MORGAN COUNTY — Though the summer is winding down, there’s still time to join the Natural History Museum of Utah’s Explorer Corps. What’s the Explorer Corps you ask? Well, Senior Manager of External Communications at NHMU, Beth Mitchell, says it’s an adventure.
“Explorer Corps is an adventure to find the natural history and cultural history places throughout Utah, one in every county. And the fun part is we've placed a permanent commemorative marker in the ground, that people can check off on their race to 29 by either doing a passport rubbing in our physical booklet's available at libraries, or using the Natural History Explorer Corps app.”
The Explorer Corps officially wraps for this season on Labor Day, but there’s still time to jump in the car, take a day trip and find some of these cool historical markers.
One marker, not far from the Salt Lake metro area, is in Morgan County along I-84. And this marker stands in the shadow of one of the coolest geological sites in the state. It’s called, The Devil’s Slide. Morgan County Commissioner, Jared Andersen explains.
“The Devil slide is an amazing, amazing rock formation. The rock was formed 170 million years ago. The slide itself is about 200 feet long. The walls, they're approximately 40 feet tall at the tallest. Unless you actually come out here, you just don't understand the significance, the massiveness of this slide, it's stunning and it's absolutely beautiful.”
As interesting as this geological marvel is, what’s just as interesting is how it got its name.
“From what I've read and what I understand,” says Andersen. “A gentleman by the name of James Walker was working on the railroad and coming up through this area. The railroad asked him, ‘Well what are you going to name this this rock formation,’ and he said, ‘The Devil’s Slide.’ And apparently, it's stuck over time. Ironically, the Walker family still lives in Morgan... It's a really cool name, but it's an amazing rock formation.”
Ok, so it’s got some cool history, but can you actually slide down it? Andersen says “No.”
“I've never done it. I haven't seen anybody do it. It's not on public property, so I would not recommend it.”
So maybe look but don’t touch this one and leave the sliding to... the Devil.
For more information on Devil’s Slide, the Morgan County marker or the Explorer Corps, log on to nhmu.utah.edu/explorer-corps.
