OCR Text |
Show Down Memory Lane ' BY JOHN J. CREEDON A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST Yesterday I spent about three hours with an old friend, Isadore Gauchet, reminiscing about the early days of Bingham Canyon, those years before my time and 1 wish tha tl could give you a word for word account of the places, people and events that he told me about. We went back to tke very beginning begin-ning of Bingham and he related the story of the discovery of ore in Bingham that he heard from his Grandmother Scoville, one of the first pioneers to live in this area. She came to Bingham in 1867, just four years after the first ore was found. Her version of How much more thrilling it is to hear of this event from the voice of one who sat at his grandma's knee and listened to this historical event, than to read about in book. Mr. Gauchet'a memory is remarkable re-markable and his ability to associate associ-ate places and events is amazing for his year. As I mentioned before he and his brother Aron were the first twins born in Bingham, April 1 3, 1884. He has a great love for the old canyon and the many fine people peo-ple who made it famous. Like the rest of us he is saddened at the turn of events that is leading to the abandonment of tho town. We spoke about the early days in Bingham and as I sat there listening listen-ing 1 imagined myself at his side as we traveled up and down tho Canyon. Can-yon. Some of the names and places were quite familiar to me, while others 1 did not know or, in some cases had never heard about before. He tcald about the only place in the Canyon where there was a two way road in his day. As he described describ-ed it, "A large rock stood in the way of the wagon Toad a few rods from Grandma Scoville's home. It was about 1 5 feet high and about the same width, being almost round, and the old timers had to make a road on each side of it. As a child I had been on top of the rock many times, until progress required that it be removed. This rock was near the site of the Civic Center." rmta&arim ii.iruimmiinm.gn r J rs . the event ties in closely with the accepted one listed by historians histor-ians and in looking look-ing at a journal she kept of her trip across the plains and early experiences, an eye witness story seems to be the best. Mi. Creedon She said that a squadron of cavalry cav-alry from Fort Douglas was dispatched dis-patched to come to the Bingham area for the purpsoo of exploratory explora-tory Work and they were to attempt to signal headquarters in Salt Lake City from Clipper Peak in Bingham by means of mirrors and fires. While on their way up the right hand gulch, called Galena Gulch after, one of the horses slipped and tore loose a section of the earth uncovering a shiny mass of galena ore. She said it shone like a mirror and one of the soldiers who had some previous experience of mining, min-ing, took a sample back to the Fort with him. Here it was examined and assayed and found to be high grade galena or lead ore. . It was from this discovery that the first mining claim in Utah was established and soon tho first mining min-ing district in the State was organized, organ-ized, known as the West Mountain Mining District. It is said that this organization took place in the old building that houses the West Jordan Jor-dan Flour Mill in West Jordan. The first claim was called the Old Jordan and it formed the nucleus of the present United States Smelting Refining Re-fining and Mining Company. He mentioned another landmark that was familiar to the miners of the early days. It was the Conglomerate Conglom-erate Rock on the right side of the road to Upper Bingham, now about the center of the large pit. Many are the miners who slept off the effect of pay day in Bingham, finding find-ing under the outcropping a large hole at the base, where there was a dry place to rest. " One of the most interesting landmarks land-marks of that day was the wooden flume that conveyed Bingham Creek from a point above the John B. Rogers Mill to the gold diggings of Prichert and Daggett, just below the Old Winnemuck Cliff. This flume was about 18 x 18 inches square and on a slight grade and was 2Vi miles long. In order to pass the Tiawaukee Cliff, a timber trestle was built end this was visible vis-ible from most of the camp. Mr. Gauchet said he recalled the last time water was in this flume, that he and his brother Aron and sister Lena took off their shoes and stockings stock-ings and placed them on a flat board and they waded inside the flume from a place near the begin-ing begin-ing all the way down to the head of the penstock that conveyed the water through a steel pipe to the monitor nozzle for gravel washing. |