Thistle Ghost Town
A small flooded ghost town with a few scattered structures remaining.
Long abandoned house flooded by the landslide in Spanish Fork Canyon that made Thistle, Utah a ghost town several years ago.
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Category Ghost Towns, Disaster Areas
The town of Thistle, Utah was established in 1883. It flourished for a time as a farming and ranching community, and became a major stop on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Then, in April of 1983, a massive landslide, the costliest in U.S. history, dammed two creeks, flooding and destroying most of the tiny town. Roofs became rafts, and can still be seen strewn about the area. Only a few structures remain and most can be seen from the road, including a red schoolhouse, a church on a hill, and a house half sunken into a bog.
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- Hours Visited in the winter, the ice is thick enough to walk upon, and thus entrance into the buildings is dangerously convenient. Summer or spring, the water level is around 3 feet.
- Address U.S. Route 89, Thistle, Utah, 84044, United States
- Cost Free
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thistle,_Utah
- http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ut/thistle.html
- http://dustyshoes.blogspot.com/2008/01/sunken-swamp-house-of-thistle.html
- http://www.geocities.com/usend7079/Thistle/index.htm
- http://geology.utah.gov/surveynotes/geosights/thistle.htm
- http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ut/thistle.html
From Salt Lake: Travel on I-15 towards the town of Spanish Fork. Take exit 261 and head east on U.S. Route 6/89. To view the landslide from the downstream side, turn right onto Spanish Fork River Park road after approximately 11 miles; otherwise, continue approximately 12.7 miles (from I-15) and turn right into the large pullout immediately before a massive double road cut. This pullout provides an excellent overview of the area. Approximately 1.5 miles past the pullout, turn right onto U.S. Route 89 and travel approximately 1.5 miles to the ruins of the town of Thistle.
Comments
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Anonymous
September 17, 2009
I remember when the landslide happened. Luckily, it took days for the water to fill up to the point where it was flooding homes, so there was really not much danger. The people had plenty of time to evacuate. Still, it was sad. We called it "Thistle Lake".
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