U.S. Route 6 in Utah
Encyclopedia
U.S. Route 6
is a major east–west state highway
through the central part of the U.S. state
of Utah
. Although it is about 40 miles (64.4 km) longer than US-50, it serves more populated areas, and in fact follows what had been US-50's routing until it was moved to follow I-70 in 1976. In 2009, the Utah State Legislature
named part of the route the Mike Dmitrich
Highway, which generated controversy, as the state of Utah had previously joined with all the other states through which US-6 passes in naming all of US-6 the Grand Army of the Republic
highway.
US-6 enters Utah overlapped with US-50 in the Great Basin
, a large desert
that includes much of western Utah. As part of the Basin and Range Province, the terrain alternates between north–south oriented flat valleys and mountain ranges. US-6 and US-50 cross the Snake Valley
, Confusion Range
(through Kings Canyon
), Tule Valley
, House Range
(via Skull Rock Pass), and Pahvant Valley (passing north of Sevier Lake
), finally reaching the town of Hinckley just before they split in Delta. US-6 turns to the northeast at that city, paralleling the Union Pacific Railroad
's Lynndyl Subdivision
to the west of the Canyon Mountains, Gilson Mountains, and East Tintic Mountains
—three ranges that form the eastern boundary of the Basin and Range Province.
At Tintic Junction, the intersection with SR-36 in the Tintic Valley, US-6 turns east and ascends the East Tintic Mountains. It passes through the mining city of Eureka as it climbs to The Summit, before descending through Homansville Canyon into the Goshen Valley. Although it left behind the UP rail line at Tintic Junction, this part of US-6 parallels the former Tintic Branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
, which has been partially abandoned. After passing through Goshen, the highway curves around the north side of Warm Springs Mountain and into the Utah Valley
, where it enters Santaquin. On the east side of that city, US-6 begins an overlap with I-15, while the old alignment—SR-198—continues straight through Payson and Salem. After about 13 miles (20.9 km) together in the Utah Valley, US-6 and I-15 separate in Spanish Fork, the latter turning southeast onto a short two-lane expressway
. SR-198 rejoins US-6 on the eastern outskirts of Spanish Fork, and soon thereafter US-89 joins at Moark Junction. The two routes—US-6 and US-89—begin an overlap here that extends through the Spanish Fork Canyon, alongside the UP Provo Subdivision (ex-D&RGW), to Thistle in the Wasatch Range
. The remainder of US-6 to the Colorado state line parallels this rail line (which becomes the Green River Subdivision at Helper).
US-6 continues alone through the Spanish Fork Canyon, now alongside Soldier Creek, to Soldier Summit
on the Wasatch Plateau, where it finally leaves the Great Basin into the watershed
of the Colorado River
. It begins to descend by following the White River, which empties into the Price River
near Colton. The Price River takes US-6 down through the Price Canyon, the west edge of the Book Cliffs
, joining US-191 at Castle Gate. The land flattens and opens out at Helper, named for the helper locomotives needed to carry trains up to Soldier Summit, and US-6 continues southeasterly around Price on a two-lane freeway
bypass, with the old alignment marked as both a business route
and SR-55. Relatively flat land continues as US-6 parallels the Book Cliffs to the southwest and west, crossing the Price River at Woodside
. West of Green River, US-6 joins I-70/US-50, which it overlaps for the remainder of its stay in Utah. Now south of the Book Cliffs, the four routes head east to Crescent Junction
, where US-191 splits to the south. As it begins to approach the Colorado River, the highway curves northeasterly through the Grand Valley
and into Colorado.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
, there were 519 fatal and serious injury crashes between Spanish Fork and Green River in Utah from 1996–2008, leading the stretch to be considered one of the deadliest roads in the U.S.
US-6 forms an arch-shaped route with Spanish Fork
at the apex
. The western half of the arch is the road less traveled, passing through the Great Basin
desert
, Sevier Lake
, Delta
, Eureka
and the Tintic Standard Reduction Mill
.
The eastern half is a popular transportation corridor, paralleling the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad
's transcontinental line. This half passes over Soldier Summit
and the historic railroad hub of Helper
.
Starting in the spring of 1983, US-6 was a discontinuous route for almost one year, due to a massive landslide that destroyed the town of Thistle
. During this time traffic was routed on two detours. One, via Salina, Utah
, was over 200 miles (321.9 km) long and took traffic almost 100 aerial miles from the route of US-6. The other, via Duchesne, Utah
, was shorter. However, this detour traversed steep grades and was not recommended for trucks. The night before the rebuilt US-6 opened, the highway stubs at either side of the landslide were filled with tens of miles of trucks, the drivers tired of the lost revenue from the long detours. The landslide remains the most costly in the history of the United States. Two rest area
s along US-6 pay tribute to the residents of the town who lost everything.
US-6 in Utah passes through or by several ghost towns including Tintic, Thistle
, Tucker
, Soldier Summit
, Colton
, Woodside
and Cisco
. Most of these towns were either mining
or railroad based.
The 120 miles (193.1 km) section of US-6 between Spanish Fork and Price is considered one of the deadliest stretches of highway in the United States. A high volume of trucks and automobiles travel that stretch at interstate speeds, along hairpin turns, through narrow canyons.
to Long Beach, California
. The eastern half in Utah, from Colorado to Spanish Fork, overlapped US-50, but after a short segment on US-91 to Santaquin, it followed a route that was new to the U.S. Highway system into Nevada. This road was not yet built to good standards; while it was improved to Hinckley, the remainder across the desert
was a graded earth road. It was not paved all the way until 1952, when a new alignment was completed from Hinckley into Nevada; within a few years, US-50 was moved from a long overlap with US-40 (now I-80) south to the new road, completely overlapping US-6 through Utah. US-50 was moved farther south in 1976, due to the completion of I-70 across the San Rafael Swell
, separating the two routes between Delta and Green River.
state line became a state highway in 1912, with the final section - Spanish Fork to Colton - being added in May. However, the original route was somewhat longer than present-day US-6, most notably between Price and Green River, where travelers went south from Price to Castle Dale via present SR-10 and then east to Green River via what are now county roads north of the San Rafael River (partly along an old never-used Denver and Rio Grande Railroad grade). Other differences included going southeast from Green River to Valley City and northeast to Thompsons. New construction through Price Canyon between Kyune and Castle Gate was made easier by the presence of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in the canyon. Later that year, the Midland Trail Association was organized in Grand Junction, Colorado
to promote a transcontinental auto trail
that would include this road.
A 1913 law provided state aid to counties to construct the Midland Trail, with a general route defined. Initially it was to follow the present US-6 via Woodside
between Price and Green River, but an amendment changed it to the existing state road through Buckhorn Flat (east of Castle Dale). Travelers began using the Midland Trail through eastern Utah in early July 1913, and the road through Price Canyon, replacing a detour via Willow Creek Canyon (US-191) and Emma Park, was completed by the men of Price later that month. A.L. Westgard of the National Highways Association praised the improvements to the road since the previous year, singling out the Price Canyon segment as "almost beyond comprehension". Although it was hoped that it would become part of the Lincoln Highway
, the high mountain passes in Colorado convinced that association to designate a route farther north through Wyoming
in September 1913. Midland Trail promoters were not discouraged; instead they were determined to continue to improve to the route to make it better than the Lincoln Highway.
The shorter route via Woodside rather than Castle Dale was considered again in 1916, due to problems with maintaining the latter and a new bridge over the Price River
at Woodside, and it was adopted as a state road in April. The piece northwest of Sunnyside Junction had already been designated as part of a state road to Sunnyside, the rest of which still exists as SR-123. A cutoff from Springville south to Moark Junction via Mapleton was also added that year.
A 1919 law redefined the state highway system to include only a short list of roads and any federal aid projects. At the urging of Grand County, the route that corresponded to the Midland Trail was realigned to the longer but more scenic road along the Colorado River
between Moab and Cisco, including the new Dewey Bridge. In response to a Carbon County request, the law also removed Price Canyon from the route, instead taking it along the older road through Willow Creek Canyon and Emma Park. Finally, the older route from Spanish Fork to Moark Junction was dropped in favor of the 1916 addition from Springville. Four years later, both counties had changed their minds, and the legislature changed the route back. The Moab-Cisco River Road was entirely dropped (though it was redesignated in the early 1930s as SR-128), but both the Price Canyon and Emma Park routes remained. Also that year, the Bureau of Public Roads approved Utah's seven percent federal-aid system in accordance with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1921, including the Springville-Colorado segment of the Midland Trail.
In the 1920s, the State Road Commission numbered the Springville-Colorado roadway as State Route 8. Several years later, in 1926, it also became part of U.S. Route 50, which continued east to Annapolis, Maryland
(west of Thistle, the road was initially not part of US-50; instead it was the north end of US-89, which ended at Spanish Fork, leaving the Moark Junction-Springville road as simply SR-8). The legislature officially adopted the SR-8 designation in 1927, dropping the Emma Park alternate, and designating two other roads as SR-8: the Spanish Fork-Moark Junction road, which had been dropped in 1919, and a branch from Soldier Creek Junction northeast via Nine Mile Canyon
to Myton
, which had been part of the 1919 system. The Myton spur was split off in 1931 as SR-53, and the Spanish Fork spur became SR-105 in 1945.
The state completely reconstructed US-50 east of Spanish Fork in 1930 and 1931, eliminating most curves and railroad grade crossings, and shortening it by 14 miles (22.5 km).
in Ely, Nevada
and running east and northeast through Delta and Eureka to the Arrowhead Trail in Santaquin. Due to its avoidance of the Great Salt Lake Desert
that the Lincoln Highway passed through, Ely garage owners were promoting it as the best route to Salt Lake City by May 1921. For the same reason - long stretches of desert - Grand Central Highway promoters believed it to be superior to the Arrowhead Trail for Los Angeles-bound travelers. The Eureka Commercial Club posted a billboard
in Santaquin in July, advertising the "shortest and best all year route to California". The Midland Trail Association, whose trail followed the Lincoln Highway's route between Salt Lake City and Ely, adopted the Grand Central as an official alternate route in June 1922. The next year, the state legislature added the road from Santaquin to Silver City
(southwest of Eureka) to the state highway system, and in 1925 it was extended to Delta. Along with the road southeast from Delta to Holden, this was designated State Route 26 in 1927, and at the same time the road west from Delta to Nevada was added to the system as State Route 27. (The portion in Nevada became SR 14 in 1925.)
In 1925, during early U.S. Highway system planning, the Grand Central Highway was designated as U.S. Route 50's path across western Utah. However, when the final plan was approved in late 1926, US-50 had a gap between Ely and Thistle. The gap was filled in about 1930 - but via the Wendover Cutoff, far to the north, leaving the Grand Central Highway as only SR-26 and SR-27. The road again received attention in 1932, when the Roosevelt Highway Association was looking for a path for a westward extension of its trail - which had survived the 1920s by being identified with U.S. Route 6
- from Greeley, Colorado
to the West Coast. The association tentatively approved a route in April, entering Utah via US-50 to the Utah Valley, and leaving via the Grand Central Highway to Ely. The Delta Lions Club had suggested this alignment for the same reasons that the highway had become popular in the 1920s: cooler weather than the Arrowhead Trail (then US-91). Despite the State Road Commission designating US-40 across the state as the Roosevelt Highway in 1935, the final route, approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials as US-6 in December 1936, followed US-50 and the Grand Central Highway.
However, the designation did not mean that the road would be immediately improved. It was not until September 1952 that paving was completed west of Delta, largely on a new alignment south of the old road. Business Week described the original route as "nothing but a wagon trail-rutted, filled with dust...one of the worst chunks of federal [sic] road in the country." A two day celebration was held in Delta to mark the occasion.
Dividend was bypassed by a new route through Homansville Canyon in about 1931, and the old route (Dividend Road) initially became a branch of SR-26. It was renumbered State Route 159 in 1945 and deleted from the state highway system in 1969.
U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 6 , also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, a name that honors an American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system, running east-northeast from Bishop, California to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Until 1964, it continued south from Bishop to...
is a major east–west state highway
State highway
State highway, state road or state route can refer to one of three related concepts, two of them related to a state or provincial government in a country that is divided into states or provinces :#A...
through the central part of the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of 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...
. Although it is about 40 miles (64.4 km) longer than US-50, it serves more populated areas, and in fact follows what had been US-50's routing until it was moved to follow I-70 in 1976. In 2009, the Utah State Legislature
Utah State Legislature
The Utah State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Utah. It is a bicameral body, comprising the Utah House of Representatives, with 75 Representatives, and the Utah Senate, with 29 State Senators...
named part of the route the Mike Dmitrich
Mike Dmitrich
Mike Dmitrich is an American politician and Natural Resource Consultant from Utah. A Democrat, he served as a member of the Utah State Senate, representing the state's 27th senate district in Price. Dmitrich served as the Minority Leader in the Utah Senate. Prior to being elected to the Utah...
Highway, which generated controversy, as the state of Utah had previously joined with all the other states through which US-6 passes in naming all of US-6 the Grand Army of the Republic
Grand Army of the Republic
The Grand Army of the Republic was a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army, US Navy, US Marines and US Revenue Cutter Service who served in the American Civil War. Founded in 1866 in Decatur, Illinois, it was dissolved in 1956 when its last member died...
highway.
Route description
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
, a large desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
that includes much of western Utah. As part of the Basin and Range Province, the terrain alternates between north–south oriented flat valleys and mountain ranges. US-6 and US-50 cross the Snake Valley
Snake Valley (Utah)
Snake Valley is a north-south trending valley that straddles the Nevada Utah border in the central Great Basin. It is bound by the Snake Range and the Deep Creek Mountains to the west and the Confusion Range to the east...
, Confusion Range
Confusion Range
The Confusion Range is a north-south trending mountain range in west-central Utah. It is bounded by Snake Valley to the west, Tule Valley to the east, the Great Salt Lake Desert to the north, and the Ferguson Desert to the south. The range trends into the Burbank Hills, Mountain Home Range, and...
(through Kings Canyon
Kings Canyon (Utah)
Kings Canyon is a canyon within the Confusion Range in Millard County, Utah. US Highway 6/US Highway 50 runs through the windy canyon. The area in and around the canyon is unpopulated, and is only used by humans for transportation and some sheep herding....
), Tule Valley
Tule Valley
Tule Valley, also known as White Valley, is a north-south trending endorheic valley within the Great Basin , Great Basin Desert , and Basin and Range Province of west-central Utah...
, House Range
House Range
The House Range is a north-south trending mountain range in west-central Utah. It is famous for Notch Peak, one of the tallest limestone cliffs in the world, and a fossil Lagerstätte of Cambrian age, which has an array of Burgess Shale type fauna, including Elrathia kingii, a trilobite that is...
(via Skull Rock Pass), and Pahvant Valley (passing north of Sevier Lake
Sevier Lake
Sevier Lake is an intermittent and endorheic lake which lies in the lowest part of the Sevier Desert, Millard County, Utah. Like Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake, it is a remnant of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. Sevier Lake is fed primarily by the Beaver and Sevier rivers, and the additional inflow...
), finally reaching the town of Hinckley just before they split in Delta. US-6 turns to the northeast at that city, paralleling the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
's Lynndyl Subdivision
Lynndyl Subdivision
The Lynndyl Subdivision is a rail line owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad in the U.S. state of Utah, running from Salt Lake City southwest to Milford, where the Caliente Subdivision continues towards Los Angeles...
to the west of the Canyon Mountains, Gilson Mountains, and East Tintic Mountains
East Tintic Mountains
The East Tintic Mountains are a range in central Utah on the east margin of the Great Basin just west of the Wasatch front about south-southeast of Salt Lake City. The community of Eureka is an old mining town near the center of the range. U.S. Route 6 Passes through the central part of the range...
—three ranges that form the eastern boundary of the Basin and Range Province.
At Tintic Junction, the intersection with SR-36 in the Tintic Valley, US-6 turns east and ascends the East Tintic Mountains. It passes through the mining city of Eureka as it climbs to The Summit, before descending through Homansville Canyon into the Goshen Valley. Although it left behind the UP rail line at Tintic Junction, this part of US-6 parallels the former Tintic Branch of 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...
, which has been partially abandoned. After passing through Goshen, the highway curves around the north side of Warm Springs Mountain and into the Utah Valley
Utah Valley
Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. It contains Provo, Orem, and their suburbs, including Highland, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs, Mapleton, Spanish Fork, Lindon, Pleasant Grove, Springville, Lehi, Payson, and...
, where it enters Santaquin. On the east side of that city, US-6 begins an overlap with I-15, while the old alignment—SR-198—continues straight through Payson and Salem. After about 13 miles (20.9 km) together in the Utah Valley, US-6 and I-15 separate in Spanish Fork, the latter turning southeast onto a short two-lane expressway
Limited-access road
A limited-access road known by various terms worldwide, including limited-access highway, dual-carriageway and expressway, is a highway or arterial road for high-speed traffic which has many or most characteristics of a controlled-access highway , including limited or no access to adjacent...
. SR-198 rejoins US-6 on the eastern outskirts of Spanish Fork, and soon thereafter US-89 joins at Moark Junction. The two routes—US-6 and US-89—begin an overlap here that extends through the Spanish Fork Canyon, alongside the UP Provo Subdivision (ex-D&RGW), to Thistle in the Wasatch Range
Wasatch Range
The Wasatch Range is a mountain range that stretches approximately from the Utah-Idaho border, south through central Utah in the western United States. It is generally considered the western edge of the greater Rocky Mountains, and the eastern edge of the Great Basin region...
. The remainder of US-6 to the Colorado state line parallels this rail line (which becomes the Green River Subdivision at Helper).
US-6 continues alone through the Spanish Fork Canyon, now alongside Soldier Creek, to Soldier Summit
Soldier Summit, Utah
Soldier Summit is the name of both a mountain pass in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and a ghost town located at the pass. Soldier Summit has been an important transportation route between the Wasatch Front and Price, Utah since the area was settled by the Mormon pioneers. It is on the route of both...
on the Wasatch Plateau, where it finally leaves the Great Basin into the watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
of the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
. It begins to descend by following the White River, which empties into the Price River
Price River
The Price River is a river in the state of Utah, in the United States. The river originates in the Wasatch Plateau in central Utah and flows southeastward through Price Canyon, alongside U.S. Route 6, to the cities of Helper and Price...
near Colton. The Price River takes US-6 down through the Price Canyon, the west edge of 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,...
, joining US-191 at Castle Gate. The land flattens and opens out at Helper, named for the helper locomotives needed to carry trains up to Soldier Summit, and US-6 continues southeasterly around Price on a two-lane freeway
Two-lane freeway
A two-lane expressway is an expressway with only one lane in each direction, and usually no median barrier. It may be built that way because of constraints, or may be intended for expansion once traffic volumes rise. The term super two is often used by roadgeeks for this type of road, but traffic...
bypass, with the old alignment marked as both a business route
Business route
A business route in the United States and Canada is a short special route connected to a parent numbered highway at its beginning, then routed through the central business district of a nearby city or town, and finally reconnecting with the same parent numbered highway again at its...
and SR-55. Relatively flat land continues as US-6 parallels the Book Cliffs to the southwest and west, crossing the Price River at Woodside
Woodside, Utah
Woodside is a ghost town located on the west bank of the Price River in the nearly uninhabited eastern part of Emery County, Utah, United States. Its fenced-in filling station is one of the only signs of human activity along the lonely stretch of U.S...
. West of Green River, US-6 joins I-70/US-50, which it overlaps for the remainder of its stay in Utah. Now south of the Book Cliffs, the four routes head east to Crescent Junction
Crescent Junction, Utah
Crescent Junction is a small unincorporated community within Grand County in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Utah. The community is located at above sea level. Most highway maps use the name Crescent Junction, as the name given to the junction of Interstate 70 and U.S. Route 191...
, where US-191 splits to the south. As it begins to approach the Colorado River, the highway curves northeasterly through the Grand Valley
Grand Valley (Colorado)
The Grand Valley is an extended populated valley, approximately 30 miles long and 5 miles wide, located along the Colorado River in Mesa County in western Colorado and Grand County, Utah in the United States. The valley contains the city of Grand Junction, as well as other smaller communities...
and into Colorado.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is an agency of the Executive Branch of the U.S. government, part of the Department of Transportation...
, there were 519 fatal and serious injury crashes between Spanish Fork and Green River in Utah from 1996–2008, leading the stretch to be considered one of the deadliest roads in the U.S.
US-6 forms an arch-shaped route with Spanish Fork
Spanish Fork, Utah
Spanish Fork is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 31,497 as of the 2008 census estimate.-History:Spanish Fork was settled by LDS pioneers in 1851...
at the apex
Apex (geometry)
In geometry, an apex is the vertex which is in some sense the highest of the figure to which it belongs.*In an isosceles triangle, the apex is the vertex where the two sides of equal length meet, opposite the unequal third side....
. The western half of the arch is the road less traveled, passing through the Great Basin
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...
desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
, Sevier Lake
Sevier Lake
Sevier Lake is an intermittent and endorheic lake which lies in the lowest part of the Sevier Desert, Millard County, Utah. Like Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake, it is a remnant of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville. Sevier Lake is fed primarily by the Beaver and Sevier rivers, and the additional inflow...
, Delta
Delta, Utah
Delta is a city in Millard County, Utah, United States. The population was 3,209 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Delta is located at ....
, Eureka
Eureka, Utah
Eureka was originally known as Ruby Hollow before it developed into a bustling mining town. Incorporated as a city in 1892, Eureka became the financial center for the Tintic Mining District, a wealthy gold and silver mining area in Utah and Juab counties. The district was organized in 1869 and by...
and the Tintic Standard Reduction Mill
Tintic Standard Reduction Mill
The Tintic Standard Reduction Mill—also known as the Tintic Mill or Harold Mill—built in 1920, and only operating from 1921 to 1925, is an abandoned refinery located on the west slope of Warm Springs Mountain near Goshen, Utah, in the United States...
.
The eastern half is a popular transportation corridor, paralleling 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...
's transcontinental line. This half passes over Soldier Summit
Soldier Summit, Utah
Soldier Summit is the name of both a mountain pass in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and a ghost town located at the pass. Soldier Summit has been an important transportation route between the Wasatch Front and Price, Utah since the area was settled by the Mormon pioneers. It is on the route of both...
and the historic railroad hub of Helper
Helper, Utah
Helper is a city in Carbon County, Utah, United States about 120 miles southeast of Salt Lake City and northwest of the city of Price. It is also known as the "Hub of Carbon County". The population was 2,025 at the 2000 census....
.
Starting in the spring of 1983, US-6 was a discontinuous route for almost one year, due to a massive landslide that destroyed the town of Thistle
Thistle, Utah
Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, Utah, United States, about southeast of Salt Lake City. During the era of steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad...
. During this time traffic was routed on two detours. One, via Salina, Utah
Salina, Utah
Salina is a city in Sevier County, Utah, United States. The population was 2,393 at the 2000 census.-History:The first permanent settlers moved into the area in 1864 at the direction of leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
, was over 200 miles (321.9 km) long and took traffic almost 100 aerial miles from the route of US-6. The other, via Duchesne, Utah
Duchesne, Utah
Duchesne is a city in and the county seat of Duchesne County, Utah, United States. The population was 1,690 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Duchesne city is located at . just west of the junction of the Strawberry and Duchesne rivers in the Uintah Basin of northeastern Utah...
, was shorter. However, this detour traversed steep grades and was not recommended for trucks. The night before the rebuilt US-6 opened, the highway stubs at either side of the landslide were filled with tens of miles of trucks, the drivers tired of the lost revenue from the long detours. The landslide remains the most costly in the history of the United States. Two rest area
Rest area
A rest area, travel plaza, rest stop, or service area is a public facility, located next to a large thoroughfare such as a highway, expressway, or freeway at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting on to secondary roads...
s along US-6 pay tribute to the residents of the town who lost everything.
US-6 in Utah passes through or by several ghost towns including Tintic, Thistle
Thistle, Utah
Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, Utah, United States, about southeast of Salt Lake City. During the era of steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad...
, Tucker
Tucker, Utah
Tucker is a ghost town located in Utah County, Utah, below Soldier Summit on U.S. Route 6 through Spanish Fork Canyon. It was once an important loading point and construction camp on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. After the town was abandoned, the state of Utah used the town site for...
, Soldier Summit
Soldier Summit, Utah
Soldier Summit is the name of both a mountain pass in the Wasatch Mountains in Utah and a ghost town located at the pass. Soldier Summit has been an important transportation route between the Wasatch Front and Price, Utah since the area was settled by the Mormon pioneers. It is on the route of both...
, Colton
Colton, Utah
-External links:* at GhostTowns.com* at Legends of America...
, Woodside
Woodside, Utah
Woodside is a ghost town located on the west bank of the Price River in the nearly uninhabited eastern part of Emery County, Utah, United States. Its fenced-in filling station is one of the only signs of human activity along the lonely stretch of U.S...
and Cisco
Cisco, Utah
Cisco is a ghost town in Grand County, Utah near the junction of State Route 128 and Interstate 70. At one time the town served as a saloon and water-refilling station for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The town's demise came with the demise of the steam locomotive. The town site...
. Most of these towns were either mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
or railroad based.
The 120 miles (193.1 km) section of US-6 between Spanish Fork and Price is considered one of the deadliest stretches of highway in the United States. A high volume of trucks and automobiles travel that stretch at interstate speeds, along hairpin turns, through narrow canyons.
History
US-6 did not enter Utah until 1936, when it was extended west from Greeley, ColoradoGreeley, Colorado
The City of Greeley is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Weld County, Colorado, United States. Greeley is located in the region known as Northern Colorado. Greeley is situated north-northeast of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. According to the...
to Long Beach, California
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. The eastern half in Utah, from Colorado to Spanish Fork, overlapped US-50, but after a short segment on US-91 to Santaquin, it followed a route that was new to the U.S. Highway system into Nevada. This road was not yet built to good standards; while it was improved to Hinckley, the remainder across the desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
was a graded earth road. It was not paved all the way until 1952, when a new alignment was completed from Hinckley into Nevada; within a few years, US-50 was moved from a long overlap with US-40 (now I-80) south to the new road, completely overlapping US-6 through Utah. US-50 was moved farther south in 1976, due to the completion of I-70 across the San Rafael Swell
San Rafael Swell
The San Rafael Swell is a large geologic feature located in south-central Utah, USA about 30 miles west of Green River, Utah. The San Rafael Swell, approximately by , consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide...
, separating the two routes between Delta and Green River.
Utah Valley to Colorado
The road from SR-1 (US-91 by 1926, now US-89) in Spanish Fork southeast via Price and Green River to the ColoradoColorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
state line became a state highway in 1912, with the final section - Spanish Fork to Colton - being added in May. However, the original route was somewhat longer than present-day US-6, most notably between Price and Green River, where travelers went south from Price to Castle Dale via present SR-10 and then east to Green River via what are now county roads north of the San Rafael River (partly along an old never-used Denver and Rio Grande Railroad grade). Other differences included going southeast from Green River to Valley City and northeast to Thompsons. New construction through Price Canyon between Kyune and Castle Gate was made easier by the presence of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in the canyon. Later that year, the Midland Trail Association was organized in Grand Junction, Colorado
Grand Junction, Colorado
The City of Grand Junction is the largest city in western Colorado. It is a city with a council–manager government form that is the county seat and the most populous city of Mesa County, Colorado, United States. Grand Junction is situated west-southwest of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. As...
to promote a transcontinental auto trail
Auto trail
The system of auto trails was an informal network of marked routes that existed in the United States and Canada in the early part of the 20th century. Marked with colored bands on telephone poles, the trails were intended to help travellers in the early days of the automobile.Auto trails were...
that would include this road.
A 1913 law provided state aid to counties to construct the Midland Trail, with a general route defined. Initially it was to follow the present US-6 via Woodside
Woodside, Utah
Woodside is a ghost town located on the west bank of the Price River in the nearly uninhabited eastern part of Emery County, Utah, United States. Its fenced-in filling station is one of the only signs of human activity along the lonely stretch of U.S...
between Price and Green River, but an amendment changed it to the existing state road through Buckhorn Flat (east of Castle Dale). Travelers began using the Midland Trail through eastern Utah in early July 1913, and the road through Price Canyon, replacing a detour via Willow Creek Canyon (US-191) and Emma Park, was completed by the men of Price later that month. A.L. Westgard of the National Highways Association praised the improvements to the road since the previous year, singling out the Price Canyon segment as "almost beyond comprehension". Although it was hoped that it would become part of the Lincoln Highway
Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...
, the high mountain passes in Colorado convinced that association to designate a route farther north through Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
in September 1913. Midland Trail promoters were not discouraged; instead they were determined to continue to improve to the route to make it better than the Lincoln Highway.
The shorter route via Woodside rather than Castle Dale was considered again in 1916, due to problems with maintaining the latter and a new bridge over the Price River
Price River
The Price River is a river in the state of Utah, in the United States. The river originates in the Wasatch Plateau in central Utah and flows southeastward through Price Canyon, alongside U.S. Route 6, to the cities of Helper and Price...
at Woodside, and it was adopted as a state road in April. The piece northwest of Sunnyside Junction had already been designated as part of a state road to Sunnyside, the rest of which still exists as SR-123. A cutoff from Springville south to Moark Junction via Mapleton was also added that year.
A 1919 law redefined the state highway system to include only a short list of roads and any federal aid projects. At the urging of Grand County, the route that corresponded to the Midland Trail was realigned to the longer but more scenic road along the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
between Moab and Cisco, including the new Dewey Bridge. In response to a Carbon County request, the law also removed Price Canyon from the route, instead taking it along the older road through Willow Creek Canyon and Emma Park. Finally, the older route from Spanish Fork to Moark Junction was dropped in favor of the 1916 addition from Springville. Four years later, both counties had changed their minds, and the legislature changed the route back. The Moab-Cisco River Road was entirely dropped (though it was redesignated in the early 1930s as SR-128), but both the Price Canyon and Emma Park routes remained. Also that year, the Bureau of Public Roads approved Utah's seven percent federal-aid system in accordance with the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1921, including the Springville-Colorado segment of the Midland Trail.
In the 1920s, the State Road Commission numbered the Springville-Colorado roadway as State Route 8. Several years later, in 1926, it also became part of U.S. Route 50, which continued east to Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
(west of Thistle, the road was initially not part of US-50; instead it was the north end of US-89, which ended at Spanish Fork, leaving the Moark Junction-Springville road as simply SR-8). The legislature officially adopted the SR-8 designation in 1927, dropping the Emma Park alternate, and designating two other roads as SR-8: the Spanish Fork-Moark Junction road, which had been dropped in 1919, and a branch from Soldier Creek Junction northeast via Nine Mile Canyon
Nine Mile Canyon
Nine Mile Canyon is a canyon, approximately long, located in the counties of Carbon and Duchesne in eastern Utah, in the Western United States. Promoted as "the world’s longest art gallery," the canyon is known for its extensive rock art, most of it created by the Fremont culture and the Ute people...
to Myton
Myton, Utah
Myton is a city in Duchesne County, Utah, United States. Established in 1905, Myton had a population of 539 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Myton is located at ....
, which had been part of the 1919 system. The Myton spur was split off in 1931 as SR-53, and the Spanish Fork spur became SR-105 in 1945.
The state completely reconstructed US-50 east of Spanish Fork in 1930 and 1931, eliminating most curves and railroad grade crossings, and shortening it by 14 miles (22.5 km).
Utah Valley to Nevada
The Grand Central Highway was the local name for the road beginning at the Lincoln HighwayLincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway was the first road across the United States of America.Conceived and promoted by entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, the Lincoln Highway spanned coast-to-coast from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, originally through 13 states: New York, New Jersey,...
in Ely, Nevada
Ely, Nevada
Ely is the largest city and county seat of White Pine County, Nevada, United States. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. Ely's mining boom came later than the other towns along US 50, with the discovery of copper in 1906...
and running east and northeast through Delta and Eureka to the Arrowhead Trail in Santaquin. Due to its avoidance of the Great Salt Lake Desert
Great Salt Lake Desert
The Great Salt Lake Desert is a large dry lake in northern Utah between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border which is noted for white sand from evaporite Lake Bonneville salt deposits...
that the Lincoln Highway passed through, Ely garage owners were promoting it as the best route to Salt Lake City by May 1921. For the same reason - long stretches of desert - Grand Central Highway promoters believed it to be superior to the Arrowhead Trail for Los Angeles-bound travelers. The Eureka Commercial Club posted a billboard
Billboard
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
in Santaquin in July, advertising the "shortest and best all year route to California". The Midland Trail Association, whose trail followed the Lincoln Highway's route between Salt Lake City and Ely, adopted the Grand Central as an official alternate route in June 1922. The next year, the state legislature added the road from Santaquin to Silver City
Silver City, Utah
Silver City is a ghost town located at the mouth of Dragon Canyon on the west flank of the East Tintic Mountains in northeast Juab County in central Utah, United States. It was a silver mining town approximately south-southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah. This area was considered part of the Tintic...
(southwest of Eureka) to the state highway system, and in 1925 it was extended to Delta. Along with the road southeast from Delta to Holden, this was designated State Route 26 in 1927, and at the same time the road west from Delta to Nevada was added to the system as State Route 27. (The portion in Nevada became SR 14 in 1925.)
In 1925, during early U.S. Highway system planning, the Grand Central Highway was designated as U.S. Route 50's path across western Utah. However, when the final plan was approved in late 1926, US-50 had a gap between Ely and Thistle. The gap was filled in about 1930 - but via the Wendover Cutoff, far to the north, leaving the Grand Central Highway as only SR-26 and SR-27. The road again received attention in 1932, when the Roosevelt Highway Association was looking for a path for a westward extension of its trail - which had survived the 1920s by being identified with U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 6
U.S. Route 6 , also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, a name that honors an American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the U.S. Highway system, running east-northeast from Bishop, California to Provincetown, Massachusetts. Until 1964, it continued south from Bishop to...
- from Greeley, Colorado
Greeley, Colorado
The City of Greeley is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Weld County, Colorado, United States. Greeley is located in the region known as Northern Colorado. Greeley is situated north-northeast of the Colorado State Capitol in Denver. According to the...
to the West Coast. The association tentatively approved a route in April, entering Utah via US-50 to the Utah Valley, and leaving via the Grand Central Highway to Ely. The Delta Lions Club had suggested this alignment for the same reasons that the highway had become popular in the 1920s: cooler weather than the Arrowhead Trail (then US-91). Despite the State Road Commission designating US-40 across the state as the Roosevelt Highway in 1935, the final route, approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials as US-6 in December 1936, followed US-50 and the Grand Central Highway.
However, the designation did not mean that the road would be immediately improved. It was not until September 1952 that paving was completed west of Delta, largely on a new alignment south of the old road. Business Week described the original route as "nothing but a wagon trail-rutted, filled with dust...one of the worst chunks of federal [sic] road in the country." A two day celebration was held in Delta to mark the occasion.
Dividend was bypassed by a new route through Homansville Canyon in about 1931, and the old route (Dividend Road) initially became a branch of SR-26. It was renumbered State Route 159 in 1945 and deleted from the state highway system in 1969.
Major intersections
| County | Location | Mile | # Exit number An exit number is a number assigned to a road junction, usually an exit from a freeway. It is usually marked on the same sign as the destinations of the exit, as well as a sign in the gore.... |
Destinations | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Millard | 0.000 | Nevada state line | |||
| 0.665 | |||||
| 83.897 | |||||
| Delta | 89.402 | East end of US-50 overlap | |||
| 93.846 | |||||
| 99.720 | |||||
| Lynndyl | 105.630 | ||||
| Juab | 121.473 | Jericho-Callao Road | Former SR-148 | ||
| Tintic Junction | 136.645- 138.403 |
||||
| Utah | Elberta Elberta, Utah Elberta is a census-designated place in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 278 at the 2000 census. It is also known as "The Slant". It was founded as "Mt. Nebo". After the water failed in 1901 most of the... |
149.902 | |||
| Goshen | 152.868 | Center Street | Former SR-214 | ||
| 155.935 | |||||
| Santaquin | 159.615 | 200 West | Former SR-26A (US-91 south) | ||
| 160.568 | – Las Vegas | Interchange; west end of I-15 overlap | |||
| Payson | 248 | Payson, Salem (SR-178) | Interchange | ||
| 250 | Interchange | ||||
| 253 | Interchange | ||||
| Spanish Fork | 257 | Interchange westbound; at-grade intersection eastbound | |||
| 173.424 | Interchange; east end of I-15 overlap | ||||
| 177.200 | |||||
| 177.950 | West end of US-89 overlap | ||||
| 187.467 | East end of US-89 overlap | ||||
| 216.169 | |||||
| Carbon | 229.953 | West end of US-191 overlap | |||
| Helper | 232.676 | ||||
| 233.323 | |||||
| 235.823 | |||||
| Price | 239.921 | 240 | Interchange | ||
| 241.168 | 241 | Interchange | |||
| 242.470 | 243 | Interchange | |||
| Wellington | 249.383 | Nine Mile Canyon Road | Former SR-53 | ||
| Sunnyside Junction | 256.073 | ||||
| Emery | 300.359 | Interchange; west end of I-70/US-50 overlap | |||
| 160 | Interchange | ||||
| Grand | 164 | Interchange | |||
| 182 | Interchange; east end of US-191 overlap | ||||
| 187 | 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... (SR-94) |
Interchange | |||
| 204 | Interchange | ||||
| 373.963 | Colorado state line | ||||