Thistle, Utah

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Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, Utah, United States. It was located southeast of Spanish Fork, at 39°59′29″N, 111°29′54″W and had an elevation of 5,033 feet (1,534.06 meters) above sea level. The town was established in 1883 and later became a stop on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad; the town's fortunes tended to rise and fall with the successes and failures of the railroad. Most of the early citizens made their living from farming and ranching.

Dam formed by a landslide that destroyed the town of Thistle, Utah

On April 14, 1983, a massive landslide (known as a slump) moved part of the mountain and blocked two creeks, forming an earthen dam. The citizens were evacuated as nearly 65,000 acre-feet (80,000,000 m³) of water from the creeks backed up, flooding and destroying the town. Thistle was unable to recover from this natural disaster; to this day it remains a ghost town. Very little of the town is left; only the roofs of some buildings are still visible.

The landslide closed the railroad for months. U.S. Highway 6 was closed for almost a year. Both road and railroad were rerouted by blasting through the Billies Mountain to the north. Mitigation infrastructure was also put in place to redirect water flow past the landslide area, though a small pond remains. Two adjacent rest areas pay tribute to the town and the residents who lost everything.

The Thistle landslide is so far the only federal disaster area declared in Utah. The slide is considered the most costly single landslide in U.S. history.^[1] In addition to destroying the town the landslide was devastating to the economy of Southern and Eastern Utah. With the major transportation arteries cut, it was infeasible to transport goods in or out of the area. Many coal miners, farmers, tourism and transportation workers lost their jobs. Estimates placed the damage to Utah's economy at 200+ million U.S. Dollars.^[2]