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State hub · Utah
Utah's ghost towns come from several kinds of settlement. Mormon pioneers founded farm villages that lost to floods and drought, like Grafton below Zion, settled in 1859 and empty by 1944, and Widtsoe, a dry-farming town of about 1,100 in 1920 that the federal government bought out in 1936. Silver strikes made camps such as Silver Reef, where the ore lay in sandstone, and Frisco, home to about 6,000 people in 1885. Coal camps cluster in Carbon County and the Book Cliffs. Railroad towns faded when the lines moved or steam gave way to diesel: Kelton when the Lucin Cutoff bypassed it in 1904, Thistle and Cisco later. Two of the most unusual are Iosepa, a colony of Native Hawaiian converts in Skull Valley, and Topaz, a World War II camp where Japanese Americans were confined.
What remains ranges widely. Grafton's adobe schoolhouse and homes have been restored, Fruita's orchards are still tended inside Capitol Reef National Park, and Frisco's beehive charcoal kilns still stand. Thistle was drowned by a lake that a landslide dammed in 1983, and at many coal camps only foundations, a few stone walls and a cemetery are left.
Town guides
Our complete guides, most-read first: history, what's left, current access, photos, maps and directions.
GuideUtah County
A railroad town at the foot of Soldier Summit that a landslide dammed and flooded in April 1983. Federal and state agencies call it the costliest…
GuideWashington County
A Mormon farming town on the Virgin River that floods, silt and isolation emptied by 1944. Its schoolhouse and a handful of homes have been restored…
GuideGrand County
A water stop for steam trains that grew into a small supply town, then faded when diesel and I-70 left it behind. Collapsed cabins and old cars…
GuideTooele County
Families from Hawaiʻi and other Pacific islands built Iosepa in 1889. Its cemetery remains a place of remembrance for their descendants.
GuideWashington County
A silver camp in sandstone, a find geologists at first refused to believe. About 2,000 people lived here by 1879. The stone Wells Fargo office…
GuideJuab County
The town below the Mammoth Mine, one of the big producers of the Tintic Mining District. It had roughly 1,800 to 3,000 people around 1910 and about…
GuideBeaver County
A silver boomtown of about 6,000 people and 23 saloons, built on the Horn Silver Mine until the mine caved in in 1885. Five stone beehive charcoal…
GuideGrand County
A coal camp in the Book Cliffs became Ballard, Neslen and finally Sego. Its store walls and railroad remains survive in the canyon.
GuideWayne County
A small farming community grew where Sulphur Creek meets the Fremont River. Capitol Reef preserves its orchards, schoolhouse and Gifford farm…
Millard County
For three years this square mile of the Sevier Desert held thousands of Japanese Americans behind barbed wire. The barracks were sold off in 1945.…
Watch
Restored farm villages, red-rock orchards, and the remains of coal camps. Explore the history, maps and access notes before you go.
Where to start
Open attractions, living towns and true ruins, with their current status.
Washington County
Mormon farm town of 1859 on the Virgin River, emptied by floods and hard times by 1944. Its schoolhouse and homes are restored, at the end of a dead-end road from Rockville.
Washington County
Silver camp of the 1870s where the ore lay in sandstone, home to about 2,000 people by 1879. The 1877 Wells Fargo office is a museum, and new homes stand on part of the old townsite.
Beaver County
Horn Silver Mine town of about 6,000 people in 1885, the year the mine caved in. The beehive charcoal kilns and the cemetery lie just off Route 21 west of Milford, and in June 2024 Utah's tourism office invited visitors to walk around the kilns.
Wayne County
Orchard settlement begun around 1880 as Junction, which never had more than ten families, now in Capitol Reef National Park. The schoolhouse, the Gifford house and the orchards remain.
Millard County
World War II camp where Japanese Americans were confined from 1942 to 1945, with a peak of 8,100 people. Foundations remain on land owned by the Topaz Museum in Delta; stay on the roads.
Tooele County
Skull Valley settlement of Native Hawaiian Latter-day Saints from 1889 to 1917. A cemetery, a few foundations and a 1989 monument remain. Descendants gather at the cemetery each Memorial Day weekend, KSL reported in May 2025.
Utah County
Railroad town in Spanish Fork Canyon, destroyed in April 1983 when a landslide dammed the river. A photo from April 2008 shows a surviving house; a 2018 wildfire later burned many of the remaining structures. The site is private; a view area on US 6 and US 89 overlooks it.
Grand County
Book Cliffs coal camp opened in 1908 and abandoned by mid-century. The stone company store and foundations stand on private land up a rough road past the Sego Canyon rock art, north of Thompson Springs.
Grand County
Railroad water stop of the 1880s near the Moab turnoff, left behind when I-70 bypassed it. Crumbling buildings and rusting cars remain. Two people lived there in May 2026, and the old post office is an artist residency on private land.
Near a city
Driving distance and time from downtown, routed over OpenStreetMap roads. Dirt roads are usually slower than the estimate.
Directory
Every town, camp and settlement in our Utah index, with its county. A ◦ marks sites already on the map.
No sites match. Try fewer letters or another county.
Plan a trip
Flash floods shape trips here. The road to Grafton is impassable in a hard rainstorm, and Sego Canyon floods often enough that the way in should be avoided when storms are forecast. Plan desert trips for spring and fall, check the forecast the morning you go, and turn back at running water.
Many sites are at the end of dirt roads with nothing there. Grafton's road is a dead end with no water, power or toilets. The way to Sego needs a high-clearance vehicle, and four-wheel drive after rain. Carry water, food and an offline map.
The Bureau of Land Management runs about 22.8 million acres, some 42 percent of Utah, but many ghost towns are private. Topaz is owned by the Topaz Museum, which asks visitors to drive only on the roads. Cisco appears to be privately owned, the Sego ruins and Thistle are on private land, Winter Quarters is closed to visitors, and a private housing development limits access at Silver Reef.
Utah has about 10,000 abandoned mine openings, with bad air, unstable workings and old explosives. Stay out and stay alive. At Sego, smoke still rises from shafts above a burning coal seam. On federal land, objects of archaeological interest at least 100 years old are protected by the Archaeological Resources Protection Act.
FAQ
There is no official count, and lists differ on whether to include railroad sidings, mining districts and towns that still have a few residents. Our index lists 195 sites, 142 of them with reliable coordinates on our map so far. Tooele and Carbon counties have the most.
Grafton, just south of Zion National Park. It is often called the most photographed ghost town in the West, and the town appears in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). A nonprofit, the Grafton Heritage Partnership, has restored several of its buildings.
Harrisburg and Silver Reef are under half an hour northeast of St. George. Grafton, across the Virgin River from Rockville on the way to Zion, is about an hour. Old Irontown, west of Cedar City, is about an hour and 20 minutes, and Frisco, past Milford, about two hours and 20 minutes. These are routed estimates; dirt roads are usually slower.
Ophir, Thistle and Iosepa are each about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half from downtown: Ophir in Tooele County, Thistle in Spanish Fork Canyon and Iosepa in Skull Valley. Silver City, near Eureka, is under two hours, and Topaz, near Delta, a little over three. These are routed estimates; dirt roads are usually slower.
Yes. The site is about 16 miles northwest of Delta and is owned and protected by the Topaz Museum. Visitors should drive only on the roads and leave artifacts in place. The museum, at 55 West Main in Delta, is open Monday to Saturday from 10 to 5, admission by donation, and suggests stopping there first.
Abandoned