Widtsoe, Government, and Cow poop

It is Sunday again....I will be so happy when we no longer have 9:00am church. But enough said about that. I should probably start calling this, Sunday Spill, or The-fun-stuff-we-did-in-the-last-few-weeks-that-I-finally-get-around-to-posting-on-Sunday.
We are going to check out another ghost town.
Widtsoe Utah (this name is not pronounced like it is spelled) The "T" is silent. Don't ask, I think it is because we are all a bunch of hicks. It was first occupied in 1879, and became a stopping spot for the Hole-in-the-rock pioneers. We learned in my last post, how to tell what kind of ghost town you are in. (It is after the 2nd picture, the italicized area.) Let's see if you learned anything.
I believe that this was once the Woodard House with the assay office extension on the back. I am only assuming.

The kids had a fun time wandering through this one, and speculating on what each room was used for. In the back, they could see a root cellar under the rotting floorboards. Yep, I am awesome like that. You want your kids in peril, send them with me. I want to go back and do some more wandering.

My 2 kids are right in the middle, Bryton and Justin, their cousins joined in on the fun.

 This is a pic from the outside, there was lots of rusty stuff around. Which brings me to the second thing I learned while Ghosttowning. See the first here.
#2~ Make sure you are up to date on your shots. No, we didn't have any issues this time, but easily could have. This pic is all kinds of adorable, if you ask me.

  This is an old church, I think. Only because it looks to be of similar design to the old one below. Just smaller. Again, it was difficult to get all the kids to cooperate for this pic. And by all the kids, I mean BigD. Please notice that he is looking at the ground.

I think it is the bell tower thingie, that makes me think church. Or the one room schoolhouse?

Here is a pic of the larger church from 1936, when the government bought the land to relocate the few stragglers who were left.

Can you imagine being the realtor trying to use these photos to get someone to buy here.

" It is a lovely place, lots of room to grow."

(My personal fave is the lone tree right in the center of the picture.)

 "It is a great place to live in the winter, you can unplug your freezer, and save lots of money, by just storing your frozen food outside. Oh, and did I mention Winter starts in September?"

 "Oh, and there is lots of places to shop, and by lots I mean one."

I have decided I need to do some research on what to look for, to identify places in Ghost towns. I have no idea what the thing is the boys are playing on. I LOVED the sky and the tree, in this one. I am standing on the sawdust pile from the old sawmill.

 Here is the contraption they are playing on. Any ideas what it could be?

 And just to prove that when life gives you crap, you can still grow pretty toadstools in it.

 I have no idea the make and model of this truck, but look how cute the kids are.

What kind of a ghost town is it? Since there were no ore cars or saloons, we can go with Mormon town.
At one point, this lazy little town had, 2 hotels, a church, 4 stores, a confectionery (which I am guessing is a candy store), and a 3 room schoolhouse. In 1920 the census stated that there was a population of 310 people, but in 1936 there were only 40 people left. The government came in and rescued the people from the harsh winters, and desolation. They purchased the land from them and relocated the people to other places in Utah.
So, if you go there, Don't remove ANYTHING! It would be a violation of both Federal and state laws. Plus, I guess people get all cranky if you do.

Ophir, Mercur, and Ghosts?

It is 2am on Sunday morning.
Why am I not sleeping you ask?
Stupid steroids! I really hope they help with the earache and dizziness. Since the loss of my hearing, and balance nerve in my left ear almost 4 years ago, I have had bouts of dizziness. But nothing like the last week or so, due to the ear infection/barometric pressure. But that is a different story for a different time. Me telling you this, just answers your first question in the longest way possible.
So while I am awake, and everyone else in my house is making me jealous, with all the sleeping they are getting done, I figured I would write a long overdue post, on ghost towns.
Don't ask me what my fascination is....I can't put my finger on it. I think I must feel a strong tie to things of the past. I like to imagine what went on there. Maybe I just like the old west? I have read every Louis L'Amour ever written. Some even more than once, which Mac thinks is crazy. So here we are with 2 more ghost towns, to add to the other 4, we have seen since spring break.
First is Ophir.. a friendly little town .......NOT! This welcome sign, is a ruse. But, my kids look cute posing around it.
I think LittleMan and Red are trying to look like they are lifting it. Not sure though.

Ophir has a welcome sign, but then, about every 3 feet, there is a no trespassing sign. Again, they LIED when they said "Welcome". On top of the no trespassing signs, there are several Quiet Time signs.

I took this picture just so you wouldn't think I was lying.

While visiting Ghost towns this summer I learned a few things.
#1~ Don't tell people that live there, that you came to visit their Ghost town. They tend to get their panties in a wad.
We ran into this lady, as we stopped by the town museum. (It is only open on weekends) First she informed us that this was her property. (It was the only spot in town that wasn't covered in, No Trespassing signs.)  I mentioned that I was taking my kids to see some of the ghost towns in Utah this summer. She very nicely informed me that, " this is not a ghost town, and it needed to be taken off the list". As if there were some Ghost town statistician, who I could call and give that message to. Not! She wasn't nice at all. You would think with all the sleep those town people were getting they would be a little less grumpy. Maybe it was the lack of Diet Coke, at the convenience store, since I didn't see one. So we promptly loaded back in the car, like clowns at the circus, and moseyed on up the road. Because that is what you do in the old west, is, mosey.
There is a new blog I found, while doing my research, before we visited these fun places. The man who writes this blog gave me a really good hint as to how you can tell what kind of a ghost town you are in.
"towns in Utah typically had two different backgrounds. Either you were sent to some far off patch of land by the LDS Church and spent your days trying to stay alive, or you ran off to the hills and found something of value and stayed to mine it. If you are having a hard time telling which type of town you are in, look around and count the number of ore carts that you can see. If that number is greater than zero, chances are you living in a mining town. This test may produce some incorrect results if you are visiting a mining museum."
Did I mention this guy is funny. Seriously, if he wrote history books, kids would quit drooling on their desks in class.
 If we apply his tried, and true, technique for knowing what type of ghost town you are in...

(Say this in "The Counts" voice). One ore cart....ahahahah.....
(I wish I could explain how long it took me, and how hard it was, to get my kids to pose for this picture.) Stinkers.
Two, two ore carts...ahahahaha!! We can conclude from this, that we are in fact, in a mining town.
Doesn't BigD look thrilled to be here? Truthfully though he LOVES going to see ghost towns. But maybe not so much waiting for mom to take a million pictures.
One of my favorite things in this picture, (besides my kids) is the, little water tower doohickey in the upper middle of the pic. It even had a little spigot on it.

Now you need to know,the area we were in, when the above picture was taken had, No Trespassing signs all over. I knocked on many doors in the area, hollered around, and tried to find someone to ask about the town, the rail cars, and mining equipment. No such luck. So we came, we saw , we skedaddled. (another good old western word one must use while exploring ghost towns.)
I was trying for artsy with this one, but I couldn't get BigD to stop pretending to "drink like a wino" to get a good one. Look how nice and properly Cutie and Red are being.

This structure is on the way into town. I believe it is a flume, used to transport ore down to the base of the mountain. You can see it better in the next pic down.

There is a structure up above that you can't see in this pic.

Now is that special? I will be honest, I thought it was a really pretty canyon. I could see why people lived there. Even without the silver that was mined there. Now all that is left is a cute little town, that isn't friendly, and some Iron Pyrite. In the defense of the people who live there. Generally people who live in towns of 100 people, move there because they don't like people. So I shouldn't have expected any different. oh, I almost forgot, BigD said he wanted to move there. Maybe folks would be nicer if my son moved in.

In the next canyon down you can find what is left of the ghost town of Mercur. If you want to know more about it go here. You can also use Google.
We didn't drive very far up the canyon, when we saw to the right....this. There is a little pullout spot with a sign. If you look closely you can see the picket fencing. Around about 10 graves there is the little picket fences. I have to admit, it is even a little creepy in the daytime. At night......yikes.

 Now this canyon, on the other hand, I can't see why anyone would want to live here. Can you say desolation? This is the trail you have to hike up.

Here is a blurry picture of my kids with the graves in the background. I am blaming the blurriness on the ghosts. One must have wanted to hog the picture.

 The biggest thing I wonder is why the little fences? who is buried there?

 

Did the people who buried them just get tired of burring all their neighbors and resort to rocks? I can imagine, I would be tired of hauling boards up that hill, but they were made of stronger stock.
this looks as if it could be a family of eight. This picture took forever too, mostly because I was trying to get the twins to quit hitting each other. As you can see BigD is raring back to smack LittleMan in this one.

An interesting place to visit. Apparently it is haunted, you wouldn't catch me there at night. But definitely worth seeing. My dad things Widstow cemetery is desolate, I think this one has it beat.
It is now 3:30, I think I may try for sleep again. I hope this post makes some sense.