On July 25, 2009 UROPA members John, Kelly and Dylan ventured out to the remote west desert of Utah to investigate two separate locations. We left Brigham City at around 6:00pm and headed toward the Golden Spike monument. There were some impressive thunderstorms that evening with isolated extremely heavy rain - especially as we neared the Golden Spike monument.
We continued past the monument and headed further west toward Kelton. From Kelton we continued southwest to the Sinks of Dove Creek. This was one of two areas we wanted to investigate that night. We decided to continue driving on the old railroad grade toward Terrace and we would come back to the Sinks of Dove Creek on the way home.
We had read stories of people experiencing what has been described as a lantern light that one would see on the front of a train from the late 1800's coming toward them as they have been on this old railroad grade. We of course were hoping to experience something similar, but did not. While driving on the old grade, we stopped at several signs marking different Sidings along the route. These were areas that the trains could use to pull off of the main track to let other trains pass. We did see an eagle take flight in front of us just before we got to Terrace.
After driving for a few hours we finally arrived at the Terrace cemetery at around 10:45pm. At the cemetery we did have a couple of personal experiences - Kelly and John heard what sounded like someone throwing rocks at them or at our equipment. There were a couple of hits on the Tri-Field meter as John asked questions. Kelly found several evp’s. I tried unsuccessfully to take interesting pictures of the cemetery and the setting moon and some of the distant lightning enhanced thunderheads to our north and south.
After spending over an hour at the Terrace cemetery, we decided to head back to the Sinks of Dove Creek. By the time we arrived back there, it was very late (around 1am or so) and the three of us were a bit tired. We parked at an area that looked out over the “sinks” area.
It was getting very late and we were talking and joking around when Kelly and I heard footsteps about 20 feet from where we were standing and soon the footsteps seemed to be circling us. We also all heard what sounded like another vehicle (a sort of muffled engine sound). We never did see another vehicle, nor did we see any lights that would have been associated with another vehicle. All three of us kept expecting to see some sort of truck or something coming around a nearby hill any time – but we never saw what was making that sound. Kelly also began to feel uncomfortable – like she was being watched. At one point she felt what could be described as a "presence"rush up to her and stop directly in front of her...
I was looking out over the “sinks” area, I noticed a brief faint red glow. At first I just attributed it to being late and that my eyes were playing tricks on me so I didn’t say anything. A few minutes later Kelly asked if either John or myself had seen a faint red glow. I had just seen it a second time and it was in a different area – near the base of the hill we were standing on top of. We were unable to determine what might have been causing this faint glowing.
We decided to call it a night – and headed back to Brigham – and did our share of decreasing the apparent overabundant population of field mice and perhaps a rabbit or two on our way.
DOVE CREEK SINKS AND TERRACE CEMETERY
On May 2, 2009 we made a preliminary trip to scout out the area and see if we could actually find the Sinks of Dove Creek. During this trip we stopped at the Kelton cemetery and spent a few minutes walking around and recording. We captured a strange voice on audio while we were walking around the cemetery. We continued on and we were able to locate the Sinks of Dove Creek area after some assistance from a friendly policeman (seemed an odd spot to run into a policeman, but we were grateful for his direction and assistance). We didn’t spend much time at the Sinks at all as it was just about dark. We exited the area via Park Valley and headed home from there.
In May of 1869, the transcontinental railroad was completed when the last spike was driven at Promontory Summit, Utah. This was considered one of the greatest "feats" in American history as the east met west. Travel from coast to coast once took six months or more and now just one week. The majority of laborers were Irish and Chinese immigrants, many of whom died from accidents, disease and the elements. Many were buried near the tracks they worked which is now just a grade.
All along the railroad line were small towns including Kelton, Lucin and Terrace. The remains of cemeteries can still be seen.
There have been reports of voices, strange lights, and even a "phantom" train that has been seen by some...
