Pleasant Valley Junction

This railroad town sat on something found almost nowhere else. Pleasant Valley Junction grew up in the early 1880s where the Rio Grande line crested the summit into coal country, with a roundhouse and a branch running down to the Pleasant Valley mines. Renamed Colton, it shipped livestock and freight and traded briskly in ice. But its oddest export was ozokerite — a natural mineral wax, dug from the ground here and, of all places, the hills of central Europe, and almost nowhere between. The town is nearly gone; the railroad moved on, and the wax played out.

What the plaque says

Pleasant Valley Junction about 1/2 mile So. of this site, began in the early 1880's when the Rio Grande R.R. extended the main line from Tucker over the summit into Carbon County. A round house was built and a branch line extended to the Pleasant Valley Coal camps. All coal shipped from Pleasant Valley used this new route. The area was re-named Colton in the late 1890's & was important as a railhead for livestock shipment, general freight, & a thriving ice industry. Another part of Colton's economy was the mining and milling of ozokerite, a mineral wax found only here & in Austria. The store behind this monument was moved from the original townsite in 1936.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Prehistoric Museum at USU Eastern — 20 mi
  A small-town museum punching way above its weight in dinosaur science
• Price — 20 mi
  A gritty coal mining town with a surprisingly excellent dinosaur museum
• Fairview — 27 mi
  The north gate of the Heritage Highway, home to a near-complete Ice Age mammoth
• Mount Pleasant — 32 mi
  A National Register Main Street and Utah's oldest boarding school

More markers nearby

• Soldier Summit — 6.7 mi
• Pleasant Valley Coal Company — 11 mi
• Utah's Coal Industry — 11 mi
• Castle Gate Mine Disaster — 11 mi