Gold and silver drew men west, but coal powered the nation. While most of today’s well-known Western ghost towns prospered during the search for precious metals, Sego was a coal town, supplying fuel for railroads, homes and industry.
Extensive panels of Barrier, Fremont and Ute pictographs and petroglyphs in this area of eastern Utah bear witness to the presence of these distinct Indian cultures over several millennia.
Local rancher Henry Ballard owned most of the town of Thompson Springs, a stop on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad and site of an 1888 train robbery by the Blue Mountain Gang. In 1908 Ballard discovered a rich seam of high-quality coal in a nearby canyon, hired locals to mine the seam and began to sell it in his store.
In 1911 Ballard sold out to B.F. Bauer, who then founded the American Fuel Co. The company built a general store, a boardinghouse and a coal tipple, along with the first coal washer west of the Mississippi. It also renamed the town Neslin after the mine’s general manager. As miners were allowed to build homes wherever they wished, dwellings lay scattered throughout the canyon. The population peaked at about 500.
By 1913 railroad crews had built a spur to the mine from Thompson Springs; it crossed the canyon stream 13 times in five miles. The mine was shipping 600 tons per day, mostly to Colorado and Green River, Utah. However, the local water table began to drop, causing problems with the mining methods, and flash floods regularly washed out bridges on the railroad spur.
American Fuel fired Neslin as manager in 1916 and renamed the town Sego, after the Utah state flower, the sego lily. In 1925 the company itself was renamed the Chesterfield Coal Co.
Throughout the 1920s the company paid miners mostly in scrip, usable only at the company store. In 1933 the workers unionized for regular pay. Meanwhile, the discovery of dinosaur footprints brought paleontologists to Sego in the 1930s and ’40s.
The mine closed in 1947, but the 27 remaining miners purchased it at a sheriff’s auction and continued operations as the Utah Grand Coal Co. By 1950 fire had destroyed the tipple and other mine buildings, the railroad had abandoned the spur from Thompson Springs, and conversion of the railroad from steam to diesel power had destroyed the regional coal market. In 1955 a Texas-based oil and gas company bought the company, and some mine buildings were moved to other locations.
Today Sego is reachable via a level dirt road from modern-day Thompson. Treasure hunters burned several of the mining-era buildings in 1973. Remaining structures include the general store, railroad bridges, dozens of dugouts and the cemetery. The distinctive two-story boardinghouse recently collapsed. On the drive up to town keep watch for an excellent interpreted rock art site.
Originally published in the October 2011 issue of Wild West. To subscribe, click here.
