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| Kanab Utah-----Little Hollywood |
Today is a travel day but first Kay and I had to take a quick trip into town for a few supplies and we decided that we wanted to stop at the Moqui Cave. We had passed this little tourist attraction several times on the way to and from Kanab so today was our last opportunity to stop. I am glad we did!! It was totally interesting.
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| Homemade bar stools |
Now, Kanab Utah is often referred to as Utah's "Little Hollywood". Now the reason for this is because back in the day, many westerns movies and TV shows were filmed in and around Kanab. Many of the actors and actresses spent time in the town and there are several areas in town that display this heritage with pride. The restaurant Kay and I chose for breakfast was a indicitive of this as the walls were loaded with autographed pictures of the movie stars that had eaten at this place. It was quite incredible to see all the memorabelia.
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| Pic of John Wayne at the bar |
Now the Moqui Cave is a sandstone erosion cave just outside of Kanab. It is your typical tourist trap but man, it was totally incredible and the history of the place as well as the family that own and operate it is wonderful.
It is currently run by the Chamberlain Family who originally bought the place. I guess Grandpa was quite talented and had a knack for business as he bought the cave and turned it into a bar. There was no bar in Kanab at the time when all the hollywood movie stars where around so he thought it would be a good idea to open one and cater to the crowd. It was a very successful venture and there is tons of memorabelia on the walls with many hollywood stars pictured. The original bar and barstools are still on display and if you noticed in the pictures, they are merely cut stumps from trees with some vinyl padding on them. Many a famous butt has sat on these "stools'!! Apparently the cast of Gunsmoke often frequented the bar.
After several years of running the bar, Grandpa decided that he had had enough of the beer and the brawls and decided to make it into a museum.
He was a talented man with his various degrees and collected much of what it on display in the cases. He was also a very accomplished sculpture and his artwork is on display in the museum as well.
We noticed some Pittsburgh Steelers memorabelia on the walls and Grandpa apparently played a couple of seasons with the team back in the day as well!! Go Steelers Go!!
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| a collection of centuries old ceremonial pots, jugs and tools are on display |
"Moqui" is the word that is commonly used to refer to the Hopi Tribe. Of course the Hopi were very prominent in this area and much of the artifacts in the cave are Hopi although there is a good display of Mayan artifacts as well.
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| Incredible history |
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| Tools |
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| Arrowheads - thought to be used for killing birds as they were so small |
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| More pots |
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| over 1000 arrowheads in the cave on display |
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| Corn - a staple for the Hopi Tribe |
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| Larger arrowheads |
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| Spear Points - besides the arrowheads, spear points we the most common |
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| fossils and dinosaur tracks |
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| Mastadon thigh bone |
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| more fossils from an ancient sea |
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| One of the largest collections of flourescent rocks and minerals in the world |
The flourescent rocks and mineral display was really quite incredible. The rocks were in several display cases and were in a very dark room but the glow from the rocks was remarkable. This alone made the 5 dollar entry fee worth it!! Yes, it was only 5 bucks to get in so I can not imagine anyone bellyaching about that!!
Our adventure ended with a trip through the gift shop. I was looking for can koozies but there were none so had to settle for a couple of ball caps. Kay bought a sand art painting and a few decals for the beer fridge. All in all, it was a great stop. They did promise to have koozies when we stopped in again!!
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| packed up and heading out |
We had an uneventlful trip but had a rather neat stop at Butch Cassidy's childhood home. It was right off the highway so we stopped and had a look around. It was cool. The door was locked but we got to peak into the windows and looked at all the furniture of the period. Way Cool!!
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| Butch Cassidy's Childhood home |
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| the barn??? Maybe!! |
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| Marie and Kay and Butch's house |
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| Our spot for the night - along the Sevier River |
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| Booko deciding to go down to the water's edge |
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| SWIMMING!! |
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| Just can't stay out of the water now!! |
We stopped at a little roadside fishing spot along the Sevier River. The river contains 3 types of trout and none of us brought our fishing rods!! Oh well, it is bush pie buns tonight anyway.
This is Kay's last night of camping with us as it is time to part ways. She needs to head back to Nephi which is only a few hours away and we need to continue Northward.
It was a pleasant evening yet bitterweet as we would not be getting together again until probably November.
Booko learned how to swim in the river which was pretty incredible since he was not a fan of deep water. It wasn't long before he was acting like a kid who just didn't want to come out of the water!!
The birds were singing like there was no tomorrow and we were blessed to watch bluebirds, meadowlarks, ducks, geese and an eagle. We even had a visit from a muskrat and Booko did not know what to think of that little creature!!
All in all, it was a good evening and once again, we couldn't help thinking that ..... Life is Good!!
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| Handsome dude drying off |
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| Shivering - so had to wrap up in his blanket |
