We decided we couldn't sit around camp all day wishing and hoping for someone to bring our dog back to us. Even though this was a terrible thing to happen, we couldn't let it ruin our trip. We decided to leave it to the microchip in Truly to finally find us. So we spent our 4th day in Idaho checking out the sights at the Custer Ghost Town.
Our first stop on the way to the Ghost Town was the Yankee Fork Gold Dredge.
This giant gold dredge was used in 1940 to search for gold along the Yankee Fork river. The dredge weighed 988 tons. It ran for about 7 years before it was shut off and left where it sat. The gold claim was supposed to have about 11 million dollars worth of gold in it but it never produced that much. In fact the owners walked away because they felt like they were not producing enough to make it worth it.
Each of these buckets that dug up the ground weighed about one ton and there were 71 of them used on this dredge. This seemed like something cool to tour and learn more about so we decided to go on the tour though the dredge. We learned a lot about how and when it was used. We were in awe at the size of this machine.
This whole thing was powered by two Ingersoll-Rand diesel engines each producing 350 HP. This is the engines, gears and switchboards. These things were so huge! We loved touring and learning more about this piece of history.
When we finished with the Dredge, we continued up the road to the ghost town of Custer.
Custer was a mining town during the 1870s. This little town was a booming place while the mining and gold rushes were going on in this area. When the mines and gold dried up, however, so did the town. When the mining companies moved out, so did the money and the industry. It was fun to walk through this town and see some of the older homes that had survived the years. There were some homes, a school, and the saloon. There was also a little cemetery. One sad story we learned was about a family that was lost in a mudslide or avalanche in the winter. The parents survived the slide but the three daughters were buried.
On the way back to camp, we stopped at the Sunbeam Hot Springs.
The Sunbeam Hot Springs is located along the Salmon River. The Hot Springs run right into the river so in this area there are little pools of hot water that you can lounge in. The river is cold water but where the hot springs mix in, a warm pool is created. The kids loved sticking their feet and hands in the warm water. They didn't have their swimming suits or they would have sat right in it. The bad thing about the Hot Springs is that it smelled like sulfur like in Yellowstone. This was a beautiful area.
On the way back to town and camp, we turned on our phones in hopes of hearing something about our dog. As we got into an area with service, my phone chimed with a message. We all crossed our fingers hoping it was something about Truly. As we listened to the message, it was a message from the agency that programmed Truly's chip! Her chip had finally been scanned and they knew where our dog was!! We were so excited we were shaking! We had to listen to the message a few times in order to get all of the information we needed to call them back to find out more information. When Russell called them back, he found out that Truly was taken to a vet in Boise, ID. Boise is about 4 hours away from Stanley so we did not think to call any vets in that area. The vet gave us the name of the guy that brought Truly in and we were able to get a hold of him and make arrangements to get our dog back. The guy seemed kind of annoyed at us for calling and thought we had just abandoned our dog in the mountains. We told him that was not the case and explained the situation and our search for the last two days. Apparently, this guy had found Truly on the side of the road all beat up. He picked her up and then drove home to Boise. He stopped to get gas in Stanley which is where he talked to the gas station attendant about ten minutes before Russell came looking for Truly. After getting gas, he headed to Boise. We never would have found Truly if it hadn't been for her chip!
That night Russell and Emily drove all the way to Boise and back to pick up Truly. We were so grateful to have our prayers answered and know that she was okay. It turned out to be a great day after all!
No comments:
Post a Comment