The primary route crosses the Wasatch Mountains, via the Wasatch Plateau and Soldier Summit. This confluence, at an elevation of 5,043 feet (1,537 m), is also the junction of two naturally formed routes across the mountains of central Utah. Thistle is about 65 miles (105 km) southeast of Salt Lake City, at the confluence of the two primary tributaries to the Spanish Fork River, Thistle Creek and Soldier Creek. The remains of Thistle are visible from a view area along US‑89 or from the California Zephyr passenger train. Route 89 (US‑89) and the railroad (now part of Union Pacific Railroad's Central Corridor) were closed for several months, until they were rebuilt on a higher alignment overlooking the area. The landslide resulted in the first presidentially declared disaster area in Utah. Federal and state government agencies have said this was the most costly landslide in United States history, the economic consequences of which affected the entire region. Thistle was destroyed only a few structures were left partially standing. The residents were evacuated as nearly 65,000 acre-feet (80,000,000 m 3) of water backed up, flooding the town. In April 1983, a massive landslide (specifically a complex earthflow ) dammed the Spanish Fork River. 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. During the era of steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (often shortened to D&RG, D&RGW, or Rio Grande). Thistle is a ghost town in Spanish Fork Canyon in southeastern Utah County, Utah, United States.
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