Union Pacific's Little Mountain Branch
This page was last updated on September 17, 2015.
(Updated from text originally published in 2005 as part of the book, Ogden Rails)
Ogden Rails, A History of Railroading At The Crossroads Of The West
(Union Pacific Historical Society, 2005) (Available from UPHS.)
In May 1967, Great Salt Lake Minerals and Chemicals Corp. began building a large plant for commercial extraction of potassium sulfate, sodium sulfate, and magnesium chloride, along with common salt.
In early 1969, after applying in September 1967, Union Pacific obtained federal ICC approval to build a 13-mile branch westward from Hot Springs (Little Mountain Junction) to the newly completed minerals extraction plants. Approval came in February 1969, and after delays in the courts, construction was completed in September 1971. The branch was abandoned in December 1997, following the merger of UP and SP.
With the pending UP-SP merger, completed in September 1996, in August 1996, the Little Mountain Branch was found to be a duplicate service, and was abandoned. It was converted to the Little Mountain Rail Trail in June 2002.