Ghost Towns of Utah (A-D)

County: Washington
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 37° 9′ 42.92″ N, 113° 4′ 22.79″ W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Adventure was an early settlement in Washington County, Utah, United States, established in 1860 by Philip Klingensmith and five other people from Iron County. They formed a small settlement as part of the cotton-growing colony in the area, at a place a couple of miles up the Virgin River from Grafton.
Remains: The site of Adventure is just west of Rockville, on the south side of the Virgin River east of Grafton.
Current Status: Adventure was destroyed by the Great Flood of 1862 and the settlers moved to settle on some nearby land with more space for growth and above the river floods, in what is now Rockville.
Remarks:

Ajax, UT

County: Tooele
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°13’33″N 112°23’32″W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1869
Disestablished: 1900
Comments: Ajax is a ghost town located in the Rush Valley area of southeastern Tooele County, Utah, United States. The town grew up around a unique department store started in 1869 by a Welsh immigrant named William Ajax. He operated the Ajax Underground Store until his death in 1899, and the settlement came to an end as the other residents left by 1900.
Remains: The store began to lose business when the railroad was built nearby and people could easily travel to Salt Lake for a variety of errands. When William Ajax died in 1899 he left the store to his sons, but the town of Ajax quickly dissolved. By 1900 only the Ajax family remained, continuing to run the store in the face of increasing competition. The rise of mail-order catalogs was especially bad for business. The closure of Mercur in 1913 was the final blow; the Ajax Underground Store was finally forced to close in 1914. Most of the above-ground buildings were moved to other locations, but the underground store had to stay in place. In the 1920s it became a popular refuge for passing hoboes, but one of their fires burned it completely, leaving only a depression in the ground to mark the site of Ajax.
Current Status: All that remains today is a hole in the ground, with a historical marker standing nearby.
Remarks: The area was first settled in 1863 by a group of Welsh farmers, who called their little settlement Centre for its location in the middle of the valley between Stockton and Vernon. As numerous mines were being developed in eastern Tooele County in the 1860s, small towns began to dot the region. n 1869, William Ajax, whose department store business in Salt Lake City was failing, moved his family to a dugout in the Centre area. He had learned of the emerging market and started growing hay to sell to the mines. He built a two-room adobe house as a permanent shelter close to his hay fields. More accustomed to keeping a shop than raising a crop, Ajax soon began stocking the kitchen shelf with dry goods and supplies to sell to passing travelers. Business boomed; by 1870 a post office was set up in his store, which had outgrown the Ajax home and needed its own location.

Alunite, UT

County: Piute
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 38°22’45″N 112°14’48″W
Elevation: 6,555 ft (1,998 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1915
Disestablished: 1930
Comments: Alunite /’æl”na”t/ 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. A small but important mining town during World War I, Alunite was inhabited about 1915–1930.
Remains: In 1912 a prospector named Thomas Gillan discovered a wide vein of spar in Cottonwood Canyon. The sample he sent for analysis was identified as alunite, an ore rich in both aluminum and potash. Gillan made a deal with the Mineral Products Corporation to develop the deposit, mine the alunite, and extract potash for fertilizer. By 1915 the company had constructed a reduction plant in the mouth of the canyon to produce potash from the ore. The small company town that grew up around the plant was named Alunite. Because the town was so close to Marysvale, it never had its own church or business district, but it did have a school, company store, and post office.
Current Status: Most of the alunite mining activity ended after the war. The alumina extraction experiments had been successful, but the processes developed were prohibitively expensive. Demand for potash continued to drop until 1930 it was also too costly to produce. The mines closed, the mill was torn down, and Alunite became a ghost town. A second small attempt was made to extract aluminum during World War II, but none of the towns was ever rebuilt. Alunite lies in ruins today; numerous foundations and walls are still visible.
Remarks: 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. The government also saw potential in alunite’s aluminum content and installed a 24-hour workforce experimenting with processes to extract alumina from alunite. This increase in employees raised the town’s population to over 100. The war also brought rumors of foreign spies and saboteurs. Suspicious fires were blamed on enemy agents, and there were reports of people caught trying to bomb the potash plants or gather sensitive information.

Aragonite, UT

County: Tooele
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°44’34″N 113°0’10″W
Elevation: 4,554 ft (1,388 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Aragonite is a ghost town in Tooele County, Utah, United States. It is located in the western portion of the state. The Utah Test and Training Range lie to the west and the Dugway Proving Grounds lies to the southwest. Interstate 80 Exit 56 provides access to Aragonite. The site lies northwest of the Cedar Mountains. The low Grassy Mountains lie to the north.
Remains: Aragonite lies along the Hastings Cutoff, a historical transmontane route taken by nineteenth-century pioneers. The town was established in the early twentieth century for the mining of aragonite, though all mining operations in the area have ceased. The townsite is now uninhabited and almost totally demolished.
Current Status: Just east of the historical townsite is a large hazardous waste incineration facility. This facility was known as the Aptus Incinerator and was built there in 1991 after Tooele County established the surrounding lands as the West Desert Hazardous Industries District. The incinerator was, at times, operated by Westinghouse, Rollins, Laidlaw, and Safety-Kleen, and is now operated by Clean Harbors. The facility has been the subject of several penalties administered by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Remarks:

Argyle, UT

County: Rich
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 41°37’37″N 111°12’19″W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1875
Disestablished: 1915
Comments: Argyle is a ghost town located in Rich County, Utah, United States. Lying some 3 miles (4.8 km) southwest of Randolph on Big Creek, it was inhabited about 1875–1915.
Remains: Around 1875, John Kennedy, Sr. (the great-grandfather of David M. Kennedy) settled the area with his three sons (one of whom, John Kennedy, Jr. later served in the Utah State legislature), who built homes and ranches along the various branches of Big Creek. Within a few years, several other Mormon families moved in and established a local church group. The town became known as Kennedyville. In 1885 the community organized a school system, and the mostly Scottish American residents voted to rename the town Argyle in honor of Argyll, Scotland. The school was originally held in Kennedy’s home until a one-room brick schoolhouse was built in 1895. The cold climate made farming difficult, and the population grew slowly. There were 111 inhabitants in 1900, and just over 125 in 1910 when a second room was built onto the schoolhouse.
Current Status: Although the town is deserted, numerous buildings and walls still stand at Argyle. It is surrounded by hay fields and closed to the public, but the ruins can easily be seen from the road.
Remarks: Argyle declined as transportation improved and farmers no longer had to live as close to their fields. The school was considered inferior to the education available in nearby Randolph, and Argyle had no stores or other services of its own. In 1913 the local church organization was discontinued, and in 1915 the school itself closed and merged with the one in Randolph. Most of the residents moved to Randolph and kept their farms in the Argyle area.

Asay, UT

County: Garfield
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 37° 35′ 8″ N, 112° 28′ 55″ W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Asay is an abandoned town located in Garfield County, Utah. It started as a farming community in the late 19th century, but the high altitude climate produced low crop yields thereby, making the lands unworkable.
Remains:
Current Status: A cabin and some farm structures still stand, but it sits on private land and not easily accessible.
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Bacchus, UT

County:
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40° 39′ 46.8″ N, 112° 5′ 38.4″ W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1915
Disestablished:
Comments: Bacchus, Utah was a small community on U-111, near the Oquirrh Mountains. It was established in 1915 when the Hercules Powder Company opened an explosives plant in the town.
Remains:
Current Status: With improved transportation, the workers moved to more favorable locations, and the town deteriorated into a ghost town between 1930 and 1960.
Remarks:

Bingham Canyon, UT

County: Salt Lake
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°33’30″N 112°07’50″W
Elevation: 5,938 ft (1,810 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1863
Disestablished: 1972
Comments: Bingham Canyon was a city formerly located in southwestern Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, in a narrow canyon on the eastern face of the Oquirrh Mountains. The Bingham Canyon area boomed during the first years of the twentieth century, as rich copper deposits in the canyon began to be developed, and at its peak, the city had approximately 15,000 residents.
Remains: The geographic feature known as Bingham Canyon received its name from the location’s two first settlers, the brothers Thomas and Sanford Bingham, who arrived in the canyon in 1848. Initially, the area was utilized for livestock grazing and logging, but the region’s economic focus changed with the 1863 discovery of rich gold and silver ore bodies in the canyon. Mining activity in Bingham Canyon boomed after the Bingham Canyon and Camp Floyd Rail Road completed a line to the canyon in 1873, and as the region grew the focus shifted to the high-quality copper ores in the district. As the mines grew, the town of Bingham also expanded, spreading along the narrow and steep canyon floor below the mines.
Current Status: The success of the local mines eventually proved to be the town’s undoing, however: by the mid-twentieth century the huge open-pit Bingham Canyon Mine began encroaching on the community, and by the late twentieth century, the Bingham townsite had been devoured by the mine. No trace of the former town remains today.
Remarks: By the 1930s it was becoming apparent that the most significant threat to the town of Bingham was the mine itself, whose ever-expanding open pit began encroaching on lands formerly occupied by miners’ neighborhoods. The mine continued to eat away at Bingham throughout the middle years of the twentieth century, and by 1971 little of the town remained. That November, Bingham Canyon’s 31 remaining residents voted 11–2 to disincorporate the town, and the last buildings at Bingham were razed in 1972. Today, most of the land once occupied by Bingham has been consumed by the Bingham Canyon Mine.

Black Rock, UT

County: Millard
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 38°42’30″N 112°57’30″W
Elevation: 4,856 ft (1,480 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1876
Disestablished: 1959
Comments: Black Rock was a small, unincorporated village located in southern Millard County, Utah, about 20 miles north of Milford. The town was a station stop on the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad (later Union Pacific Railroad), and was a community center for a small number of early twentieth-century homesteaders and ranchers. A post office operated at Black Rock from 1891 to 1959. The site is now a ghost town.
Remains:
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Blacks Fork, UT

County: Summit
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°58’17″N 110°35’14″W
Elevation: 8,848 ft (2,697 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1870
Disestablished: 1930
Comments: Blacks Fork, also known as Blacks Fork Commissary, is a ghost town in Summit County, Utah, United States. Named for the Blacks Fork River, it was a logging town that operated from 1870 to 1930.
Remains: Blacks Fork was established in 1870 as a logging camp that supplied lumber to the railroad and mining industries. A large barn was erected near the center of the town, and several businesses and homes were built around the barn. Tradition says that the town also served as a military commissary during the early part of its history, but Utah ghost towns researcher Stephen Carr concluded that “…this suggestion is very unlikely,” citing the camp’s remote location and harsh climate, as well as the fact that an army post called “Blacks Fork” already existed near Bryan, Wyoming.
Current Status: The population peaked at about 100, but the town was soon abandoned. Remaining are the barn, a post office, and a few homes.
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Blue Creek, UT

County: Box Elder
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 41°51’44″N 112°27’25″W
Elevation: 4,701 ft (1,433 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1869
Disestablished: 1900s
Comments: Blue Creek is a ghost town in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. It was a railroad settlement that started as a Union Pacific camp during the final stages of construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad.
Remains: Located on the eastern slope of the North Promontory Mountains and Blue Creek Valley, 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Snowville and 20 miles (32 km) west of Tremonton on what is now I-84, Blue Creek existed from the late 1860s until it was abandoned in the 1900s.
Current Status: The settlement was named for the Blue Creek Spring, 2.5 miles (4.0 km) to the south. Initially a railroad camp, Blue Creek later became a farming community with a few scattered homes and a post office.
Remarks: In his autobiography, 19th-century pioneer Alexander Toponce wrote, “In April and May of 1869, Corinne and Blue Creek were pretty lively places. At the latter place was a big construction camp generally known as Dead Fall and spoken of by some as Hell’s Half Acre.”

Bridgeport, UT

County: Daggett
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°54’10″N 109°08’55″W
Elevation: 8,779 ft (2,676 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1902
Disestablished: 1940
Comments: Bridgeport was the community name given to a small ranching area in far eastern Daggett County, Utah, USA, near the Colorado border. The Bridgeport store, saloon, and post office were located on the north side of the Green River near the mouth of Jesse Ewing Canyon, near the western end of Browns Park.
Remains: Bridgeport was developed and operated by Charley Crouse, an early Browns Park pioneer; a second store about two miles upstream was operated by John Jarvie. The United States post office at Bridgeport operated from 1902 to 1940.
Current Status: No trace of the Crouse buildings remains today, but the Jarvie store and farmstead is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is maintained as an interpretive site by the Bureau of Land Management.
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Bullion, UT

County:
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude:
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
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Disestablished:
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Bullionville, UT

Caineville, UT

County: Wayne
Zip Code: 84775
Latitude / Longitude: 38°19’59″N 111°01’08″W
Elevation: 4,600 ft (1,400 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1882
Disestablished:
Comments: Caineville is an unincorporated community in Wayne County, Utah, United States. It is located on Utah State Route 24, east of Capitol Reef National Park and west of Hanksville. The town was named after John Thomas Caine. It was founded by Elijah Cutler Behunin, whom the LDS Church sent there in 1882 to open the area for settlement.
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Castle Gate, UT

County: Carbon
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°43’40″N 110°52’03″W
Elevation: 6,152 ft (1,875 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1886
Disestablished: 1974
Comments: Castle Gate is a ghost town located in Carbon County in eastern Utah, United States. Castle Gate was a mining town approximately 90 miles (140 km) southeast of Salt Lake City. The name of the town was derived from a rock formation near the mouth of Price Canyon. This formation features two sheer sandstone walls on either side of the Price River, which appear to open like a giant gate as travelers approach this narrow section of the canyon.
Remains: The first coal mine, named the Castle Gate Mine #1, opened around 1886, after the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad constructed its Utah Division over the Wasatch Plateau, from the town of Springville. The mine produced high-quality coal for the steam trains. In 1914, Castle Gate was incorporated as a town, which was owned and tightly controlled by the Utah Fuel Company and the D&RGW. Castle Gate Mine #2 opened in 1912 and was found to have the finest coal in the region. A third mine opened in 1922.
Current Status: Castle Gate was dismantled in 1974, and residents were relocated to a new subdivision at the mouth of Spring Canyon, west of Helper. The former townsite was cleared and replaced with coal-loading facilities neighboring the railroad line.
Remarks: The town is most famous for two historic events. On April 21, 1897, Butch Cassidy and Elzy Lay held up an employee of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company in a daylight robbery at the busy railroad station in Castle Gate, making off with $7,000 in gold. On March 8, 1924, the Utah Fuel Company’s Castle Gate Mine #2 exploded, killing 172 miners. It was the third-deadliest disaster in the history of coal mining in the United States at that time and remains the tenth deadliest at present.

Castle Rock, UT

Castleton, UT

County: Grand
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 38°36’12″N 109°19’4″W
Elevation: 5,896 ft (1,797 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1880
Disestablished: 1967
Comments: Castleton is a ghost town located on the La Sal Mountain Loop Road some 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Moab in Grand County, Utah, United States. The nearest inhabited town is Castle Valley.
Remains: A short-lived gold placer mining camp existed here in the 1860s, but the area was first settled by a prospector named Doby Brown in the late 1870s or early 1880s. By 1882 enough settlers had gathered to establish a post office. In 1888 when a local gold rush began at nearby Miners Basin, Castleton became important as a supply town. It had a general store, hotel, two saloons, and several other businesses. At its peak in 1895, the population exceeded that of Moab. In fact, when Grand County was organized in 1890, Castleton vied with Moab for the chance to be the county seat.
Current Status: The Panic of 1907 closed down the area’s mines, and soon ranchers were Castleton’s only residents. By 1910 the businesses were gone, leaving only the post office, and the population had dropped to 50. In 1930 there were six residents. A few people stayed in the dead town for decades, but in 1967 the county commission officially vacated Castleton as an occupied town.
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Cedar Creek, UT

County: Box Elder
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 41°57’52″N 113°09’23″W
Elevation: 5,161 ft (1,573 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1860s
Disestablished: 1925
Comments: Cedar Creek is a ghost town in Box Elder County, Utah, United States. Founded in the 1860s, Cedar Creek was a farming town. Businesses included a school, an inn, and a store. The interstate highway system built through Cedar Creek and the nearby communities of Snowville and Park Valley. Cedar Creek was abandoned when weather conditions made farming difficult.
Remains: Cedar Creek was established in the 1860s as a farming community and was named after a creek that ran north of the town. By the early 20th century, about 20 families lived in Cedar Creek. A school that also served as a church was constructed in town, as was an inn, a service station, and a store. Some activities, including dances, theater performances, and talent shows, were held in the school. The town’s mail was delivered to a home rather than to a post office. When the interstate highway system was developed, it ran from Snowville to Cedar Creek, then to nearby Park Valley. Native Americans were often seen near a town, collecting nuts and hunting rabbits. The town’s school teacher was considered one of the smartest people in town, and the residents of Cedar Creek often came to her for farming advice.
Current Status: In the 1920s, dry summers and cold winters made farming difficult. People then left town, and by the end of the decade, Cedar Creek was abandoned. Only a few buildings remain today.
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Chicken Creek, UT

County: Juab
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39° 32′ 19″ N, 111° 54′ 45″ W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Chicken Creek is a ghost town in Juab County, Utah.
Remains: Two families from Nephi established a ranch on Chicken Creek, in 1860. It was located 14 miles south of Nephi along the Mormon Road. By 1864 it had grown into a settlement called Chicken Creek and had acquired its own post office. In 1868, the town of Levan was established upstream 3 miles northeast of Chicken Creek.
Current Status: By 1871, Levan’s success as a farming community led to Chicken Creek gradually being abandoned. Its post office was closed in 1876; only a few ruins of foundations and fireplaces remained.
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Cisco, UT

County: Grand
Zip Code: 84515
Latitude / Longitude: 38°58’12″N 109°19’14″W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Cisco is a ghost town in Grand County, Utah, United States near the junction of State Route 128 (SR-128) and Interstate 70 (I-70). The town started in the 1880s as a saloon and water-refilling station for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. As work crews and, later, travelers came through, stores, hotels, and restaurants sprang up to accommodate them. Nearby cattle ranchers and sheepherders in the Book Cliffs north of town began using Cisco as a livestock and provisioning center. Around the turn of the 20th century, over 100,000 sheep were sheared at Cisco before being shipped to market. Then oil and natural gas were discovered. People began traveling more and Cisco continued to grow. Then the bottom fell out. The town’s decline coincided with the demise of the steam locomotive. A declining economy crashed when Interstate 70 came through and bypassed Cisco altogether.
Remains: Oil and natural gas were discovered near Cisco in 1924. In 2005, new oil and gas wells were drilled in the nearby Cisco Oil Field by a Reno, Nevada-based company. Newly drilled wells can be seen next to the railroad track and around the freeway. Cisco Mayor Dan Vanover was also an oil and turquoise miner from 1963 until his passing in 1986. His home had a large flag pole in front of it.
Current Status: The townsite contains many relics of a typical old west railroad town. Cisco survived long enough into the 20th century to be assigned a ZIP Code, 84515. Unfortunately for history and railroad buffs, the ghost town’s easy access and proximity to the freeway have lured vandals; the relics are heavily damaged and the town is littered with abandoned vehicles.
Remarks: Cisco is along with the former routing of US-6/US-50. The town was bypassed with the completion of I-70 through the area but is still accessible by way of Exit 204. Cisco is listed as a control city for SR-128, although the highway does not enter Cisco. Cisco is still served by the Union Pacific Railroad where a rail siding remains in use. The California Zephyr passenger train passes through Cisco but is not a scheduled stop. During the summer months, whitewater river rafters use Cisco as a landing site, particularly for a trip through Westwater Canyon. The Kokopelli mountain bike Trail passes through Cisco. A fiber switch has been installed at Cisco by Emery Telecom. DSL is now available at Cisco, provided by Emery Telecom.

Clarion, UT

County: Sanpete
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°07’20″N 111°53’11″W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1911
Disestablished: 1915
Comments: Clarion is a ghost town in Sanpete County, Utah, United States. Lying about 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of Gunnison, Clarion was the site of a brief, early-twentieth-century experiment in Jewish rural living. The Clarion site was 6,085 acres (24.63 km2; 9.508 sq mi), extending 5 miles (8.0 km) north and south along the Sevier River, and approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) wide.
Remains: For several decades, many Jewish reformers and Zionist nationalists had argued that Jews needed to become “a normal nation” and urged the abandonment of both urban living and occupations traditionally associated with Jews. This back-to-the-land movement urged Jews to find a purer life and to renounce sedentary jobs in favor of those based on manual labor. The project was funded by the Jewish Agricultural and Colonial Association of which Benjamin Brown was president and Isaac Herbst secretary. Brown organized the JACA in January 1910 and listed its primary office in Philadelphia’s West Parkside neighborhood, with 250 members, branches in New York and Baltimore, and with the express purpose of, “Settling on farms and mutual aid”.
Current Status: By 2008 fences had been constructed to surround the Jewish graves. There are a scattering of foundations, as well as the broken walls of the water cistern that burst and fell apart the first-day colonists used it. At the time of the centenary in 2011, Brown Rex Dairy abutted the Clarion site and local residents continued to refer to the area as “Clarion” although it is in the Centerfield postal district.
Remarks: After the demise of the Jewish colony, others moved into the area. Japanese families settled in the Clarion area in 1921, as did Mormons of Scandinavian descent. Brown and a few of the other Jewish colonists stayed and farmed in the area until the 1920s. There were enough persons residing in Clarion in 1925 to establish the Clarion LDS Ward. Friedland observed the Japanese families when he returned to the Clarion site in 1926. In 1932, the Clarion LDS Ward had 166 members. The Ward met in the social hall which the Jewish settlers had constructed. The LDS Ward was dissolved on April 1, 1934, “on account of the shortage of water.” World War II disrupted the Japanese settlement and the land reverted to the local citizens. By 1959 the Clarion community center had been turned into a granary. The fence surrounding the small Jewish cemetery had been torn down and cows had knocked down the headstones which marked the two graves.

Clear Lake, UT

Coal City, UT

County: Carbon
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°40’00″N 111°00’59″W
Elevation: 7,132 ft (2,174 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1885
Disestablished: 1940
Comments: Coal City is a ghost town in Carbon County, Utah, United States. Established in 1885, Coal City was initially a farming community until coal was discovered in the area. Small-scale mining began to take place, and because the mining operations were a mile or two away from the mines at National and Consumers, it was assumed that the citizens of the town would lack workplace stress. Coal production began to decline in 1935, and the town was abandoned by 1940.
Remains: In 1885, a group of settlers established a town in Carbon County, Utah, and called it Oak Springs Bench. Because the town’s elevation was approximately 7,000 feet (2,100 m), farming and ranching were difficult. However, soon after the town was settled, coal was discovered in the area. Small-scale mining took place under the Great Western Coal Mines Company, but mining operations weren’t large due to the town’s distance from the nearest railroad. In August 1921, the permanent townsite was platted and renamed Coal City, after the deposits of coal in the area. The town was incorporated in October 1921. Although most of the houses were tents, a log schoolhouse served Coal City in 1925 and was replaced by a brick schoolhouse in 1927. Later that year, a couple of stores and a bakery were constructed and made up the business district. A few dozen homes were constructed around the stores. The town’s residents lacked stress from mining operations because they were located away from the larger mining operations in National and Consumers. At its peak, the population was about 70. In 1926, the mine superintendent, George Storrs, was indicted for mail fraud. Though he was cleared of charges, in December 1926, Storrs’s mining company went bankrupt and halted operations.
Current Status: The town began to decline in 1935 and by 1940 it was uninhabited. A few buildings remain in Coal City, including two stores, several houses, and a few outbuildings.
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Colton, UT

County: Utah
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°51’09″N 111°00’47″W
Elevation: 7,237 ft (2,206 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1883
Disestablished: 1950s
Comments: Colton is a ghost town located near the southeastern edge of Utah County, Utah, United States, about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Soldier Summit. Formerly a busy railroad junction on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, Colton is a landmark on U.S. Route 6 between the cities of Spanish Fork and Price.
Remains: The site was first settled in 1883 under the name of Pleasant Valley Junction, where the Pleasant Valley Railroad connected the mining town of Winter Quarters, 20 miles (32 km) to the south, to the Rio Grande line. This line was soon abandoned, replaced by a Rio Grande branch along with a much easier grade between Pleasant Valley Junction and Scofield. Pleasant Valley Junction quickly grew to include a store, hotel, and five saloons. In addition to the railroad, the mining and milling of ozokerite were important in the local economy. Sometime just before 1898, the town was renamed Colton in honor of railroad official William F. Colton. Two years later in 1900, the Scofield mine disaster dealt the entire area a serious blow, but Colton survived.
Current Status: The most noticeable remnant of Colton is the Hilltop Country Store, which was moved up to the highway in 1937 and is still in business. A few intact buildings and ruins are still found in the townsite itself.
Remarks: In 1915 Colton nearly experienced a second boom when the railroad considered forming a division point here, but they eventually chose Soldier Summit instead. Colton stayed a fairly busy railroad town—in fact, the town burned and was rebuilt three times. When the introduction of diesel locomotives began to eliminate the need for helper engines to push trains over the Summit, Colton rapidly declined. By the 1950s most of the railroad operations were stopped and the buildings removed.

Connellsville, UT

County: Emery
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°36’54″N 111°13’14″W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1874
Disestablished: 1878
Comments: Connellsville is a ghost town located high in the mountains of Coal Canyon, near the head of Huntington Canyon in the northwestern corner of Emery County, Utah, United States. A coal mining and coke manufacturing center, Connellsville was the first settlement in what is now Emery County, inhabited from 1874 to 1878. The town now lies beneath the waters of Electric Lake.
Remains: In May 1874, the Fairview Coal Mining and Coke Company began mining in Coal Canyon to meet the demand for coke by Salt Lake City-area smelters. The company town built in the mining area was named Connellsville for the large coking center of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, but its population was small, only a few dozen miners and coke-oven workers. This was the first commercial coal mining operation in the Wasatch Plateau, pre-dating the coal-mining boomtowns of Carbon County. The Connellsville coal made poor coke, however, and transportation facilities were lacking. By 1878 the project was deemed a failure, and the town was abandoned. Most of the miners moved over the mountain to Winter Quarters.
Current Status: After the closure of Connellsville, its coal was mined only occasionally, to meet residential heating needs in the Sanpete Valley. Several remnants of the ghost town, including cabins and coke ovens, still stood until the construction of the Electric Lake reservoir in 1973. Before the water covered Connellsville, Utah Power funded an archaeological survey of the area and reconstructed one of the coke ovens on a new site above the waterline. The rest of the ghost town is underwater.
Remarks:

Delle, UT

County: Tooele
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 40°45’36″N 112°46’39″W
Elevation: 4,258 ft (1,298 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1880
Disestablished:
Comments: Delle is a small unincorporated community on the northern end of the Skull Valley in northeast Tooele County, Utah, United States, along Interstate 80 near the Bonneville Salt Flats. The town has never had more than a few residents and has served primarily as a filling station along the I-80 corridor (and U.S. Route 40 corridor before it). Since the completion of the freeway, the town has essentially become a ghost town.
Remains: Delle was established in 1880 as a railroad village along the Western Pacific line, primarily as a water depot for steam engines in preparation for the trek across the famous salt flats. It was originally named Dalles Spring, from a French word referring to water, but railroad personnel later shortened the name for telegraphic efficiency. It possessed a water tower, a reservoir, and numerous homes where railroad employees and their families resided from at least 1920 until 1940. The inhabitants were primarily Irish, Scot, and Greek immigrants. Water was obtained from springs located as far as 12 miles (19 km) away in nearby mountains (Delle Ranch located along the east bench of Skull Valley being the primary) and piped to the site. After diesel-powered engines were introduced, Delle continued as a site station for railroad employees in charge of track upkeep between Wendover, Utah, and Salt Lake City. As of the 1950 United States Census, the population was 174.
Current Status: In 1999, the frontage road on the southwest side of I-80, from the Delle Interchange (Exit 70) northwest to the Low/Lakeside Interchange (Exit 62), as well nearly 7 miles (11 km) of county and BLM roads southwest the frontage road, were all designated as Utah State Route 900 (SR-900), a Statewide Public Safety Interest Highway. The purpose of this designation (and for the similarly created Utah State Route 901) was to prevent the construction of rail spur from Union Pacific Railroad’s Shafter Subdivision (ex-Western Pacific Railroad), to the Skull Valley Indian Reservation. This proposed rail spur would be necessary for the Skull Valley Goshute Tribe to carry out its plans to store 40,000 tons of nuclear waste on the reservation. By creating the Statewide Public Safety Interest Highways, the Utah Department of Transportation would have to give permission to construct the rail spur, something adamantly opposed by the Utah state government. Despite the designation as a state route, the roadways included as part of SR-900 were expressly intended to remain in their current, mostly unpaved, status and “may not be upgraded or improved to a higher class of highway”.
Remarks: During the 1950s a gas station and small motel were constructed. The railroad homes were demolished, and the railroad abandoned the site. Delle was owned by local businessman Karl William Winsness, Jr. for most of the 1970s, and water was hauled in by truck from Grantsville. Karl was injured in a propane explosion while remodeling the motel and cafe in the early 1980s.

Desert Lake, UT

County: Emery
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°22’24″N 110°46’57″W
Elevation: 5,577 ft (1,700 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1885
Disestablished: 1910
Comments: Desert Lake is a ghost town in Emery County, Utah, United States. It was inhabited from 1885 to about 1910.
Remains: In 1885, several families moved from the town of Cleveland, Utah to an area they called Desert Lake and built a 500-foot (150 m) embankment dam to impound a 300-acre (1.2 km2) irrigation reservoir. In 1896, the dam broke, causing significant damage. The LDS Church provided $1000 to rebuild the dam, and also to extend a ditch to Cleveland.
Current Status: A problem throughout the valley occurred as farmers irrigated land, which dropped the water table and caused alkali in the soil to rise. The alkaline soil eroded adobe structures and caused many crops to fail. As the alkali in the soil concentrated, the residents of Desert Lake moved about 6 miles (9.7 km) away and founded the town of Victor. A few log homes make up what’s left of the town of Desert Lake.
Remarks: The 1900 United States Census reported Desert Lake’s population at 127. Six years after the Census was taken, in 1906, the Desert Lake area was surveyed. An LDS church, a general store, several frame homes, and a school were constructed. The general store also served as the town’s post office.

Dewey, UT

County: Grand
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 38°48’37″N 109°18’06″W
Elevation: 4,140 ft (1,262 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1880s
Disestablished: 1916
Comments: Dewey is a ghost town in Grand County, Utah. Originally named Kingsferry, it began in the 1880s when Samuel King built and operated a ferry across the Grand River (now considered part of the Colorado River). A small community soon developed around the ferry, although it never grew large. The town served as a ferry crossing until the Dewey Bridge was constructed in 1916.
Remains:
Current Status:
Remarks:

Diamond, UT

Dividend, UT

County: Utah
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39° 57′ 17″ N, 112° 3′ 41″ W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: Dividend is an extinct town in Utah County, Utah. The GNIS classifies it as a populated place.
Remains:
Current Status: A post office called Dividend was established in 1922, and remained in operation until 1951. The community was so named in the expectation a nearby mine would pay dividends.
Remarks:

Dover, UT

County: Sanpete
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°12’27″N 111°53’46″W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1877
Disestablished: 1930s
Comments: Dover is a ghost town located in Sanpete County, Utah, United States. The site lies west of Fayette across the Sevier River. The community was named after Dover, in England.
Remains: The land was first settled in 1877–1878 by 45 families led by William Robinson. They found the soil was good, but water somewhat scarce. By 1879 they had a schoolhouse, also used for church and civic functions, and a post office, which operated until 1895. There were also two general stores, where residents typically paid for goods in kind with eggs
Current Status: In the years 1910–1916, irrigation companies in Millard County dammed the Sevier River some distance to the north. The resulting reservoir, now known as Yuba Reservoir, covered parts of Dover’s farmland, driving out some of the residents. A severe drought in the 1930s finished off the town; a few houses were moved, and most of the others were later torn down. Nothing remains but some foundations and fallen buildings, and a memorial cemetery.
Remarks: When Utah Territory achieved statehood on January 4, 1896, Dover’s celebrations took a tragic turn. They had no cannon to fire, instead of exploding some dynamite with a well-driving hammer. The hammer, which had been through many such celebrations before, blew apart, injuring several people.

Dragon, UT

County: Uintah
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 39°47’09″N 109°04’24″W
Elevation: 5,771 ft (1,759 m)
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1888
Disestablished: 1940
Comments: Dragon is a ghost town located in Uintah County, at the extreme eastern edge of Utah, United States. Founded in about 1888 as a Gilsonite mining camp, Dragon boomed in the first decade of the 20th century as the end-of-line town for the Uintah Railway. Although it declined when the terminus moved farther north in 1911, Dragon survived as the largest of the Gilsonite towns. It was abandoned after its mining operations stopped in 1938 and the Uintah Railway went out of business in 1939.
Remains: As the commercial mining of Gilsonite began in 1888, a significant deposit was discovered some 1.5 miles (2.4 km) up Dragon Canyon. Observers said that the vein of the black substance formed the shape of a dragon along the surface of the ground, and the operation was named the Black Dragon Mine. The name Dragon was soon given to both the canyon and the mining camp that grew up in the flat area at the canyon’s mouth.
Current Status: Only ruins remain at the Dragon site. There is a rubble pile where the hotel stood, a sidewalk that ran to the old schoolhouse, some foundations, and a small cemetery.
Remarks: In 1910 a public library was established in Dragon, with an unusual arrangement. The Uintah Railway would transport library books free of charge to and from any borrower along its route. By 1938, all of the Gilsonite mining activity moved still further north, to the Bonanza area. The Dragon and Rainbow mines closed down. Trucks to Vernal and Craig, Colorado replaced trains for hauling Gilsonite. People started to abandon Dragon, Rainbow, and Watson. In 1939 Dragon’s population was just 72, mostly railroad workers. Having lost the majority of its freight business, the Uintah Railway ceased operation in 1939. The 1940 census recorded a “South Dragon precinct” population of 10.

Duncan’s Retreat, UT

County: Washington
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 37°11’N 113°8’W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Mountain (MST) (UTC-7)
Established: 1861
Disestablished: 1895
Comments: Duncan’s Retreat is a ghost town located just off Utah State Route 9 in the eastern part of Washington County, in southwestern Utah, United States. Lying some 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Virgin and just southwest of Zion National Park, Duncan’s Retreat was inhabited about 1861–1895.
Remains: Chapman Duncan came here in 1861, settling with a few others on Mukuntuweap Creek, a small tributary of the Virgin River. The colony was part of a southern Utah cotton-growing project ordered by Brigham Young (see Utah’s Dixie). That winter the Virgin River, unpredictable at even the best of times, experienced the Great Flood of 1862, which destroyed most of the settlement along with such other nearby towns as Grafton. Chapman Duncan and most of the other original settlers fled in early 1862 in search of a more stable home, and the families who stayed behind named their village Duncan’s Retreat.
Current Status: Farming in Duncan’s Retreat was a difficult life. The fertile land yielded bumper crops in good years but could be washed away by torrential floods at any time. Of the 11 families living here in 1870, 9 remained in 1880. The next decade was much harsher; by 1891 Duncan’s Retreat was all but deserted. The last known birth in town was in 1895. All that remains of Duncan’s Retreat are some dead fruit trees, an irrigation ditch, and a few graves on the north side of Utah State Route 9 between Virgin and Grafton.
Remarks: More settlers took the place of the departing pioneers, and by the end of 1862, Duncan’s Retreat had a population of about 70. They planted crops and orchards, producing large harvests in the years the river did not flood. Cotton, corn, wheat, and sorghum grew particularly well. A post office was established here in 1863, and a schoolhouse in 1864. In 1866, when the Black Hawk War caused widespread fear of Indian attacks, the town was evacuated to Virgin, although farmers returned to Duncan’s Retreat each day to work their fields. Residents moved back permanently in 1868.

Adventure, UT