In Our Element Part I

What is antimony? A notion, an element, an antidote to Billy Idol? It is an element, but it is also a small town in central Utah with about 100 residents and proximity to multiple national parks. How did we end up in this tiny settlement? And how did the ending up end up? Those elemental answers await you.

the Antimony silo
The silo we stayed in used to house grain for cattle. The grain is gone, but the cattle remain.
Osiris
Osiris’ creamery was built in the 1920s but was soon abandoned due to unfavorable weather and farming conditions.

For Valentine’s Day this year, I gave Jason a “Would You Rather?” gift. Apparently, he would rather stay in a silo than a treehouse or a giant glamping tent. That silo was in Antimony. Did we know where Antimony was when I reserved the silo, or what was in Antimony beyond a silo? No.

the Woodard House
The Woodard House is one of two historic structures remaining in Widtsoe. The other is a one-room schoolhouse.
the remains of the heyday
In the 1920s, Widtsoe’s population peaked somewhere between 365 and 1,100. It had two hotels, a confectionery, a church, four stores, a schoolhouse, and a post office.
from hip to hollow
Extended drought, erosion, and an overabundance of rodents eventually made Widtsoe one of the most impoverished towns in the state.
the specter of Widtsoe
In 1935, the 29 families remaining voted to accept a resettlement package from the federal government. By 1938, the last of them were gone and Widtsoe was no more.

It turns out, Antimony is a place where cellphone service cannot be found for almost an hour in any direction. That’s what isn’t in or around Antimony. So, what is? Bryce Canyon National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Otter Creek State Park, Piute State Park, and Kodachrome Basin State Park. Yes, near Antimony you can experience much but tell no one.

Widtsoe by Dorothea Lange
The famous photographer Dorothea Lange came to Widtsoe in 1936 to document the federal government’s resettlement plan.
Lange at the LOC
Dorothea Lange’s photos of Widtsoe can be found easily on the Library of Congress’ website.

Our first full day in Antimony, Bryce Canyon National Park was our destination. On the way, we wanted to commune with the forsaken at two ghost towns. We stopped at Osiris, which seemed more like a building than a town, and visited Widtsoe. We had explored Widtsoe last time we were in the area almost 10 years ago and were surprised to find that during the last decade people had begun to move back to this long-abandoned settlement. While the original one-room schoolhouse was still there and the ever-interesting Woodard House, the scattering of brand-new structures amongst these seemed to dematerialize the spirits of the past. We even returned to the Widtsoe Cemetery, a location we thought strange and slightly unsettling last time, only to find it just a somewhat unconventional, peaceful spot.

100 years later
A century after Widtsoe’s apex, it’s hard to imagine a thriving town in its dry, solitary spot.

Although Jason and I had both been to Bryce Canyon National Park at least three or four times prior to this visit, we had not investigated many of its trails. On this outing, we inspected one of the unfamiliar, the Fairyland Loop. The Fairyland Loop is 8.3 miles long and considered strenuous. Its path passes points of interest like Oastler’s Castle, Chinese Wall, and Tower Bridge. Figuring out which hoodoos corresponded with which titles was often unachievable, but we saw it all even if we didn’t know what we were looking at.

crimson nymphs
Throughout the Fairyland Loop, windows, fins, hoodoos, plateaus, and pinnacles of crimson and rust form abstract structures and fantastical creatures.
the wonders of weathering
Bryce Canyon experiences freeze/thaw cycles every day for nearly half of the year. Those are the most significant source of weathering in the park.

We had read conflicting reports of this path’s busyness and were a little puzzled about what to expect. The proclaimers of emptiness were right; it was much less trafficked than other trails in Bryce. We saw exactly zero people after we passed Tower Bridge, suggesting hikers were just going to the bridge and not doing the complete loop.

the Chinese Wall
Both form and color surprise at Bryce.
the fairies of the Fairyland Loop
It takes limited imagination to envision these fanciful shapes and dazzling colors the workings of nymphs and goblins.

Beyond a lack of hominoid clusters, we also lucked out on weather. Due to its high elevation, Bryce is typically about 10 degrees cooler than the surrounding region. That placed its temperatures somewhere in the low to mid-eighties on this particular afternoon. Even with elevation considered, after experiencing the hottest day on record in Utah right before our trip, we were still expecting some sultry misery in the canyon. However, thick clouds came in, and a breeze sprung up early in our expedition making it mighty pleasant. The sun didn’t show itself until about five o’clock. By then, it could only blast us briefly before hoodoos shadowed our way.

Hoodoo? You do.
Hoodoo is a fitting name for a strange spectacle.
atypical steeples
Someone must have told Mother Nature to think outside the box.
the Sinking Ship
It’s not hard to visualize a ship sinking into this sea of vibrant sand and wavy stone.

Were all the paragraphs above devoted to just one day? Umm… yes. That leaves the rest of our Antimony escapades to next week’s recount. Don’t worry, it will be longer than a fifth-grade book report but shorter than a dissertation… probably.