Lucin, Box Elder, Utah Genealogy

History


Lucin is a class 2 railroad ghost town in Box Elder County. This town was an 1800's railroad stop for steam engines. Water was piped from a nearby mountain to replenish the railroad's steam locomotives. The town was moved ten miles to the south in 1903 to act as a stop of the Lucin Cut-Off.

To shave off 40 miles of difficult long climbs through the mountains, a trestle was built through the Great Salt Lake bypassing the Promontory Branch in 1904. This was known as the Lucin Cutoff.

During the construction, a station was erected at each mile-end of the projected road. At each station, a boardinghouse was built on a platform raised on piles well out of the way of storm-waves. There the men lived until their work was finished. "Workers were allowed to bring wives and children with them. They were housed in box cars called 'out-fit' cars placed on temporary sidings." In 1936 the town was occupied by families of the Central and Southern Pacific Railroad retirees, there to live their golden years. The town has been vacant since the 1972. Now the town lies empty, as all the buildings have mainly been destroyed.

To help with the WWII War effort, the old steel rails along the original route of the Lucin Cutoff, from Lucin through Promontory, were removed. In the late 1950's, a causeway was constructed parallel to, and about 1,500 feet north of, the original wooden trestle structure across the lake. This rendered the trestle cutoff obsolete. Abandoned and not maintained, the wood in the crumbling trestle structure was salvaged beginning in 1993 and now is largely gone


 * History of Lucin
 * Lucin
 * Lucin Cut-Off
 * American-Rails

Location

 * GPS Location: 41.352451, -113.902542

Maps

 * 1895 Map of Box Elder County

Neighboring Communities
Promontory | Kelton | Terrace | Snowville | Rosette | Etna | Grouse Creek

Cemeteries
Check cemeteries in neighboring communities.


 * Box Elder County Cemeteries
 * Box Elder Utah Gravestone Photo Project
 * Findagrave.com

Historical Newspapers

 * Box Elder News

Marriages

 * Marriage information may be located at the Western States Marriage Database searchable by bride or groom.

Death

 * Utah Department of Archives 1903 to 50 years ago Choices of search types - name, date of death (year, month, day, or any combination) and county. Images of actual death certificates.
 * Utah Death Certificates 1904 - 1956 -A free internet access to the 1904-1956 death certificates can be viewed on the Family Search Historical Records. Utah requires a death certificate before a burial is completed.  A death certificate may contain information as to the name of the deceased, date of death, and place of death, as well as the age, birthdate, parents, gender, marital status, spouse and place of residence.  For information on death prior to 1904 you can search the Utah State Burial Index.

Suggested Reading

 * The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns.
 * Some Dreams Die: Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures
 * ''Connecting the West : historic railroad stops and stage stations of Elko County, Nevada

Websites

 * Central Pacific Railroad - brief history
 * History to Go
 * History of Lucin
 * Lucin
 * Lucin Cutoff
 * Lucin Cutoff Photos
 * Utah Ghost Towns