Travels with Auntie M

This Army facility is larger than Rhode Island, 801,505 acres in the Great Salt Lake Desert, surrounded on three sides by mountain ranges.

It’s mission is to test biological and chemical weapons…next to where 6,249 sheep died in 1968...not an alien invasion.

It has the nickname of Area 52 because of the numerous UFO sightings...everyone has to have their picture taken with Alien Doug.

Located 80 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, there are two approached to Dugway, 40 miles down Interstate Highway 80 and then 40 through open range or 30 miles down I80, exit Tooele then 39 miles which crawls through town and then a long winding drive through a small mountain (They pronounce it two-willa, but it still seems like the toolies to me.) The drive down I80, along the Great Salt Lake (mostly hidden below the banks)...this is what I saw:

There was a long stretch of road with rocks in the water spelling out names, hearts, initials and messages from the bible.

Below is the third Saltair, built in 1981 out of salvaged Air Force aircraft hangar and located a mile west of the original site. As a resort it was doomed to fail, as it was flooded months after opening and then the waters receded year after year, finally leaving it high and dry. It is now used for concerts and events but the tracks no longer reach the resort.

Saltair III

The first Saltair, a resort built on the shores of the Great Salt Lake in 1893 was jointly owned by the LDS church and the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad Company which constructed a track for the express purpose of serving the resort.

This is what the original looked like:

Pulling off I80 to drive 40 miles across flat open range...

...this was the first sign I saw:

It says IOSEPIA, further down the road, there was also another sign (bill board type) with a palm tree and the name IOSEPIA. Turns out it is a ghost town which once had over 200 Polynesian Mormons. Link to IOSEPIA Details

I always drive around with nuclear waste looking for a place to dump it.

The next weekend, when I left for Golden Spike Historic Park, there actually were lose cattle:

I kept seeing signs for Ensign Ranch…my research reveals there are 5 ranches covering over a million acres.

Lone Rock

I never saw any Bison. The drive to Tooele yields more interesting fodder:

Just outside the Post gate was this building that was never open. It looked like a Visitors Center, but when I saw activity on Sunday, I realized it was an LDS church.

Founded in 1771, it was the fourth mission established in the Franciscan chain of 21 California Missions.

Its' bell tower and outside stairway are very different from the other Missions, as it is constructed from stone, brick and mortar instead of adobe, with a strong Moorish architectural influence.

The mission land once stretched from the ocean to the mountains to Riverside (nearly the desert) and is known as the “Birthplace of the Los Angeles Region.”

The plaza park Bicentennial Fountain was built in 1976.

Gift Shop

Door Within Door

Chapel

Inside Chapel

Tinky Winky finds an open Baptismal Font and tries to take a dip.

You can see the Moorish influence: the capped buttresses and tall, narrow windows, which make this mission unique among the California Missions.

circa 1900

Signage: The Old Spanish Trail (1829-1848) was an historic pack trail connecting Santa Fe to the pueblo of Los Angeles. Travelers from Santa Fe aimed for the San Gabriel Mission as a welcome destination and gathering place. Traders brought woolen goods from New Mexico and returned with highly prized California mules and horses. The trail originated as a trade route from Santa Fe into central Utah during the Spanish Colonial days but was also used as an emigrant trail to California during the Mexican period.