Ghost Towns

Now that we’re approaching Halloween, I figured it’s time for a spooky outdoor adventure. Ghost towns are the perfect place to go for a thrilling excursion; there’s always a chance that they’ll live up to their name. Utah is full of ghost towns, though Wasatch County doesn’t seem to have any. There are some in nearby Duchesne County, and plenty out near the Great Salt Lake/Tooele area. Most of the ghost towns were little mining towns that became obsolete as technology advanced or valuable ore deposits became scarce. Old, dilapidated buildings or simple foundations are the only indications that humans ever tried to settle the various scattered locations around the state.

I took a drive out to the Pony Express Trail and explored a few of the ghost towns there in Tooele and Juab Counties. There really isn’t much near any of the sights, so I was glad my wife and I had brought along snacks and water. Plus the humans we saw on our way to the ghost towns were sometimes more frightening than the actual prospect of running across an old miner’s ghost. It was eerie driving through a town as everyone stopped what they were doing to straighten up and watch the vehicle pass by their house. It was like something from an old horror flick: people with pitchforks and scythes and other archaic farming instruments following the out-of-towners with their vacant stares.

Once we passed the creepy “live” towns, we were able to visit ten or fifteen “dead” towns in one afternoon. The most memorable is a town called Gold Hill. If you’ve ever seen the film The Hills Have Eyes, Gold Hill would be the perfect candidate for one of the film’s sequels. The ghost town still has a few living haunts. People continue to live among the broken-down machinery and rotting buildings. Apparently there is an effort to rekindle Gold Hill’s mining industry. There was a sign in the middle of the town, and my wife and I read it from the safety of our Jeep. There was no way I was exiting my vehicle, giving the townspeople the chance to do whatever it is that ghost town people do to outsiders.

No ghost town is truly complete without a rundown cemetery nearby. There’s nothing more chilling than stumbling over some weather-beaten grave markers in the dry brush just outside of town. It’s hard not to imagine the long forgotten bones waiting underground for the unsuspecting adventurer to fall into their clutches. Luckily my wife and I were visiting ghost towns and their cemeteries by day, because at night those bones would have dragged us down into their cold embrace.

If you’re in the mood for some thrills and chills this Halloween season without paying the outrageous costs of a haunted house, check out a ghost town or two. The best website I’ve found for Utah ghost towns is at www.ghosttowns.com. Simply select Utah from the drop-down list at the top of the webpage and you’ve got access to bits of lore and other information about ghost towns across the state. Take a flashlight, keep your car doors locked, and prepare for roads that go bump in the night (and day; they’re dirt roads, after all).