Golden Spike & Northwest Utah

August 31, 2010 – Our visit to City of the Rocks National Reserve provided the perfect excuse to come home via “forgotten Utah” and experience a corner of the Utah not often visited.

Our adventure began from the Old Post Office and Mercantile Store in Almo, Idaho where we stocked up on gas and food. Almo is a small town of about 180 residents in the shadows of the granite monoliths of City of the Rocks.

Few realize Almo is also the site of one of the bloodiest massacres in pioneer history. Across the street from the post office a monument stands dedicated to those of an immigrant party who lost their lives in a horrible Indian massacre in 1861. Of the three hundred immigrants in route to California only 5 escaped.

Because so few survived and the place so remote, details of the tragedy have always been “sketchy” at best but speculation is that the emigrant train bound from Missouri had been keeping one of the largest gathering of Indians at bay for a couple of days by long range rifles. When the train finally stopped to camp at Almo Creek, the Indians ambushed them. Immediately circling the wagons the travelers held their ground. For 3-4 days they fought for survival but eventually the entire party was all killed. As time has all but erased details of the massacre it’s difficult to assess blame and come to a complete understanding, and is another example of the complexities of understanding the history of the west.

Heading south on the Elba-Almo Hwy we soon found ourselves on the Lynn Almo Road at the Utah boarder and then the Valley Lynn Road. The road itself hadn’t changed from the dirt cutout but its moniker had, just one of the many subtleties infrastructure in rural Utah brings.

Soon an unnamed road would offer us passages to Lynn and then Gross Creek, a small town with a couple of turn-of the century buildings. If you’re in Gross Creek you’re close enough to Etna so you should stop and visit, but keep in mind Etna’s not the kind of place you’ll even remember you visited.

There is a barren beauty about the land but traveling a dirt road can be monotonous and we had a sense of relief when we finally hit State Highway 39 and began to veer east.

Of course, we had to stop at Kelton and make our way to Locomotive Engine Springs. Few realize in the barren land north of the Great Salt Lake one of the most dramatic human accomplishment happened as two railroad companies raced to complete their segments of the intercontinental railroad. Today the rail lines are a memory as most of the tracks were pulled up to supply efforts during World War II.

When we finally made it to Promotory and the Golden Spike Historic Park we were tired and road weary. Luckily we had time with a handful of other visitors (presumably from the Salt Lake City route) to see the daily train demonstration.

Utah has some incredible offerings and often the northwest corner of the state is often forgotten, but for the adventurous history still speaks in this desolate land.