Wild, Wild West

This weekend's adventure? Find an old western town.

My roommate is starting to plan her new book--a western. She typically does Regency, so this new genre requires research. What better place than Utah to do it?

She heard Park City began as a western town, and still had a historic area, so we decided to hop on over the mountain to check it out. We went, only to find that while the structures are old, the content of the buildings are modern. I'm not entirely surprised--it is a ski resort town. ...that seems to have most businesses on spring break for the month of April to mid-May... All in all, there wasn't much for us to do.

They do have a silver mine, which we were hoping to explore, however, they apparently closed it down to guests in 2015. So it was a bust for our purposes.

The day was still young, so we crossed the valley, to check out another mining town, but made a quick stop in Saltair--which is also closed for the season until May 1.

Now, Saltair used to be quite the hangout spot. Originally, there was an amusement park that was over the Great Salt Lake--over 100 years ago. It was also, at one point, a popular venue for big band entertainment and movies. The current building is still used regularly for concerts, but it's not like the resort that it used to be. To give you an idea of how much has changed, it sits along the old shore of the Great Salt Lake. Unfortunately, you have to take quite a little walk to actually reach the water these days. The first picture is from about 50 feet onto the old lake bed.

Back on the road! Next stop, a small little town past Tooele called Ophir. (I'm honestly unsure if it is big enough to even be called a town. It is like a block long, and there was not really anywhere to park, unless you counted the middle of the road. ...Which we did. It wasn't heavily trafficked, so why not?)

The GPS did a great job of getting us there. I feel like if I zoned out for a second--it was a lot of open road--I would have missed the street, and thereby missed the whole town. It is just that small.

Once you turn off of the highway, there's one more turn to get the road to take you to town. The road takes you through a canyon, that even in the late afternoon makes you feel like you're driving into an episode of Scooby Doo. Though, that could be in part because the website we first learned about Ophir from suggested they might not be the most welcoming of visitors.

Courtesy of my car, it was obvious we were visitors. It is far enough set back that one doesn't simply go there unintentionally, either.

Luckily, that was not an issue. We never really saw anyone. ..I'll explain later.

An interesting thing to note about Ophir: it's named for the Biblical town where King Solomon would regularly receive gold, silver, pearls, etc. The "modern" town was a mining town. Gold was discovered there in the 1860s.

One of the first sites to greet you as you drive into town is this marker on the right for St. John & Ophir Railroad. "In the 1870's this location was the home and office of the UTAH MINING & SMELTING CO. In the early 1900's this location was the depot of the ST. JOHN & OPHIR RAILROAD." The railroad was in operation from 1912-1928. The town has an Ophir Day to celebrate the railroad--though I don't know if that celebration is still continued. The population has decreased significantly in the last century.

Continuing on, we did see this set up of what appears to be an old mine shaft. There were little plaques pointing out different features, but I didn't quite understand what it was saying. The display, however, put me in mind of a haunted house at Halloween time. Of course, this was where I chose to park and get out. My roommate was ready for us to keep on keeping on without getting out. It was a little eerie to not see anyone out and about on a Saturday afternoon.

If you look across the street, you have this lovely view:

It really is a small town in a little canyon.

We did not stay here long. We passed one car going out as we were going in, and then when we were leaving, the same car came up behind us with another similar one behind it. ...Given the eerie nature of an abandoned mine town, hearing they're unwelcoming, not seeing anyone out and about on a Saturday afternoon...except now two vehicles that seemingly came from nowhere? Yes, we were a little eager to be on our way.

We made one more pit stop on our way home. It was a monument to show where troops had stayed. (I honestly don't remember the details, but the plaque on the monument says.) It was beautiful scenery, though. Alongside the monument, we also found a gravestone for a 9mo baby. Poor little baby, but such is the way of the west.

On a lighter note (with Scooby-Doo on the brain): Remember how the gang would be able to completely hide themselves behind the skinniest things? My car was trying to join the club...didn't really work, though. ;)

A map of the day's adventures:

I don't think we'll be going back to Ophir or Park City anytime soon, but our quest to find a good old-fashioned western town will continue. We have plans for future adventures.

I'm always up for adventuring.