In April of 1983, the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad yard and the small town of Thistle, Utah became victims of of a landslide which dammed the Spanish Fork River. Residents of the small town were evacuated as nearly 65,000 acre feet of water backed up behind the natural dam, destroying the small town. This photo was taken from the old US Highway 89 overpass on April 17th, three days after the slide closed the mainline and parallel US Highway 6. Efforts to save the original highway and rail alignment were officially abandoned later this same day. The dam eventually rose to nearly 300 feet above the old riverbed and Rio Grande's CTC equipped double track main drowned beneath the waters of 'Lake Thistle'. On July 4th, the D&RGW opened a new mainline via Billy's Mountain along the hillside at upper left. Within months, the lake was drained and a new highway opened above the new railroad. Federal and state government agencies have claimed this to be the most costly landslide in United States history.
