Joy, Ut

[ryan]

Awesome, I just found this website. I love old towns and mines and exploring. I have a pretty good knowledge of Joy, Ut. It is an abandoned mining town in west juab county. If anyone would be interested, I would be glad to go out there. I also have been interested in Frisco if you take another trip out there. Peace.

Ryan

[Stuart]

Awesome

Hey Ryan glad you found us! We would be more than happy to take a trip out to Joy Utah. Lets get a plan going and we can take a trip out there.
We are taking a trip out to Frisco March 28th and 29th if you can go with us that would be great.
Do you have any pictures of Joy? I would love to learn some more about it.

-Mojave

[ryan]

I don't have any pictures. I do have an out dated book about the town, but most of the structures are gone. To the south of Joy are a couple old goldmines, and a recent open pit mine that has recently been reclaimed....the was kink of a redundant statement. Do you guys live in Orem?

[Stuart]

ORem

Yes, we live mostly in Orem, when we aren't somewhere else. I think I know of the pit you are talking about. Do you think any of the mines are worth exploring?

[Mike]

Hey Ryan,
Always good to have another member on board.

Joy sounds like an interstin place. I'll have to research it a bit more. It's location makes it a good destination as part of an excursion. We'll have to plan a trip there in the near future.

Frisco is an interesting place indeed. You'll have to join us when we return on our next trip there. Are you familiar with any other locations in Utah?

[ryan]

Yea, there's a lot worth exploring out there. There is one particular shaft I wanted to explore but I didn't have a flash light. There are also some more mines west of Joy out by the Brush Berilium mine. All worth some exploring.

[Stuart]

yeah

Yeah, it always sucks when you find a cool mine/cave/building and don't have a flashlight to explore it with. Thats why I always carry lots whenever I go anywhere, I never know what I'll find. Sounds like a cool area, we will have to head down there this spring/summer and check out the remains of Joy and all the surrounding mines.

[Mike]

Cool place indeed. Never been in a beryllium mine. Ryan, what is the town like? Are there any remaining structures?

[ryan]

There are a couple ore chute that are still standing and solid. Pretty much all the houses are gone or have fallen over. I remember when there were a few standing houses when I was little. To the south there are some random structures here and there. There is an old cabin called the crows nest that people still stay in. The Berillium mine is still in operation so you can't go out there, but my friend used to work there so he knows where the property lines are and where some cool mines are near it you can go to. So...yea, awesome place to go.

[Mike]

Found some images from Ghosttowns.com. http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/ut/joy.html

[one_bad_rover]

Not to rain on parades, but those pics arent Joy. Joy is a few foundations, no buildings, no mines. the pics posted are mostly the black boy mine and some of the DOD work in the drum range. about 7-10 miles from Joy.
pics of the mines and Joy are here:

http://www.goldrushexpeditions.com/drum_mountains.php

[Mike]

Huh interesting. Guess Ghosttowns.com was wrong in thier information. Thanks for the info.

[Stuart]

I think ghostowns.com just generalized their information based on nearby locale. Thanks for the real scoop one_bad_rover. As usual you seem to have done your homework in this region.

[one_bad_rover]

No prob. we spent a few weekends in that area documenting the sites. the "reclaimed area" is not so much reclaimed, the DOD went in there in the 40s to re-work something. what they were extracting is unknown. but they reworked 3 mines in the valley and then reworked through all the tailings by spreading them across the valley floor. the mines out there are all pretty open and accessible with the exception of the main shaft of the blackboy which requres a rope as it slopes down at a 45 degree angle. (It doesnt sound bad, but its slick and climbing back out without a rope is exhausting) there are numerous side shafts on the way down to the bottom which is about 2200ft.
I have heard that on the south side of the drums there are a lot of other mines to see, but we havent been over there yet. On a side note, an easy way to identify what is what and where things are is with a series of overlay maps. I routinely use an 1847 utah map as a base, with a 1898, 1921 and 1949 overlay. most of the roads are on the 1949 to help with how to get there, but there are a lot of towns and camps that vanish off the maps from year to year, and locations as well some which are misinterpreted over the years.

[ryan]

I know the area pretty well, I'm just not good at describing it. Those pictures do look like some structures that are pretty close to the town though. There is/was an open pit gold mine on the south side of the Drums that was in operation until at least the 90's. The roads have be plowed up and apparently there sere some old cabins and a spring that were cut off. I would really like to know more about the DOD stuff you are talking about, or where it is. I was nearly raised on that desert.

Anyway, I may being going to delta this weekend if anyone is interested in a trip to Joy.