April 3, 2017
Earlier this year as I detailed in a previous blog post, I visited the Utah Ore Sampling Company site in Murray, Utah. This location is one of the last standing landmarks of Utah's galena mining and lead smelting industry, and the connection those businesses had to the railroads. With many of the other visible sites having been removed and rehabilitated over the years, the Utah Ore Sampling Co. stood out like a reminder of the past; a lone testament to times now long gone.
On April 1st, through Facebook and talking with the other blog editors I learned there was a rumor going around the venerable Utah Ore Sampling Co. was scheduled to finally be demolished after years of neglect and abandonment. Being April Fools, we perhaps had a small glimmer of hope that the news we heard was some sort of online joke and not based in reality... On Monday morning, I drove down to the site in Murray, to check it out to realize not only was the news true; but demolition was already underway. Trucks moved across the site, with work men in hard hats and safety vests clearing out rubble. The flocks of birds that had taken roost in the building, flew overhead in circles; as the ground below was a flurry of activity. The protective awnings that had covered a former loading dock were gone, and piles of rubble were visible around the site; a conglomerate of building parts and perhaps mining relics that still stood within the building.
I took these pictures hoping they will be a good final look at the building. I don't know how much longer the building will stand before the demolition crew finally brings it down. Until then, all I can say is adios and farewell to this once iconic structure.
A worker sifts through a rubble pile, as a lone building on the sampling site (possible the remains of a thaw shed?) stands behind him awaiting its final fate.
A keen eye can spot faint letters spelling out "Utah Ore Sampling Co." on the side of the tower above.
The awning which once stood above this loading dock area is now gone, as work crews strip the building down.
Worksite entrance and warning signs.
-Jacob Lyman
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