At This Is the Place, we have four "trains" (more like a truck): the Betsy Jane, the Blackhawk, the Jupiter, and the 119. So far this season, I've been driving the Betsy Jane and the 119, but this week I got to drive the other two. It was...an experience.
Monday was the first time anyone drove the Blackhawk in a really long time. I found some gloves and saltwater taffy on the caboose, so I'm guessing the last time it was driven was October 2019. They had tested it beforehand, but this was to be the first time it was actually in service. Monday was a busy day with the SUP and DUP in the park, so they wanted to drive both the Betsy Jane and the Blackhawk, and the honor fell to me to drive it for its first time back in service.
Well, I took the Blackhawk around the park a few times, but I did have to press the gas really hard to get it to go. But at one point, as I was driving up the biggest hill in the park, the truck/train was really struggling. I looked down at the temperature gauge, and it was all the way at hot. I thought, "I just hope I can make it to the top of the hill to the train stop!" Well, I barely made it. As I pulled in at the stop, smoke and steam billowed out of the engine like in a movie. Coolant was dripping all over the road. We had to get everyone off and call the mechanic. They coasted the Blackhawk down the hill, and while the conductor and I waited at the top of the hill, Dallin H. Oaks rode by on a golf cart. The mechanic wanted me to drive his truck down, but I got confused because its PRND21 didn't work, so I didn't drive it.
Since we couldn't use the Blackhawk, they had me drive the Jupiter instead (the first time I have driven that one as well). The Jupiter will randomly shut off while it is waiting, which is not ideal, but you can just work with it by putting it in neutral and starting it again. I used it for a while, and then I went to park it for lunch. It parked fine as long as it was on. But once I took the key out, it would keep rolling. So I had to call the mechanic, and he came and fixed it. He is usually off on Mondays, so it was a good thing he was there that day!
On Wednesday, I stopped at the Book Garden in Bountiful because I saw that they had an old book that I want to cite for my Pioneer Day project, and I haven't been able to go to the Church History Library to look at it, so I decided to buy it. But they didn't have it on site, so they are going to get it from their storage. I also saw the book Plain But Wholesome: Foodways of the Mormon Pioneers, which I have wanted to read, so I bought it. And it is always fun to see my own books out in the wild.
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| The Saints Abroad (in the middle) is the book I coedited. It's my greatest achievement of my career...so far. |
Thursday was my day off, so I thought I would do something pioneery. I went to visit the American West Heritage Center outside of Logan, a place that is similar to This Is the Place. When I started working at TITP, my boss told me that when you visit living history museums, they give you discounts for being a fellow historical interpreter. But whenever I have asked, they have not done so. Oh well.
AWHC has a few pioneer cabins that have been relocated to the site, as well as some replicas. They also have a farm and a miniature train. I enjoyed walking on some little trails, but then I learned that the area was closed. How was I supposed to know that when there were no signs where I entered the trail? I could tell they were short staffed, which I can certainly understand; we are short staffed at TITP as well. I enjoyed the 1917 farmhouse with the tiny upstairs rooms.
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| This is their train. |
Since I had gone all the way up there (and got a chip in my windshield!), I thought I should do something else in that area of the state. I looked on Google Maps to see what else was nearby, and I decided to go to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. The museum was closed, and I didn't feel like walking on the shadeless trail in the middle of the mid-90s temperatures. But I went to the auto tour, which was twelve miles away and which was itself a twelve-mile tour. It was amazing! Even though it's the off season, and it was the middle of the day, and we have a severe drought, I saw lots of pelicans and other birds; it's a must-see spot for any ornithologist. I definitely hope to go back sometime.
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| There were lots of birds here. |
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| Here is an interpretive sign about invasive carp, but it was completely dry here. |
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| There was a lookout at the beginning of the auto tour where I saw three pelicans, but there were lots more pelicans later on. |
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| You can see the new chip in my windshield. |
That evening, I had my fifth Utah Taste Off kit. This one was Utah-themed foods for Pioneer Day. The foods themselves wouldn't have intrigued me that much, but since I hope to become the world's authority on Pioneer Day, I wanted to get this kit. It had honey, fry sauce, Jello cupcakes, beignets, and funeral potato Pioneer Chips. I loved the cupcake, beignets, and fries and fry sauce, probably because I was hungry. The beignets won the overall Taste Off.
On Friday, it took me an hour to get to work because of the Days of '47 parade. Two years ago it took a long time, so this time I went a different route. I picked the wrong route. When I got there, I got a surprising note. Apparently a guest had come to the village and one of the supervisors told her about my research. So she left a note for them to pass along to me. She is writing a novel, and the protagonist goes to a Pioneer Day celebration in 1937, so she wants some information about what would have happened in real life at such an event. What a surprise! I will have to do some research and get back to her.
We had a busy day on Friday as part of Days of '47 and Pioneer Day weekend. It makes sense; if there were a Pioneer Day door in The Nightmare before Christmas, it would lead to This Is the Place Heritage Park. I was helping with gold panning, and we had a steady stream of guests all day.
But then, of course, the really busy day was Saturday, July 24. Once again, they had me drive the Blackhawk. I helped the mechanic with some repairs in the morning so that it wouldn't overheat.
Well, it worked for a couple of hours. But I don't like driving that train because it is/was very noisy and hot. None of the trains have AC, but the Blackhawk's cab is worse. After a few hours, the engine got a little hot, so I turned on the heat while I went up the hill. It also slipped when I took off from one of the train stops. But it got to the point that the temperature gauge was all the way at hot again. Luckily, it didn't smoke or boil over, but I knew it wouldn't be sustainable. The mechanics took the Blackhawk out of service, because they determined there were too many people. I drove the 119 instead. That train is always hot, but after driving the Blackhawk, it felt nice and cool! The train people decided to take the caboose off the Blackhawk, then brought it back in service. And apparently that fixed the problem—no longer did it slip when taking off from the stop, no longer did it overheat, and no longer was the cab super hot. They calculated that the weight of a full load of passengers was more than that train was meant to pull.
Initially, I kind of resented that I would have to drive on Pioneer Day. I'm the world's expert on it, and I'm just being relegated to driving the train, where I get little interaction with the public? But in some ways it was nice; I get stressed out when lots of people come into sites, but this way I didn't have to deal with that.
Then we finished out the Pioneer Day season by going to my sister's house and watching Bountiful's Handcart Days fireworks from her driveway. It was a great view.
It wasn't the most exciting Pioneer Day this year. And that's OK.
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