Sego Canyon Pictographs & Petroglyphs - Thompson Springs, UT

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Located north of Thompson Springs, Utah is Sego Canyon, also known as Book Cliffs and Thompson Wash. This side trip off of I-70 west of the Utah/Colorado line provides not only a peek at prehistoric rock-art, but also the remains of the old coal town of Sego, a once thriving coal mining camp.



About 3 ½ miles north of Thompson Springs, on Sego Canyon Road, are the petroglyphs and pictographs left by several different cultures.





Evidence of human habitation or use of the Thompson Springs area can be dated back to the Archaic Period who left beautiful Pictographs in Sego Canyon. Subsequent Anasazi, Fremont, and Ute tribes have also left their mark upon the area.

Thompson Springs was named for E.W. Thompson, who lived near the springs and operated a sawmill to the north near the Book Cliffs. The town began life in the late nineteenth century as a station stop on the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad, which had been completed through the area in 1883. A post office at the site was established in 1890, under the name "Thompson's." The town was a community center for the small number of farmers and ranchers living in the inhospitable region, and it was also a prominent shipping point for cattle that were run in the Book Cliffs area. Stockmen from both San Juan and Grand counties used Thompson.

Thompson gained importance in the early twentieth century due to the development of coal mines in Sego Canyon, north of town. Commercial mining in Sego Canyon began in 1911, and that year the Ballard and Thompson Railroad was constructed to connect the mines with the railhead at Thompson. The railroad branchline and mines continued operating until about 1950.

Construction of I-70 two miles south of Thompson Springs drew traffic away from the city as Route 6 was no longer used. The later movement of the passenger train stop to Green River, Utah led to further economic hardship for Thompson.



Thompson Springs is also the site of several well-preserved groups of pictographs and petroglyphs left by early native Americans. The Fremont culture thrived from A.D. 600 to 1250 and was a contemporary with the Anasazi culture of the Four Corners area. There is also rock art from the Archaic period dating from 7000 B.C., the Barrier Canyon period from around 2000 B.C., and the Ute tribe dating from A.D. 1300.

Map Below

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=39.01765,-109.70990&ll=39.01765,-109.70990&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

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