Day 6, Thursday, June 18th

Taking the "Lonelist Highway in America" back East toward Delta, Utah we decided to set up camp at the Antelope RV Resort in Delta. The world is a small place. The manager of the RV resort knew exactly where Magnolia, Texas is. She had visited the area this past March and camped at an RV park in Willis!

We quickly set-up and left for Topaz Mountain located about 40 miles northwest of Delta.

Topaz Mountain is keeping a shameful secret from America's past. Topaz Camp was located near Topaz Mountain. Topaz Camp was a guarded containment camp during WWII. Ten thousand Japanese were confined to this camp from 1942-1946. It was the fourth largest city in Utah. The Japanese were housed in barracks with community dining dining halls, laundry rooms and latrines. Not only were there armed guards, but there were also watch towers every 1/4 of a mile around the 20,000 acre camp. Topaz Camp did contain schools, hospitals, a post office, stores and limited recreational opportunities such as basketball, baseball, bridge, ping-pong and hunting for arrowheads.

Arriving at Topaz Mountain we started with a mountain that we thought would be a good place to find Topaz. After an hour of the four of us looking and being unsuccessful, we figured that the next mountain would be more golden. Within a minute, we found several pieces of Topaz. After 20 minutes we filled up a medicine bottle with pieces of Topaz.

We left Topaz mountain and headed toward theDugway Geode Beds located 28 miles down an isolated, fear-inducing dirt road. With no signal and no one around for miles, the thought of breaking down out in the middle of the desert was more than enough to send a chill down the spine!!! We made it to the geode beds but then did not know which of the many mountains in this area we should start digging. After an hour of unfruitful digging we decided that it was time to go back to Antelope Valley RV resort.

Driving past the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) we were fascinated by its statistics. It is one of the world's largest power plants. Annually IPP uses 5,000,000 tons of coal each year or 10 tons per minute!!!! It also uses enough water to supply a small city for a year. The Power Plant is one of the largest employers in the area. It employees 485 individuals and supplies electricty to 1,000,000 households and businesses in Utah and California (yes, Nevada was skipped). Construction was completed in 1987 at a cost of five and a half billion dollars, yes billions!

On the way back to the RV park, we passed several antelope! One stood on the edge of the road with the antelope in the headlight look and then bolted across right before we passed. It ran past us just in the nick of time; had it been a nanosecond slower and we would have had antelope stew for dinner.
Taking the "Lonelist Highway in America" back East toward Delta, Utah we decided to set up camp at the Antelope RV Resort in Delta. The world is a small place. The manager of the RV resort knew exactly where Magnolia, Texas is. She had visited the area this past March and camped at an RV park in Willis!

We quickly set-up and left for Topaz Mountain located about 40 miles northwest of Delta.

Topaz Mountain is keeping a shameful secret from America's past. Topaz Camp was located near Topaz Mountain. Topaz Camp was a guarded containment camp during WWII. Ten thousand Japanese were confined to this camp from 1942-1946. It was the fourth largest city in Utah. The Japanese were housed in barracks with community dining dining halls, laundry rooms and latrines. Not only were there armed guards, but there were also watch towers every 1/4 of a mile around the 20,000 acre camp. Topaz Camp did contain schools, hospitals, a post office, stores and limited recreational opportunities such as basketball, baseball, bridge, ping-pong and hunting for arrowheads.

Arriving at Topaz Mountain we started with a mountain that we thought would be a good place to find Topaz. After an hour of the four of us looking and being unsuccessful, we figured that the next mountain would be more golden. Within a minute, we found several pieces of Topaz. After 20 minutes we filled up a medicine bottle with pieces of Topaz.

We left Topaz mountain and headed toward theDugway Geode Beds located 28 miles down an isolated, fear-inducing dirt road. With no signal and no one around for miles, the thought of breaking down out in the middle of the desert was more than enough to send a chill down the spine!!! We made it to the geode beds but then did not know which of the many mountains in this area we should start digging. After an hour of unfruitful digging we decided that it was time to go back to Antelope Valley RV resort.

Driving past the Intermountain Power Project (IPP) we were fascinated by its statistics. It is one of the world's largest power plants. Annually IPP uses 5,000,000 tons of coal each year or 10 tons per minute!!!! It also uses enough water to supply a small city for a year. The Power Plant is one of the largest employers in the area. It employees 485 individuals and supplies electricty to 1,000,000 households and businesses in Utah and California (yes, Nevada was skipped). Construction was completed in 1987 at a cost of five and a half billion dollars, yes billions!

On the way back to the RV park, we passed several antelope! One stood on the edge of the road with the antelope in the headlight look and then bolted across right before we passed. It ran past us just in the nick of time; had it been a nanosecond slower and we would have had antelope stew for dinner.