Terrace, Utah

Terrace is a ghost town in the Great Salt Lake Desert in west-central Box Elder County, Utah, United States.

Terrace, Utah
Ghost town
Looking south at the site of the former Terrance Roundhouse, with Terrace Mountain in the distance, c1980 photograph
Looking south at the site of the former Terrance Roundhouse, with Terrace Mountain in the distance, c1980 photograph
Terrace is located in Utah
Terrace
Terrace
Location of Terrace within the State of Utah
Terrace is located in the United States
Terrace
Terrace
Location of Terrace within the United States
Coordinates: 41°30′13″N 113°31′01″W
CountryUnited States
StateUtah
CountyBox Elder
Founded1869
Abandoned1904
Elevation
[1]
4,550 ft (1,387 m)
GNIS feature ID1438027[1]

Description
Looking west at the site of the former Terrace Switchyard, c1980 photograph

The town was established April 1, 1869, as a Central Pacific Railroad "division point" (operations base), on the route of the First transcontinental railroad and included a 16-stall roundhouse and an eight-track switchyard. Terrace was dependent on the railroad throughout its history. The town may have had 1,000 people at peak, including a sizeable population of Chinese railway construction workers.[2][3]

The former town (as well as the nearby Terrace Mountain) was named for the shoreline terraces of the former Lake Bonneville in the area.[4]

History

In 1904 the Southern Pacific Railroad, successor to the Central Pacific, completed the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake. The new route bypassed Terrace, and the tracks through town became a little-used branchline. The railroad closed its facilities at Terrace, moving the division point to Montello, Nevada, about 40 miles (64 km) to the west–southwest. The railroad line through Terrace was finally abandoned in 1942. Many of Terrace's houses and buildings were moved to Montello. The cemetery still remains with only three headstones, and only a pile of red bricks and the outline of the turntable is next to the old railroad bed.

The tracks along the grade were removed in 1942.[5] The grade was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, as part of the Central Pacific Railroad Grade Historic District. In 1993 the Bureau of Land Management designated the grade as part of the Transcontinental Railroad Back Country Byway.

See also

References
  1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Terrace
  2. Gershon, Livia (October 16, 2021). "Artifacts Used by Chinese Transcontinental Railroad Workers Found in Utah". Smithsonian. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  3. Raymond, Anan S.; Fike, Richard E. (1994). RAILS EAST TO PROMONTORY The Utah Stations. Bureau of Land Management. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
  4. Van Cott, John W. (1990). Utah Place Names: A Comprehensive Guide to the Origins of Geographic Names: A Compilation. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. p. 367. ISBN 978-0-87480-345-7. OCLC 797284427. Retrieved July 17, 2020.
  5. Van Moorleghem, Gail (May 1994). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Transcontinental Railroad Grade". nps.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved July 1, 2020. With accompanying six photos from 1992

Additional reading

Media related to Terrace, Utah at Wikimedia Commons

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