Saturday, August 22, 2009

Mineral Basin



David and I went with the Sons of the Utah Pioneers (SUP) group on August 22 to a place in the Wasatch Mountains called Mineral Basin. We had been there camping with our children years ago, but the last time we tried to go up there, the road was too rough for our van to go up all the way. We were very sad. When the SUP wanted to go, we were all for it. We started out riding about 9 a.m. and stopped at several places to hear a local historian tell us about the life of miners in American Fork Canyon and some of the interesting things that had gone on there. The first picture is a place called, "Split Rock". Kind of obvious how it got its name, right?

The second picture is a place called Graveyard Flat. The sign tells about the epidemic that took the life of 11 children and the next picture shows their graves. They just piled up rocks for their headstones. Kind of sad.

Then we traveled on to the top of the mountain. It was quite a climb and we were afraid that some members of our group wouldn't make it to the top, but we all did. Here we saw the grave of George Tyng who died the day after they excavated the largest rock of solid Galina (silver ore) that had ever been found, (something like 46 x 23 x 18 feet). In those days, it was worth about $850,000! Imagine what it would be worth today! He died in late January, they carried his body back to American Fork which took six days. Then they open his will and it says he wanted to be buried where they found the Galina. So they took another six days carrying him in a sled to get him back up there, blast a hole in the rock, and bury him there. David and I are standing by the sign that tells about him.

The other pictures are some of the scenery that we saw along the way. It was a fun, but exhausting day.