The Spirit Railroad site is located approximately 35 miles east of Castle Dale on Trust Lands’ 31,000-acre Cedar Mountain Block, which is managed by the agency on behalf of Utah’s public school system.
Trust Lands employees and volunteers installed directional signs to the historic site and constructed buck and rail fencing to create a designated parking area. They also installed a kiosk structure to hold informational and interpretive panels to educate visitors about this historic site.
As its name implies, Spirit Railroad refers to a railroad line that was never completed. In 1880, the Denver and Rio Grande Railway began building a narrow-gauge rail line through the Rocky Mountains from Colorado to Utah. From Green River, the railroad would travel through Cottonwood Wash and Buckhorn Flat to the Castle Valley Junction, located east of Huntington. From the junction, the rail line would divide with one route traveling south through Castle Valley and continuing down Salina Canyon. The other branch would head north through Price Canyon.
Although construction began almost immediately on the route between Castle Valley Junction to Green River, it would never be completed. However, the Spirit Railroad grade can be traced across Buckhorn Flat and down Cottonwood Wash.
Penstemon Conservation Agreement
A multi-agency Utah conservation team is working to protect two species of penstemon found in the Uinta Basin, Graham’s and White River beardtongue. The team includes representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Utah Public Lands Policy Coordination Office, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, School and Institutional Trust Lands
