Saturday, August 31, 2019

Gnu things you find in the desert

 I finally decided to go on a true vacation this year and I chose to head south to Beaver County to do some updates and find new things. I packed up Old Yellow and turned south and began a 4 day journey of fun, I hoped. First off I must say that I hate Blogger. I add fotos how I want them and it puts them where it wants to so we are out of order in events for day one. I could go in and delete it all and renumber the fotos but quite honestly I am too damn lazy to do that. My 2nd stop for the day was at Fort Deseret in Millard County. It was a fort built out of adobe by Mormon pioneers in 1865 when the war with Chief Black Heart broke out. 
 It is south of Delta on highway 257 and easily accessible. Since the military was fighting the Civil War at the time, the pioneers had to do what they could do on their own. If you have been there, you will notice that not a lot of trees grow in the area. Not a lot of anything grows in the area, but that's another story. With no trees to make a log fort, they made the whole fort out of adobe. Adobe is just mud and straw mixed together and it will dry to almost brick hard. Wikipedia states that the fort was 550 square feet. I'll estimate from actually seeing it that it is closer to 55000 square feet. Big difference. It apparently did the job and soon the war was over. There is no one there to talk to about it nor does it cost to get in. It is just a part of Utah's history that is still standing so of course I had to stop. 


My third visit of the day was the Maud-S mine just west of Milford. It is marked on my GPS and finding it was easy. It sits on a rise and has quite a bit of rock work as retaining walls and such. It is also wide open for exploration if you have the balls to go down the ladders. I did not. It is said that this hole is 160' straight down and then goes 1200' in tunnels. 
 There are 3 ladder entrances still open along with a caved in adit off to the side. I find this odd. I'll explain why in a minute. I did the proverbial toss a rock down the shaft and it took a while to hit bottom. I have no idea how long or far that old ladder goes down so there is no way in hell I would even try. Someday I would like to get a good wifi video camera I could hook to a rope and lower it into these places to see what I am missing as well as if it would be safe to enter. Until then i am outta luck. 
 The last visit of the day was a surprise. I crossed the little valley and picked a trail and followed it. My GPS did not show any mines but I found one at the end of this trail. Now, the Maud-S was accessible by pretty much any vehicle with ground clearance. This un-named mine was pretty much a 4x4 trail to get too and not on the map. Here is where I get confused. As you can see, the main tunnel is mortared shut. An additional adit above was gated. Now why would the government seal an unmarked mine that takes a lot of effort to get to and close it down when just across the valley lies a mapped mine with opening going down a long ways. I don't get it. 
 This wasn't a huge mine by any means, but I am sure with the tailings pile it was fairly decent in size. It had ore carts in it at one time and more than likely they are still there. The ties for the track are still in place and a few pieces of track were scattered about. Again, I just don't get it. 
 I guess Blogger wanted to save the best for last. It is also a controversial topic so keep that in mind. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and brought the USA into the war, it pissed people off. Think 9/11 and add much more anger. President Roosevelt signed an Executive Order, 9066 to be exact, and if you were Japanese, you were given orders to vacate the west coast and land yourself in a "relocation camp". One of the camps was located west of Delta Utah and called Topaz after the mountain to the west. Opened in September of '42, the population  of Topaz was nearly 9000 including staff. This made it the 5th largest town in Utah at the time. 
 Conditions there were dismal at best. The summers were hot as hell and winters were cold as hell. Yes it was hell. There were schools and hospitals, churches and gyms, but it still was a prison for the most part. Many of the detainees were allowed to leave during the day to work on local farms. Others volunteered to join the US forces and fight in Europe. In fact, the Japanese formed the 442 combat team and became the most decorated unit in the war. Still it was a prison for the most part. Not a lot is left. Visit my website to see more fotos but its truly a ghost town now. The 2 fotos above intrigue me. Whatever it is looks very new. But the area surrounding it looks undisturbed. Old or new? I couldn't tell you.  
So here is where it gets controversial. Was America right is forcing the Japanese out of their homes and ways of life and ditching them in the most God forsaken place on earth? Seriously, I saw 1 bunny. Nothing else moved. While there, they were given a chance to basically swear allegiance to the USA. Most did. 1447 refused and were sent to Tule Lake in California. Again, was it right? Germans and Italians were not forced out of their homes and lives like the Japanese were. They were singled out. Granted, to be a person of Asian decent after the attack on Pearl Harbor, you were definitely regarded with suspicion. I am sure I could look up and find where Asians had been beaten after the attack. We could say we were moving them for their own protection. But we were not. We moved them out of fear and distrust. A lot of them had been born here in America and never even been to Japan. That didn't stop Order 9066. What do you think?  Comment below.
Jeep on my friends.   

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