Ghost Town Trails
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Sego

A coal camp up a canyon of ancient rock art — company store still standing.

The story

Sego dug coal for the railroad from about 1910, a company town of several hundred that fought its canyon the whole way: the creek that watered it flash-flooded, then dried; the company store ran scrip; wages arrived late enough to trigger strikes. When diesel replaced coal-fired locomotives, the market died, and Sego surrendered by 1955.

The approach is the bonus: Sego Canyon's mouth holds one of Utah's great rock art sites — Barrier-style ghost figures painted millennia ago, plus Fremont and Ute panels — meaning this ghost town's canyon has been recording vanished peoples for two thousand years.

What remains today

The stone company store shell, boarding-house ruins, dugouts, coal tipple timbers, and a cemetery; the rock-art panels are 3 miles below town.

Questions from the field

Is Sego Canyon's rock art at the ghost town?
The famous panels are at the canyon mouth, about three miles before the townsite — one stop serves both, which is why Sego is Grand County's best short detour off I-70.

From the field

The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.

Stamp your passport

Check in at Sego — GPS-verified visits earn an inked stamp.

File a field report

Road conditions, what's still standing, what's gone — your report joins the record.

Add photographs

Credited, dated, and preserved as part of Sego's permanent record.

Reports and photos are reviewed before joining the record.

No field reports yet — sign in to file the first.

Sources consulted

  • USGS GNIS feature 1437678
  • BLM — Sego Canyon rock art site
  • Grand County coal-camp histories

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