Matlin is a
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...
in the northeastern end of the
Great Salt Lake Desert
The Great Salt Lake Desert (colloquially referred to as the West Desert) is a large dry lake in northern Utah, United States, between the Great Salt Lake and the Nevada border. It is a subregion of the larger Great Basin Desert, and noted for wh ...
in western
Box Elder County,
Utah
Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
, United States.
Description
The former town was established by the
Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) on April 5, 1869.
Chinese railroad workers
The history of Chinese Americans or the history of ethnic Chinese in the United States includes three major waves of Chinese immigration to the United States, beginning in the 19th century. Chinese immigrants in the 19th century worked in the ...
built a small community and facilities to support the track section. The town relied on the railroad through its entire history. In 1904 the site was abandoned when the
Lucin Cutoff
The Lucin Cutoff is a railroad line in Utah, United States that runs from Ogden to its namesake in Lucin. The most prominent feature of the cutoff was a railroad trestle crossing the Great Salt Lake, which was in use from 1904 until the late ...
was finished. Records indicate that the population was 15 people in 1870 and 25 in 1876. These numbers most likely did not include
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
residents.
All that is left of the town is the profile in the
rail grade of a
wye built in 1900.
In June 2020, the Matlin Fire (a
lightning
Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an avera ...
caused
wildfire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...
, which started June 4) eventually burned about in the area surrounding Matlin. The fire damaged some, and destroyed many other, significant artifacts that had previously remained at the site. In describing the area after the fire, Chris Merritt (a historic preservation officer for the
Utah Division of State History) stated, "It just looked like this giant shadow across the land, like driving into
Mordor
In J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world of Middle-earth, Mordor (pronounced ; from Sindarin ''Black Land'' and Quenya ''Land of Shadow'') is the realm and base of the evil Sauron. It lay to the east of Gondor and the great river Anduin, an ...
."
See also
*
List of ghost towns in Utah
This is an incomplete list of ghost towns in Utah, a state of the United States.
Classification
Barren site
* Sites no longer in existence
* Sites that have been destroyed
* Covered with water
* Reverted to pasture
* May have a few diffi ...
*
Central Pacific Railroad Grade Historic District
References
External links
Ghost towns in Utah
Ghost towns in Box Elder County, Utah
Populated places established in 1869
1869 establishments in Utah Territory
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