Jackson

Jackson is a ghost town sitting in the western desert of Box Elder County, Utah, at the far western end of the Lucin Cutoff, just west of the Great Salt Lake. It was never much of a settlement — little more than a railroad siding established by the Southern Pacific, which named the stop after a local prospector who ran a mine in the area.

The site is best remembered for a catastrophic event on February 19, 1904, when two Southern Pacific trains collided and ignited a carload of dynamite. The explosion devastated everything within a half-mile radius and claimed the majority of lives present at the time.

Visitors today will find a stark, remote desert location with little infrastructure. The history here is more in the story than in any surviving structures, and the setting itself — isolated high-desert terrain near the Great Salt Lake — is the primary draw for those making the trip.