Utah · Ghost town
Thistle
A railroad town in Spanish Fork Canyon that a landslide destroyed in a single spring, drowning what the mudflow did not bury.
Position Utah County, Utah · 39.9914, -111.4983
Thistle existed to service steam locomotives for the Denver and Rio Grande Western. Trains climbing out of Spanish Fork Canyon needed help, and the town supplied it. When the railroad changed over to diesel the reason for the town went with it, and the population had already been falling for years.
In April 1983 a massive landslide moved into the canyon and dammed the Spanish Fork River. The water backed up behind it and flooded what was left of the town. Rooflines stood above the surface of the new lake for a time.
The slide also cut the railway and US 6, and reopening them was one of the most expensive landslide responses in American history to that point.
What you see today from the highway is a few structures standing in silt, half buried, at the bottom of the canyon. It is visible from the road, which is fortunate, because the ground is unstable and there is no reason to walk in.
Facts checked against the Wikipedia article Thistle, Utah. The words above are ours.