Kelton is a ghost town in the middle of Box Elder County, Utah.  There isn’t much to see here besides a cemetery and some building foundations.  At its peak, Kelton had 200 people with an “uncounted Chinese population of considerable size.”  If you walk the area you will find bits and pieces of old glass, metal, cement, brick, and perhaps what appears to be some broken dinnerware.

You can see clear signs of where the railroad traveled through town.  Some of the railroad ties are visible along with some spikes.

This small town had a life span serving the Central Pacific Railroad from 1869-1942.  It’s named after a local stockman.

This is where I think a well was for the town (below).

If you visit the cemetery you will see a information sign.  Here is what it says about Kelton:

Mile 734.1 from San Francisco.

Kelton served as a section station for the Central Pacific Railroad from 1869-1942.  The location was originally called Indian Creek but was soon renamed Kelton in honor of a local stockman.

The town was built around the railroad section station and featured large water cisterns to fill daily trains of water cars.  Water was a precious commodity in this arid region and was originally drawn via redwood pipeline seven miles to Kelton from the foot of the Raft River Mountains.

In its early years, Kelton had a post office, a two-story hotel, and several saloons, stores, and homes.  There were about 100 people living at Kelton in 1870 and the population peaked at about 200, plus an uncounted Chinese population of considerable size.

Stagecoaches left daily, carrying passengers to Boise in two days, Walla Walla in four days, and Portland in five-and-a-half days.  The Wells Fargo stagecoach from Kelton to the rich northern mines was reportedly the most often robbed stage line in the west.  It was usually held up every week, and occasionally daily.

Kelton’s prosperity declined with the completion of the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake.  After the cutoff opened in 1904, the line became a backup in case of problems on the Lucin Cutoff and trains dropped to weekly services.  Although it still served as a shipping point for local trade and supported a post office, general store, telegraph office, and hotel, by 1937 the town’s population had dwindled to just 47.

Remains of the old hotel and cemetery can still be seen at the Kelton site today.

The depot at Kelton was considered a “combination” depot.  The passenger depot is on the left and the freight depot is on the right.

In a typical year during the 1870s, six million pounds of supplies were loaded from trains onto wagons in exchange for furs, wool, and cattle.

From a newspaper clipping from the Corinne Journal Reporter on January 15, 1873, it states that one of the saloons was called Scott’s Saloon.  There was a “affray” on that date in which one of the assailants attacked a man and cut a “five inch gash” on his face.

You can also see the Historic Wheeler Survey Marker.  Here is what it says:

In 1869 The United States Army sent First Lieutenant George M. Wheeler on a brief reconnaissance which later created the Country’s “Geographical Survey West of te One Hundredth Meridian”.  This survey gave our leaders the first accurate mapping of the Western half of the Country, collecting data of the natural history, geology, geography, climate, weather and ethnology.”

Here are some old photos of Kelton from the Deseret News Archives.