EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah — For those who seek adventure in Eagle Mountain, it can often be found right out their back door.
“We back right up to the mountain, which was never going to be built on, and it just felt like we were a part of nature,” said Todd Bauerle.
The Golden Eagle Pass area has been transformative for Bauerle since moving here in 2009.
“I started hiking up the hill behind the house here every day,” Bauerle said. “I lost 60 pounds to the mountain.”
Bauerle tries to take 10,000 steps a day here, but it still held secrets he hadn’t learned.
“This was a great place to conduct military training,” said Lt. Col. Chris Kroeber with the Utah National Guard. “A lot of army units came through this area to prepare for World War I and World War II.”
Kroeber said this 51-acre site just southwest of Camp Williams holds munitions debris that could be a century old.
“I can only imagine that they had the free reign of the land,” he said.
The once-remote site has changed quite dramatically, as Bauerle’s house and others back up right onto the investigation site.
“You look around — none of this housing was here,” said Colton Berube, who serves as the Utah National Guard’s cleanup project manager. “It was just a big open development.”
Now that neighbors have moved in, they’re trying to ensure its safety. Berube says they performed a visual sweep in 2017 and then came back for an “instrument-aided reconnaissance” in 2019.
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The Army Corps of Engineers will return this summer, now searching with equipment that scans below the surface for any remaining artillery debris.
If they are full and intact, Kroeber says, “some of these things are a few inches around and eight to 10 inches long — so you’re not going to mistake it.”
That thought gives residents like Bauerle pause.
“I see people every day going up there, so the concern is: is it totally safe?” he wondered. “I don’t know.”
Kroeber says they’ve not found any rounds intact from their two previous efforts, so the likelihood is very low.
“Military training has an impact on our neighbors, and we really are very conscious to balance being friendly neighbors, right?” Kroeber said.
They hope this project furthers that and keeps Eagle Mountain’s backyard a unique place to be.
“I go hiking up here, as do many others,” said Eagle Mountain’s city spokesperson, Tyler Maffitt. “That we have such incredible military history right here where we’re standing — I think is such an interesting piece of the puzzle.”
Officials say to remember the “3 Rs:” if you recognize any munitions that look intact, retreat from the area and report it to local authorities.
They expect this investigation to begin in mid-summer.
Through their years in these hills, the Bauerles have made their own discoveries as well.
They say there is a structure atop Golden Eagle Peak that has always piqued their interest.
“Every time you go up there, there’s this kind of quartz hole,” said Zak Bauerle, one of Todd’s sons. “Maybe it’s there to act like a foxhole or something for them to practice in.”
They say it seems to be a bunker of sorts, and cleanup program manager Colton Berube tells me that he wasn’t aware of its presence.
So, he intends to bring it up at their next meeting with the Corps of Engineers and possibly include it within their upcoming search.
