Abandoned Towns
Stone walls of Sego’s former company store, June 2018

Coal mining town

Sego

A coal camp in the Book Cliffs became Ballard, Neslen and finally Sego. Its store walls and railroad remains survive in the canyon.

39°01′59″N 109°42′11″W · ≈5,710 ft

Photo: Tricia Simpson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Mine ruins

The BLM approaches Sego Canyon through Thompson from I-70 exit 187 and UT 94. Its rock-art coordinates are not the town coordinates. Check road conditions before continuing up the canyon, leave artifacts in place, and do not enter mine workings or use deteriorated railroad structures.

Overview

A company store above Thompson Springs

Stone walls of Sego’s former company store, June 2018
Stone walls of Sego’s former company store, June 2018 · Photo: Tricia Simpson, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Coal discovered by Henry Ballard in 1908 led to a small mining camp north of Thompson Springs. New owners expanded the operation, built a railroad and renamed the settlement Neslen. The Ballard & Thompson line carried coal down the canyon to the Denver and Rio Grande Western.

The company struggled with water supply, floods and irregular wages. A later reorganization brought the name Sego in 1918. Miners bought the operation themselves in 1947, but fires and the loss of railroad coal demand undercut the effort. The remaining holdings were sold in 1955, and buildings were moved away.

Video

Sego in 30 seconds

Sego was a coal town tucked into a Utah canyon. Historic photographs and maps are dated on screen; current access is summarized in the guide.

Images and historic maps: Tricia Simpson (CC BY-SA 4.0), USGS (Public domain), Tricia Simpson (CC BY-SA 4.0), The Dye Clan (CC BY-SA 3.0). Cropped, animated and overlaid with text. Video adaptation: CC BY-SA 4.0. Original synthesized music; narration by Google Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS, Charon. English captions included.

History

How Sego grew and changed

  1. Henry Ballard discovers coal in the canyon.
  2. New owners develop the camp and the Ballard & Thompson Railroad.
  3. Neslen becomes Sego.
  4. Miners join the United Mine Workers.
  5. Remaining miners buy the company assets.
  6. Fires, declining demand and a sale bring the coal operation to an end.

On the ground

What remains at Sego

The stone company store remains, together with foundations, dugouts and parts of the railroad grade. The wooden boarding house shown in older photographs collapsed between late 2009 and spring 2010. The BLM’s Sego Canyon visitor page describes the nearby ghost town and coal-mine ruins; its rock-art stop is a separate site lower in the canyon.

Before you go

Access and current conditions

The BLM approaches Sego Canyon through Thompson from I-70 exit 187 and UT 94. Its rock-art coordinates are not the town coordinates. Check road conditions before continuing up the canyon, leave artifacts in place, and do not enter mine workings or use deteriorated railroad structures.

Reading the maps

The town in its landscape

The retained 1963 and 1980 sheets show Sego north of Thompson in the Book Cliffs canyon country.

Historic maps

Sego on USGS maps, 1963–1980

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Sego, 1963
Sego Canyon sheet, 1963, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

The routes below use OSRM on OpenStreetMap data. Follow the access notes above and confirm current conditions before traveling.

USGS topographic location map of Sego

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From Green River31.5 miabout 49 min
  1. Start on North 50 East0.0 mi
  2. Turn left onto East Main Street (I 70 BUS; SR 19)2.9 mi
  3. On ramp left onto I 70 BUS (I 70 BUS)0.5 mi
  4. Merge slight left onto Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway (I 70; US 6; US 50; US 191)22.0 mi
  5. Take exit 187 toward the connecting road0.4 mi
  6. Turn left onto SR 94 (SR 94)4.8 mi
  7. Turn sharp right onto Sego Canyon Road (CR 160; BLM 160)1.0 mi
  8. Arrive at the routed road endpoint0.0 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Directions go to Routed road endpoint near Sego, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Road and safety notes

  • The BLM approaches Sego Canyon through Thompson from I-70 exit 187 and UT 94. Its rock-art coordinates are not the town coordinates. Check road conditions before continuing up the canyon, leave artifacts in place, and do not enter mine workings or use deteriorated railroad structures.
  • The routed drive ends on the mapped road approximately 63 metres from the town point. It does not authorize driving off the road or entering private land.

Photos

Sego in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Sego?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Sego

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Utah index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Sego, Utah - Wikipedia: historical chronology, identity and location; read October 25, 2026.
  2. Sego- Utah Ghost Town: historical fact sheet and town history; read October 25, 2026.
  3. Sego Canyon Rock Art Interpretive Site - Utah | Bureau of Land Management: history, surviving features and visitor information; read October 25, 2026.
  4. Elevation at the mapped point: USGS 3D Elevation Program query, October 25, 2026. Historical topographic sheets: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain).
  5. Road routes and step distances: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), October 25, 2026. Route endpoints are shown separately where they do not reach the town point; estimates do not confirm current road access.
  6. Wikimedia Commons, Sego Utah general store.jpeg: Stone walls of Sego’s former company store, June 2018; CC BY-SA 4.0. File description and image checked October 25, 2026.
  7. Wikimedia Commons, Segoutah.jpg: The wooden boarding house in October 2006; it later collapsed; CC BY-SA 3.0. File description and image checked October 25, 2026.
  8. Wikimedia Commons, USGS Sego fdj00068.jpg: The Chesterfield Coal Company tipple and screening plant, August 11, 1926; Public domain. File description and image checked October 25, 2026.
  9. Wikimedia Commons, Sego Utah trestle bridge.jpeg: A surviving Ballard & Thompson railroad trestle near Sego, June 2018; CC BY-SA 4.0. File description and image checked October 25, 2026.
  10. Wikimedia Commons, Sego Ghost Town Ruin dyeclan.com - panoramio.jpg: A timber-framed opening among Sego’s stonework, April 2012; do not enter abandoned workings; CC BY-SA 3.0. File description and image checked October 25, 2026.

Photo and map credits