Washington County, Utah

Washington County is a county in the southwestern corner of Utah, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 180,279, making it the fifth-most populous county in Utah. Its county seat and largest city is St. George. The county was created in 1852 and organized in 1856. It was named after the first President of the United States, George Washington. A portion of the Paiute Indian Reservation is in western Washington County. Washington County comprises the St. George, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The earliest settlement was Fort Harmony in 1852. Santa Clara was established in 1854 as a mission to the natives who lived on the Santa Clara River. Hamblin and Pinto were settled along the Los Angeles - Salt Lake Road in 1856, as was Gunlock in 1857.

Next came the settlements established as colonies to grow cotton before the beginning of the American Civil War (1861-1865). They were located along the Virgin River, in the warmer climate below the central Great Basin, which was for decades called "Utah's Dixie". The first settlement was Virgin, and Washington in 1857. Heberville, Pintura and Toquerville followed in 1858, Grafton, Harrisburg and Pine Valley in 1859, Adventure in 1860, Duncans Retreat, Northrop, Shonesburg and St. George in 1861.

Fort Harmony, Adventure, and Northrup were abandoned, and Santa Clara, St. George, Washington, Harrisburg, Heberville, Grafton, and Duncans Retreat were nearly destroyed by the Great Flood of 1862 that followed 44 days of rainfall in January and February 1862. New Harmony, Springdale and Rockville were founded in 1862 by settlers flooded out of Fort Harmony, Adventure, Northrup and other places in the vicinity. Harrisburg was relocated.

Shoal Creek later called Hebron, was a ranching community established in 1862 west of the county. Leeds was settled in 1867, and Silver Reef was a mining town begun in 1875 and abandoned by 1891 due to the collapse in silver prices.

The old federal Utah Territory's territorial legislature created Washington County on March 3, 1852, in the southern border area of the Territory, adjacent to the then old federal New Mexico Territory of 1850-1912. It was not fully organized at that time, and so it was attached to Iron County, which was adjacent to the north for temporary administrative and judicial purposes in its county seat town and courthouse of Parowan, for its first four years. This continued until February 23, 1856, when the organization was completed, Saint George was listed as the newly designated county seat and site of a courthouse, and the attachment to Iron County was terminated. The county boundaries were altered a dozen times after that; but its boundaries have retained their present configuration since March 10, 1892, four years before statehood was achieved in 1896.

Washington County lies in the southwest corner of Utah. Its south border abuts the northern border of the state of Arizona, and its west border abuts the east border of the state of Nevada. Its terrain is rough and arid, with a little area devoted to agriculture. It is a mixture of mountains and flat stretches. The terrain slopes to the south and west; the lowest point in the state of Utah is located in the Beaver Dam Wash in Washington County, where it (seasonally) flows out of Utah and into Arizona, at 2,178 ft (664 m) ASL. The county's highest point is Signal Peak in the Pine Valley Mountains, at 10,369 ft (3,160 m) ASL. The county has a total area of 2,430 square miles (6,300 km²), of which 2,426 square miles (6,280 km²) is land and 3.6 square miles (9.3 km²) (comprising 0.1%) is water.

Washington County is made up of three major geographic areas; the Colorado Plateau in the east-northeast, the Great Basin in the northwest, and the Mojave Desert in the south-southwest.