Dragon, UT

Dragon is a ghost town in eastern Utah about a mile west of the Colorado border. It was founded around 1888 and served as a booming regional hub for the mining of Gilsonite. Gilsonite is a pure form of of solid hydrocarbon asphalt, and at the time the mines in the Uintah Basin were the only known source of this mineral in the world. Gilsonite was named after Samuel Gilson, who along with partners started the first commercial mining company to mine and market it. Gilsonite is used as an asphlate modifier, in oil well drilling , and in paints and lacquers. It was famously used to make "Japan Black" lacquer used on Ford Model T automobiles.
The town boomed between 1904 and 1911 as the terminus for the narrow-gauge Uintah Railway. The railway moved its line farther north in 1911 and Dragon lost its importance as a regional shipping hub. Mining operations ceased in 1938, the Uinta Railroad went bankrupt in 1939, and the town was completely deserted by 1940.
There are a couple of ways to get to Dragon from Colorado. You can take CO 139 out of Loma to Rangely-Dragon Road to Dragon. This is cool because you cross 8000 ft Douglas Pass in the Bookcliffs (very scenic). Alternately you can take CO 201 out of Mack. This will take you through the ghost town of Atchee. Atchee was a company town that serviced the Uintah Railroad carrying gilsonite from the mines to Mack. Continue on CO 201/Dagon Road over 8441 ft Baxter Pass to Dragon. This route is a little narly and impassable in winter and mud season. I visited Dragon in July of 2021.