Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/Thistle, Utah

Thistle, Utah
This nomination predates the introduction in April 2014 of article-specific subpages for nominations and has been created from the edit history of Today's featured article/requests.


 * This is the archived discussion of the TFAR nomination for the article below. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests). Please do not modify this page. 

The result was: scheduled for Today's featured article/April 17, 2013 by BencherliteTalk 21:24, 7 April 2013‎ (UTC)



Thistle is a ghost town in Utah County, Utah, about 65 mi southeast of Salt Lake City in the United States. During the era of steam locomotives, the town's primary industry was servicing trains for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The fortunes of the town were closely linked with those of the railroad until the changeover to diesel locomotives, when the town started to decline. Just downstream from Thistle, a slump had been in slow motion for years, with no serious thought of investigation. The landslide situation deteriorated rapidly in April 1983, with the town evacuated on April 17. The landslide dammed the Spanish Fork River, destroying the town, severing key transportation arteries and leaving parts of eastern Utah isolated for months until new arteries could be built. Federal and state government agencies have claimed this was the most costly landslide in United States history, the economic consequences of which affected the entire region. The landslide resulted in the first presidential declared disaster area in the state of Utah.

5 points: 30th anniversary of the evacuation of the town, 2+yrs FA, AFAIK the last ghost town to appear on the main page was Rhyolite, Nevada on September 28, 2012. The article as written is about a ghost town, as such, I have not claimed a point for underrepresented topic, but will note that the article has a significant connection with Geology. I picked the 17th, as the day the evacuation orders were given, but the article would fit on any date in mid-April. Dave (talk) 03:54, 25 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Comment: Perhaps the blurb could be expanded a bit more, especially the part about the significant connections with Geology?? &mdash; Cirt (talk) 15:27, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
 * I've worked on it some more. Also one of the sources is acting up, it's not dead, but some of the relevant content isn't loading. I presume it's temporary, but just in case, as a reminder to myself, here is a wayback.org copy . Dave (talk) 03:12, 26 March 2013 (UTC)
 * The image is offputting. Its hard to see and parse at this resolution; I was thinking, great, another hurricane article, when in fact, looking closerr, its quite more than that with a potentially very good hook. Ceoil (talk) 16:05, 30 March 2013 (UTC)
 * That's what I get for following directions, which specify an image width. If the picture were enlarged a bit (as other noms on this page have done) I suspect that would help. I'll tweak and see what happens. I have to ask, when you think of Utah you think of Hurricanes? Having lived a significant portion of my life in that fair state, I can attest there are a ton of incorrect stereotypes about it, but that's a new one for me. =-) Dave (talk) 20:17, 1 April 2013 (UTC)
 * No no of course not, it was just at that image size I wasnt sure what I was looking at. I am a bit blind though! Better now. Ceoil (talk)


 * Support Ceoil (talk) 22:29, 1 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Support: Interesting place.--Chimino (talk) 21:29, 3 April 2013 (UTC)