Sego, Utah
Encyclopedia
Sego is a ghost town
in Grand County
, Utah
, United States
. It lies in the narrow, winding Sego Canyon, in the Book Cliffs
some 5 miles (8 km) north of Thompson Springs
. Formerly an important eastern Utah coal mining
town, Sego was inhabited about 1910–1955. The town is accessed via the grade of the Ballard & Thompson Railroad, a spur from the Denver and Rio Grande Western built by the founders of the town to transport the coal.
s of the Book Cliffs. He quietly bought the land and began to hire local laborers to mine the coal. The coal camp was naturally called Ballard.
By 1911 Ballard had sold out to a Salt Lake City
businessman named B.F. Bauer, who formed a corporation called American Fuel Company. The company began to expand mining operations far beyond Ballard's unambitious scale, installing a modern coal tipple and the first coal washer
west of the Mississippi River. The Ballard & Thompson Railroad company organized in 1911, its officers including Bauer and Ballard, and started to construct a spur line from Thompson to Ballard. In its five-mile run up the winding canyon, the rail line crossed the stream thirteen times. American Fuel Company also developed the town, renamed Neslen during the railroad construction for the mine's new general manager, Richard Neslen. Soon a company store, boarding house, and other buildings went up, each with its own water system. Neslen was a fairly typical company town
, but in addition to building numerous company houses, mine owners took the unusual policy of allowing miners to build their own cabins wherever they chose. Shacks and dugouts
dotted the canyon. When the railroad was completed in 1912, Neslen was granted its own post office
. Coal began shipping in October 1912, most of it going to the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
. The next year the Ballard & Thompson became a subsidiary of the D&RGW.
The town's most serious problem, almost from the beginning, was a diminishing water supply. The water table
was dropping, the creeks and springs drying up. One summer the water slowed to such a trickle that the coal washer could not even operate. Paradoxically, the railroad was plagued by excessive water, flash flood
s frequently damaging the bridges and trestle
s. The small train that served the mine was off the track as much as one fourth of the time. By 1915 profits were low to nonexistent, pay days very irregular. Like many mines, the company tried to enforce a system where miners were paid in scrip
redeemable only at the company store. Miners who dared to shop in Thompson, where prices were half those at Neslen, were threatened with the loss of their jobs. The miners went on strike
in April 1915, not having been paid in five months. Many of them returned to work with the company still owing them back pay. Employment was scarce in the region, and in October 1915 wages were cut by 12–20%. Frustrated by the mine's unprofitability, Bauer forced a corporate reorganization in 1916. Richard Neslen was replaced, and the company renamed Chesterfield Coal Company. The town's name was also changed in 1918, this time to Sego for the sego lily, Utah's state flower, which grew abundantly in the canyon. The reorganization didn't solve the company's financial difficulties, however. Sego's miners were never paid regularly until they joined the United Mine Workers Union in 1933.
Some sources claim Sego's population grew as high as 500, but the United States Census
during the town's heyday in the 1920s and 1930s doesn't bear this out. In 1920 the census count was 198, and in 1930 just over 200. Still, Sego was one of the major Grand County towns during this period.
The branch starts at the D&RGW tracks on the northwest end of Thompson, enters Thompson Canyon, and veers through a cut along Sego Wash up Sego Canyon to the townsite. A wye was built at Thompson Springs to facilitate the turning of the steam locomotives, the grade of which is still visible.
Passenger service to Sego was almost nonexistent, although a small gas-mechanical railbus, which was owned by the coal company, was used for a short time. The train would pause in front of the Sego schoolhouse before continuing on to the mine, which considerably disrupted scholarly activities when school was in session.
At the height of coal production, from 1920 to 1947, 800 tons of coal were being mined per day, with the D&RGW making as many as nine round-trips a month to the town.
When the railroad was abandoned in 1950, the owners of the Sego mine constructed a truck ramp in Thompson to load coal directly into the railroad cars. The ramp and much of the grade, as well as three of the many single-span trestles crossing the wash, still exist, the first two miles being paved for use as an access road to Thompson's water supply. The trestles are in a dangerous condition and cannot be crossed.
s, virtually eliminating the demand for coal. The Utah Grand sold its holdings in 1955 to a Texas company that intended to explore for oil and natural gas. Homes were moved to Thompson, Moab
, and even Fruita, Colorado
, and the schoolhouse was taken to Thompson. Sego was gone.
The stone company store, boarding house, and many foundations and dugouts still remain. An underground coal seam fire has continued to burn here for decades, and smoke still rises from deserted mine shafts. Another severe flash flood in the early 1980s, known as the "Hundred Years' Flood" by locals, removed most of the remaining trestles and left the rest unsafe.
Ghost town
A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...
in Grand County
Grand County, Utah
Grand County is a county located in the U.S. state of Utah. As of 2000 the population was 8,485, and by 2005 had been estimated at 8,743. It was named for the Colorado River, which at the time of statehood was known as the Grand River. Its county seat and largest city is Moab.-Geography:According...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It lies in the narrow, winding Sego Canyon, in the Book Cliffs
Book Cliffs
The Book Cliffs are a series of mountains and cliffs in western Colorado and eastern Utah, in the western United States. They are so named because many of them have the triangular appearance of a book that has been opened up, then turned on its sides and set to rest on the open sides of the book,...
some 5 miles (8 km) north of Thompson Springs
Thompson Springs, Utah
Thompson Springs, also known as Thompson, is a small census-designated place in central Grand County, Utah, United States. The population was 39 at the 2010 census. The town is just north of the east-west highway route shared by Interstate 70, U.S. Route 6 and U.S. Route 50, between Crescent...
. Formerly an important eastern Utah coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
town, Sego was inhabited about 1910–1955. The town is accessed via the grade of the Ballard & Thompson Railroad, a spur from the Denver and Rio Grande Western built by the founders of the town to transport the coal.
History
Henry Ballard, one of the founders of Thompson Springs, discovered an exposed vein of anthracite coal here in 1908 while exploring the many canyonCanyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
s of the Book Cliffs. He quietly bought the land and began to hire local laborers to mine the coal. The coal camp was naturally called Ballard.
By 1911 Ballard had sold out to a Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...
businessman named B.F. Bauer, who formed a corporation called American Fuel Company. The company began to expand mining operations far beyond Ballard's unambitious scale, installing a modern coal tipple and the first coal washer
Coal preparation plant
A coal preparation plant is a facility that washes coal of soil and rock, preparing it for transport to market. A CPP may also be called a "coal handling and preparation plant" , "prep plant," "tipple," or "wash plant"....
west of the Mississippi River. The Ballard & Thompson Railroad company organized in 1911, its officers including Bauer and Ballard, and started to construct a spur line from Thompson to Ballard. In its five-mile run up the winding canyon, the rail line crossed the stream thirteen times. American Fuel Company also developed the town, renamed Neslen during the railroad construction for the mine's new general manager, Richard Neslen. Soon a company store, boarding house, and other buildings went up, each with its own water system. Neslen was a fairly typical company town
Company town
A company town is a town or city in which much or all real estate, buildings , utilities, hospitals, small businesses such as grocery stores and gas stations, and other necessities or luxuries of life within its borders are owned by a single company...
, but in addition to building numerous company houses, mine owners took the unusual policy of allowing miners to build their own cabins wherever they chose. Shacks and dugouts
Dugout (shelter)
A dugout or dug-out, also known as a pithouse, pit-house, earth lodge, mud hut, is a shelter for humans or domesticated animals and livestock based on a hole or depression dug into the ground. These structures are one of the most ancient types of human housing known to archeologists...
dotted the canyon. When the railroad was completed in 1912, Neslen was granted its own post office
Post office
A post office is a facility forming part of a postal system for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail.Post offices offer mail-related services such as post office boxes, postage and packaging supplies...
. Coal began shipping in October 1912, most of it going to the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
The Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad , often shortened to Rio Grande or D&RGW, formerly the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, is a defunct U.S. railroad company. The railroad started as a narrow gauge line running south from Denver, Colorado in 1870; however, served mainly as a transcontinental...
. The next year the Ballard & Thompson became a subsidiary of the D&RGW.
The town's most serious problem, almost from the beginning, was a diminishing water supply. The water table
Water table
The water table is the level at which the submarine pressure is far from atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as...
was dropping, the creeks and springs drying up. One summer the water slowed to such a trickle that the coal washer could not even operate. Paradoxically, the railroad was plagued by excessive water, flash flood
Flash flood
A flash flood is a rapid flooding of geomorphic low-lying areas—washes, rivers, dry lakes and basins. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a storm, hurricane, or tropical storm or meltwater from ice or snow flowing over ice sheets or snowfields...
s frequently damaging the bridges and trestle
Trestle
A trestle is a rigid frame used as a support, especially referring to a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by such frames. In the context of trestle bridges, each supporting frame is generally referred to as a bent...
s. The small train that served the mine was off the track as much as one fourth of the time. By 1915 profits were low to nonexistent, pay days very irregular. Like many mines, the company tried to enforce a system where miners were paid in scrip
Scrip
Scrip is an American term for any substitute for currency which is not legal tender and is often a form of credit. Scrips were created as company payment of employees and also as a means of payment in times where regular money is unavailable, such as remote coal towns, military bases, ships on long...
redeemable only at the company store. Miners who dared to shop in Thompson, where prices were half those at Neslen, were threatened with the loss of their jobs. The miners went on strike
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
in April 1915, not having been paid in five months. Many of them returned to work with the company still owing them back pay. Employment was scarce in the region, and in October 1915 wages were cut by 12–20%. Frustrated by the mine's unprofitability, Bauer forced a corporate reorganization in 1916. Richard Neslen was replaced, and the company renamed Chesterfield Coal Company. The town's name was also changed in 1918, this time to Sego for the sego lily, Utah's state flower, which grew abundantly in the canyon. The reorganization didn't solve the company's financial difficulties, however. Sego's miners were never paid regularly until they joined the United Mine Workers Union in 1933.
Some sources claim Sego's population grew as high as 500, but the United States Census
United States Census
The United States Census is a decennial census mandated by the United States Constitution. The population is enumerated every 10 years and the results are used to allocate Congressional seats , electoral votes, and government program funding. The United States Census Bureau The United States Census...
during the town's heyday in the 1920s and 1930s doesn't bear this out. In 1920 the census count was 198, and in 1930 just over 200. Still, Sego was one of the major Grand County towns during this period.
Railroad
The closest railroad connection to Sego was the Denver & Rio Grande Western in Thompson Springs. Because of this, a new railroad was incorporated on July 15, 1911 to connect the town of Sego with the D&RGW. Called the Ballard & Thompson Railroad, the 5.25 miles (8.4 km) line never owned its own equipment, and relied on the Rio Grande for all motive power. Later on, in 1913, the railroad fell into the ownership of the D&RGW.The branch starts at the D&RGW tracks on the northwest end of Thompson, enters Thompson Canyon, and veers through a cut along Sego Wash up Sego Canyon to the townsite. A wye was built at Thompson Springs to facilitate the turning of the steam locomotives, the grade of which is still visible.
Passenger service to Sego was almost nonexistent, although a small gas-mechanical railbus, which was owned by the coal company, was used for a short time. The train would pause in front of the Sego schoolhouse before continuing on to the mine, which considerably disrupted scholarly activities when school was in session.
At the height of coal production, from 1920 to 1947, 800 tons of coal were being mined per day, with the D&RGW making as many as nine round-trips a month to the town.
When the railroad was abandoned in 1950, the owners of the Sego mine constructed a truck ramp in Thompson to load coal directly into the railroad cars. The ramp and much of the grade, as well as three of the many single-span trestles crossing the wash, still exist, the first two miles being paved for use as an access road to Thompson's water supply. The trestles are in a dangerous condition and cannot be crossed.
Decline
By 1947 production costs exceeded income, and the company decided to close down. The miners that once had numbered 125 had been reduced to just 27. These remaining miners pooled their resources, and with the backing of two banks bought out the Chesterfield Coal Company assets. Organized under the name Utah Grand Coal Company, the miners hoped to keep the mine operating. Indeed, their first year was very successful. Then fire destroyed the tipple in 1949, and another serious fire the next year burned more equipment. The final blow came when the railroad converted to diesel locomotiveDiesel locomotive
A diesel locomotive is a type of railroad locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine, a reciprocating engine operating on the Diesel cycle as invented by Dr. Rudolf Diesel...
s, virtually eliminating the demand for coal. The Utah Grand sold its holdings in 1955 to a Texas company that intended to explore for oil and natural gas. Homes were moved to Thompson, Moab
Moab, Utah
Moab is a city in Grand County, in eastern Utah, in the western United States. The population was 4,779 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat and largest city in Grand County. Moab hosts a large number of tourists every year, mostly visitors to the nearby Arches and Canyonlands National Parks...
, and even Fruita, Colorado
Fruita, Colorado
The City of Fruita is a Home Rule Municipality located in the western part of Mesa County, Colorado, in the United States. It is part of the Grand Junction Metropolitan Statistical Area and within the Grand Valley...
, and the schoolhouse was taken to Thompson. Sego was gone.
The stone company store, boarding house, and many foundations and dugouts still remain. An underground coal seam fire has continued to burn here for decades, and smoke still rises from deserted mine shafts. Another severe flash flood in the early 1980s, known as the "Hundred Years' Flood" by locals, removed most of the remaining trestles and left the rest unsafe.