In Search of Newhouse

 On Saturday on the way to town (town meaning any place with more than 200 people), I decided I wanted to go find Newhouse, a ghost town. I knew that some of the first settlers in the area where I live had gotten off the train at Newhouse and continued by wagon over the mountain ranges and basins. I was recently reminded of Newhouse when I discovered the book Utah Ghost Rails by Stephen Carr and Robert Edwards. I found it at the Utah DNR Bookstore, one of my favorite places to browse for local publications. In the book, I found information about the railroad tracks extending from Frisco, a rowdy ghost town near Milford, Utah, to Newhouse. I had seen remnants of those tracks from Highway 21, but hadn't thought much about them. With Desert Boy's love of trains, I figured it was time to make the journey.

 I thought I knew which road led to Newhouse. When we saw the above mining remains, I figured we were on the right track. The hole in the ground intrigued me, so I got out and found that it went deeper than I could see. Scary!

The good road continued, but we didn't see more old mining structures. Instead, we saw this:

 Modern equipment and fresh piles of rock. Had someone started reworking the old mines near Newhouse? Or were these new ones?

The road was gated and no one was around, so we didn't have our questions answered. We turned around and headed up a little two-track road.

We didn't get far. We found another gate and a sign saying that the area was owned by Horn Silver Mines, Inc. I recognized the name from the Frisco side.

I saw a couple of adits on the hillside.

We still didn't know where Newhouse was, and the roads were a little too rocky for the van, so we parked and started hiking.

Desert Girl wanted me to take a picture of her.

We hiked for a bit, but the kids quickly decide that wasn't what they really wanted to do. They wanted to go back to the van. On the way, though, they found a distraction.

It was time to rock climb!

Desert Boy made it to the top and was happy. We headed back to the highway, with a detour down another two track road. We encountered some other people who were also looking for Newhouse but couldn't find it.

So we headed to Milford and got directions at the tourist information in the caboose. We needed to go back down in the valley more. So after running a bunch of errands and enjoying the Minersville swimming pool, we headed back towards Newhouse. This time we found it, with a turnoff from Highway 21 near mile marker 57. (One book says the road used to be marked, but it certainly isn't now. However, if you look off into the distance, you can see some of the buildings from the highway--something I had never noticed before.)

Out among the cactus and cheatgrass, we found some old buildings.

We found quite a few old foundations.

The kids had a great time looking for lizards.

The Cactus Mine was started in 1870, before the mine in Frisco. But it didn't have many investors and little was mined until 1900, when Samuel Newhouse came from Salt Lake City. He had previously invested in the copper mines up Bingham Canyon, which proved quite successful. With his capital, plus investments from England and France, the Cactus Mine was worked more and proved to be profitable. A town developed on Newhouse's land around the mine, called Tent-town due to the temporary nature of the "buildings".

A few years later, the mine was still going strong, and some permanent buildings were erected. The town became known as Newhouse and included a cafe, library, livery stable, hospital, several stores, and a hotel. It even had an opera house and dance hall. Water was not available right there, so it was piped in from Wah Wah Springs five miles west, and an electrical system was installed. Water not used for mining and culinary purposes irrigated the city park. The saloon and red light district were relegated to a mile outside of town, off of Newhouse's property. The town was orderly in contrast to Frisco around the hill, which at its heydey had 23 saloons and was known as the wildest town in the Great Basin (from Stephen Carr's Utah Ghost Towns).

Hmm...opera house vs. 23 saloons...

The Utah Southern Extension Railroad built a depot at the end of the Frisco Branch.  In addition to the Frisco Branch, a separate standard gauge railroad named the Newhouse, Copper Gulch & Sevier Lake was built between the Cactus Mine and the Cactus Mill.

The ore didn't last forever, though. It didn't even last for long. About five years after the town was settled, the Cactus Mine gave out, after producing $3.5 million worth of ore.  Other mines in the area weren't big producers, so the town, like most mining towns, quickly quieted. Many buildings were moved into Milford. The cafe continued, serving sheep and cattlemen and a few miner, until 1921 when it burned down. The tracks were pulled up to Frisco in 1927, and then the track from Frisco to Milford was taken up by August 1943.

Although most of the town had disappeared, I was surprised by how many remnants we could still see.

We were short on time, so only got a quick glimpse of some of the structures and foundations.

We found that the road followed part of the old railroad bed. It started getting a little too rocky for our van so we had to turn around. But we'll be back to explore more of this neat old ghost town.

Lund's Pioneer Day Festival

Today is an official holiday. At least it is for the state of Utah. State government offices are closed, as are many businesses. When I came to the Great Basin, I had never heard of July 24th as a holiday, but it turns out it generates a lot of road traffic in Utah, second only to Fourth of July.

What is this holiday?

It's Pioneer Day.

Pioneer Day commemorates when Brigham Young and his followers reached the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. According to Wikipedia, Pioneer Day celebrates all pioneers, defined as those who arrived before the transcontinental railroad chugged into the area in 1869.

We didn't camp overnight on the streets of Salt Lake City to hold our spot for a parade, but we decided we did want to see a parade, so we headed to Lund, Nevada (they had their celebration over the weekend). The town was settled by Mormons, and they celebrate their heritage with a two-night rodeo, dance, parade, barbeque, fireworks, and more.

While we waited for the parade, Desert Boy got a lesson in roping. He's decided he's going to be a great roper. We'll have to get him a rope first and see if he's willing to give up finding new pets and spend time twirling his rope.

The parade started quietly, with beautiful horses and riders leading the way.

The Grand Marshal for the parade was a true pioneer, 107 years old. Wow!

At the other end of the spectrum were some of the youngest riders I've ever seen. Apparently the twins each weighed over seven pounds at birth. Those are going to be some tough youngsters!
For locals, you might recognize the parents--they lived recently in the next valley over.

With it being an election year, a few politicians came and tried to garner extra votes.

This guy on the unicycle made me tired just watching him! It takes so much balance--plus each pedal stroke only gets you about three inches down the road!

It was a long parade, with a lot of great entries. When they reached the end of the parade route, they simply turned around and came back on the other side of the road, so we got to see everything twice.

The family floats were really creative.

After the parade was a program with fun acts. These ladies got the crowd laughing.

The quartet did an amazing job.

We really enjoyed the barbeque lunch. I also ran in the 5K and got my best time this year. We saw just a tiny bit of the rodeo, and the kids had fun playing some games. It was a fun event, and a good excuse to get away for part of the weekend!

How did you spend Pioneer Day?

Kennecott Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon Mine

Back in May (yep, I'm just a wee bit behind on posting some photos!), we took a trip to the Kennecott Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon Mine. We had seen it advertised on a flyer at the hotel, and it looked like something a little different to do. So we loaded up in the van and headed a bit south of Salt Lake City. After paying our $5 vehicle entrance fee, we proceeded up a windy road marked with numerous signs warning us to stay on the road.

We followed the signs for the visitor center, and upon arriving, found this amazing sight in front of us.

This copper mine has produced more copper than any other mine in history--more than 18.1 million tons. It's about 2 3/4 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep. Mining started in Bingham Canyon in 1863, with engineers soon after recommending a revolutionary way of mining the ore, using a process called open-pit mining and then refining the ore on an industrial scale.

The large scale processing proved necessary because this low-grade ore only contains 10.6 pounds of copper per ton of ore! About 200 holes, each 55-feet deep, are drilled each day and packed with 1,200 pounds of special blasting agents. Every day about 150,000 tons of ore and 330,000 tons of overburden are mined.

To move all this ore and overburden, the mine has 70 giant haulage trucks. You can see the size of them above compared to the crew-cab pickup that is also traveling on the road. Each haulage truck carries 255 to 320 tons of material in each trip at an average speed of 13 mph.

The visitor center had a nice movie and well-thought-out displays. The kids especially liked the models of the mining equipment. I really liked looking at the historic photos and how much things have changed. We also learned about different uses for copper, such as in plumbing, computers, and telephones. It turns out that each person in the U.S. uses about 30 pounds of copper a year. It was a thought-provoking trip, and I'm really glad we went and took a look.

Later, I got to see the mine from the Oquirrh Overlook, which you can take a peek at in this blog post.

To learn more about the mine and get directions for visiting, check out their website.

Day 7 - Minnetonka Cave

 Our last big stop for our trip was Minnetonka Cave near St. Charles, Idaho. I had found out about it during my research and figured we just had to make a stop. The 10-mile paved road to the entrance is in really good condition. We had it all to ourselves so were surprised to pull up to a full parking lot at 11 a.m. We bought tickets right away for a tour starting at 11:30. By the time we started our tour, they were selling for 1:30 p.m.

A short walk leads to the entrance. Minnetonka Cave is on the Cache National Forest. The tours are run by a concessionaire.

The cave tour includes 444 steps each way, both up and down, so it's a little workout. We had plenty of time to stop and look at some of the nice formations.

Some porcupine bones were arranged on a boulder. Before the cave was called Minnetonka Cave, it was known as Porcupine Cave.

Unfortunately some parts of the cave are lit with colored lights. I guess this is to make the cave more appealing to visitors, but it detracts from the natural beauty of the cave. Likewise, the tour would be much better if the tour guide concentrated on facts and not pointing out the Seven Dwarfs and having us name them all (major eye rolling), along with Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy's Tail, in the form of a "halagmite" (more eye rolling).

We enjoyed the cave, and it's well worth the stop.

From there we ate lunch in the rain (rain, what's rain?) in Garden City, headed down beautiful Logan Canyon, and stopped at the Utah State University Press. I had never met the people who published my book in person (the book is available over in the sidebar), so it was nice to put a name and voice to a face!

We dropped off my brother Ed in Salt Lake City, as we didn't have a way back for him to the airport, and he didn't want to risk getting stuck in the boonies. I'm sure he would have eventually adapted! Fortunately he was able to find some fun things to over the weekend. We then headed back out into the void. The entire trip was about 1,500 miles, which to my mind was not that much for a week.  Of course, when I was a kid, it was a three-day drive home from Yellowstone, with lots of fighting with my brothers. ("Mom, he touched me!") Fortunately my kids haven't started that (yet) and were good travelers. I guess it's time to start thinking about a fall weekend getaway. Hmm...

Day 7 - National Oregon/California Trail Center

 We arrived too late in Montpelier, Idaho to go to the Oregon/California Trail Center, so we stayed the night, ate a Boy Scout pork roast dinner, and watched a fun fireworks display (not necessarily in that order!). The next morning we headed to the center.

 Montpelier is at the edge of the Great Basin, and I've been doing research about the entire Great Basin for an upcoming book, so I had learned about this center and really wanted to go.

 This sign made me laugh.

 They had a special Bigfoot/Sasquatch exhibit, which was a little odd. I guess we just don't have Bigfoots coming down into the central Great Basin, so I don't have much experience with Bigfoot sightings.

 Down in the basement were some historical exhibits by the DUP (Daughters of Utah Pioneers) and railroad exhibits, as Montpelier has busy train tracks through it. The nice lady in the museum really interacted with the kids. Desert Boy walked through the museum once and was ready to leave.

She told Desert Boy, "You're looking at things too fast." She led him over to the typewriter and let him type. Then he got to do some other activities on the old equipment.

As we headed up the stairs, he said to me, "Mom, she was right. I really was looking at things too fast."

 This quilt caught my eye. It's based on an historic photo. What impressive craftmanship!

Then it was time to begin our tour of the Oregon/California trail. It's a living history tour, with costumed interpreters.

 We first learned what we needed to take on the trail, how to make rifles, and other assorted important information. Then we prepared for our 2,000 mile journey.

 We were fortunate, we didn't have to walk the whole way, we got to make some of the journey in a covered wagon. The moving wagon freaked out Desert Girl, and she kept saying for hours afterward, "Oregon scary. Oregon scary." It was kind of cute. Hopefully she will recover some day.

When we exited the wagon we stopped at some camps and learned more about life on the trail. Those people sure had it rough! Desert Boy and Desert Girl were fascinated with the 45-minute program.

It was a fun stop. After we finished the living history portion, the kids ran back to the basement to continue looking at the local history museum. I've never seen them so interested in history!

Day 6 - Paris Ice Cave

 Heading south from Grand Tetons, we decided to visit Paris Ice Cave near Paris, Idaho. We got some directions from a local and headed up the good gravel road.

 After putting on helmets and finding lights, Desert Boy took off down the trail to the entrance.

 It was an impressive entrance, with huge blocks of limestone. We could feel a cold breeze coming out of the cave.

 We found lots of snow and ice still in the cave, despite it being July.

 A sturdy boardwalk helped us get across the icy wet parts.

 We still had to do some walking on the snow and ice, and Desert Boy found that it was painful to fall.

 The boardwalk part of the cave is not long, and you can see one entrance from the other. However, I could see that there was more cave, cave where we needed lights.

 We found another big room, with lots of ice.

 Ed checked out an ice formation.

 It is amazing how slippery the ice is!

 Ed looked up to see where all those big chunks of ice had come from. You certainly wouldn't want to be underneath when they fell.

 There was another entrance in this room, but it led to a long chimney that was too difficult for the kids.

 Quick pose!

 The ground is really rough around there. We wandered a bit and found one cave that looked only accessible by rappelling into it.

 Meanwhile, Desert Boy and Dad found another passageway and surprised us by coming out.

The Paris Ice Cave was a highlight of the trip. It's not big, but it sure is fun!