Category: Ghost Towns

Dewey is a ghost town in southeastern Grand County, Utah, located along the Colorado River (historically called the Grand River) near its confluence with the Dolores River, at coordinates approximately 38°48′37″N 109°18′06″W and an elevation of about 4,140 feet (1,262 m). It originated in the 1880s as a small ferry settlement (sometimes associated with the name Kingsferry) and was largely abandoned after the Dewey Bridge opened in 1916, which eliminated the need for the ferry and related stopover services. Today the site features remnants of the historic bridge, a BLM campground and boat ramp, traces of foundations, an icehouse cave carved into sandstone cliffs, and some old fruit trees.

Geographic Importance and Early Settlement

The Colorado River’s steep canyon walls made crossings rare and difficult across much of Utah. Dewey occupied one of the few accessible spots with gradual approaches on both banks, allowing wagons to reach the river. This made it a vital transportation link between isolated southeastern Utah communities (such as those in Castle Valley, the La Sal Mountains, and Miners Basin) and points east toward Grand Junction, Colorado, and the railroad at nearby Cisco.

Miners were among the earliest non-Native American visitors, building log cabins and panning for gold. Ranchers followed, including C.R. McKerry and Samuel King. In the 1880s, Samuel King established and operated a ferry at the site. A small community grew around it, supporting travelers, farmers, prospectors, and the movement of cargo, passengers, and livestock. Silver mining occurred nearby near the Dolores-Colorado confluence. Supplies arriving by rail at Cisco were often wagoned to the river, ferried across, or floated downstream toward places like Richardson (near Professor Valley) before overland transport to more remote settlements.

Naming and Community Development

The name “Dewey” has two main origin theories: one credits a prospector named Dewey Smith who camped near the river ford around 1880; the other links it to a supply raft named for Admiral George Dewey. The settlement was also known as Kingsferry in honor of Samuel King. In 1902 residents briefly sought an official name change to Kingsferry and operated a post office under that name for about two months, but postal authorities retained “Dewey.” Samuel King applied for the Dewey post office on August 30, 1898; Samuel J. Scharf followed in 1902.

The community remained small—typically described as a few dozen residents at most—and never became a major commercial center. Key features included the ferry, a boarding/halfway house, a post office, and a school. Daily life centered on river commerce, ranching, limited farming, and serving travelers and stage traffic.

Richard “Dick” Westwood (who later served as Grand County’s first elected sheriff) and his wife Martha moved to Dewey around 1902–1903 to operate the ferry (Grand County commissioned a new one in 1903 after earlier ice damage). Martha ran the boarding house and handled mail. She charged 25 cents per meal for steady boarders and 35 cents for transients. Stage mail from Cisco to Castleton and other outlying areas arrived around 11 a.m.; she prepared dinner by 11:30 while sorting mail. The Westwoods and other families faced challenges of isolation, including educating children. Martha sometimes enrolled herself and a young daughter to meet minimum pupil numbers for a teacher. A one-room schoolhouse (16 by 24 feet, built for about $400, later described with local lumber lined with muslin) operated from roughly 1902/1906 until around 1914. The family sometimes boarded extra children to maintain enrollment.

Ferry operations were unreliable and costly. An earlier ferry was destroyed by ice in the winter of 1902–03; another sank in March 1913 when ice tore a hole in it, isolating residents for days. Operators over time included Dick Eastwood, George Coombs (1909 contract at $20/month plus tolls), Gay Brown, and the Westwoods. Tolls were modest (e.g., low rates for sheep in groups; up to about $1.50 round-trip for a six-horse team and wagon). Samuel King also built or contracted for related roads, including a toll road toward Moab.

The Dewey Bridge and Decline

Recognizing the ferry’s limitations, Grand County pursued a bridge. Construction began around 1913–1915 by the Midland Bridge Company of Kansas City, Missouri (the same firm that built the Cameron Suspension Bridge in Arizona). The Dewey Bridge, completed in 1916 at a cost of about $25,000, was a one-lane suspension bridge roughly 502 feet long, with an all-wood deck about 8–10 feet wide (from rail to rail or support to support), two metal towers, and multiple cables on each side. It was designed to carry the weight of six horses, three wagons, and 9,000 pounds of freight. At the time it was the second-longest suspension bridge west of the Mississippi and later Utah’s longest. It provided a reliable year-round link, connecting southeastern Utah more directly to Colorado markets and supplies.

The bridge rendered the ferry and stopover services obsolete. Residents, including the Westwoods (who returned to Moab), moved away. Buildings fell into disrepair. Ranching continued for a time on free range, with cattle and sheep, but overgrazing and the Taylor Grazing Act of 1934 contributed to further decline of small operations in the area. By the mid-20th century Dewey was a ghost town.

A later modern highway bridge (completed in the 1980s, with traffic shifted around 1986–1988) carried vehicles on Utah State Route 128. The historic bridge was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984, restored in the late 1990s/early 2000s for pedestrian and bicycle use as part of the Kokopelli Trail, and then destroyed by fire on April 6, 2008. A 7-year-old boy playing with matches at a nearby campground started a brush fire that, fanned by wind, rapidly consumed the wooden deck and rails (steel towers, main cables, and anchors largely survived). Reconstruction efforts were discussed but the bridge remains a skeletal remnant.

Later History and Present Day

A proposed Dewey Dam (studied from the 1920s into the 1940s for hydroelectric power and other uses, including potential magnesium development) was ultimately canceled due to concerns such as high evaporation from a shallow reservoir. Some private homes and limited activity (including a service station operated by Ballard and Maxine Harris in later decades) appeared near the site, but the original settlement never revived.

Today the area is managed in part by the Bureau of Land Management, with a campground, boat launch, and recreational access. Visible traces of the town include foundation outlines, the icehouse cave, and fruit trees. The burned bridge towers and cables remain a striking historic landmark along the scenic Utah Route 128 corridor between Moab and the Colorado border. Dewey illustrates the role of geography and transportation infrastructure in the settlement (and abandonment) of remote canyon-country communities during Utah’s frontier and early 20th-century periods.

Castleton is a ghost town in Castle Valley, southeastern Grand County, Utah, located on the La Sal Mountain Loop Road roughly 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Moab. The nearest modern settlement is Castle Valley, about 6 miles (9.7 km) to the northwest. At an elevation of approximately 5,896 feet (1,797 m), it sits near the base of the La Sal Mountains.

Early Settlement and Foundations (1860s–1880s)

A short-lived gold placer mining camp existed in the area in the 1860s. More permanent settlement began in the late 1870s or early 1880s, commonly attributed to prospector Doby Brown. Other early accounts mention possible cabins of miners and stockmen as early as 1879, though a township survey map from late summer 1880 showed no structures at that time. By the mid-1880s, cabins belonging to miners and stockmen had appeared.

By 1882, enough settlers had gathered to establish a post office, marking the community’s formal beginnings as a modest ranching and prospecting outpost. Early residents included figures such as John (or “Jack”) Welsh (also spelled Welch), who later served as the first mail carrier, delivering mail once a week by horse and team.

Boom as a Mining Supply Town (1888–1907)

The town’s rapid growth began in 1888 with the discovery of gold in quartz veins at nearby Miners Basin (also called Miner’s Basin) high in the La Sal Mountains. Castleton transformed into a crucial supply and outfitting hub for prospectors and miners working the claims. Freight companies stayed busy hauling supplies, and the settlement expanded quickly.

At its peak around 1895, Castleton’s population exceeded that of nearby Moab (with estimates ranging from over 100 to a few hundred residents). When Grand County was organized in 1890, Castleton vied with Moab for the county seat (though some local research has questioned how seriously this was pursued). Businesses and amenities during the boom included:

• A general store (one later associated with Charles Edward Miller around 1902)
• Hotel(s) and a boardinghouse
• Two saloons (including “Plug Hat” Kelly’s)
• Restaurant
• Livery stable and blacksmith shop
• Post office
• School (initially held in a saloon before 1904)
• Sunday school (Christian Science, started in 1904 and taught by Mrs. Antles and Mrs. McClain)
• Other services such as a deputy sheriff, and possible doctor’s and mine offices

Lots were set aside on the town plat for the La Sal Reduction Company’s mill site and a depot. Social life flourished with the arrival of wives and families; clubs, gatherings, and events were reported in the Grand Valley Times. The town also supported regional ranching (cattle and sheep operations). Imported sheepherders, often Mexican or Basque, used boarding facilities into the 1920s. Winter conditions sometimes forced miners and their mules down from the high country into Castleton.

On April 10, 1901, Seth A. McLean (or McClean) and Lincoln Antles delivered the town plat to a notary. The Grand County Board of Commissioners approved incorporation of the Town of Castleton on April 16, 1901; it was recorded that evening by County Clerk and Recorder Alonzo A. Neff. The plat showed Main Street (likely corresponding to present-day Castleton Road), with Oak and Cedar Streets alongside it, and shorter cross streets (First through Fourth). Lincoln Antles is often credited with laying out the town. A voting district was established in June 1902.

Decline and Abandonment (1907–1967)

The Panic of 1907 shut down the hard-rock mines in the La Sals, triggering a mass exodus of miners and the collapse of related businesses. By 1910, most commercial establishments had closed, leaving primarily the post office and a population of about 50. Ranching provided residual support, but this too waned. Population figures continued to fall: roughly 30 by some accounts in 1930, or as low as six according to others.

Later residents and property holders included J.E. Cooley (who sold a ranch in 1921 to Don and Max Taylor) and the Taylor family. Don Taylor sold property to the federal government (then the General Land Office, predecessor to the Bureau of Land Management) in 1945. Fires destroyed some homes; others fell into disrepair or were dismantled for materials elsewhere. A small cemetery (Castleton Cemetery) holds more than 20 graves, including those of early residents and children (examples from surveys include members of the Welsh/Welch, Mueller, Williams, Johnston, and other families).

In 1967, the Grand County Commission officially vacated Castleton as an occupied town, formalizing its status as a ghost town.

Remnants and Later History

Little remains of the historic townsite today. Notable among the ruins is the “Rock Castle,” a large sandstone ranch house (approximately 31½ × 32 feet, originally with walls about 12 feet high) dating to the 1880s. It has been heavily obscured by vegetation (sage, rabbitbrush, pinyon) and is difficult to access near Spring Creek. Archaeological assessments (including work associated with the BLM and researchers such as Richard Fike) have identified it and other remnants as potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places; stabilization efforts have been discussed to prevent further collapse. The site has been considered for interpretive use in connection with broader trail systems.

In 2001, the Grand County Commission proclaimed the 100th anniversary of the town’s incorporation, and local residents (including former residents Jim and Rusty Salmon, who rediscovered the original plat in county records) organized a celebration. As of the mid-2020s, a small number of modern residences exist in or near the former township boundaries (estimates of full-time residents have ranged from under 15 to roughly a dozen), but the historic mining-and-ranching community is long gone. The area is managed in part by the Bureau of Land Management.

Castleton’s history reflects the classic boom-and-bust pattern of many Utah mining supply towns: brief prosperity tied to mineral discoveries in the surrounding mountains, followed by rapid decline when the ore played out or economic conditions changed, leaving ranching as a temporary residual economy before near-total abandonment. Primary historical sources include local newspapers (Grand Valley Times), county records, and works such as George A. Thompson’s Some Dreams Die: Utah’s Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures, Richard A. Firmage’s A History of Grand County, and Stephen L. Carr’s The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns.

Cisco, Utah, is a near-ghost town (or residual community) in Grand County, near the junction of State Route 128 and Interstate 70, close to the Colorado border and roughly 45–50 miles northeast of Moab. It sits in the arid Cisco Desert amid the Book Cliffs to the north and near the Colorado River. Though often labeled a ghost town due to its many abandoned structures, rusting vehicles, and sparse population, it has never been fully empty in recent decades; the 2020 U.S. Census recorded four residents, with fluctuating small numbers of permanent or part-time inhabitants, artists, and visitors.

Founding and Railroad Origins (1880s–1890s)

Cisco began in the early 1880s as a practical stop on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW, later part of Union Pacific). Steam locomotives needed frequent water stops, and Cisco was one of the few Utah railroad towns with a pumping station that drew water from the Colorado River (via a steam engine to a reservoir about a mile southeast of town). The original settlement included a saloon, section house for railroad workers, basic facilities, and later a depot.

The post office opened in 1887. When the railroad converted from narrow-gauge to standard-gauge tracks around 1890, the new line was laid roughly two miles south of the original site. The entire community relocated to stay beside the tracks, moving structures (including the post office) as needed. Early growth came from railroad work crews and travelers; stores, hotels, and restaurants appeared to serve them.

Livestock and Wool Boom (Late 19th–Early 20th Century)

Ranchers and sheepherders from the Book Cliffs (north) and areas toward the La Sal Mountains and river bottoms quickly adopted Cisco as a livestock shipping, provisioning, and winter-range hub. Cattle were important early on, but sheep became dominant as forage conditions changed. At the turn of the century, tens of thousands of sheep (reports commonly cite over 100,000 head sheared annually in peak years) were processed at Cisco before rail shipment to market.

In 1906, the Goslin brothers alone shipped more than a quarter-million pounds of wool—described contemporaneously as the largest individual wool clip ever made in Utah. A vast temporary tent city housed shearers and workers during the season. Population figures reflect this activity: about 172 residents in 1900, rising to roughly 323 in 1910. The community had a diverse (if often segregated) workforce that included railroad crews of Italian, Chinese, Japanese, African-American, and Native American backgrounds, plus Basque shepherds and figures such as the noted Black cowboy Charlie Glass (active until his death in 1937).

Local newspapers recorded everyday life—dances, visits, and minor events—showing a functioning small desert town. Water for domestic use was hauled by rail and carried in buckets to cisterns, underscoring the harsh environment.

Oil, Gas, and Mid-Century Peak (1920s–1940s/1950s)

Oil and natural gas were discovered near Cisco in 1924. The town became a significant (at times the largest) producer in Utah for a period, with wells and related activity adding jobs and infrastructure. The Crystal Carbon Company and later operators worked the area; production flared and subsided over the following decades, with renewed drilling as recently as 2005 in the Cisco Oil Field.

By the 1940s the population reached about 200–250. Amenities included a post office, general store, one-room schoolhouse, houses, and a ranch (e.g., Pace Cattle Company). U.S. Routes 6/50 ran through town, supporting restaurants, gas stations, saloons, and traveler services. Uranium and vanadium prospecting in the broader region (including Charlie Steen’s famous mid-1950s uranium strike farther south near Moab, while he lived for a time in a tarpaper shack in Cisco) provided a temporary boost.

Decline (1950s–1990s)

The shift from steam to diesel locomotives in the 1950s eliminated the need for water stops, undercutting Cisco’s railroad role. The decisive blow came with construction of Interstate 70 (completed in stages through the 1960s–1970s), which bypassed the town by several miles to the north. Through-traffic evaporated, businesses closed, and residents left.

Population dropped sharply (to around 55 within a decade of the mid-1940s peak in one account). A combination gas station/restaurant was among the last commercial holdouts. The post office, which had given Cisco ZIP Code 84515, eventually closed (reports place the end in the 1990s). By the 1980s Grand County had taken roughly 80 acres for delinquent taxes; a proposed toxic-waste incinerator scheme failed. Vandals and the desert climate heavily damaged remaining structures.

Cultural Footprint and Modern Status

Cisco appeared in the opening and ending scenes of the 1971 cult film Vanishing Point and has been associated with Thelma & Louise. Local lore links a Johnny Cash song (“Cisco Clifton’s Fillin’ Station”) to a real mid-1950s station operated by Ballard Harris (whose son Dale later recounted growing up there).

In the 2010s artist Eileen Muza purchased property, restored buildings (including the historic post office), and established an artist residency amid the ruins. Others have since continued similar efforts (e.g., under names such as Home of the Brave / Held Horizon). A small general store (Buzzard’s Belly or similar) has sold goods and vintage items; some structures have been offered as short-term rentals. Electricity and satellite internet exist in places, but running water remains scarce—residents collect rainwater or haul it.

Today Cisco retains dozens of dilapidated buildings, old vehicles, railroad remnants, and oil-field debris scattered across the desert flats. It is easily accessible from I-70 (via old U.S. 6/50 between exits roughly 204–214 or via SR-128). Visitors are drawn by the photogenic decay, history, and isolation, though residents caution against treating the site as purely abandoned. Oil and gas activity continues intermittently nearby.

Cisco’s story is a classic Western boom-and-bust cycle driven by transportation technology, extractive industries (wool, oil/gas, minerals), and the isolation of the Colorado Plateau desert. What remains is a tangible record of those successive eras, still evolving under the care of a handful of determined people.