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?

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!

Frisco's Charcoal Ovens

 A few weeks ago we decided to stop at Frisco, a ghost town with a lot of mining history, since the friends we were traveling with had never visited. I wrote about Frisco's history in this post from 2008. (It was good for me to reread, as I had forgotten a lot of it. Which is one of the reasons I started a blog in the first place, so I could help myself remember all these fun little things that I learn!)

 Five charcoal ovens are at the site, and  a couple of them are still in really good condition.

 The kids. I like the sepia--almost makes it look old-fashioned. If you just ignore the fleece, puffy jackets, character t-shirts, velcro shoes, zip off pants, embroidered jeans, etc. These kids are probably a little too clean to be kids living in a mining village.

 The charcoal ovens are a lot of fun to photograph.

 However, the kids didn't want to stay there. They wanted to explore some of the old buildings.

 This roof looks out of place on the ground. What happened to the rest of the building?

 Here's the group peeking in.

 Turns out there's a cellar underneath the roof, with some fun light on the wall from holes in the roof.

Here Evan, Desert Boy, Desert Girl, and Anna check out a foundation, with the ovens in the background. There's so much more to explore in this area! The old railroad bed looks like it could be a fun hike. Every time I visit a ghost town, I try to imagine what life was like. My overwhelming feeling is that it was a lot harder than today.

Smith Creek Cave

 Half way up the tall limestone cliffs of Smith Creek Canyon is a gaping hole. It's called Smith Creek Cave, and over the years as I've driven by I've wanted to go up and see what was there. When my friend Andrea and her family came to visit, I decided the time was right. They liked caves and were ready for a hike. So we packed up and drove out to the canyon.

The kids were quite excited about the creek fording. Most of the year Smith Creek by the canyon mouth is dry, but it's running now due to spring (and summer) runoff. After we crossed the creek, we drove along the road until we found what we thought was the closest place to hike to the cave. There's no trail, so we were off on a wild adventure.

We started off about 10 am, and it was already quite warm by then. First we had to trek through a long slope covered in thick cheatgrass.

I had Desert Girl in the backpack, so I was really appreciative of Andrea and her husband, Kevin, who helped Desert Boy quite a bit.

 

 Especially when we got to this rock climbing section! There's a scrambling route around it, but Desert Boy's friend, just a year older than him, is a great climber and was up it in a flash.

Andrea and her daughter, with the valley bottom already far in the distance.

We had to take several breaks, trying to find a little shade next to the juniper trees. Desert Girl got a little crabby, so I had to feed her snacks the whole way up. Finally we made it.

The entrance was much larger than it had looked from below. The main room of the cave goes back in quite a ways, and we liked the shade and cooler temperatures.

After a snack break, we started exploring. There are several pits in the cave, as the cave has been the subject of paleontological and archeological surveys.

Here's what paleontologist Timothy Heaton has to say about Smith Creek Cave:
"New species of mountain goat (Stock 1936), eagle (Howard 1935), and gigantic vulture (Howard 1952) were described from Smith Creek Cave, the primary site. Literature on the Smith Creek Canyon sites includes a description of the avifauna by Howard (1952), the micromammalian fauna by Goodrich (1965), the herpetofauna by Brattstrom (1976), the whole fossil assemblage by Miller (1979) and Mead et al. (1982), and the archaeology by Bryan (1979), Harrington (1934), and others."

Wow, this cave may be a pain in the butt to get to, but it sure has revealed some really neat things! The mountain goat was named Harrington's Mountain Goat, and was smaller than today's mountain goat, with a narrower face and thinner horns. It existed for at least 19,000 years, before disappearing about 11,000 B.C.


The gigantic vulture may have been the largest North American bird capable of flight, with a wingspan of 16-17 feet (5 m)! It was originally named Teratornis incredibilis, but later the name changed (as so many do!) and is now known as Aiolornis incredibilis.


The archeological excavations of the cave showed that the cave was reoccupied periodically between 12,000 and 10,000 B.C., which is considered the Paleo-Indian period. This is when Lake Bonneville inundated parts of Snake Valley, huge animals lived in the area, and the vegetation distribution differed significantly from today. The excavations completed in 1968, 1971, and 1974  showed that the users of the cave hunted mountain sheep, other artiodacctyls (hoofed animals), buffalo, and a small camelid. In the cave, they processed hides (Bryan 1977).

I had a vague recollection of a cave map and that there was a passage that went back in a ways. Kevin graciously volunteered to stay with Emma in the big room while Andrea and I took the older kids back farther into the cave.

The belly crawl through packrat scat was really dusty and unpleasant, but it led into a bigger room where we could stand. We didn't find any notable formations. The dusty floor led up steeply, so we followed it. Then we saw some light. Another entrance!

It was nice to get out to some fresh air. I tiptoed to the edge to see if there was a way back down to the main entrance so we wouldn't have to go back through all the dust, but it was a steep drop off.

The kids were all good sports, eager to explore.

One of the surprises at the upper entrance was a sizable amount of nailhead spar. This calcite crystal made some beautiful patterns. Some of the spar had fallen off and looked like big dinosaur teeth. That was amusing to at least one of the little cavers.

The kids spotted another passageway, so we went down it, hoping again that it might be a way to avoid the dusty passages. But alas, it dead ended quickly and we had to slither our way back through the dusty passages.

Back in the big room, we enjoyed the great views.

I can only imagine what it was like for the Paleo-Indians to be sitting in the cave, looking out over the valley. They would have seen a lake lapping at the shores, much greener vegetation (none of that reddish cheatgrass that is in the photo above!), and interesting animals occasionally passing into view.

We would have stayed longer, but we were getting hungry, and lunch was down below.

So we said our goodbyes and started down.

Smith Creek Cave isn't a cave I would go to for fun caving, but the paleontological and archeological context make it interesting.

Kevin really helped Desert Boy on the way down.

We had our own little mountain goat!

After we got down, we ate lunch in a little rock shelter just up the road, and then it was time to go get clean.

And what better place to get clean than Gandy Warm Springs!

The kids swam until they had goose bumps.

Desert Girl was leery of the water at first, but before long she was totally immersing herself.

The cool water (about 80 degrees F) felt great.

And the scenery was beautiful. The kids thought this was the best part of the day. Maybe the adults, too. But we especially appreciated the warm springs after the hot hike and dusty cave!