Lucin

Lucin (also known as "Umbria Junction") is a deserted former railroad workers' settlement in Box Elder County , Utah, on the west bank of the Great Salt Lake , about 261 km northwest of Salt Lake City .

Lucin was founded in the second half of the 19th century as a water station for steam locomotives, approximately 1.6 km (one mile) north of the ghost town's current location. The old Lucin drew the water to supply its inhabitants and the steam locomotives from springs that rose in the swamps of the Thousand Spring Valley. The historic Lucin was renamed "Grouse" and demolished in 1907 by the railway company. In 1903 the newer Lucin was founded at its current location at the Lucin Cut-Off , a railway line opened in March 1904 that runs across the Great Salt Lake. Lucin's population consisted mostly of employees of the Central Pacific Railroad (CPRR) and Southern Pacific Railroad and their families. In 1936 the settlement of the newer Lucin was largely abandoned. In the 1960s, Lucin was once again inhabited by retired railroad workers for a short period, but they left Lucin by 1972.

Lucin is named after the fossil shell Lucina subanta .

Little has been preserved of the historic site. There is also an artificial pond that draws its fresh water through a pipeline from the nearby ridge, the Pilot Range.

Before the construction of the Lucin Cut-Off, the railway circumnavigated the north bank of the Great Salt Lake. The embankment of the former railway line can still be seen northeast of Lucin, in the direction of Promontory, Utah, or the Golden Spike National Historical Park .

Individual evidence

^ "The Central Pacific railroad: a trip across the North American continent from Ogden to San Francisco", Nelson's Pictorial Guide Books, Publisher: T. Nelson and sons, New York, 1870, p. 11; https://archive.org/details/centralpacificra00newy/page/10/mode/2up/search/Lucin ; accessed on March 21, 2020
^ National Park Service, "Rails East to Promontory - The Utah Stations, The Promontory Branch Stations, Umbria and historic Lucin", https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/blm/ut/8/sec2a.htm ; accessed on March 21, 2020
^ RG US Rail, Historical Central Pacific Grade, http://www.rgusrail.com/utcpgrade.html ; accessed on March 21, 2020

[1] "The Central Pacific railroad: a trip across the North American continent from Ogden to San Francisco", Nelson's Pictorial Guide Books, Publisher: T. Nelson and sons, New York, 1870, p. 11; https://archive.org/details/centralpacificra00newy/page/10/mode/2up/search/Lucin ; accessed on March 21, 2020

[2] National Park Service, "Rails East to Promontory - The Utah Stations, The Promontory Branch Stations, Umbria and historic Lucin", https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/blm/ut/8/sec2a.htm ; accessed on March 21, 2020

[3] RG US Rail, Historical Central Pacific Grade, http://www.rgusrail.com/utcpgrade.html ; accessed on March 21, 2020