 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||
 |
|
|||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Iron
County Ghosts
Western Iron County, Utah
Above and below:
One-room house near Lund, Utah. Lund was a busy rail stop in the days
before the Interstate. Trains from Salt Lake City and Las Vegas stopped
in Lund, where passengers then rode a bus about 30 miles east to Cedar
City. Lund still has a few residents and several dilapidated buildings.
Historical information and photographs on western Iron County communities,
compiled by Steve Heath of Southern Utah University is available at
surweb.org
.
Lund, Utah
Lund, Utah
The Escalante Desert near Lund, Utah.
The Wah Wah Mountains, west of Lund, Utah
Beryl, about 16 miles southwest of Lund along the railroad tracks,
is a bit more populated than Lund. The community has migrated away
from the old "center of town", however. This is the inside of Beryl's
former [post office?]. It is clearly marked with a "No Trespassing"
sign, so we took the photo through a broken window. The building stands
amid a handful of other seemingly abandoned structures and vehicles.
Old Irontown, Utah is an extinct community that was built around the
iron industry for which Iron County was named. It is located just
a few miles south from highway 56 between Cedar City and Newcastle.
This is a popular historic site for school field trips and visitors
to Iron County.
From Surweb.org:
"The charcoal kiln is a major feature of the ruins at Iron City, now
called Old Iron Town. The iron works at this site were established
in 1868. It was the second attempt at manufacturing iron products
in Iron County. Lack of capital, economic depression in the early
1870's, and federal taxes on charcoal lead to its demise by 1876.
Iron City provided the iron used in the construction of the oxen that
support the St. George Temple baptismal font. Old Iron Town is owned
by the Cedar City Chapter of the Sons of the Utah Pioneers. The group
encourages respectful visitors".
Old Irontown, Utah
From Surweb.org:
"Gold Springs is located on the Utah-Nevada border in Western Iron
County. These abandoned buildings are located at the Jennie Mine in
the Gold Springs Mining District. The Jennie Mine produced 4,000 ounces
of gold and 21,000 ounces of silver from 1907 to 1940. The mine is
located northwest of Modena". Be sure to visit our Gold
Springs page
The former Modena school. Modena was a major stop along the railroad
between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles before the highways were built.
Next time you drive through Modena, be sure to visit the General Store.
The elderly woman who runs the store pulled out from under the counter
volumes of historic photographs from Stateline Ghost town (before
it was a ghost town) and had plenty of information on the area and
history of Modena. This was two years ago, and I haven't made it back
to see her since. I wish I had been forward-thinking enough to capture
my conversation with her on tape--the things she knows will probably
die with her. The store itself, when I was there, was like walking
back into the 1950's. In fact, the calendar on the door to the cold
room at the back of the store hadn't been changed since May, 1950.
Dust and din, the heat stove in the center of the store, antique bottles
and artifacts in the display case, and old product containers on the
store's top shelves told the story of a once-livelier community.
From Surweb.org:
"The Lund Hotel at Modena in Western Iron County was a very busy place
at the turn of the 20th Century. This abandoned hotel, next to the
main railroad line from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, was active
until the late 1920's when good roads came to Iron and Washington
counties. A lot of freight, which was headed to southern Utah, was
dropped off at this railroad siding."
Visit surweb.org for more information and photos from Modena.
© desertislands.org | All Rights Reserved.