Antimony and Fish Lake, Utah

First timer?  In this formerly once-a-day blog (and now pretty much a once-every-four-or-five days blog), I use an app that provides a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48).  I call this “landing.”

I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town or towns I land near.  I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. 

To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is) please see “About Landing” above.  To check out some recent changes in how I do things, check out “About Landing (Revisited).”

Landing number 2325; A Landing A Day blog post number 756.

Dan:  Today’s lat/long 38^o 8.588’N, 111^o 57.867’W) puts me in S-Cen Utah:

My local landing map shows my proximity to the titular Antimony:

Here’s my local streams-only map:

You can see that I landed in the watershed of the East Fork of Sevier River (2^nd hit); on to the Sevier (12^th hit).  Zooming back, you can see that the Sevier (poor thing) never makes it out of Utah:

It’s time for my Google Earth (GE) spaceflight.  Click HERE to zoom on in to today’s landing spot.

Street View coverage is so-so.  I couldn’t get the Orange Dude any closer than about 2 miles from my landing:

And here’s what he sees:

I sent the OD a few miles upstream to get a look at the East Fork of the Sevier River:

And here’s what he sees looking north (upstream):

And looking south:

Here’s an oblique GE shot, looking northeast past Antimony and across the East Fork Sevier valley:

So, what about Antimony?  Well, it turns out that quite a ways back (December 2009, landing 1827, blog post 245), I landed close to Antimony:

Remember that I said this was my second landing in the East Fork Sevier watershed?  Well, landing 1827 was my first. 

And from that post, this from UtahOnLine:

In early 1873 about twenty-two men, arrived in what would become Antimony while on a peace-keeping mission with the Fish Lake Indians. 

While near the present site of Antimony they caught and earmarked several coyote pups.

[Caught and earmarked coyote pups?  Why would rough and tumble pioneers on a “peace keeping mission” with the Indians “catch and earmark” coyote pups?  I really doubt it was advancement of scientific research about coyote habitats and lifestyles . . . ]

This incident led to the town founded at the site to be named Coyote.

[ALAD doesn’t think so.  Coyote’s a great name, likely due to a plethora of coyotes living in the East Fork Sevier river valley.  Earmarked pups just doesn’t cut it!]

The meadowlands were used as early as 1873 for grazing and several families moved here in 1878.

In 1880 antimony (stibnite), a metal used in the making of alloys, was discovered in nearby Coyote Canyon, so Coyote became a mining town as well as a ranching community. 1n 1921 the town of Coyote was renamed Antimony after the metal mined in the area.

Doh!  Coyote is way better.  Oh, well . . .

One other point.  UtahOnLine doesn’t seem to exist anymore.  A victim of the budget cutter’s axe?  I’m a little surprised, given the Mormon dominance in all things Utahan.  After all, the Mormons are very big into history and lineages.

Following any little lead, I Googled “Fish Lake Indians.”  Evidently, based on the lack of any internet presence, the Fish Lake Indians were a White Man’s label, or a small band of Indians (likely part of a larger tribe) that isn’t seriously recognized by any descendants.

However, I did find that there is a Fish Lake (about 30 miles north of my landing):

And, at Fish Lake, there is a plaque commemorating a peace treaty with the “Fish Lake Indians,” with the same date as mentioned above, 1873.  Here’s the plaque (from Waymarking.com):

It says (in part):

Peace Treaty
With Fish Lake Indians
Was Made Here
June 14, 1873

This treaty led up to the final treaty at Cedar Grove in Grass Valley July 1, 1873, ending the Black Hawk Indian War in Southern Utah.

OK, so the 1873 “peacekeeping mission” makes sense, but I can’t buy the earmarked coyote pups part . . .

Although UtahOnline doesn’t seem to exist, I did find ILoveHistory.Utah.gov (an educational website).  I searched for “Fish Lake” and found this:

In 1889, farmers in the Fish Lake vicinity banded together to form a new irrigation company–the Fremont Irrigation Company. They wanted to work together to build reservoirs and canals to get water on their land.

But they needed to own the water. In order to make sure they would have no trouble using the water from Fish Lake, they bought the “outlet” of the lake from local Indians – Paiutes and Utes who had for generations fished in the lake and hunted in the area around it.

Only eight Indians signed the agreement, so we don’t know what others thought about it. Through the agreement, they kept their rights to fish in the lake, but that didn’t last long. Soon enough, both Utes and Paiutes would be forced to live on reservations.

The article has a picture of Tom (with caption below):

Tom (as the Anglo settlers called him) was a Paiute who was over 100 years old in this picture. His name is on the deed selling Fish Lake water to the Fremont Irrigation Company.

In another article from the same site, the same picture appears, but this time with this caption:

“Tom,” a Paiute who lived to be 112 years old. His name is on the deed giving Fish Lake to the Mormons.

The actual agreement is posted on the website:

The transcript:

Loa Piute Co Utah, March 1st 1889

Artickels of Agreement

Between the Indians Poganib Bob and other owners by Descent of The Out Let of Fish Lake – and the Fremont Eragation Companys – That we the Above named Indians Do This Day Sell all our Right and title also all our airs and assigns to the Said Fremont Eragation Company [while allowing the Indians] to Fish in Said Out Let of Said Lake for Ever. For an In Consideration of

9 Nine horses
500 lbs of flour
1 good Beef Stear
1 Suit of Close

By us this Day Receved of Said Company – of our own free will and accord

Witness our hand or Mark
Signed in present of

E. H. Blackburn
Seth Taft
H. J. McClellan
Geo. W Shiner
Alonzo Blackburn
F. Archie Young

Poge Neab (his mark)
Bob   his mark
Toanolk   his mark
Gr atchout  (his mark)
Tom     his mark
Joe    his mark
Gray Head     his mark
Timacant    his mark

Notice that the terms of the agreement don’t really make sense unless you add in the phrase “while allowing the Indians” (which I did).

By the way, ILoveHistory.utah.gov is a great site, with great detail.  I told you the Mormons care about history!

While checking out Fish Lake, I couldn’t help but take a quick look at some GE Panoramio shots, showing that this is a truly lovely lake.  First this (by John Roberts):

And then this (by K Sampson):

I’d never guess this was Utah!  Given a choice, I’d guess the Adirondacks!

And then, while perusing the Pano photos, I put my cursor on an icon southwest of the lake:

You see that it says “Pando.”  There are five photos embedded under the icon, all by Mukil Elango.  Here’s the one that first pops up when you click on the icon:

What a great photo!  And then this, also titled Pando:

And this, titled “Trembling Giant:”

I love the photos, but what’s Pando and the Trembling Giant?  I had no idea.  So I Googled “Pando” and was amazed to learn what this is all about.  From Wiki:

Pando (Latin for “I spread”), also known as the Trembling Giant, is a 106-acre clonal colony of a single male quaking aspen located in Wayne County, Utah near Fish Lake.  This colony has been determined to be a single living organism by identical genetic markers; it is assumed to have one massive underground root system. It is composed of approximately 40,000 tree trunks.

The plant is estimated to weigh 6,600 tons, making it the heaviest known organism.  The root system of Pando, at an estimated 80,000 years old, is among the oldest known living organisms (although some scientists have claimed that the organism could be 1 million years old).

Just for the record, a tree fungus (i.e., mushroom colony) in Oregon is generally accepted to be the world’s largest organism, occupying some 2,384 acres.  But it’s not as heavy and not as old, so my vote (at least for the coolest huge organism) goes to the Trembling Giant.

Back to Antimony (and excerpts from my earlier Antimony post):

Moving right along . . . there is an “Archibald Hunter” collection of historical documents maintained by the State of Utah.  This is from a write-up about old Archibald [by the way, this time around I couldn’t find this document on the internet, except referenced in some crazy blog called “A Landing A Day”].  By the way, the following is a little long, but worth the read.  Just take your time . . .

Some ten thousand Mormon converts from Scotland emigrated to the United States by 1900. While Archibald Hunter was not a member of that church it seems likely that his arrival in this country at age eight and his eventual arrival in Utah must have been at least partly a result of Mormon influence (although a religious motive for emigration is not required, for Scotland was poor and the Hunter family was large).

If Hunter’s reasons for emigration to this country are not fully known, neither are his early travels after arriving in Boston in 1851. His obituary reports that he remained in that city only briefly, then headed for Utah. Where he lived and how he supported himself in Utah for perhaps the next ten years is not clear, and he left in 1862 for the mining camps of Nevada.

He may have been successful in mining, for in 1874 he returned to Utah, taking up residence in Sevier County as a breeder of blooded race horses. In 1879 he joined the settlers in the Garfield County community known variously as Clover Flat, Grass Valley, Coyote, and, after 1920, Antimony. He spent the rest of his life there, supporting himself by various mining speculations, running a hotel, and raising and exporting to Scotland his fine horses.

One could hardly invent a person with a background seemingly less likely to harmonize with Antimony community life than Archibald Hunter. The settlement was composed primarily of exceptionally devout Mormons who had moved there from the United Order of Enoch (the Mormons’ communitarian order) at Kingston just barely before Hunter arrived.  Hunter was not a Mormon, a foreign immigrant, an Odd Fellow, a life-long bachelor, and an ardent Socialist.

The latter affiliation is probably the reason for his taking up residence in Antimony, for the Socialist Party was strong in that area, and he may have been attracted not only by the good pasture but by the compatible political climate as well. At any rate, cultural differences proved to be unimportant, and Hunter quickly became a valued neighbor and respected pillar of the community

Archibald Hunter died in Antimony in 1931.

But wait, maybe it isn’t so strange that Archibald was comfortable amongst the Mormons in Antimony.  From Wiki, this about the Mormon United Order:

The United Order established egalitarian communities designed to achieve income equality, eliminate poverty, increase group self-sufficiency, and to ultimately create an ideal utopian society Mormons referred to as Zion. The movement had much in common with other utopian societies formed in the United States and Europe during the first half of the 19^th century.

The United Order is not practiced within mainstream Mormonism today; however, a number of groups of Mormon fundamentalists, such as the Apostolic United Brethren, have revived the practice.

Sounds totally socialist, eh?  (Especially the part about “egalitarian communities” and “income equality”.)  Not exactly compatible with the conservative politics of the Mormon church!

I’ve heard about Odd Fellows, but don’t know anything about them.  From Wiki:

The name Odd Fellows refers to a number of friendly societies that originated in the United Kingdom, with Lodges that date back to the 1700s.  These various organizations were set up to protect and care for their members at a time when there was no welfare state, trade unions or National Health Service. The aim was (and still is) to provide help to members when they need it. 

The “friendly societies” (like the Odd Fellows) are non-profit mutual organizations owned by their members.  All income is passed back to the members in the form of services and benefits. 

[See the socialist connection?]

The Odd Fellows are fundraisers for both local and national charities.  Branches raise money for local causes and the Societies as a whole raise significant amounts for charities.

Name origins:  In smaller towns and villages, there weren’t enough Fellows from the same trade to set up a local Guild, so Fellows from a number of trades banded together to form a local Guild of Fellows from an odd assortment of trades. Hence, Guilds of Odd Fellows.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is big in the U.S. (and Archibald was a member of the IOOF).  Check out the various symbols that associated with the IOOF:

Looks like it’s right up Dan Brown’s alley . . .by the way, FLT stands for friendship, love and truth.

Back to now, and it’s time for some nearby GE Pano shots. I’ll start in the “town” of Osiris, 7 miles south of Antimony.  Osiris shows up on neither StreetAtlas nor GE.  But there’s a very cool “creamery” building here that supported the local dairy farmers (later converted to a grain processing facility).

Here’s a shot of the creamery by that long-time ALAD contributer, LSessions:

And here’s another, by Ron Broad:

Leaving Osiris (and getting closer to my landing), here’s a Pano shot of the East Fork of the Sevier, by Elifino 57 (about 6 miles NW of my landing):

And another local shot, by Ron Broad (about 3 miles NW of my landing):

I’ll close with this one by Teek4, taken about 5 miles SE of my landing:

That’ll do it . . .

KS

Greg

 

© 2017 A Landing A Day

 

 

Elsinore, Utah

First timer?  In this formerly once-a-day blog (and now more-or-less a twice a week blog), I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48).  I call this “landing.”  I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near.  I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location.  To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean in the first paragraph), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

 Landing number 2061; A Landing A Day blog post number 479.

 Dan –  The misery continues as I’ve landed in five OSers in a row since I broke 150, with this OSer landing in . . . UT; 73/57; 5/10; 151.9.  It’s unbelievable that I followed up the 5/5 USer string (that I needed to break 150) with a 5/5 OSer string . . .

 If you haven’t a clue what the previous paragraph is about, click HERE for an explanatory post.

Here’s my regional landing map:

 

My local landing map shows that I landed out in the boonies, quite a ways from the nearest towns:

 

Here’s a streams-only map that shows I landed in the watershed of Birch Creek; on to the Three Creeks Creek; to Pole Ck; to Clear Ck and finally to the Sevier River (10^th hit).

 

 The Sevier drains internally, and ends up (if it’s flowing at all) in Sevier Lake.  Here’s what Wiki has to say about the Sevier:

 The Sevier River, extending 383 miles, is the longest river entirely in the state and drains an extended chain of mountain farming valleys to the intermittent Sevier Lake.  The Upper Sevier is used extensively for irrigation, and consequently Sevier Lake is now essentially dry.

Here’s my Google Earth (GE) shot, showing no roads and a semi-arid landscape:

Zooming back and looking west, here’s another GE shot:

I checked out each of the four nearest towns, looking for my hook.  I couldn’t find anything of particular interest about Sevier, Joseph or Monroe.  They were all founded by Mormons.  No hook there.  Funny thing about Joseph . . . the town was named after one Joseph Young.  Given Joseph Smith & Brigham Young, I can’t imagine a more Mormon name.  No hook there.

 But Elsinore.  Well, OK, it was also founded by Mormons, but there could be some interest in the name “Elsinore.”  Here’s what Wiki has to say:

The area was settled by Danish converts to Mormonism, and named after Kronborg Castle, known as Elsinore in Hamlet.

Sounds like a hook or two, eh?

Here’s what Wiki has to say about the castle:

Kronborg is a castle in the town of Helsingør, Denmark.  Immortalized as Elsinore in Shakespeare’s  play Hamlet,  Kronborg is one of the most important Renaissance castles in Northern Europe and is a World Heritage Site (per UNESCO).

Here’s Wiki’s picture of the castle:

 

And an aerial view (from Marinas.com):

 

OK, it’s time for a true confession.  I have a pathetically skimpy (nearly non-existent) knowledge of Shakespeare. 

 Here’s a synopsis of Hamlet from Wiki:

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark [mostly at the Kronborg Castle, referred to as Elsinore in the play], the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius’s brother and Prince Hamlet’s father.  Claudius then takes the throne and takes Gertrude (King Hamlet’s wife and Hamlet’s mother) as his wife.  The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage—and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.

 My Denmarkian geography is almost as deficient as my Shakespearian play fullness.  It turns out that that the city of Helsingor (“Elsinore” in English, where the Kronborg Castle is) is a mere 2.5 miles from Sweden!  If you’re sailing from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, you might as well dock in Elsinore for lunch.

 Here’s a big-picture map (Google).  You can see that part of Denmark juts north from Germany, but part of it (that includes Copenhagen and Elsinore) is on an island:

 

Here’s a more local view showing that the island that contains Copenhagen also contains Helsingor (Elsinore):

 

I’ll finish up this segment with this GE shot looking past the Castle over to Sweden:

 

Near Monroe, I stumbled on Mystic Hot Springs.  It’s a funky resort/campground/music venue centered, of course, on soaking in hot springs.  Here are a couple of pictures lifted from the Mystic Hot Springs website:

 

Check out the website HERE.

 I came across a Yelp review of the place (by J.M. from Boulder CO) which is definitely worth the read.  Here ‘tis:

Quite possibly the strangest place on the planet…  If you are looking for a commercialized, sanitized, corporatized, overpriced hot spring experience, do not come here.  If you are looking for a unique hippy dippy soakathonic adventure with the kindest of staff, head here at once.

Mystic Mike (the owner who stumbled upon and bought this place 17 years ago while following the Grateful Dead across the country) defies all common sense logic with his hot springs business plan, yet it seems to work.  As far as the “junk and scraps” lying around the facility, Mike doesen’t view these items as “trash,” instead valuable materials he will reuse on a future project such as the geothermal heated greenhouse made with reclaimed wood and tent parts used in the Viet Nam war.  Maybe we can all learn a lesson from his “reuse” mentality.  Additionally, he has befriended many amazing world class bands over the years that routinely stop here while on tour to soak and play music for you in the most intimate of settings.

For those reviewers who say this place “could be great if…,” I say Mystic is already a great place.  You either “get it” or you don’t.

 I’ll close with a couple of GE Panoramio shots.  Here’s a shot along I-70 just south of my landing by 2fingers:

 

And this, by CRichardD of Clear Creek narrows, about 5 miles southeast of my landing:

 

 That’ll do it.

 KS

 Greg

 

 

© 2013 A Landing A Day

Antimony, Utah

First timer? In this (hopefully) once-a-day blog, I have my computer select a random latitude and longitude that puts me somewhere in the continental United States (the lower 48). I call this “landing.” I keep track of the watersheds I land in, as well as the town I land near. I do some internet research to hopefully find something of interest about my landing location. To find out more about A Landing A Day (like who “Dan” is and what the various numbers and abbreviations mean), please see “About Landing,” (and “Abbreviations” and “Cryptic Numbers”) above.

Dan –  For the 5^th time in the last 29 landings, I’ve landed in that solid WB OSer . . . UT; 66/51; 4/10; 2; 154.5.  Here’s my landing map, showing my proximity to Antimony:

I landed in the Antimony Ck watershed, on to a new river (my 1044^th river, incidentally), the E Fk of the Sevier; on to the Sevier (8^th hit).  The Sevier is internally drained.  I have landed near it’s end point (see my Black Rock UT post) and discussed the Sevier watershed in my Holden UT post.  By the way, the E Fk of the Sevier is my 27th internally-drained river . . .

Here’s a broader landing view:

And my GE shot, showing a pretty-much featureless desert scape.

Here’s a broader view, which shows that the Sevier River near Antimony is a similar “green swath” as for my last landing, Eden AZ, along the Gila R.

Anyway, about Antimony, from UtahOnLine:

In early 1873 about twenty-two men, arrived in what would become Antimony while on a peace-keeping mission with the Fish Lake Indians.  While near the present site of Antimony they caught and earmarked several coyote pups. This incident led to the town founded at the site to be named Coyote.  The meadowlands were used as early as 1873 for grazing and several families moved here in 1878.

In 1880 antimony (stibnite), a metal used in the making of alloys, was discovered in nearby Coyote Canyon, so Coyote became a mining town as well as a ranching community. 1n 1921 the town of Coyote was renamed Antimony after the metal mined in the area.

Antimony comes from the mineral Stibnite:

Stibnite, sometimes called antimonite, is a sulfide mineral with the formula Sb₂S₃.  It is the most important source for antimony.  The abbreviation for antimony, Sb, is taken from stibnite.

Moving right along . . . there is an “Archibald Hunter” collection of historical documents maintained by the State of Utah.  This is from a write-up about old Archibald:

Some ten thousand Mormon converts from Scotland emigrated to the United States by 1900. While Archibald Murchie Hunter was not a member of that church it seems likely that his arrival in this country at age eight and his eventual arrival in Utah must have been at least partly a result of Mormon influence (although a religious motive for emigration is not required, for Scotland was poor and the Hunter family was large).

If Hunter’s reasons for emigration to this country are not fully known, neither are his early travels after arriving in Boston in 1851. His obituary reports that he remained in that city only briefly, then headed for Utah. Where he lived and how he supported himself in Utah for perhaps the next ten years is not clear, and he left in 1862 for the mining camps of Nevada.

He may have been successful in mining, for in 1874 he returned to Utah, taking up residence in Sevier County as a breeder of blooded race horses. In 1879 he joined the settlers in the Garfield County community known variously as Clover Flat, Grass Valley, Coyote, and, after 1920, Antimony. He spent the rest of his life there, supporting himself by various mining speculations, running a hotel, and raising and exporting to Scotland his fine horses.

One could hardly invent a person with a background seemingly less likely to harmonize with Antimony community life than Archibald Hunter. The settlement was composed primarily of exceptionally devout Mormons who had moved there from the United Order of Enoch (the Mormons’ communitarian order) at Kingston just barely before Hunter arrived.  Hunter was not a Mormon at all, a foreign immigrant, an Odd Fellow, a life-long bachelor, and an ardent Socialist.

The latter affiliation is probably the reason for his taking up residence in Antimony, for the Socialist Party was strong in that area, and he may have been attracted not only by the good pasture but by the compatible political climate as well. At any rate, cultural differences proved to be unimportant, and Hunter quickly became a valued neighbor and respected pillar of the community

Archibald Hunter died in Antimony in 1931.

But wait, maybe it isn’t so strange that Archibald was comfortable amongst the Mormons in Antimony.  From Wiki, this about the Mormon United Order:

The United Order established egalitarian communities designed to achieve income equality, eliminate poverty, increase group self-sufficiency, and to ultimately create an ideal utopian society Mormons referred to as Zion. The movement had much in common with other utopian societies formed in the United States and Europe during the Second Great Awakening which sought to govern aspects of people’s lives through precepts of faith and community organization

The United Order is not practiced within mainstream Mormonism today; however, a number of groups of Mormon fundamentalists, such as the Apostolic United Brethren, have revived the practice.

Sounds a little socialist, eh?  (Especially the part about “income equality”.)

I’ve head about Odd Fellows, but don’t know anything about them.  From Wiki:

The name Odd Fellows refers to a number of friendly societies that originated in the United Kingdom, with Lodges that date back to the 1700s.  These various organisations were set up to protect and care for their members at a time when there was no welfare state, trade unions or National Health Service. The aim was (and still is) to provide help to members when they need it.  The friendly societies are non-profit mutual organisations owned by their members.  All income is passed back to the members in the form of services and benefits.  The Odd Fellows are fundraisers for both local and national charities.  Branches raise money for local causes and the Societies as a whole raise significant amounts for charities.

Name origins:  In smaller towns and villages, there weren’t enough Fellows from the same trade to set up a local Guild, so Fellows from a number of trades banded together to form a local Guild of Fellows from an odd assortment of trades. Hence, Guilds of Odd Fellows.

The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is big in the U.S. (and Archibald was a member of the IOOF).  Check out the various symbols that associated with the IOOF:

Looks like it’s right up Dan Brown’s alley . . .by the way, FLT stands for friendship, love and truth.

Back to Antimony.  Here’s a shot of the Mercantile (which, by the way, is for sale at what seems to me to be a mighty steep price of $450,000!  Remember the store for sale for $90,000 a few landings ago?  It was in my Lime Springs IA post.  A much better deal . . .)

I’ll close with this landscape shot near Antimony:

That’ll do it.

KS

Greg

© 2009 A Landing A Day