Hello Everyone!
Greetings from Pocatello, Idaho and Happy April to you all. I crossed the border into The Gem State yesterday morning and it is nice to be here. Leaving a state always feels bittersweet to me. After 5-6 weeks I feel as though I have a pretty good understanding of the people, places, history and culture of a state which is, of course, the whole point of this adventure. And then when I reach that point, it is time to move on and start fresh but it’s always a little sad to leave the familiar for the unknown. I can’t say enough good things about Utah and the last six weeks I spent in The Beehive. From tracing the trails of The Ancients to old cliff dwellings and petroglyph panels to following the Mormon pioneers as they spread out to create their New Zion to exploring truly incredible natural landscapes, Utah has really given me so much to be thankful for. I have loved almost every minute of my time in Utah and certainly look forward to returning in the future. That said, I’m also looking forward to the next few weeks here in Idaho and to seeing everything it has to offer. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.
This last week has been a great way to wind up my stay in Utah, with a little more time in Salt Lake City, an awesome visit to Antelope Island and some enjoyable days in the northern cities of the state. I had a beer in Utah’s oldest saloon, met the state’s hockey mascot and enjoyed some cool museums, incredible architecture and some neat small towns. The weather has cooled down some, which has been much appreciated, but it’s gotten a little grey as well and we have gotten some rain these last few days. As always in the West, the locals will tell you how much they need the rain so I guess I will be grateful alongside of them. Speaking of the West, I started watching Ken Burns’ documentary on the West and am thrilled at how many of Edward Curtis’ photos he is using (the Indians called Curtis “The Shadow Catcher” which where my van gets its name). I’ve also been reading the book Lasso the Wind: Away to the New West by Timothy Egan who wrote a wonderful biography of Curtis (Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher). Lasso the Wind is also really well done as Egan travels to towns and areas which are essential to understanding how the West has moved into the new century. I’ve been to a lot of the places in the book, but still learned an awful lot by reading it. It’s easy to read and I would definitely recommend it. Alright, enough yammering – let’s get into how I spent my last week in Utah.
After finishing up with this post last week I went out to grab a bite at Crown Burger, a local Utah fast food chain. I had enjoyed a favorite Utah dish, the pastrami burger, when I first arrived in St George about five weeks ago and wanted to have another one before I left. This is Crown Burger’s #1 sandwich and it didn’t disappoint. It was actually one of the better burgers I’ve had in a while, and I got some delicious onion rings and, of course, fry sauce to go with it. After that I drove a little ways south of downtown and went for a walk and then had an early night.
I hit the gym on Thursday and then headed straight for Park City. Just up Emigration Canyon from Salt Lake, Park City is a world apart. Park City is several thousand feet higher than SLC, and noticeably cooler. While the Mormons passed through the area on their westward migration, they did not stay and Park City was settled instead by prospectors who discovered silver in the surrounding mountains. Without the sobering influence of the Saints, it grew up as a rough and tumble mining town full of saloons, boarding houses and brothels. These days, the ski resorts bring in tourists by the thousands, especially since the 2002 Winter Olympics brought Park City to the attention of the world. Having Olympic level slopes 45 minutes from a major international airport has been a boon for the area. As you crest the pass and head south towards town, the ski hills streak the area like zebra stripes and there are plenty of them to go around. Sadly for Park City’s biggest industry, it’s been a really bad year for snow. There was definitely some clinging to the highest parts of the mountains and they were making it furiously all winter but it’s just too warm for March. Most of the ski areas have either already closed or are closing this week.
Thankfully, I wasn’t there for the skiing, just to have a look around and check out the historic downtown. I hopped on a free walking tour of town when I arrived and our guide took us to places I definitely wouldn’t have found on my own. She told us more about the mining town that Park City had once been and about the people who had lived there, including a sizeable Chinese population which had eventually been driven out of town. We saw some cool buildings from the old days which had been preserved and blended into today’s ski town, some quite ingeniously. I really enjoyed the walking tour and it was nice to just follow and listen for a change. After the tour I took a nice long walk up and down Main Street to get a feel for the town. It definitely had some of that old mining town character, but it was well hidden behind a wealthy and pretentious ski town. I’m sure it is buzzing in a good winter and it seemed like it would definitely be fun if I were there with friends on a ski trip, but it didn’t do much for me on this visit. I stayed for about 3 hours, including my tour, and then headed back down the canyon.
That night, I was super excited to go see my Washington Capitals play hockey against the Utah Mammoth at the Delta Center downtown. The Mammoth is a new expansion team in professional hockey, with last season being their first in the league. They have definitely built a strong fan base in the last two years, and a lot of fun traditions around their Mammoth mascot. I was surprised to see so many Capitals jerseys in the stands though, and to find the game sold out on a Thursday night. I did experience an unexpected wave of grief when I sat down to watch the game. My dad used to have season tickets to the Capitals when I was a kid and he took me and my brother to a lot of games growing up. He taught me everything I know about hockey, a sport I have always enjoyed. He wasn’t always the greatest dad in the world, but he had his moments and I will always remember going to those games with him. Grief comes in waves, and I really missed my dad that night and wished I could have told him I was at the game. He would’ve gotten a kick out of that. It was an enjoyable game all around, especially since we ended up winning 7-4. Our star player scored 3 goals and I got to meet Tusky, the Mammoth’s mascot while I was there. After the game I didn’t want to get caught in traffic, so I stopped in for a beer at Poplar Street Pub just down the road from the arena. After the traffic cleared, I pulled up on Capitol Hill and spent the night right in front of the Utah State Capitol.
It was a nice place to wake up on Friday morning and I went for a little walk around the grounds before I headed out. I had a nice stay in Salt Lake City which is a town that has really grown on me over the years and I was a bit sad to leave. But leave I did and I headed straight out to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. Several people had recommended this state park to me and I was excited to go have a look for myself. Immediately after arriving on the island I saw several members of the local bison heard lazing around the visitor center. The bison were introduced to the island in 1893 at a time when they were facing extinction across the country. This was the same time that the herd was introduced into San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and the Smithsonian brought several to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. It was these protected bison which would eventually provide the genetic diversity for the large scale reintroduction of bison across the west. Today, there are as many as 700 bison roaming around Antelope Island and bison are always a treat to encounter (from a distance of course).
I drove around a bit and then set my sights on the Sentry Loop hike on the southern half of the island. I had originally wanted to go up Frary Peak, the highest point on the island, but I was starting at midday and there were a lot of flies around. The flies were super annoying so I chose a little bit of an easier and shorter hike as I definitely wanted to do some climbing and see over the hills to the west side of the island which isn’t accessible by car. This turned out to be a really nice hike. It was just under 6 miles and took me about two and a half hours to complete. I didn’t see a single other person the whole time I was out. I was very thankful to have a head net with me, as the flies were driving me nuts within a few paces of my van. It was hotter with the net on but infinitely less annoying. Of course I didn’t realize at the time that they were biting my legs from top to bottom but I sure would find that out later. The higher I got, the more the wind picked up and the more the bugs blew away which was a relief. The geology of Antelope Island is unusual and very cool and I enjoyed looking at all of the rocks and formations along the way. It feels like an ancient landscape. Cresting the hill and looking out over the Great Salt Lake was pretty cool as well. After making it back to my van, I grabbed some lunch, took one last little drive around and then headed back to Syracuse, which is just on the other side of the causeway, for the night. I had a delicious bowl of ramen, which was an unexpected treat in the plaza opposite a Walmart, and then went to see Project Hail Mary at the local theatre. It was watchable, but certainly not a masterpiece and it definitely ran a half hour longer than necessary, but it was a nice, relaxing way to spend my Friday evening.
When I got up on Saturday I headed straight for Ogden, about a half hour up the road. The first thing I noticed when I pulled into town was that the streets were numbered like most American cities but not like those found in Utah. In Ogden you will find 23rd St, 24th St, 25th St. etc. whereas most Utah cities follow Joseph Smith’s “Plat of Zion” which numbers the streets north and south from a central point (which is not usually the Temple except in SLC, contrary to popular belief) and goes by hundreds, so you get 100 S, 200 N or 300 W. You get used to it pretty quickly but when you see the more common American numbering system you can tell it’s not a town with Mormon origins. The town now called Ogden was the first place settled by a European in what is now Utah when Miles Goodyear built his cabin along the Weber River and called it Fort Buenaventura. Goodyear was a fur trapper and used his fort as a trading post and I’m sure the Mormons were surprised to find him there when they arrived in the area. Later renamed Ogden after another trapper, Peter Skene Ogden (who bore a strange resemblance to the beaver he was trapping), the town became a major rail hub. When the transcontinental railroad came across the country, it went north and around the Great Salt Lake, so it came through Ogden instead of Salt Lake City. This brought a diverse population to Ogden, including a substantial Black population since the Pullman Company, which hired all of the porters, waiters etc. for the trains, was the largest employer of Black people in the country. Today there seems to be a substantial Hispanic community in Ogden as well, making it a very diverse town for Utah.
When I pulled into town, I first cruised down historic 25th Street, the main drag in Ogden, and noticed all kinds of vintage signs and old buildings. At the end of 25th Street is Union Station, once the center of all of the town’s action. Passenger trains no longer pass through Ogden, so the town has converted the old station to a museum and event space. Union Station actually has seven museums in it, but the main one is dedicated to the transcontinental railroad. There is also a cool assortment of old cars, a room full of rodeo memorabilia, three different art galleries and a huge collection of Browning firearms as the Browning family lived in Ogden for many years and had their gunsmith shop right on Washington Blvd. I spent a couple of hours in the museums and learned a lot and then went out to stretch my legs and take some photos around town. As the sun started making a break for it, I went and found a good place to park and then came back to 25th Street for some nightlife. There were several decent bars to choose from so I popped here and there and ended up in a place called Brewskies for some good live music to round out the night.
I planned on taking it easy on Sunday which is exactly what I did. I slept in a bit and then headed to a wonderful breakfast spot called The Rusted Spoon. The food was good and the server was bubbly and kept my coffee hot. While the counter wasn’t long, there were definitely a couple of old fellas catching up on the gossip. When I finished my breakfast, I headed over to the old Fort Buenaventura, which is now a town park, and read my book for a couple of hours sitting by the lake. When I went back to my van, it was covered with love bugs. I tried to shoo them away and not let them inside, but judging by the hundred or so I have scooped out in the last few days I wasn’t very successful. Regardless, they are quiet and harmless and don’t really cause any problems. I hopped in and headed about 25 minutes up the road to Huntsville, cruising through beautiful Ogden Canyon on the way.
Huntsville is a cute little town and is home to The Shooting Star, the oldest continuously operating bar west of the Mississippi. The building dates back to 1850 when it was used as a trading post but it became a bar in 1879. It was owned by a Norwegian man named “Slippery” Hoken Olsen and was called Hoken’s Hole. Hoken apparently spent quite a bit of time in the local jail for selling alcohol without a license, but his wife kept the liquor flowing in his absence. During prohibition he set up a candy store on the ground floor and continued running Hoken’s Hole in the basement. The bar has been sold several times over the years, but it’s a real classic and well worth the effort to visit and they make a good burger there as well. Their Star Burger is two burger patties with a knockwurst in between and it’s a real treat. I enjoyed my burger and a couple of beers and then cruised back to Ogden for the night.
On Monday morning I had some things to do as I continue working to settle my dad’s estate. In my ever-expanding respect for what the local libraries offer, I was thrilled to be able to get my papers notarized for no charge. The library was right next to a frozen custard shop and I definitely thought I deserved a little treat when I was finished. Just up the street was an incredible artesian well which was flowing freely for all to use. I filled up my 7 gallon jug in about 15 seconds which is a pretty impressive flow. Then I headed up the road to Brigham City where I got everything mailed off to where it needs to go.
Brigham City has a magnificent temple and tabernacle, a beautiful county courthouse, a cool old theatre and not much else. I was sad to find the Idle Isle, Utah’s oldest restaurant, completely closed. It hasn’t been open for almost a year, but all of the old furniture is still there and it looks like it could open tomorrow if it had a buyer. Oh well. I enjoyed a stroll around town and then continued on to Logan. Logan is a cool town with a lot of beautiful old buildings in it and is home to Utah State University. I really enjoyed taking a long walk around downtown, and then wandered up to the temple and back. I had a nice chat with the lady at the visitor center which is located in the old county courthouse and she gave me some nice brochures about the buildings around town. Then I tucked into the library to get some work done before calling it a night.
The library was a good one so I decided to start my day there on Tuesday as well. An hour’s worth of work with fast internet can often take twice that with slow internet. I got some work done and then zipped out of town and on up into Logan Canyon. It was a beautiful drive along the Logan River and I slowly but surely wound up into the mountains and then dropped down to Garden City on the shores of Bear Lake. Bear Lake is often referred to as “The Caribbean of the Rockies” because of its turquoise color, which I could definitely see but on a cloudy day it wasn’t as noticeable. Garden City is a bit of a weird hodgepodge of buildings, businesses and houses, all crowding in for their views of the lake. Apparently the local delicacy is a raspberry shake and it seemed like there were at least a half-dozen places to get one in the summer. Thankfully there was one open to get one on the last day of March. If everyone says you must get a raspberry shake, I guess there isn’t much choice! It was excellent and I slurped on it while I wandered down the town’s central street and took in what views I could between the buildings.
When I finished my shake, it was also the end of my time in Utah. I hopped in my van and headed off into southeastern Idaho. As I mentioned above, it was with a heavy heart that I watched the “Welcome to Utah” sign fade away in my rearview mirror, but it was time to move on to other things. Just about 10 minutes over the border, I stopped into the tiny village of Saint Charles to see the memorial to their most famous native son, Gutzon Borglum. Borglum was best known for designing and carving Mount Rushmore but did quite a few famous sculptures during his life. His parents were Danish Mormon converts who were on their way to Utah when winter closed in early. They found an abandoned cabin and spruced it up the best they could to winter over in Saint Charles. Gutzon was born the following March before the spring thaw let his family continue their journey west. In an interesting side-note, Gutzon’s father was married to Gutzon’s mother AND her sister so his aunt was also his stepmother. Anyways, Saint Charles may have been his accidental hometown, but it was his hometown nonetheless and they were claiming him. Their memorial was nice but conveniently left out his ties to the KKK which need to be remembered as they were a part of who he was.
Just up the road from Saint Charles is the old Mormon community of Paris, Idaho. Paris has a magnificent tabernacle which was designed by one of Brigham Young’s sons and a few other cool buildings to check out. The Mormons who settled there in the early days apparently believed that they were in Utah and it wasn’t until much later that surveyors confirmed the border and told them they were, in fact, in Idaho.
I spent my first night in Idaho not too far north of Paris in Montpelier, named by Brigham Young after the capital city of his home state of Vermont. It was, at one time, the sixth largest town in Idaho but now has a population of only about 2,600. It seemed as though their main claim to fame was having been robbed of $16,500 in 1896 by Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch. The robbers galloped off into the sunset with the sheriff in hot pursuit on his bicycle. I’ll let you guess who won that race. There is a museum in town which claims to be the last standing bank having been robbed by Butch Cassidy, but I feel as though I’ve seen others (most recently in Winnemucca, NV). The museum was closed and also for sale, but you could look in the window at the original teller’s window and vault and there are lines on the floor where Butch walked which all was pretty cool. Montpelier’s other big story was of a bear called Old Ephraim, or Old Three-Toes by some (due to either a birth defect or an old injury). Old Ephraim was apparently a monster grizzly bear which had a taste for mutton and preyed on the local sheep for a decade before he was finally tracked down and killed. There’s a huge statue of Old Ephraim in the middle of town. I found all of this quite amusing and enjoyed my stroll up and down Main Street before tucking into my van to watch my documentary and drift off to sleep.
Hooper Spring in Soda Springs
This morning I wanted to visit the National Oregon and California Trail Museum right there in Montpelier, but it was closed for the winter and won’t open until Memorial Day. So I cruised on up the road to Soda Springs which was a neat little spot. Just north of town is a naturally carbonated spring now called Hooper Spring. Known by the native people for centuries, it became a major attraction for Americans on their way west. John C. Fremont put it on his map as “Beer Spring” saying his men said it tasted like beer and they really enjoyed it. To be fair, it had probably been a while since they had drank a beer, so it seemed to me a lot like a lonely sailor looking at a manatee and seeing a mermaid. The water was interesting and had a metallic taste due to the iron in it, but I couldn’t make it taste like beer no matter how hard I tried. Narcissa and Marcus Whitman also stopped through to enjoy Soda Springs on their way west to found their mission on the Walla Walla River which I wrote about when I was in Washington (interesting side note: the statue of Marcus Whitman which is in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall was sculpted by Utah sculptor Avard Fairbanks who I’ve written about the last couple of weeks). Many westward emigrants stop to enjoy the water on their way through as well and I’m sure the cool, bubbly spring was a real hit. In the 1930s, the locals were digging a well in the town of Soda Springs to fill up a swimming pool when they apparently tapped into a geyser system. Today it is the world’s only “captive geyser” having been capped off and is now released into the air every hour on the hour. It was funny to watch but also a fine looking geyser.
My next stop was the town of Lava Hot Springs. With natural hot and cold running water, depending on which creek you put your hand in, Lava Hot Springs has been both a stopover and a destination for a long time. It has a cute little main street and a wonderful set of hot pools open to the public. Of course I had to take the waters while I was there and they were really nice. When I’m by myself there is only so long I can sit in a hot tub though, so after about 45 minutes I was up and out but my muscles felt pretty relaxed. Heading northwest, I drove past Sheep Rock which was where the Hudspeth Cutoff branched off of the main route of the California Trail, saving miles but not time as it goes up and over the mountains. And from there I cruised on to Pocatello, where I’m writing this from right now. I came straight to the library when I arrived so I could finish up this newsletter, but it seems like a nice enough place and I am looking forward to exploring it tomorrow.
My plans are somewhat flexible at the moment as skyrocketing gas prices have made me cringe every time I need to fill up my tank. I’ll definitely be in Idaho for a bit, but I’m not sure where the week ahead will take me. Wherever it takes me, I’m sure I will find interesting places to see and stories to learn. I hope you’ll come back next week to see where I end up. Have a wonderful week out there and I wish a Chag Sameach to those of you celebrating Passover this week and a Happy Easter to those celebrating Easter this weekend (our Orthodox Easter is actually next weekend, April 12th, and I’m hoping I can find an Orthodox church to celebrate with). Take care and thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike