Farewell to SLC

Salt Lake City, UT

(genealogy research)

November 6, 2016 - December 12, 2016

Burr - it's been cold here for the last two weeks.  We've even had snow and this is not in keeping with the number one rule we had when we started this trip - i.e. summers in the north and winters in the south.   Luckily the Family History Library provides lots of opportunity to ignore the weather except when coming and going.  One nice thing about the snow - it makes the mountains really stand out.

The mountains here are very close to the Salt Lake Valley.
Great skiing is only about 45 minutes away.

Christmas trees for sale at Whole Foods Store.  The streaks are from snow - not rain.

View from our campsite looking over towards the office.

View from West Jordan, Utah

Just another view of the beautiful mountains here.

Barney - all snuggled up in Laura's robe.

One of the things we like most about this campground is the large number of trees but that comes with it's own set of problems for the maintenance people. The scads and scads of leaves must be dealt with.

One day a crew of guys started work on the leaves.
We think there were 5 people wielding leaf blowers...

...and a guy scooping up leaves and making big piles in various parking spots.

There were probably 6-7 piles like this when they were finished.

That's our motorhome just to the right of the tree in the foreground.

For a while things looked pristine but as you can see - there were still leaves
yet to fall so it didn't stay looking like this for very long.

Thanksgiving came and went while we were here.

We had planned to go out for Thanksgiving dinner but our
car ended up in the shop so we didn't have transportation.
Found this "turkey" in the fridge but elected for nachos and guacamole instead.  Yum!

Many of you know the story of our last long (2 month) stay in SLC. We arrived with 1 dog and 1 cat and we left with 2 dogs and 2 cats after our brains turned to mush after so many days of research! This trip we were absolutely committed to leaving with only the dog we arrived with.  That was until we found this darling little long haired dachshund and .... well....how could we resist.  She looked so much like our first dog Hilde.

Luckily, little Roxie actually belongs to a fellow camper so we couldn't adopt her.
The thought of stealing her did briefly cross our minds however.

Right after Thanksgiving they turn on the Christmas lights in Temple square and thousands of people come to see them throughout the month. We heard that they begin putting them up in July but I have no way of knowing if that's true.  We went in to town one night to see them and I'm sharing them below because they're pretty amazing.

The story of Jesus's birth is narrated with special lighting and scenes depicting the event.
This is the manger scene.
Behind this scene is the Tabernacle where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs.

The three wise men

The Morman Temple in SLC.
Neither the Temple nor it's immediate grounds are decorated.
It's lit like this all year round.

This is the SLC Mormon church.
The "pink" lights in this and the pictures below are actually red.

This is the lobby in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
The building was originally a hotel before the church bought it.
As you can see - it's interior is very impressive.

The ceiling in the lobby of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.
So beautiful!

The Garden Restaurant in the Joseph Smith Building is famous for its Creme Brule!
We ate dinner there after seeing all the lights just so we could have this for dessert.
It was delicious!

We ended up in SLC longer than expected in order to have some work done on our solar system. It should have been done by last Friday (Dec 9) but has dragged on because one of the parts didn't come in.  The part is supposed to be here tomorrow (Monday - Dec 12th) and once it's installed we, like the geese below, will be on our way south to warmer weather.

The Family History Library beckons...

Brigham City, UT to Salt Lake City, UT

(genealogy research - what else???)

November 6, 2016 - who knows????

We are currently in Salt Lake City for some more genealogy research so don't expect any posts until we continue southward to catch the sun.  The weather so far has been warm and sunny - absolutely perfect for this time of the year.

The Golden Spike

Glenns Ferry, ID to Brigham City, UT

(sightseeing)

November 4, 2016 - November 6, 2016

We stopped on our way to Salt Lake City at Brigham City in order to visit Promontory Summit, the site where the first transcontinental railroad was completed.  At the time (May 10, 1869) a symbolic golden railroad spike was driven into the last railroad tie to celebrate the completion of the project.  It changed the west forever, opening it to hordes of people looking to make their lives there. Nothing was ever the same again.

The symbolic tie that joined the two railroads into one.
This tie is far to pristine to be the original but you get the idea.

The railroads were built mainly by two different companies - The Central Pacific RR and the Union Pacific RR.  The Central Pacific started from Sacramento and worked eastward.  The Union Pacific started in Council Bluffs, Iowa (just east of Omaha, NE) and worked west.  Each railroad was granted substantial loan and land subsidies for every mile of track they laid.  In the end they laid 1,907 miles of track between 1863 and 1869.  They even laid over 200 miles of parallel track near Promontory Summit because they hadn't agreed on where the two lines should meet! 

This marker originally sat at the actual spot where the two railroads were joined.

I found the following information really interesting and thought provoking:

• The Central Pacific workers were mostly Chinese while the Union Pacific workers were mostly unemployed Irish, German and Italian immigrants.



This natural limestone arch (formed millions of years ago when this area was covered by low
lying seas) is a memorial to the Chinese workers who built the Central Pacific portion of the RR.

• The Central Pacific had to build the railroad through the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains - building tunnels through solid granite they sometimes only advanced 8 inches a day.  The Union Pacific bypassed the Rocky Mountains by using a route through what is now Wyoming.
• The rails were each 30 feet long and weighed 560 pounds each.  That works out to about 172 rails per mile.
• 10 spikes were used per rail (1720 spikes per mile)
• The rails were bent as needed using sledge hammers
• 2500 railroad ties were used for every mile of track.  The Central Pacific built lumber mills in the Sierra's where they turned out milled ties of exact proportions.  The Union Pacific used rough hewn ties from wood obtained in the east.

Rough hewn ties used by the Union Pacific RR.

2500 ties and 172 rails were used per mile!

• Although both companies had to transport all the necessary materials to their work sites, the Central Pacific had to first ship all it's rails, spikes, connectors, bolts and locomotives round Cape Horn and up to San Francisco before they could haul it to the worksite.
• Various types of crews worked on the project.  Surveyors who decided the route worked 100's of miles ahead of the other crews.  They were responsible to make sure the grade of the bed was no more than 2% up or down.  The next group prepared the route and built the grades by either cutting through hills (or mountains) or by filling in ravines.  They also built trestles across ravines when necessary.  Finally there were the crews who actually laid the ties and tracks. 

This shows two ways the railroad bed was kept at a 2% grade.
If a hill was in the way they cut through it as seen on the far left edge of the picture.
Ravines were handled by filling in the distance with rocks and soil or by building
trestles to bridge the distance.  All the trestles they built in this area were salvaged
for the lumber.  In the distance is the great Salt Lake Valley.

• The second transcontinental telegraph line was also strung alongside the tracks as they went.

A second telegraph line ensured that communications could
get to the constructions sites and eventually across the nation.

Two trains, one from each end, met on Promontory Summit on the day the final spike was pounded in.  Sadly, each was later scrapped for money (about $1000).  Two exact replicas were later commissioned and are now housed at the site.  They fire them up in the summer months but in the winter they stay inside for any needed repairs but the rangers lead regular tours to the engine house.

The Jupiter - a wood burning steam train that belonged to the Central Pacific RR.

The 119 - a coal burning steam train which belonged to the Union Pacific RR.

Trails, Beds, Camps

Cascade, ID to Glenns Ferry, ID

(mail stop and sightseeing)

October 29 - November 4, 2016

34 years ago we camped at the Three Island Crossing state park in Glenns Ferry so we thought it would be fun to go back to see how things looked now.  This area is where most of the groups moving along the Oregon Trail crossed the Snake river enroute to the Willamette Valley in Oregon.  It was a dangerous crossing feared by many.  Just now, many days after we were there, I was wondering why they crossed the river because it meant having to cross it again further west on what is now the Idaho/Oregon border.  Why would they do that?  You gotta love the internet - it's so easy to look things up.  The reason most groups crossed the river was because the northern route offered easier traveling conditions had ample access to water, no small issue in this very dry area.  In spite of that, some groups chose to stay on the south side to avoid the dangers of Three Island Crossing.




Marker describing this portion of the Oregon trail.





In spite of the marker above, this particular place is two island crossing
which is just up-river from three island crossing.  Some travelers crossed
 the river here instead of the more frequently used three island crossing.

Glenns Ferry was supposed to be a quick stop to pick up our mail and two packages.  We arrived on Saturday and our mail and one package were at the post office on Monday.  The other package was supposed to arrive on Tuesday, then Wednesday, then Thursday, then....?   By this time I'm completely exasperated!  While we waited, we tried to make lemonade from lemons and drove over to Hagerman, ID to see some fossil beds, a portion of the Oregon trail (where the ruts are still visible) and learn about the WWII Japanese Internment Camp at Minidoka, Idaho.

The Visitor Center in Hagerman does a valiant job of presenting three big topics in a pretty limited area.  The Hagerman fossil beds are it's primary focus and they have some really nice specimens on display.  This is where an ancient horse (called the Hagerman Horse), closely related to Grevy's Zebras was discovered.  They have also found the fossilized remains of many other animals including giant sloths, sabertooth cats, camels, giant marmots, mastedons, and many others.

 

Full skeletal fossil of the Hagerman Horse

Hoof of the Hagerman horse shown next to a modern horse hoof (just below it).
Lots of evolutionary changes in the millions of years since the Hagerman horse roamed the plains.

This painting is an artists rendition of what the area around what is now Hagerman might have looked like millions of years ago.

Mastedon skull. On the left are the bones of a mastodon's foot.

 

Cross section of a mastodon tusk.  It has growth rings just like trees.
This fossil is at least 9 inches across!!!!

Ariel view of the Minidoka Internment Camp.
The exhibit at the visitor center was well done but very sad.
What our country did to the Japanese who had made the US their home is deplorable.

The Minidoka camp is, as you can see, in hot, flat, unforgiving country.
The Japanese who were forced to live here made the best of it however, creating
gardens for both beauty and spirituality as well as gardens to produce fresh produce.

The Oregon Trail near Hagerman, ID.  Beyond the curve the road was built right over the old trail.
The two lines coming off towards hill in the bottom right corner are the ruts of the original trail.
 

Close up of the original trail ruts - still visible after over a hundred years.
The area is a maze of washes like the one at the top of this picture so
finding a route through this area must have been a challenge.

On Friday, Nov.4th the tracking information still showed the package had left Salt Lake for Boise on Oct 29th but it never arrived in Boise. It still shows the exact same thing today (Nov 9).  Maybe it was beamed up to the mother ship somewhere out in space somewhere between SLC and Boise. Regardless of what happened - we moved on.

Wearing out our welcome?

Riggins, ID to Cascade, ID

(back to see cousins Lee and Deann)

October 26 - October 29, 2016

Continuing south on the same route we took north, we stopped once again to see Laura's cousins Lee and Deann.  We hadn't seen them in years and this was our 3rd get together in 4 months!!!

They have a wonderful spot in the woods outside of Cascade and we had fun talking, eating and playing rummikube and aggravation.  Once again, Barney was in heaven.  He loves both Lee and Deann and he got to be free to run around a bit.

Before we got there Lee had been out hunting and he got his deer for the season.  This is a guy who actually has a cold storage room especially made for hanging game.  He and Deann had already butchered, wrapped and frozen the meat.  Too bad, I would have enjoyed seeing how it was done although my heart always goes out to the deer.

Their house and garage - with the garage doors freshly painted by Deann.

East side of the house and a partial view of their really cool vegetable garden.

This fabulous garden is 100 feet by 12 feet.  It's all cleaned up
for fall but in the summer it yields lots of delicious fresh produce.  Lee
actually takes a full size Troybuilt rototiller inside to work up the soil!

Lee and Deann in our motorhome.  You couldn't meet two nicer people.