We like adventures! Our family loves to get in the car and drive until we see something interesting. Then we tumble pell-mell out of the minivan and explore and hopefully learn something new and exciting.
Today was Mother's Day and since it was my day, I decided to pile the kids in the car and see what we could find. We ended up driving south on the west side of Utah Lake until we reached Goshen. Then we turned west and headed out to explore new territory. With a quick pit stop in Eureka, we loaded up on junk food; what's a Mother's Day adventure without junk food? The gas station on the east side of town has more varieties of Cheetos products than I have ever seen in my life. They also have ginormous hot dogs, a good selection of the delicious and old-timey candy called Cow Tails and even individually wrapped pickled sausages. The bearded, knitting, kilt wearing man behind the counter was really friendly and we knew our adventure was off to a good start!
Eureka is a very interesting little semi-ghost town. The downtown area is a row of old store fronts that simply reek of old stories just waiting to be unearthed. This mining town looks like it was once fairly busy; today, not so much. We added Eureka to our list of places to research and come back to and continued west on the highway. A short way out of town, we came upon a fairly promising graveyard but decided to stop there later.
After passing the Tintic Juntion we came to a sign that pointed south east and said Mammoth. We couldn't see a town from the road so I thought I'd check it out. It turns out that Mammoth used to be a fairly active mining town in the late 1800's and early 1900's. It's basically a ghost town now, with a few houses clustered together with a view that is really beyond amazing.
We followed a few gravel roads but turned around when we reached gates with private property signs posted. I wasn't feeling that rebellious as to try to see what was passed the gate. There is a giant gaping cave, which is probably a mine up on the hillside that I would love to explore further. Maybe when it's warmer we can go back and see what we can find. As it was, we found a historical marker telling about the first volunteer fire department in that town and another that marked where a boarding house turned hospital used to stand. I can imagine that in a mining town a hospital was pretty necessary.
On our way back toward the main road, I followed a gravel cross path and we stumbled upon what the kids decided was a castle. It turns out that it was part of the Tintic Mining District. Which means it was once used to process the minerals and metals that were mined in that area, probably from the Tintic mine which was the largest mine in that area. We had a lot of fun exploring the castle. The weather was a bit on the cold side but we still had a blast. The kids played some kind of army game as they snuck around corners exploring.
As we headed back to Eureka I decided to pull off and drive through the cemetery. It was fun to see the old tombstones and look at the years people died. Most of them are from the early 1900's, not surprisingly.
On our way back to the freeway I realized that the Tintic mining structure we explored today is somehow related to the larger
Tintic mining structure that is located on a hillside a bit east of Goshen and is very visible from the road. The kids don't remember exploring the larger structure a few years ago so we will have to explore that again. Now that I'm armed with
this little gem, it will make exploring the mining structure more interesting.
Our vocabulary word for the day was Eureka. We discussed what eureka means and when a person might shout it. Plus it's a super fun word to say. Eureka!
This was a good adventure, with an easy hike and manageable car ride. There are lots of chances to see wildlife and historical structures. My AT&T iPhone didn't have cell service in Mammoth but had one or two bubbles in Eureka.
