Many years ago, Mara stopped in the small town of Thompson Springs, UT during a road trip with some friends through the desert southwest. The city sits just off I-70 about 40 miles from Moab, but call it 30 as the crow flies. That flight path, by the way, would take the crow directly over Arches National Park, one of the more gorgeous of the many gorgeous places in southeastern Utah, though one would be hard pressed to call Thompson Springs itself gorgeous.
Mara’s first visit years earlier found her entranced with a broken down gas station by the side of the road. She was compelled to re-visit the place.
On our return in 2014, we found the old gas station had fallen even further into oblivion, reduced to ash in a controlled burn conducted by the local volunteer fire department.
A short stretch off the interstate, a four-way stop marks the center of the city. Many of the buildings in the vicinity have been abandoned. Most that have not are in disrepair. An old depot still stands beside active tracks where trains rush magnificently through the city a few yards from the crossroads.
We saw a train coming around the bend in the distance. Mara rushed from the track-side, a fearful screech escaping her lips as the train reached the town far quicker than she’d anticipated. (She refused to let me post the short video I managed to take in the moment. Maybe it’ll find it’s way on-line at some point.)
The city’s namesake E.W. Thompson operated a sawmill in the area in the late 1800s. The train line went in in 1893, serving as a portal for the cattlemen and farmers in the area, and establishing the town as a community center for the region.
A motel stands at the town crossroads, a sign of the passenger trains that shared the line with the big freight cars.
Through mid-century, the town served as the junction point for loads of coal being transferred down from mines up Sego Canyon, a few miles north. The canyon had its own particular charms, and is the subject of a new post we’ll put up shortly.
Despite the “past its prime” feel, there are obviously a few folks still living in Thompson Springs. We saw an older couple in heated conversation in the vicinity of the crossroads. They seemed pretty intent on what they had to say to one another, so we did not interrupt.
Cafe Decay 
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