Rio Grande Ave, Marysvale

: Marysvale, UT Sep. 15, 2014

I’m representing the Rio Grande remnants we found during our vacation in Utah.

I believe this is one of the Rio Grande remnants; Rio Grande Ave at Marysvale. Depot St or Railroad St is common for the railroad-related street name in a town. I think the street crowning the name of a railroad is unique. Google Maps tells us that Salt Lake City and Midvale also have Rio Grande St in Utah.

Here, at Marysvale, the street connecting the depot and the center of the town is named Rio Grande Ave. The town was the terminus of Marysvale Branch.

Marysvale Branch was a 132.8 miles standard gauge branch diverting south at Thistle, Utah. It reached Marysvale in 1900. The 1983 massive landslide at Thistle forced the railroad to abandon the branch. It was formally abandoned in 1986. But the last of regular train service to Marysvale was much earlier; Marysvale saw the last train in 1972[1].

Nothing but the street name still lives on at Marysvale today. Little hut in front of the Moore’s Old Pine Inn is said to be the depot; might have been cut from the original structure which measured 192’ long. The former depot site is covered with bush, and the right of way stretching 0.6 miles from the depot to the very end of the track at the alunite reduction mill is fading into nature, as you can see in the photo below[2, 3].

All photos were taken on Sep. 15, 2014.

revised, Mar. 18, 2019

[1] DRGW NET web page;
[2] 1985 photo of the very end of the track;
[3] Strack, Don, (2019) "Marysvale Alunite", utahrails.net;

: part of former depot
: former depot site
:the right of way toward the very end of track


ユタ州における元Rio Grande沿線に今も残るRio Grandeの遺物を紹介している。

写真にあるように（標識にはEが抜けているが）、このMarysvaleというユタ州南西部の町にはRio Grande Avenueという通りがある。それは、1983年まで、この町までRio Grandeの支線が通っていたからである。

駅前通りや停車場線という道路名称は洋の東西を問わずよく見るが、鉄道会社名を冠する通りは少ないと思う。グーグルマップで検索してみると、ユタ州ではここの他、Salt Lake CityとMidvaleにRio Grande Streetがあるようだ。

このRio Grande Avenueの東端にかつてあった駅の跡は、現在は草むらと化している。その先、鉱石積み出し場まで1キロほど延びていた線路敷きは、自然に帰ろうとしている。このように、ここにRio Grandeの支線が通っていたことを証すものは、この道路標識のみである。