Utah Heritage Foundation

Once threatened with dwindling population, New Harmony is now dealing with development.  Not so much within the town – which retains its original street layout, including one entire block surrounded by paved streets – but ranchettes in Harmony Valley and a wind farm proposed for a nearby hillside on public land.  The 2000 census showed the town’s population as 191, not counting cats, dogs and horses.  Okay, it’s a small town!  But one that’s very proud of its heritage.

 New Harmony Heritage, founded 145 years after its settlement, is making plans for the town’s sesquicentennial in 2012.  Some, in and out of town, would and do argue that there’s not much left of New Harmony’s heritage to showcase.  Those who beg to differ are looking for ways and means to display artifacts like bricks made by John D. Lee at his farm and brickworks near the southwest edge of town.  One idea is to actually sell most of those bricks to help raise money for a gathering place, preferably a historic house or barn, big enough to hold residents and visitors without having to petition to use the recreation hall at the LDS ward house or having to pull the emergency vehicles out of the firehouse/ town hall as was done for this year’s Founders Day dinner because the wind kicked up (above, right).

The sesquicentennial may be New Harmony’s perfect pitch to spark interest in historic preservation, as if the Mill Flat fire last year, that destroyed the barn at the Lee farm, wasn’t enough.  UHF’s Field Rep Susan Crook (right, back to camera) is encouraging residents to seize their upcoming 150 year anniversary as an opportunity to add a historic preservation element to the general plan update that is now underway, and to consider becoming a CLG or asking Washington County to become one so the town can participate in the CLG grant program.  Now is the perfect time for New Harmony to hit a high note for historic preservation.

Read about the New Harmony Apple Harvest Festival