This Saturday was the semi annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Blake and I planned that during the two hours between conference sessions we would make the drive to Camp Floyd Stagecoach Inn State Park. It is located in a little town called Fairfield, Utah which just happened to be less than 20 minutes away from our home.
We pulled up and parked in front of a tiny little building. Upon entering the lady at the desk was very helpful, she took our fee (only $3 each SCORE!!) then continued to give us a brief history of Camp Floyd.
Since I know you might not be interested in this I will just give you the readers digest version of what went down 160 or so years ago.
In the 1850's President Buchanan was told there was a large rebellion of Mormons in Utah. He took this rumor very seriously and sent 3,500 soldiers, 1/3 of the entire U.S. Army to Utah to squash the rebellion. When the soldiers arrived they found that there was no rebellion and they set up camp in Fairfield, Utah. John Carson a Fairfield resident also built an Inn out of his home which housed visitors to the soldiers and pony express riders when the pony express was active.
In 1861 President Lincoln called the army back home to help in the Civil War and ordered the whole camp to be destroyed so that it would't be used by anyone else. First however they had an auction to sell as much as they could to the Utah Settlers. It was the best yard sell probably in the history of the world for the buyers! The army ended up selling 3-4 million dollars worth of things for 100,000. They then destroyed everything that was left. So out of all the housing and other buildings for the 3,500 soldiers only one building was left.
This was it.
Inside there was educational video and a small room with artifacts from that time. It was very interesting.
One thing I thought that was really cool was a drawing from a soldier of Witch Rocks on his way to Salt Lake City. This is right up the road from my parents house in Morgan. I even have been on top of the middle tower while rock climbing with some friends. It is crazy how land marks like this span the ages. They have been there for years before I was born and will probably be there long after I am gone. It can sometimes be mind-boggling.
Here is a picture I took in 2012 before my friends Austin, Brenden and I climbed the middle tower.
Across the street from the first building was The Stage Coach Inn. It was fun to walk through the Inn with furniture from that time.
My favorite quote by one of the soldiers who lived in this camp basically summed up Fairfield, Utah pretty well. It also made me laugh out loud. "Camp Floyd is one of the most miserable disagreeable and uninteresting places that every disgraced the earth. It is built upon a dry plain, entirely destitute of grass, or indeed any vegetation except sage, that flourishes where nothing else will grow." Seriously so funny.
Right before we left we found this awesome big tree. We asked an elderly lady to take the picture with my phone. Sometimes technology is hard so you can't see us very well, but you can see how big the tree is!
We made it home just in time for the last session of conference. If you missed it or are interested in what was said feel free to look it up on lds.org. :) It was an amazing Saturday!
