Frisco Ghost Town

The weather was so nice on Saturday that I had to go somewhere. I pulled out my ghost-town book and looked for some place that was both interesting and at least two hours from Salt Lake. I chose Frisco, because the book said it had standing structures but no people living there. "A most fascinating place." (Some listed ghost towns actually still have residents, such as Gold Hill in Tooele County.) Frisco is about 15 miles west of Milford, which is about 230 miles from Salt Lake (okay, it's four hours away).

Frisco is named for the San Francisco mountains, where it lived on the southern tip. I bet you didn't know Utah has mountains called the San Franciscos. I didn't.

I wouldn't have gone this route to Milford, but my Garmin GPS said to turn west from I-15 at Cove Fort, which took me about 25 miles across a gravel path, called Black Rock Road.

The road is very well graded with a speed limit of 50 mph, but it was recently graveled, which, in the Corolla, made it feel like driving on ball bearings.

Believe it or not, Black Rock Road has quite a few ball-bearing turns that gave the Toyota a bit of a dirt-track racing feel.

This windmill farm is growing just before Black Rock Road connects to Highway 257, which connects Delta to Milford.

After driving four hours, I finally arrived at Frisco. The book didn't say the silver mine was restarted in 2002, and the new owners have closed the area. Well, the road, anyway.

I ran into three other guys poking around here. Two were finding a lot of useless junk with their $800 metal detector. The other guy was from Salt Lake but living in Milford while working on the windmill farm. He said he'd done some archeology around the Chinese camps on the transcontinental railroad line and found opium pipes and other artifacts. I need to find a map of the old camps and head back to the Kelton area.

I also wish I had an old picture or drawing of Frisco to identify what each building was. I was told the owner of the garage in Milford has a picture that he's happy to show, but I didn't get back to Milford until all but the two gas stations and two diners were closed.

I called this building the assayer's office, because there are core samples all over the floor.

Core samples are what the miners drill out of the rock to see whether it contains silver. I checked a dark gray stripe on the end of one of these rock cylinders with my metal detector, and it beeped positive.

If the doors were open, you could run right through this house from the front yard to the back yard without stopping.

Between 1880 and 1885, 6,000 people lived in Frisco, which hosted homes, numerous stores, a hotel, a dance hall, a schoolhouse, a newspaper, a hospital, and 23 saloons. Frisco was known as "the wildest town in the Great Basin." Killings were common.

If you slowed down while running through this house, you could admire the fine wallpaper.

I like the view from this building.

Some of these buildings were built right against the tailings mounds, with the tailings making up the back wall.

I didn't explore in any mine tunnels, because I didn't want to drop 2,000 feet in a downshaft or be eaten by a mountain lion, but it was tempting. In 1885, the mine foreman kept his crew out of the mine due to some ground shaking. During the night the entire mine collapsed from bottom to top, and that was the end of the boom years for Frisco's Horn Silver Mine, after it had brought in $54 million.

This is the head gate at the top of the mine, where the miners pulled ore out of the mine. From 1885 to 1913, lingering miners brought up an additional $20 million worth of silver.

From the head gate the ore traveled down a short chute to this structure that dumped the ore into what I assume were rail cars. One of the roads in Frisco still has railroad ties buried in the dirt.

Frisco was a decaying ghost town with no residents by 1920. The surviving cemetery is outside the No Trespassing zone.

Two interesting discoveries: 1. Most of the headstones are for young children of one to five years old, and 2. Most of the graves have headstones and what I'm guessing would be called foot stones engraved with the buried person's initials. The headstones are very legible with dates around the 1880s and often include a saying about the lost child.

A mile or so east of Frisco are some kilns used to make charcoal to smelt the ore during Frisco's boom years.

The kilns sit like decaying stone mountains.

Sunset on the desert is usually beautiful. I guess it's a cliche, but it's a good cliche.

So I put two pictures here.

I'm pretty sure Butch Cassidy was hanging out in this house in Milford when I drove through town.

On the way home I skipped Black Rock Road and headed up Highway 237 to Delta, then to Highway 6, with a little side trip to the Baker Hot Springs west of the Intermountain Power Project.

Except for the stars, the sky was almost pitch black. So I soaked very quietly in the desert hot water and gazed at the Milky Way for a long time.

Quick, Unplanned Trip

Debi from Niche-Associates called me on Friday, October 23, and asked me to come to work for them. I'll write another blog on this later. I met with Debi and Dennis on Monday, October 26, and agreed to start working on Monday, November 2. I went home and said to Chieko, "Let's go somewhere." She said, "Seattle."

Chieko didn't want to go until Thursday morning, because we had promised to tend Sara's kids Wednesday, on her birthday, but I thought she wouldn't mind too much if we skipped out on that. Sara can blame me.

We left Tuesday morning first thing and came back Sunday night.

The Seattle Temple was right behind the Embassy Suites, where we stayed in Bellevue.

I can't go to Seattle without stopping at the Salmon Cooker for a smoked salmon sandwich on sourdough bread with potato wedges, cole slaw, and clam chowder.

And, of course, we had to visit Pike's Market. I don't remember whether Chieko bought anything, but I bought a picture of some tugboats in the fog.

There's one hot chili pepper.

I'm sure these girls bought a bunch of fruit from this guy. I think he has them hypnotized.

Really?

I used to stay at the Embassy Suites in Milpitas whenever I traveled to San Jose. The suites are two big rooms, one bedroom and one living room with a sink, fridge, and microwave. Plus, they include a cook-to-order breakfast. And with all my stays in San Jose, I had enough points for free rooms in Seattle.

On Wednesday we toured the Boeing plant in Everett. The airplane assembly building in the back left is the largest building in the world by volume. It's .7 mile wide by .33 mile long. It has six assembly bays, where they put together 747s, 777s, and the new 787 Dreamliner. We got to watch the assembly, but they wouldn't let us take any pictures inside. If you go to Seattle, this tour is worth the time.

On the day we toured the plant, Boeing announced that it was building its new 787 assembly plant in South Carolina. This is a HUGE loss for Seattle. I'm sure Boeing is still the biggest employer in the Seattle area, even with Microsoft there. This story made front-page headlines the whole time we were in Washington, as everyone blamed the unions, the government, and Boeing, in that order.

This is the copilot of a 727.

On Thursday we drove to Vancouver. Even though Weather Underground said it would rain all week, this was the only day that we really got rain a lot of rain. We took the sea bus across the harbor to North Vancouver to the Lonsdale Quay (Q) Market, kind of a farmer's market, similar to Pike's Market in Seattle, but different. The sea bus goes right to the market.

In case you didn't know, I am a big fan of anything related to tug boats. This stems from a time I was especially stressed at work. I happened to be in Seattle, and while sitting on the pier I noticed how peaceful the tugboats looked in Puget Sound. I decided I wanted to become a tugboat pilot. However, the closest I've gotten so far is to mostly build a radio-controlled tugboat (it isn't finished) and ride on the real tugboat (Shelley Foss) the model is based on in the Seattle Sea Fair tugboat races in 1994.

At the Q Market we ate a really yummy Italian Wedding homemade soup. I have to confess: my plan was to take pictures of all our meals, since eating seemed to become a big part of this trip. But almost every time I was so hungry, and the food was so good, that I forgot to take a picture until the meal was half gone.

The people at this little store in the market are making giant candy canes from scratch. The sugar is boiling in a big copper kettle in the corner, and we watched them pull and twist the cooling sugar mass into a long rope that they cut and formed into canes. The people were very friendly and invited me to come behind the table to take this picture. Of course I also bought a $7 candy cane, too. (They also had peppermint candy canes, but I like the tooty fruity colors.)

Back in Vancouver near the sea bus terminal is Gastown. This is where Vancouver began in 1867, the same year Canada become a nation. Today the cobblestone streets are lined with touristy and trendy shops. This steam-driven clock was built in 1977, based on an 1875 design. It uses the same steam that heats the buildings in the area. It's supposed to play music, but we didn't hear any.

There are two cities in North America with ramen restaurants that I would travel to just to eat ramen. One is San Mateo, California. The restaurant is called Santa. The other is Vancouver, British Columbia. The restaurant there is called Sapporo Ramen. I looked forward to the Sapporo ramen from the moment Chieko suggested Seattle as our destination on Monday. Unfortunately, the restaurant is no longer. How disappointing. By the time we discovered it was gone we had driven all over Vancouver in the rain and traffic with my Garmin GPS on the fritz, and we were ready to eat any ramen or anything else anywhere. Chieko asked someone in another Japanese restaurant if there were any ramen shops around. The girl directed us to Benkei Ramen. Wow. This is my new favorite, better than San Mateo's, I think.

Where in the world is Costco? Take this elevator down from street level to the next street level below. Chieko bought a down-filled Ralph Lauren parka here. Then we walked back to the Hampton Inn in the rain.

On Friday we took a BC Ferry from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island.

We were lucky to get on a ferry two hours earlier than the one we had reservations for and landed in Sidney just before the Olympic torch came through town. We found a place to park and lined up on the street with the other 10,000 people. This woman, Bridgette, was waiting near us for her turn to run with the torch. While waiting, she let me hold the torch to see how heavy it was.

Finally, the lit torch showed up and Bridgette was on her way.

We love the winter Olympics and felt lucky to be here, since we missed the torch festivities for the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002, because we were living in California, although we did come to Salt Lake to see some of the events. The Vancouver Olympics start in February. In the meantime, the torch will travel all across Canada, to within an hour of 90% of Canadians, including those in the world's northernmost villages.

Another disappointment was the fish and chips. I was so looking forward to fish and chips on the harbor next to the houseboats. The consierge at the Marriott said it was closed for the season. How sad. He suggested Red Fish Blue Fish right on the Inner Harbor as an alternate choice. You can see Red Fish Blue Fish in the background in this picture. It's the shipping container.

This is my new favorite fish and chips by far. I was on a quest for a while to find the best fish and chips in North America, along with my quest to find the best BBQ restaurants. For fish and chips, this is number one. The other place was good, but I was glad it was closed.

Look how thick and juicy this halibut is, and how thin they make the crispy batter. And every seat at this restaurant has a beautiful harbor view.

At night we walked to the prefectural legislature building, where the Olympic torch was wrapping up its day's run. There was a lot of singing and dancing and a drizzle of a rain. Coke is a major sponsor of these Olympics, and I got a coke bottle that glows (free after standing in line), as well as two little, 250ml, aluminum coke bottles (filled, $2 at 7-Eleven).

On Saturday we took the Washington State ferry from Swartz Bay to Anecortes. We had to go through U.S. Customs on the Canada side and again on the Washington side. Go figure. This is a three-hour trip through the most beautiful islands in North America. Another unexpected sunny day.

At night we ate dinner at I Love Sushi in Bellevue. This is not the sushi boat I Love Sushi that is in California. This place is really good. This sushi bento is by far the best I've ever had. I shouldn't admit it, but we ate here twice on this trip, and I had the same thing both times. Except on the first visit we also had smelt sushi that was really good but that was not on the menu when we went back.

If you cross the Aurora Bridge (officially the George Washington Memorial Bridge) over Lake Union, watch out for this troll.

The battery in my camera died, so the rest of our trip is on this short video taken with Chieko's new iPod Nano. Yes, we did eat at the Salmon Smoker again, too. And we made a last stroll through Pike's Market.

Beavers Have Gone to Bed

I couldn't help checking out the beavers near Mirror Lake one last time before the ponds freeze over. But it turns out I was a bit late. The ponds had just skim ice, but the beavers were tucked away nice and cozy in their stick and mud lodge.

But I did find some interesting stuff to see. Have you ever stopped here?

If you do, let me know how that goes.

This place even has its own road.

If you come from the Wyoming side, this lake is Trail Lake.

But from the Utah side, it's Trial Lake. Notice the Utah-side sign is faded and older, so Trial Lake must be the original name.

This is a pine cone.

This is a gnarly tree.

When I wasn't paying attention, this heard of elk came out into a small clearing on the other side of the beaver meadow from me. It's the same clearing two moose dropped into a few weeks ago when I was watching beavers. After the elk ate a bit, the bull elk hearded the cows up into the trees to the left the way a sheep dog might heard sheep.

Railroad Ghost Town

Ever since I read "Nothing Like It in the World," the Stephen Ambrose history of the building of the transcontinental railroad, I've been interested not only in the railroads but in the towns that grew up and died with the rail lines. On October 24, Randy and I drove out to a couple of those ghost towns and drove on several miles of the old rail bed.

The main town we wanted to find was Kelton, with Terrace not being too far away from there. To get to Kelton, we drove to Wendover, then another 30 miles to the recent ghost town of Oasis (http://mastlefamily.blogspot.com/2009/03/wendover-to-oasis.html) and turned north. We stopped in Montello (http://mastlefamily.blogspot.com/2009/01/ron-tello-of-montello.html) for gas but decided it was way too expensive and hoped we could get to the ghost towns and on to Snowville on what we had. The road to the ghost towns cuts off the highway shortly after the Utah border.

You know you're on the right highway when you see the Snuffleupagus.

These towns were booming at one time.

Today they're mostly scattered bricks and a few foundations.

With an occasional structure still in place. I think this was the only building we found that still had its walls standing, sort of.

I bought an inexpensive metal detector before we went and played with that a bit. I found a porcelain door knob, a railroad spike, and a whole lot of .22 shell casings, nails, and tin cans.

This is a cutaway the Chinese workers made in the rock for the Central Pacific Railway coming from Sacramento.

Several trestles are still standing. The road is built on the old rail bed, but it makes detours around each of the trestles. I think this was the biggest one we saw.

My toy truck driving across the trestle.

It's still in pretty good shape for being more than 100 years old. Coming from the Nevada direction, this trestle is on the rail trail before Kelton. This line was completed in 1869 with the driving of the Golden Spike, and it was abandoned about 1904, when the Lucin cutoff made a shortcut across the Great Salt Lake.

The trestle is built with some heavy-duty bolts that although rusted are still hanging in there.

Birds have built numerous nests in the trestle spaces.

It seems like the cemeteries are all that survive when towns die.

On the way to Snowville we spotted these prong horn antelope in a farmer's field. I think I counted 51.

We took a little detour from Snowville back past ATK on the way home. This is a Minuteman missile.

And the ending sunset.