Why Pennsylvania?
The canyon from Elgin up the side of the volcano is called Pennsylvania Canyon. There's a mine there called the Pennsylvania mine. Given the way local history seems to work, I'm guessing the canyon might have been named after the mine, rather than the other way around. But do any of the local mining and history buffs in the group know why either was named "Pennsylvania"?
For those interested in mining, here's a report about mining potential in the Clover Mountains south of the area; the report mentions quite a bit about the Pennsylvania mine. It was primarily for gold, silver, and lead, but the authors also note the presence of thorium, yttrium, zeolites, fluorspar, alunite, lead, zinc, mercury, cadmium, antimony, molybdenum, manganese, and gypsum. The authors describe the area as a "demonstrated marginal reserve", meaning that it has produced in the past, but current costs and prices make it not worth currently operating. Here's the report: https://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/1729d/report.pdf
For those interested in the early history of the area, here's another report that may be of interest. Although it's a geology report, it has a road log starting on page 15 that describes a three-day geology field trip. The log notes places and artifacts such as early ranches, cabins, and corrals, railroad tunnels, cliff and cave dwellings not only by the Paiute, but earlier by the Western Fremont, earlier still by the Virgin Anasazi, and even earlier by the Desert Archaic people who were here 6,500 years ago (see p. 22). I'm not sure where all these places are, and many of them are probably not directly on our route, but perhaps some of our history-buff members can tell us more about them, or plan a future trip. The report is here: http://hermes.cde.state.co.us/drupal/is ... co%3A11063
See you all Saturday!
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, so be careful!