Gold Rush Days: the Grand Finale
I got into the SPC office at 8:00 and everyone was off making final preparations. I walked over to the Smith Sherlock Company Store and spruced it up a bit. Then I walked over to the Miners' Exchange Saloon to see how the sarsaparilla was holding up. The ice chests had some ice and melt water. One also had a few bottles of sarsaparilla, so I carried them outside, drained the water, and got as many bottles on ice as I could.
A bit later, someone brought ice in from Lander, so grabbed several bags and iced down three coolers full of sarsaparilla. Returning to the shop with spare ice, Ashley, an employee of SPC (and Gator's daughter), asked me to help take the sarsaparilla remaining in the storeroom to the Miner's Exchange. We did that and carried over a bit more ice so that we could fill one additional ice chest. It was a bit before 10:00, so I wondered over to the Smith Sherlock Company Store and get
it ready to open.
The morning was a bit slow. There would be a few visitors, then the store would be empty. Then 10-20 people would come in, the store would empty, etc. I think this followed the bus schedule, bringing people from the event parking up near the Carissa mine and mill down into town.
After noon, things slowed down a bit more- most of the people who came for Gold Rush Days had arrived and there was just occasional walk through traffic or people trying to get out of the sun for a bit. We would some times have 10 or more minutes with no one in the store, which allowed us to kick back and relax.
A chance to relax!
The event started winding down at 4:00 and we closed the store at 4:30. On our way out, we had a brief conversation with the person who had been shooting off the canon (every hour on the half hour) and doing the anvil blast (every hour on the hour). He mentioned that he was preparing his grand finale. Connie loves the anvil blast. I don't see the fascination people have with it, but it is a crowd favorite. OK, I'm game to see the Grand Finale.
The anvil blast is an 1800s mining town celebration. One anvil is placed on the ground, upside down. The void in its base is filled with gun powder. A second anvil is placed, upright, on top of the first. A line of gun powder is run from between the two anvils and out on to the arm of the bottom anvil to serve as a fuse. The gun powder is ignited, there is a loud boom, and the anvil flies into the air and lands in the hillside with a "thud." The Grand Finale began with a canon shot and then an anvil blast. Evidently, a larger charge was used for this blast, because that sucker really rocketed into sky! As we walked off, there was a final blast. We missed that.
This was our third Gold Rush Days, as experienced in the Smith Sherlock Company Store. The first year, 2023, was crazy busy on Saturday and less so on Sunday. The Store, as an exhibit, was new and there was a lot of interest in it. Telling visitors about the history the store and describing the exhibit in brief, hundreds of times was, well, tiring. But the people were great and every once in a while I had the chance have a short conversation. That Sunday was still busy, but not as hectic.
In 2024, Saturday was again busy, and Sunday was much more relaxed, until in the afternoon when a lot of people came in to escape an afternoon rain. But this lasted only an hour or so.
This year was a lot gentler pace- I think most of the people who regularly visit South Pass City had seen the Store, so they just stopped in briefly or were on to other activities,
We go back to the trailer and turned the AC on for the first time this year and had sandwiches and salad for dinner.
In the evening, I watched the hummingbird feeder for a bit. It didn't look any lower than yesterday and I didn't see any hummers. I'm hoping they haven't all migrated through yet.
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