Day 4 started in Delta Utah. We leave town and are surrounded by several ranges of mountains. White Pine peak, at 10, 215 is in front of us and Delano Peak in the distance is 12,173. The scenery here cannot be containted in a picture, but I try.
Off to Scipio to find the house of our Uncle Clay, now passed many years. A few possibilities we see and photograph. A small town in a good agricultural area.
Then to a detour off of 50 to see Manti, our mother’s home town. We visit our cousin Steve and wife Dorothy. He is a world class knife maker. We visit our grandparents graves and decide we need to put a better marker on it. We visit a neighbor of Steve’s, June Braithwaite, late 80’s and still going strong. She is with the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and they are doing a reunion this fall for the Crawford family, of which we are part. Dan Jones was first mayor of Manti and an ancestor. Mom was a Jones and a Crawford. We plan on attending this fall. We shared some family info. We drove around town and visited our grandmother’s house. Now needs a full resotration job.
We drove up to Wales Utah because we had ancestors from Wales. Silly side trip but it brought us the highlight of the day, a golden eagle on the side of the road being harrased by some ravens. The eagle was superb.
Returning to Hwy 50 at Salina, my dad’s hometown, we visited his house and some other places in town. We went to the cemetery and visited our other grandparents graves, and with them my dad’s two brothers, one that died in infancy and another that died at age 15.
Next to the cemetary is a very unususal site, a WW2 German POW camp. We sent captured soldiers back to the US and they were placed in POW camps around the country. They were put on work crews around town. But most of them survived the war and were sent home. Little known history. The story goes that one day a drunk US guard in the watch tower took the machine gun to them, killing several of the prisioners. The other guards stopped him and later he was hung for murder.
The day is getting late. We go have a piece of sour cream blueberry pie at Mom`s Cafe, one of the best diners on the western end of the 50.
We need to get down the road so off we go to Green River. For those that like to tip a brew, know that you can`t just order a drink in Utah. You must order food with it or no alcohol. Leaving Salina, 50 merges with I70 until it goes into Colorado.
We pass a check brake spot on the road for trucks and begin a long descent down to the Green River. Just one last stop for sunset pictures at Devil’s Canyon. The change from uplifted mountains to mesa and sedimentary country is abrupt and dramatic. A whole other kind of scenery and beauty. Tomorrow Colorado.