4/20/12 - Silver Reef Ghost Town



Our neighbor Jay sent George an e-mail suggesting we should go visit Silver Reef Ghost Town while we were in southwestern Utah and say "Hi" to his cousin Eric, who's the director of the museum there.

Silver was discovered in the White Reef sandstone in 1866.  As the miners came to make their fortunes, a town popped up nearby.  There's not much left:  just the Wells Fargo Express Office, the rebuilt Cosmopolitan Restaurant and Rice Bank Building, plus a lot of crumbling walls and foundations.  There are some very expensive homes nearby that tend to spoil that old west flavor, but maybe the ghosts share addresses with those folks. 

The Wells Fargo Express Office has been turned into a museum, gift shop and art gallery.  There's a huge sculpture of a stagecoach done by a local artist (if you like this, I think the price is $350K!) 

       

There are some interesting pieces in the museum, but the best part is Eric himself.  He gives tours of the museum, and casually gears his spiel to his audience.  He goes into as much history or detail as people care to hear.  He intersperses corny jokes for the kids as well as the adults as he explains the exhibits or history of the mines and town. 

Click the link for more pictures from Silver Reef.  (My favorite thing in the museum was a pair of high-top button shoes for a baby!)  Silver Reef Ghost Town & Museum