4466. Go to Silver Reef Museum in Leeds

When taking a road trip, I try to find some place of interest to stop at each day especially on days that are just driving. Knowing we didn't have much time for a stop in Utah, I looked for something the hubby would enjoy. Most of the National Parks were out because of time and budget constraints as well as the hubby isn't a National Park (the nature kind) kind of guy.

Through one of my searches, I discovered the Silver Reef, an old silver mining ghost town. It wasn't too far off the highway and it would be something the hubby would like.

Unlike most ghost towns that cater to tourists, this one wasn't commercialized for a lack of a better term. There was a small museum and then you could take a walking/driving tour to see what is left of the town. There were no gun fights at noon, no expensive mine tours, no zip-lining through the town. It was just a small museum trying to tell you their story about an era gone by.

Now, I did say it wasn't commercialized. I never said there weren't any characters in town. We parked outside the museum and the deputy sheriff knocks on our window and strikes up a conversation. Mind you, this guy thinks he's in the 1890s. It was probably one of the best welcomes I've had a while. We just happened to get lucky and pull in when the sheriff did.

The museum is housed in the original Wells, Fargo, & Co Express Station. For $3/person ($10/family), we got a docent led tour of the small museum. She explained the history of the town and various pieces in the museum. The museum is about 3 rooms with a lot of artifacts found in the area. It was very interesting. We could then peruse the museum on our own.

Also included in our town was a tour of the mine exhibit. Because the silver was found in the limestone, it was a different type of mining done. We learned how they mined the silver and then processed the ore. The mine exhibit was real interesting.

I definitely didn't want to work in those conditions. You were given 2 candles a day.. one to heat your lunch and one to see with. That's not a lot of light. You might have to be the unlucky one to hold the crowbar while another one hits with a sledgehammer.

If we wanted we could have done a walking/driving tour around the area to see the buildings that were part of the mining town. I would have loved to see more of the buildings but time constants didn't allow for it. The museum put together a nice guide to the area buildings that tells the history of each of the buildings. It would definitely be worth doing and can be done when the museum is closed.

This was definitely worth the stop. I never know what to expect when finding these hole in the wall tourists attractions but so far so good.