Thistle, Utah

Thistle, Utah
Ghost town
a mostly destroyed building with a sandstone arch entrance still standing. The arch is being propped up with wood to prevent its collapse. Above the doorway is a wooden sign that reads Thistle; some letters have fallen off.
Remnants of the Thistle schoolhouse, September 2006
Map of Utah showing a pin for Thistle near the center of the state
Map of Utah showing a pin for Thistle near the center of the state
Thistle
Location of Thistle within the State of Utah
Map of Utah showing a pin for Thistle near the center of the state
Map of Utah showing a pin for Thistle near the center of the state
Thistle
Thistle (the United States)
Coordinates: 39°59′29″N 111°29′54″W / 39.99139°N 111.49833°W / 39.99139; -111.49833
CountryUnited States
StateUtah
CountyUtah
Established1878
Destroyed1983
Named forThistle
Elevation
[1]
5,043 ft (1,537 m)
Zip code
84629[2]
GNIS feature ID1439662[1]

Thistle is a ghost town in Spanish Fork Canyon in southeastern Utah County, Utah, United States.[1] During the era of steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (often shortened to D&RG, D&RGW, or Rio Grande). The fortunes of the town were closely linked with those of the railroad until the changeover to diesel locomotives, when the town started to decline.

In April 1983, a massive landslide (specifically a complex earthflow[3]) dammed the Spanish Fork River.[4] The residents were evacuated as nearly 65,000 acre-feet (80,000,000 m3) of water backed up, flooding the town. Thistle was destroyed; only a few structures were left partially standing. Federal and state government agencies have said this was the most costly landslide in United States history,[5][6] the economic consequences of which affected the entire region. The landslide resulted in the first presidentially declared disaster area in Utah.[5][7]

U.S. Route 6 (US‑6), U.S. Route 89 (US‑89) and the railroad (now part of Union Pacific Railroad's Central Corridor) were closed for several months, until they were rebuilt on a higher alignment overlooking the area. The remains of Thistle are visible from a view area along US‑89 or from the California Zephyr passenger train.

  1. ^ a b c "Thistle". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ "Look Up a ZIP Code: ZIP Code by City and State". usps.com. United States Postal Service. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  3. ^ "Earthflow" (PDF). Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. 2008. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  4. ^ "Utah Landslide Hazards" (PDF). Public Information Series. Utah Geological Survey. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 27, 2013. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference UGS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Schuster, Robert L.; Highland, Lynn M. (2001). "Open-File Report 01-0276: Socioeconomic and Environmental Impacts of Landslides in the Western Hemisphere". usgs.gov. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved November 3, 2017.
  7. ^ Gore, Rick (June 1985). "The Rising Great Salt Lake–No Way to Run a Desert". National Geographic Magazine. 167 (6): 710.