These 10 Utah ghost towns have a rich history, if you know where to look

SALT LAKE CITY ( ABC4 ) — Utah is home to many cities dating back a hundred years — but not every city has survived until the modern day. The remnants of those former cities — ghost towns — provide a glimpse into the state’s rich history.

But how did they end up that way?

Castle Gate

Castle Gate , located in Carbon County, is a ghost town known for once being a successful mining town. Castle Gate was created from a rock formation near the mouth of Price Canyon, featuring two sheer sandstone walls on either side, causing it to appear like a giant gate. The town, which had four mines, had its share of successes, but also misfortunes, such as a payroll robbery by the outlaws Butch Cassidy and Elza Lay in 1897. In 1920, the town was flooded, which caused damage to local property and the railroad. Shortly after, there was a violent explosion from coal dust and open flames, collapsing tunnels and leaving 173 dead. In 2000, the last mine in operation at Castle Gate had another explosion, leading the mine to close for good.

The town had already been abandoned at this time following The Kaiser Steel company demolishing it to make room for an electrical plant and causing residents to relocate. The powerplant closed in 2015, leaving it as a ghost town — with the cemetery being what remains of the once bustling mining town.

Grafton

This ghost town is located south of Zion National Park. In 1859, pioneers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints first established Grafton . Settlers were forced to leave after less than a decade due to floods and tensions with Native Americans. Now, only the graveyard and renovated schoolhouse remain.

Grafton is said to have some of the most pristine abandoned buildings left among Utah’s Ghost Towns, making it a great photo opportunity and even one of the filming locations for “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”

Frisco

In Beaver County, Utah, is the ghost town of Frisco , which was once an active silver mining camp from 1879 to 1929. It was once known as one of the “wildest towns in the western frontier”, with high levels of crime and over 23 saloons, brothels, and gambling dens. Frisco was home to around 6,000 people at its peak — until the Horn Silver Mine caved in 1885. By 1920, the town was completely abandoned. It is about 15 miles west of Milford and is known for its beehive-shaped kilns. If you visit, you can also see the town cemetery and abandoned equipment.

Iosepa

Not much is left of this Utah Ghost Town, Iosepa , which can be found in Skull Valley.

The town was founded in the late 1880s by a small group of Pacific Islanders who moved to Utah after converting to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. First, they had immigrated to Salt Lake City and were met with language barriers and racial prejudice, according to the Utah Historical Society. Church leaders assembled a committee to find a place for the Pacific Islanders to stay, which became the 1,500 ranch in Skull Valley.

Iosepa’s residents later abandoned the town in 1917 after nearly three decades of ranching and agricultural production, many returning to Hawaii to help with the construction of the LDS temple in Laie, Oahu. The town site was sold to a livestock company, and now most of what can be seen of the town is a graveyard, a few fire hydrants, a bronze statue of a Polynesian warrior, and a colorful sign. Every year, groups of Pacific Islanders gather at the cemetery to honor their ancestors who founded Iosepa.

Old Irontown

Old Iron Town is known as one of Utah’s first ghost towns. It was established in the 1850s as Brigham Young, a leader with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sent several families to the Cedar City area to establish an ironworks, according to Visit Cedar City . It only operated for about seven years, closing due to insufficient transportation for the iron ore and the money panic of 1873.

When you visit now, you can see the ruins of the ironworks and a preserved beehive-shaped charcoal oven.

Sego

Sego was established as a mining hub in Eastern Utah. It shipped most of its supply to the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The town was inhabited from around 1910 – 1955.

Sego was struggling with a diminishing water supply, which led to its downfall. As the water table dropped, springs and creeks dried up and made it so the coal washer could not operate. At the same time, the railroad faced excessive water, and flash floods damaged the bridges and trestles. The costs eventually outweighed the income brought in by the coal and Sego was abandoned in 1955. A flood in the 1980s destroyed most of the trestles.

Silver Reef

Silver Reef was once a bustling mining town and is known as the first sandstone location found to hold silver. You can find it about 18 miles northeast of downtown St. George along the I-15 corridor. According to Greater Zion , it was the largest town in Southern Utah as the nearby mines were in peak production. Its population dwindled once mines started to close. This was caused by several factors, such as the world silver market declining, mines filling with water faster than it could be pumped out, and miners’ wages decreasing.

The restored former Wells Fargo Express office is now a museum in the town. An old bank has been repurposed a gift shop, with a restaurant and art gallery also nearby. A canyon west of the town has a short trail that visitors can take to one of the old stone kilns that were used to process silver.

Spring Canyon

Located above Helper, Utah, is the ghost town of Spring Canyon , previously known as Storrs. According to the Carbon County Utah website , it was first purchased in 1912 by Jesse Knight to develop a mine and a company town.

As the coal had been mostly depleted by 1954 and the Spring Canyon Coal Company shut down most of its operations, many of the town’s residents left and the town was abandoned. What remains now are the hotel, parts of the homes, and remnants of the old mine. There are rumors it may be haunted, with some reporting sightings of “ The White Lady of Spring Canyon.”

Terrace

Once a railroad community in Box Elder County, Terrace was established in 1869 as a halfway point between Nevada and Ogden along the Transcontinental Railroad. As the railroad changed its route south in 1904, the town changed and people began to leave, turning Terrace into a ghost town by 1910. What remains of this community is the Terrace cemetery and a few artifacts of the town that was once home to around a thousand people.

Thistle

Thistle , a settlement tucked in Spanish Fork Canyon, was designed as a railroad town in the late 1800s. The town’s population was once 650 residents, which slowly shrank to less than 50 by its end. In April 1983, rapid snowmelt triggered massive landslides. Within days, the slide moved at several feet per hour and a 220-foot dam resulted in the Spanish Fork River, creating a fast-growing reservoir over the town known as “Thistle Lake.” Before it was drained by diversion culverts, it was 160 feet deep. Townspeople were forced to evacuate within hours of the flooding — Thistle becoming completely submerged underwater by the time everyone had evacuated.

This is known as the most expensive landslide in U.S. history — closing several state highways and cutting off the railroads between Denver and Salt Lake City. Now, a few of the scattered structures can be viewed from a distance.

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