7th Grade Field Trips

Ok, technically only one of these adventures is a 7th grade field trip.  But we'll get to that.

After we got back from our Bryce camping trip we decided we were ready for some ocean views .. in Sandy.  As in the Living Planet Aquarium.  This little aquarium located in Utah of all places is actually pretty fun.  We got there just in time for the Shark feeding time, which is always a good time.  They only have smaller sharks, but I wouldn't want to be in there with them during feeding time.  Oh no.  We also saw a sea turtle, otters, jelly fish, sea horses, electric eels and plenty of our other underwater friends.  If you live in Utah, its totally worth it.  They're even making it bigger sometime soon.

Our next little field trip was to Kennecott Copper Mine with our good friends the Threets.  The chemical engineer in me loved it and Jake loved the heavy machinery...as in HUGE trucks.  That company spends a fortune just on tires (at $25,000 for each one).  So they must be making a lot out of the  metal that are taking out of the ground.   But looking into that huge pit..the largest of its kind..takes your breath away.  I don't really think about where the copper in my electronics come from when I use it, but looking into that pit helped remind me.

Then, because of the disappointment we found going down to the Pareah ghost town we decided we wanted to see some actual building remains.  So we headed on a historical tour out to the utah west desert.  We started our tour in Eureka where we found the old log cabin of Porter Rockwell (the body guard of both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young).  I bet that guy had an interesting life and saw some amazing miracles.  I'm interested in reading a biography about him...I've seen one in the BYU bookstore.  We also saw the old remains of the Tintic Mine.  Here is Jake below the huge old mine shaft.

 The town of Eureka itself was kind of half ghost town.

Our next stop we Fort Deseret, just a little bit south of Delta.  It was never used for a battle, but the early settlers built it because they were a little nervous about having clashes with the local Native Americans.  But they never had a problem and the fort was used more for holding livestock.

 
 Our next stop was the main reason for the trip.  We went to Frisco.  An old mining ghost town.  This town has a pretty wild history.  The good mining brought over 6000 people there, but there wasn't any water to support them.  So water had to be shipped in, which means alcohol was cheaper than water.  This means the town had over 20 saloons.  Anyways, it also attracted a lot of gambling sharks who killed people who couldn't pay up.  So there were usually daily murders in Frisco...  that is, until they hired a sheriff who killed three people on his first day.  So here are some pictures of the town.

I saw these and had to take a picture.

These are the kilns they used to make the charcoal they used in their smelter.

After Frisco we went shooting.  We shot soda cans and our old hard drive (that had crashed, but we didn't want to throw it away since it still had our files).  So, here are some pictures of the destroyed hard drive.

Front and back views.

 We camped at Minersville Reservoir for the night.  The next morning we headed to Cove Fort where we ended our historical tour.  It is a really nice place to visit.  It has been kept up and restored really well.  So I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Our next field trip was to Energy Solutions Clive Facility.  This was the 7th grade field trip.  It did remind me how much I disliked middle school, but the actual tour was pretty cool.  After going I have to say that energy solutions get a pretty bad wrap from the media.  They are a very safe facility and they are not bringing in the most hazardous nuclear waste.  Jake and I decided we would both be happy working for a company like that.

So that concludes all of our field trips, but they really were a blast.  This week we actually need to think more about getting ready to go, which includes fixing up our car.  But we are leaving a little more time for some day trips and we are really excited to be going to somewhere new.  We will definitely miss Provo.  We went to the temple for a final time today (at least for a long while).