Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 17, 2013

Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, Utah, about 65 miles (105 km) southeast of Salt Lake City in the United States. During the era of steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The fortunes of the town were closely linked with those of the railroad until the changeover to diesel locomotives, when the town started to decline. Just downstream from Thistle, a slump had been in slow motion for years, but had not been seriously investigated. The landslide situation deteriorated rapidly in April 1983, with the town evacuated on April 17. The landslide dammed the Spanish Fork River and almost completely destroyed the town; only a few structures were left partially standing (schoolhouse pictured). It also severed key transportation arteries and left parts of eastern Utah isolated for months until replacements could be built. Federal and state government agencies have claimed that it was the most costly landslide in U.S. history, and it resulted in the first presidential declared disaster area in the state of Utah. The remains of Thistle are visible from U.S. Route 6 or from the California Zephyr passenger train. (Full article...)

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