Lund is a small unincorporated village located in the Escalante Valley of northwestern Iron County, Utah, United States, about 35 miles northwest of Cedar City. The town, established in the early twentieth century, was a station stop on the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad (later Union Pacific Railroad), and was a community center for early twentieth century homesteaders. The area's population was never large, however, and most early settlers were unsuccessful due to the region's harsh and arid climate.
Settlement activity in the Lund area began with the completion of the railway line through the Escalante Valley in the winter of 1898–99, but Lund's population remained extremely small until 1911, when the valley was opened to homestead settlement. The Lund townsite was platted in 1913, beginning a decade of relative activity at the location. A population decline began in the 1920s, however, due to the failure of most of the homestead-era farms. Lund's most dramatic event was in February 1922, when a freak flood struck the desert valley and partially inundated the town.
Lund gained importance as a railroad junction in 1923, when the Union Pacific constructed a branch line from Lund to Cedar City. The branch was constructed in part to encourage travel to southern Utah's National Parks, and carried passenger trains during the summer months until 1960. At other times, passengers bound for Cedar City would board a railway-operated connecting bus at Lund, which followed State Route 19 (Lund Highway). As part of this construction program, the railroad erected what was the historic town's most prominent building, a stately depot designed by noted architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood. The last passenger trains stopped in Lund in 1969, and the depot building was razed the following year, marking the end of the town's railway prominence.
A post office operated at Lund from 1901 to 1967.[1] Its closure reflected years of gradual population decline in the area, and only a handful of people live in the Lund vicinity today.
This unusual name is of Norse-Viking origin from the pre 10th century. 'Lunt, Lund, and Lound' are primarily locational surnames from one of the various places so, which occur in different parts of the North and East Anglia. They all derive their names from the Old Norse word "hundr", or the Old Swedish "lunder", meaning a grove or a copse. There is a village called "Lunt" in Lancashire, whilst places called 'Lunds' are recorded both in Lancashire and Yorkshire, two regions which were the centre of the 'Viking' invasions are future settlements in the 8th and 9th centuries a.d. The Coat of Arms has the blazon of a gyronny of eight silver and blue, a black border engrailed charged with as many plates. Examples of the surname recording include Geoffrey de Lund of Norfolk in the year 1230, John del Lound of Suffolk in 1327, and John Lunt, also of Suffolk in 1524. In 1568 the will of one Gilbert Lunt of Litherand was recorded at the Chester Wills registry. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Ralph de la Lunde, which was dated 1183, in the Yorkshire Pipe Rolls, during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.