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Show s H W ft T SALT FLAT NEWS. OCTOBER. 1971 .afe uDiiUylFK7 tour iirsiii Drills Id compiled by Richard Menzies A Coi lira The average dream may last only a fleeting moment, yet that of John Koyle, visionary and founder of Salem's Relief Mine, better known as the Dream Mine, has persisted for seventy-fiv- e years. Perhaps no other Mormon provoked as much censure from Temple Square as Bishop Koyle, whose followers once formed what Dr. Lowry Nelson, prominent university and government sociologist, called the largest social group movement within the Church, and yet independent of the Church organization itself. It all began on a late summer in order that other valuable ore deposits might be reached and that certain ideal social conditions might be achieved in regard to the miners organization and future beneficiaries. Though the heavenly messenger did not fully identify himself. Bishop Koyle was positive that it was Moroni, the same angel that had delivered the golden dates of the Book of Mormon to Joseph Smith. But Koyle, being a farmer and knowing nothing about mining, was reluctant to accept this mission, and it was not until the messenger had appeared a third time with a relevation about a neighbors well that John finally accepted the call. night in 1894 when Koyle, who kept a small farm at the southern end of Utah Valley , was visited by a strange personage from another world, attired in white and radiating intelligence. This messenger conducted him in the spirit to a high mountain somewhat east of his home in Leland, Utah. At a certain place they entered, without resistance, into the stony formations of the mountain itself. "His visitor talked freely and explained the different formations to him as they followed a definite cream colored leader down through the mountain. This leader, he was informed, would mark the line of procedure he was to follow in a mine that he was to open; and his guide showed him how. it led down more than a thousand feet to a very hard capstone, beneath which was a large body, of rich, white quartz containing leaf gold. Then continuing on from this capstone some 175 feet down through this chimney of ore, they came into a vast body of ore containing nine large caverns that had been mined out ages ago by a vanished people of an ancient civilization. They had left many mute relics of their civilization in the form of implements, ornaments, and artifacts, which they had concealed in these large underground rooms, together The messenger said that at twelve oclock noon on the following day his neighbor, who was drilling an artesian well, would strike water, and at four oclock the workers would remove the drilling rig. When it all came to pass as predicted, Koyle was com- mitted to the project. On September 3, 1894, having confided his experiences to his trusted friend, Joseph Brock-banthe two set out to begin digging at an appointed spot on Knob Hill; When the cream colored rocky formation was exposed at eighteen indies, they were convinced. A few days later k, IN THE FIELDS OF THE LORD, Dream Mine converts Alice Young and Robert Hall harvest carrots to keep Koyle 's vision alive. John Koyle returned to this spot with five of his friends, and together they staked out seven claims. Then on September 17, they came back again with pub-stak- e and equipment and started three shifts going around the dock, with two men to the shift. Special to the NEWS Salem, Utah, is a small fuming community with all the mystical undertones of its Massachusetts namesake. Behind a twentieth-centurfacade of gas stations and signs, the gothic architecture of early Mormon adobe houses ami skeletons of Lombardy poplars stand as a link to the past. Along a winding y rural road a large black bird perches on a telephone pole like a Hawthornian allegory. At the foot of Knob Hill, a few hundred yards below the white mine mill, Adolph Bangerter, 77, waters the comtemple-lik- e pany's orchards and waits for a bright tomorrow. A quiet, thoughtful man, Adolph lives in a house trailer with rare company except for his older brother Fred, also an accomplished orchardman. Fred has been around for a long time and admits that he is eighty-seve- n years into his fourth life. Of his past incarnations, the most memorable is the time he was a Mormon saint during the Missouri persecutions. In fact, lie remembers being a casualty of that conflict. "They shot me right here, he explains, indicating the middle of his forehead. To add insult to injury, the mob then tossed him into a latrine and left him for dead, which he was. The saints, however, recovered his body and carried it across the plains to Utah, where they enshrined the remains in a wall of the Salt Lake Temple. But that wasn't the end of it. On January 10, 1950, a construction crew discovered his bones. Fred recounts that he cried like a baby when they disturbed his grave. Adolph nods and listens silently and goes out to check the fruit trees. Adolph uses water tapped from the dream mine to irrigate his peaches the year round. After the early frost of '51, his was the' only fruit in the neighborhood to survive, and people from all over, mysteriously, seemed to know about it and came to buy his peaches. A popular myth about trees blossoming in the winter may have arisen from this incident; at any rate, Adolph's belief that the extra watering grows stronger buds seems to work. His carrots, too, are horticultural wonders, some grow to two or three times normal size, yet without any of the wooden taste normally associated (by carrot connoisserus) with giant carrots. For years the Koyle Dream Mine has lain idle, except for assessment work, the expense of which is borne in part by the sale of Bangerters fruit crop. Sometimes it's a hard row to hoe, but the Bangerter brothers ate confident that the time is ripe, and the new world foretold so long ago by John Koyle wQl blossom soon. Adolph Bangerter Freddy Bangerter J Thus began one of the most unusual ventures in mining history , a venture that has continued off and on for seventy-fiv- e years to the present, and which, if the interpretation of recent signs and revelations is correct, is in 1971 on the verge of fulfilment. At the time of his mine dream John Koyle was no stranger to virions; earlier he had been converted to Mormonism after a dream directed him to a missing calf, and once as an LDS missionary he is reported to have spared the apostle J. Golden Kimball from an angry mob by predicting the assault. Throughout his life his prophetic powers remained; he not only foretold the advent of World War I, but also announced the armistice before the newspapers. To a banker friend he warned of the financial collapse (Continued on page 7, Column 1) MlSIC COMPANY MARTIN An excellent selection of Martin Goiters Unsurpassed tonal qualities Fine craftsmanship For more than a century 65 South Wost Temple Salt Laka City. Utah 84101 . Phone: 364-651- 8 ACROSS FROM THE SALT PALACE |