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Sego Canyon
Rock Art & Ghost Town
Sego
Canyon is a great adventure the entire family will enjoy. The canyon contains rock
art from three different Native American cultures and a very well preserved ghost town.
The company store and a boarding house still partially stand in the center of town.
There are ruins to many houses scattered through out the canyon along with remnants
of the coal mine. |
Location:
From
Green River Utah drive 25 miles east on I-70. Take exit 187 and drive north on the
main road through the town of Thompson. The three rock art panels are located 3 1/2
miles north of Thompson. The road is paved to the pictographs and petroglyphs.
The site is protected by a wooden fence and has a small parking lot complete with
information plaques, picnic tables and vault toilet.
To
reach the Ghost Town of Sego drive 1/2 mile further up canyon on a maintained gravel road
until you reach a fork in the road. Turn right at the signed turn-off to Sego
Canyon. The cemetery is seen immediately to the right. Keep heading up the
road about another mile, and the ruins come into view. The town site is on private
property, you are welcome to drive up and see the ruins. Just respect the land and
structures.
Ute Historic Panel:
This panel is probably from the
19th century. The panel contains white men, horses, buffalo and shields.
Unfortunately, this panel has been heavily vandalized. |
 |
 |
Fremont Style Panel:
This panel shows a hunter,
life size human figures, mountain sheep and geometric designs. This rock art is
similar to the petroglyphs found in Nine
Mile Canyon. |
Barrier Style Panel:
In addition to many smaller
figures, the panel contains about ten life size human shapes, most have a strange
mummy-like appearance. They lack arms or legs, and often have huge insect-like eyes
and skull-shaped heads. This panel is similar to the famous Grand Gallery found in Horseshoe Canyon. |
 |
If you look directly across the canyon from
the Barrier Style Panel you can see two additional panels located just above the horse
corral. The panel to the right contains several Barrier Style pictographs. The
panel to the left contains several petroglyphs and gringo-glyphs.
Ghost Town:
Sego has a history unlike most ghost towns
in Utah. Its history is surrounded by coal and not gold or silver. A rancher
named Harry Ballard made the discovery in the early 1890s. Ballard bought the land
surrounding his find and started operations on a small scale. In 1911, Ballard sold
the mine to a group of Salt Lake City investors. Production started with grand plans
for a long and prosperous run of coal production. The new owners built a store, a
boarding house and other buildings all with their own water supply. Trouble started
almost immediately when the water supply started to dry up. There were other
problems as well, all of which contributed to little or no profit for the investors.
Some miners were not paid for as long as a year but received script, which enabled them to
buy food and other necessities for their families from the company store. In 1933,
the miners agreed to become members of the United Mineworkers Union. On November
1,1947, the mine was closed and the property sold at auction.
Nearby Attractions:
There
is a dinosaur trackway not far from the town of Thompson known as the "Copper Ridge Sauropod Dinosaur Tracks".
If you are in the area the dino tracks are fun to visit.
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