| Show A r y 4 0 It 1 6 J h ff iI to i f 1 ii 1 1 r 1 r 1 4 33 3 3 M k 3 hr A f ft t The old town of Frisco now choked with weeds and brush was one Utah's Errie Utah Ghost T Towns Draw Tourist Spotlight Editors Editor's note Thus This Is another an other In a series of or See Sec Utah articles designed to better acquaint with wilh their home state stale The articles have been prepared by the Utah Tourist and Publicity Council CouDell The coming of spring Is a s good 1 time of or the year to visit Utah's fabulous eerie ghost t towns ITS IT'S TRUE NOT many believe be be- lieve livee in ghosts but if there are such things they're surto sure sur e to haunt the many little Hille towns in the Beehive State that somewhere somewhere some some- where in the past boomed busted and went their way A visit to oJ one e or more of oC e wildest mining camp Now only a few ramshackle buildings remain Utah's ghost towns was suggested suggested sug sug- this week by D. D James Cannon director of or the Utah Tourist and Publicity Council ALMOST EVERY area of or Utah has its ghost towns but none was born so spontaneously spontaneous us- us ly Iy lived so uproariously and died so completely as the notorious no no- notorious mining towns that sprang up in the Great Basin back in in the tho and Their names have a kind kindor of or magic ring to them as if they were destined from Irom the start to be ghosts Frisco and Silver ver Reef Reet Mercur Mam Mam- mouth and Ophir Clifton Gold GoldHill GoldHill GoldHill Hill and Knightsville Some of or these towns like 1 and Gold Hill can only be termed semi-ghost semi towns since a few persons still live there But for the most part the populations in the cemeteries far outnumber the permanent residents and the peace and quiet that reigns to today today to to- day is a far lar cry from the bois- bois trOllS trous laughter that once rose from the corner saloons ALL OF TIlE THE ghost towns in the Great Basin do not have illustrious pasts Knightsville for Jor for example was founded by Mormon industrialist industrialist indus indus- J Jesse esse Knight and is remembered as be being the being the only mining camp in Utah without a saloon OLD IRON TOWN too toof near Cedar City was founded by Mormons who smelted the West's first iron ore there back in 1852 The original masonry coke ovens built by the pioneers pio Jeers are still standing One of the most colorful ghost towns towns towns-a a reminder of Utah's early silver mining boom boom- boomis is Frisco located just west of or Milford on State Hiway IIi Hi- way 21 Frisco was the home of the famous Horn Silver Sliver Mine at one time the richest in Utah TILE TIIE TOWN BOOMED in in the For a while it was the home of ol the boomers boomers min min miners ers gamblers gunmen and dance hall girls who thrived on mining camp money But a sheriff named Pearson first name unknown was elected elected elect elected ed to clean up the town Sheriff Sher Shere Sheriff iff Pearson had nerves of or steel was fast on the draw and was known to have killed as manyas many as six men in one night DESPITE THE TilE reputation of or its sheriff Frisco became the wildest n mining ning camp in Utah with 21 saloons and almost killings In 1 1885 85 a mine ne cave in spelled Frisco's doom Miners left and the town tumbled to ruin Today a few ew ewold old buildings weed overgrown over foundations and charcoal kilns mark the site Another rich silver strike was located at Silver Sliver Reef north of St. St George near the little town of or Leeds Today only desert animals and tourists tourists tourists tour tour- tramp through the towns town's deserted streets In its zenith Silver Reef produced great amounts of or silver as much as 9 million ounces in 30 years Old Iron Town just west of Cedar City was founded by Mormon pioneers The West's first iron was smelted smelted smelted smelt smelt- ed there in 1852 Original coke ovens and a few tumbled down buildings are still standing Now only a ghost remains The ruined foundations of churches saloons houses gambling gambling gam gam- bling dens schools and dance halls halis gape emptily toward the open sky shy An old ramshackle bank building brush and weed choked still stands EACH UTAH ghost town has its own story Back in m the in gold bullion was taken in four years ears from deposits near Dear Gold Hill in western western west west- st st. ern Utah Alta AHa now famous as asa asa asa a ski near Salt Lake City was once a mining boom town the home of oC the rich lich Emma Mine which in its short life liCe produced in ores The town of or Iosepa pronounced pronounced pro pro- Say Yo-Say-Pa in isolated ed Skull ull Valley west of oC Salt SaIt Lake City was once the home of or a colony of Hawa Hawaiian an Mormons Mormons Mor Mor- Mormons mons who came to Utah in 1889 left in 1916 when a Mormon Mormon Mor Mor- mon temple was built in their homeland Mercur also west of Salt Lake City once a thriving ng city of or I was tw twice e destroyed destroy destroy- ed by fire ire at the turn of the century |
