Desolation Canyon

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1968.

From the record

“Desolation Canyon is a remote canyon on the Green River in eastern Utah, United States that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It is said to be one of the most remote areas in the contiguous United States.”
Wikipedia article Desolation Canyon, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 26 National Register listings published here for Carbon County · listed in 1968 · category: Site · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

Address. Address Unknown, Green River
When was it listed? November 1968
Category. site
National Register reference number. 68000057 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

13 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 13 fires within 5 miles of Desolation Canyon between 1994 and 2018, burning about 643 acres in total. 12 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	12
Equipment and vehicle use	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
2 September 2005	Natural	under an acre	Uintah and Ouray Agency	BISHOP SPG
9 August 2013	Natural	under an acre	Moab Field Office	ELK RIDGE
7 August 2003	Natural	2.0 acres	Uintah and Ouray Agency	WLDHORSECN
3 August 1996	Natural	100 acres	Uintah and Ouray Agency	WILDHORCYN
7 July 2009	Natural	2.0 acres	Uintah and Ouray Agency	NO. WILDHORSE
7 July 2008	Equipment and vehicle use	240 acres	Moab Field Office	RAIN CANYON
7 July 2007	Natural	under an acre	Uintah and Ouray Agency	FIREWATER
4 July 2004	Natural	under an acre	Uintah and Ouray Agency	RIDGETOP

Every fire recorded in Carbon County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Desolation Canyon: 1 occurrence. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Uranium, Phosphorus-Phosphates. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	White Rock No. 11 Prospect	Uranium, Phosphorus-Phosphates	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Carbon County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 68000057 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Carbon County	All 26 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.