Alunite[1] (/ˈælənaɪt/ AL-ə-nyte) is a ghost town located some 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Marysvale, near the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon in Piute County, Utah, United States.

Gillan made a deal with the Mineral Products Corporation to develop the deposit, mine the alunite, and extract potash for fertilizer.

[3] Because the town was so close to Marysvale, it never had its own church or business district,[2] but it did have a school, company store, and post office.

[3] When the United States entered World War I, the Alunite mines gained strategic importance as the only domestic source of potash, needed for manufacturing explosives that was already under development.

Suspicious fires were blamed on enemy agents, and there were reports of people caught trying to bomb the potash plants or gather sensitive information.