Frisco, Beaver County, Utah Genealogy

Guide to Frisco, Beaver County ancestry, genealogy and family history, birth records, marriage records, death records, census records, family history, and military records.

Quick History
Frisco is a mining class 4 ghost town in Beaver County. Pure silver was discovered in 1875 at the base of the San Francisco Mining District giving birth to the Horn Silver Mine and the Frisco wild-west town. Boom town describes how quickly this tough mining camp developed into a community. The Frisco Cemetery was the largest in the state at the time due to the average of 12 murders a night. When a gold or silver strike, towns would spring up, seemingly overnight. Within weeks Frisco grew to an estimated population of over 6,000 people. With the arrival of a post office, Frisco soon developed as the commercial center for the district, as well as the terminus of the Utah Southern Railroad extension from Milford. The Horn Silver Mine crashed in 1885 leaving the richest area of the mine unreachable, this was the beginning of the end for Frisco.


 * Frisco Mining Town
 * Frisco Ghost Town
 * Ghost Towns; Frisco
 * Utah Ghost Towns
 * Frisco Photos

Location
Located 15 miles to the West of Milford in the San Francisco Mining District. Other mines located in the district included the Blackbird, Cactus (Newhouse), Carbonate, Comet, Imperial, King David, Rattler, and Yellow Jacket, with the Silver Horn the largest. SR 21 44 miles west of I-15.


 * GPS Location: N38 27.583 W113 15.538

Maps

 * 1895 Map of Beaver County
 * Horn Silver Mine

Time Line

 * 1872: August 12; area established
 * 1875: First claim for silver is made
 * 1885 February 12: Mine implodes temporarily closes the mine, many miners leave that day
 * 1886: Mine reopens at much smaller scale
 * 1900: Population down from 6,000 to 500
 * 1912: Population at 150
 * 1921: Uninhabited

Neighboring Communities
Beaver | Milford | Minersville | Greenville | Newhouse

Cemeteries
In the late 1870's and early 1880's Frisco's roaring population had gotten so far out of hand and the murders were said to have been so frequent that city officials contracted to have a wagon pick up the bodies and take them to 'boot hill' for burial every day. There was an average of 12 murders a day until a sheriff from Nevada was hired to keep the peace. It was said that Frisco had Utah's largest cemetery at the time.
 * Frisco Cemetery

Check cemeteries in neighboring communities. Beaver County, Utah Cemeteries
 * Findagrave.com
 * Milford Cemetery
 * Minersville Cemetery

Church Records

 * 1907 1st LDS Ward Established

Historical Newspapers

 * Frisco Times
 * Southern Utah times. : (Frisco, Utah) 1880-1888
 * Southern Utonian and Beaver City Press 1881 – 1928

Marriages

 * Marriage information may be located at the Western States Marriage Database searchable by bride or groom.

Death

 * Utah Department of Archives 1903 to 50 years ago Choices of search types - name, date of death (year, month, day, or any combination) and county. Images of actual death certificates.
 * Utah Death Certificates 1904 - 1956 -A free internet access to the 1904-1956 death certificates can be viewed on the Family Search Historical Records. Utah requires a death certificate before a burial is completed.  A death certificate may contain information as to the name of the deceased, date of death, and place of death, as well as the age, birthdate, parents, gender, marital status, spouse and place of residence.  For information on death prior to 1904 you can search the Utah State Burial Index.

Suggested Reading

 * A History of Beaver County
 * The Horn Silver Bonanza in the The American West: A Reorientation
 * The Frisco Charcoal Kilns,
 * The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns.
 * Some Dreams Die: Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures
 * The American West : Overland journeys, 1841-1880
 * Colorado and Utah ghost towns

Websites

 * Utah Mining
 * Silver Mining in the Beehive State
 * The Beaver County (Utah) Photograph Collection, ca. 1930s
 * San Francisco Mining District
 * Frisco Photos
 * More Frisco Photos