Ghost Towns in Utah


The few remains of Kelton, the first big railroad town west of Promontory, are 35 miles southwest of Snowville off Hwy 30 on a gravel road.

Today Park Valley, 38 miles southwest of Snowville on Hwy 30, is a ranching town with many stories of the gold rush and the town's Russian settlers.

Twenty miles south of Tooele is the town of Ophir, where many original building and artifacts have been preserved from its historic mining past.

Near the old mining town of Eureka are several ghost towns such as Silver City and Mammoth.

Located on a road out of Clear Creek Canyon near Richfield is the mining ghost town of Kimberley. At the turn of the century Kimberly was a lively, thriving community with a lucrative mining industry.

Bullion City, up the canyon west of Marysville, once had a population of over 1,600 people, and several significant gold mines. Today relics of the mines and a few buildings remain.

Twenty-three miles north of the historic town of Callao (which is near the Nevada border) on an unpaved road is Gold Hill, one of Utah's largest, best-preserved ghost towns.

In Utah's coal mining past, many boomtowns went bust. It is no wonder that so many ghost towns are located across the state. A few examples are: Consumers, National, and picturesque Coal City, 2 miles south of Helper on Hwy 6/50 and west on a dirt road to Consumers Wash for 10 miles. Coal City is nicknamed Dempseyville because Jack Dempsey lived and trained for fights there.

If you've ever seen 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid', go to Grafton, the site of filming, and relive the bicycle scene. To find this southwestern Utah ghost town, settled in 1859, cross the bridge at Rockville and continue west on BLM's Smithsonian Butte National Backcountry Byway for 3 mi. on the south side of the Virgin River.

Just north of I-15 near Leeds are the remains of Silver Reef, a roaring 1870's mining town. The newly-restored Wells Fargo Building is on the National Historic Register. An excellent map of the townsite allows visitors to picture Silver Reef as it once was.

Thirty-three miles east of Kanab on Hwy 89, a winding dirt road designated as a Scenic Backway turns north for 6 miles to a movie set and Paria, settled in 1870 amid spectacular red rock BLM scenery.

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