Santa Clara is a city in Washington County, Utah, United States and is a part of the St. George Metropolitan Area. The population was 6,003 at the 2010 census, up from 4,630 at the 2000 census.GeographyAccording to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.9 square miles (12.7 km²), of which, 4.9 square miles (12.6 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.41%) is water.HistoryIn 1854, Jacob Hamblin was called by Brigham Young to serve a mission to the southern Paiute and settled at Santa Clara in the vicinity of the modern city of St. George, Utah.The first settlers built Fort Clara or Fort Santa Clara, in the winter of 1855-1856. In the fall of 1861, Swiss Mormon colonists arrived at the new settlement, but shortly afterward were victims of the large flood in the Clara River that wiped out the fort and most other buildings, its irrigation dams and ditches, in early in 1862. This flood was part of the Great Flood of 1862.Hamblin's first home there was included in the destruction of this flood. His second wife Rachael saved one of their young children from drowning, but the child soon after died from exposure. Rachael never fully recovered from the exposure she got from the flood. Swearing to avoid the risk of flood, Hamblin built a new home on a hill in Santa Clara. Owned today by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, it is operated as a house museum, where Mormon missionaries give daily tours.
