Thistle, Utah

This town is coming like a ghost town.

     “Ghost Town” (1981): Written by Jerry Dammers; Recorded by The Specials. Album: Ghost Town. 2 Tone Records.

Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, about 65 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. It sits at the confluence of two of the main tributaries of the Spanish Fork River: Thistle Creek and Soldier Creek.
Originally settled in 1848 by a few Mormon pioneers, it was established as a city in 1878 when the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Co (D&RGW) linked the railroad from Salt Lake to Denver.

At its peak in 1917, Thistle had about 600 residents, most of which worked for the railroad or servicing steam engines. As the train companies began to phase out steam engines, the population dwindled in Thistle.

Fast forward a few decades. In April of 1983, after a long winter of snow, the snowpack in the Utah mountains melted more quickly than expected. This, along with lots of heavy rain that spring, caused flooding in various areas. (Including the streets of Salt Lake City.) It was too much for the mountainside near Thistle and the landslide that occurred took out the railroad, covered both highways and blocked the Spanish Fork River - and its tributaries - creating a dam and, eventually, a nearly 100-foot deep lake that covered the town of Thistle.

Fortunately, the town was evacuated before this happened, but the town was gone forever. It was the first presidentially declared disaster area in Utah and, at the time, the costliest landslide in the history of the United States.

'Cause I'm living here in Thistle, living here alone

A hundred feet of water is the place I call my home. 

     “Thistle” (1994): Written and recorded by Jerry Joseph. Album: Love and Happiness. Back Door Records.