a long bridge over a dry wash. My curiosity skyrocketed. At the top of the stairs stood a metal gate and the cemetery, enclosed by a chain-link fence. The official internment count is 17, likely the graves with headstones. However, Find A Grave lists 46 total burials, with the first in 1895 and the last, according to the State of Utah, in 1926.
Walking through the small cemetery, I saw most graves belonged to two families. Nearly all were very young when they died. Another gated chain-link fence surrounded these graves, with large bushes making them hard to see. Mill Fork Cemetery was turning out to be unusual. Outside the cemetery, I spotted 2-3 possible unmarked graves. Some were small mounds covered with rocks. One had a wooden headstone so worn that any writing had long disappeared.
A Cemetery Full of Questions
Mill Fork itself has all but vanished, leaving behind little more than this cemetery. I wanted to know its story — especially how so many children ended up buried here. What I found was a string of tragedies, each more heartbreaking than the last.
Established around 1875, Mill Fork was a logging camp that was implemental to the development of the railroad through the canyon. At its height, it had a population of about 250 people, three sawmills, charcoal kilns, a general store, and housing for railroad employees.
A Deadly Scarlet Fever Outbreak
The first burials in Mill Fork Cemetery were in June 1893: Edna Eva Finch (3), Effie Finch (3), and Georgia Geraldine Finch (5). The Salt Lake Herald reported that a woman and her child fled a scarlet fever epidemic in Grand Junction, Colorado. They stopped in Mill Fork for a few days, unaware they were infected. They also didn’t mention coming from a city experiencing an outbreak. In that short time, they spread the disease, and many became ill. The Finch family suffered most, losing three children. The original stone markers have disappeared, recently replaced with wooden ones.
The next burial was Myrtle Elliott on May 31, 1905. Nine-year-old Myrtle was outside with her older brother. He was unloading 100-pound sacks of grain from a wagon. Not realizing she was behind him, he accidentally dropped a sack on her.r.
Tragedy Strikes the Elliott Family — Twice
Unfortunately, tragedy didn’t end for the Elliott family. Three years later, William Edson Elliott was killed by runaway coal cars. The first mine car hit him so hard it knocked off his hat. Six more cars ran over him. The eighth car derailed after striking him.
The irony in Edson Elliott’s death is that for years he was a railroad section foreman in charge of keeping sections of rail safe for travel. He was only working inside the Castle Gate Mine temporarily, waiting for outside work to become available.
Murder in Mill Fork: The Death of Ida Ballard
The last and most shocking story behind the Mill Fork Cemetery belongs to Ida Viola Chadwick Ballard and her husband and murderer, Paris Ballard. Ida had family ties to Mill Fork, but she and her husband were living in Salt Lake City at the time of their deaths. Paris worked as a farmhand on Antelope Island and was often gone for stretches at a time. Apparently, he struggled with alcoholism, and when he was back in Salt Lake with Ida, he experienced jealous fits while intoxicated. Neighbors said they seemed to be a nice couple overall.
A Deadly Confrontation
On the day of her death, the 12th of September, 1919, Ida Ballard was able to get Deputy Sheriff Arthur Waller to accompany her back to their apartment in order to dissuade her husband from carrying out threats he had previously made against her. When they got to the apartment, Paris was gone, and they assumed he had gone back to Antelope Island for work and wouldn’t be a problem at that time. It turns out he had not headed back to Antelope Island, but instead was out purchasing a gun and some whiskey.
He later returned to the house and began arguing with Ida. A neighbor who lived on the other side of the apartment reported hearing him yell at Ida to come into the house, and when she refused, he was seen dragging her inside. The neighbor told police that she couldn’t hear what they were arguing about, but that the tone was angry. She then heard Ida pleading for her life when two shots rang out followed by three more shots and silence.
When police arrived they found Ida dead on her knees at the foot of the bed, and Paris face down on the bed barely alive. As they were getting ready to transport him to the hospital, they found a half-empty flask of whiskey in his pocket. He died later that evening at the Salt Lake Emergency Hospital. For whatever reason, their family decided to have them buried side by side in the Mill Fork Cemetery.
A Forgotten Cemetery, A Preserved Legacy
Thanks to Doug and Christie Atwood, Mill Fork Cemetery hasn’t faded into obscurity like the town it once served. If you ever find yourself passing through Spanish Fork Canyon, take the detour. Walk across the bridge, step through the gate, and read the names that time nearly erased. And before you leave — sign the guestbook. Who knows how many more visitors this place will see?
