Plenty of Pluton to Ponder

The geology of City of Rocks is your typical crazy quilt of complex concepts.

The lingo and language of geology is chock full of tongue-twisting terms that hardly anyone can understand, much less pronounce. Geologists are all part of a clubby clic. If you can master the language you can generally pass muster and get the secret handshake to join the club. But you have to know your plutons from your pleistocenes.

The decoding of the City of Rocks geology is a grand jigsaw puzzle for geologists.
It's giant juxtaposition of Early Earth with ancient epochs. The rocks range from 2.5-billion years to a mere 25-million years old. Such a stunning span is enough to make even the most grizzled geologist smile sweetly.

The Almo Pluton plays prominently in the City of Rocks pedigree. The word pluton originates from Pluto, the ancient Roman god of the underworld. The use of the name and concept goes back to the beginnings of the science of geology in the late 1700s and the then hotly debated theories of Neptunism, Vulcanism and Plutonism regarding the origin of basalt. One can imagine the pompous elite savants of The Age of Enlightment debating the "isms" of their era.

If you really want to see a shining sample of bread and butter rock-talk, check this awesome phrase describing some of geology related to the City of Rocks: "Oligocene granodiorite to muscovite pegmatite, pegmatitic granite, and mylonitized granitic injection gneiss." Sounds pretty nice to me, how 'bout you?

We're developing a Google Site to house more of this arcane lingo. (Click here to visit the site.) One of these epochs, we will get it all figured out. In the meantime, you're on your own as far as geology goes.

In a nutshell, here is a simple (sic) single sentence description of the geology of the place:

"The City of Rocks National Reserve encompasses a scenic landscape of fins, spires, and domes eroded from the Oligocene Almo Pluton and the Archean Green Creek Complex in the core of the Albion Range metamorphic core complex."

Just remember--what you see is what you get!

Let bygones be byways

The oft forgotten bones of bygone eras come to life once again on today's byways. The concept and reality of 'byways' has really taken off in the past 20 years. Byways are hot in today's tourism market.

It should be no surprise that City of Rocks is the namesake for its very own byway. How could it be otherwise? Byways often spring up in the middle of nowhere and end in similar fashion. The City of Rocks Byway is a poster child for this "cherry picking" process from Albion to Oakley. The City of Rocks Byway has all the "good stuff" without including any "filler" as it strings a byway necklace around the east side and bottom end of the Albion Mountain Range. It's a grand total of 49 dazzling, history-tinged miles. The federal byway website says it would take 1.5 hours to "do" the route. HA! Only someone with a New York Minute to spare would dare attempt to "do" this backcountry gem in a mere 90 minutes. If you're like us, you're going to want to savor every mile of this experience. You're going to want to delve into the "who, what, where, when, why and how" of everything you see along the journey.

Here are the links you need to learn more about the City of Rocks Byway:

The Federal website
The Idaho State website.

Conner & Almo--A Tale of Two Massacres

The Declo Route merges with the Malta Route at Conner, Idaho. It's also called Conner Creek. Here Idaho Highway 77 jogs east. Travelers to City of Rocks then take the Elba-Almo route to reach their destination.

What's in a name? Every name tells a tale. In the case of Conner, Idaho, the tale is neither pretty nor easy to tell. Conner is named after Patrick Edward Conner, a native or Ireland whose name will forever be hellbound in infamy with the despicable Bear River Massacre. There's no way to sugar coat it--Conner was the driving force behind America's worst massacre of hundreds of innocent women, children and frail old men. Apologists and frontier bloviators hyped Conner's slaughter as a "battle." It was nothing of the kind. It was a horrific bloodbath that still stains the spiritual soil of Franklin County, Idaho.

The Wiki article on Conner glosses over the event and seems somewhat slanted toward absolving Conner. Legendary Utah historian Brigham Madsen exposed the brutal truth to the light of day in his milestone 1985 book: "Shoshoni Frontier & Bear River Massacre."

Although there may be a few sons of the pioneers hanging onto the tragic myth that that Bear River was a "battle," Madsen leaves no doubt that it was simply a massacre.

Meanwhile, just down the road in Almo is yet another massacre. (Click here for accounts of the event.) Once again we have the name Madsen popping up. For at least a few generations, the local folks in and around Almo have been clinging to the idea that 300 people died in an 1861 massacre near Almo Creek. The Sons & Daughters of Idaho Pioneers even put up a monument in 1938 memorializing the dead. Madsen's work is believed to make a strong case that it's pure fiction. It apparently never happened.  Yes, it's a fascinating tall tale--a frontier legend. It reads like it's right out of a Zane Grey book or a Louie L'Amour novel. It would make an epic (if sad) Hollywood "B" movie.

So it is with Conner & Almo--a Tale of Two Massacres.

Declo, Idaho

Declo is a little fly speck of a town that's sitting not far south of the interstate at Exit #216. When we talk about getting to City of Rocks, we say "We take the Declo Route." That's descriptive. Once you're off the fast lane, the first place you go through is Declo. You can miss Declo is you weren't looking. It's that small.

Declo has history. Everyplace has history. History happens, you know?
Declo is special because that's where the legendary J.R. Simplot got his start. Who knew?

Simplot must have been a wild kid. He was born in 1909 and ran away from home at the age of 14. He dropped out of eighth grade and ran off to Declo, of all places, in 1923. Now, you've got to realize that Declo isn't much now so it sure wasn't much back then either. Simplot said he moved into a rooming house. We're guessing it's the same rooming house that still stands here. We're surprised they don't have a historical marker on it--"This is where JR Simplot got his start to being a billionaire!"

I'd like to write a yarn here on this blog about Simplot's start in Declo but Idaho Public Television does it a whole lot better than I ever could--so just click here and read the story for yourself. If you want to read a short biography of Simplot, click here for the Wiki version.

Albion, Idaho

Getting to City of Rocks is perhaps half the fun of a visit to the Reserve. There's lots of landscape to ponder and there's history galore littered along the route. Let's take a quick look at Albion, Idaho.

This tiny town served as the County Seat of Cassia County from 1876 to 1918. The saga of Diamondfield Jack will be forever joined at the hip with Albion. It's easily one of the weirdest stories you will ever study.

Meanwhile there's an actual college campus in Albion. Yep, that's right, it's the Albion State Normal School founded way back in 1893! What a history that place has!
More than 6,000 people received their teaching credentials there. After a very bumpy ride through abandonment and resurrection, the old Normal School is being brought back to life as a family reunion and retreat center. You can click here to read a Wiki synopsis of the place.

Hints of the Diamondfield Jack story appears on an IDT historical marker located where Highway 77 does its second dogleg through town. Jack is one of the few individuals to have official historical markers in two states! See Nevada's here.

There's plenty to ponder in Albion, so allow some time for a stop and a stretch!

154 Miles from Idaho Falls to Almo.

There will always be some debate about the "best" way to get to City of Rocks. We've talked with numerous people about that topic. We've received numerous answers.
Mapquest says the distance from Idaho Falls to Almo is 154 miles. The Mapquest computer route luckily shows our preferred route via Declo and Albion.You can click here to see it.

We have driven the Oakley route and do not like it. It's a boring road between Burley and Oakley. Plus, Oakley isn't at all as interesting as the Idaho guidebooks would have you believe. Also, the gravel road from Oakley to the City of Rocks gate is washboarded and annoying. Likewise, the climb up the backside of City of Rocks is a fairly rough road that requires slow going.

It's much prettier to come to City of Rocks via the Old California Trail. One could easily spend some time poking around any of the communities along the way: Declo, Albion, Elba and Almo. Be sure to stop at the California Trail marker south of Elba. It's a very well done Eagle Scout project!

City of Rocks blog born

As is customary, the first blog post always details the time, date and place of this blog's beginning. The "City of Rocks Reserve" blog was born at 6:43 am, October 13, 2009, in Idaho Falls. It was created as a place to house various information and photos regarding this awesome public resource.

Although there are many websites regarding various aspects of City of Rocks, we need a blog that describes this resource from our own perspective. It allows us to share our perspectives with our friends, associates and other visitors who may be interested in visiting the City of Rocks National Reserve.

Disclaimer: This blog is in no way associated with the National Park Service, the Idaho Parks & Recreation Department, Cassia County or any other official entity or organization. The blog was created solely for personal purposes of the creator. We assume no liability to consequences of any actions taken as a result of information gleaned from this blog.