You may or may not know that last week was National Library Week.  This year’s theme for the week was, “Find Your Joy.”  I think that’s a good all-encompassing theme that would work for lots of organizations.

   For example:  U.S. Association of Reptile Keepers – “Find Your Joy” – Cigar Rights of America – “Find Your Joy” –  Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo – “Find Your Joy.” – Secret Society of Happy People – “Find Your Joy.”  Yes, those are all actual organizations.

   Anyway, I went to the library during library week and found some joy.  There was a used book sale going on at the library (not unusual).  But, this was a special sale.  Whatever you could fit in a grocery bag was priced at $1.00 (this was unusual).

   Putting books and DVDs in the bag was a joy.  Among other items, I got a Zane Grey western novel, a Jimi Hendrix rock music DVD, and an old Cary Grant/Irene Dunne movie DVD, “My Favorite Wife.”

   Anyway (again), I’m reminded that it’s almost time to get to the point and title of this column.  Mysterious Sanpete – what does that mean?  A book that I have borrowed from the library right now is titled, “Mysteries of the Ancients – Quest for the Unknown.”  (Reader’s Digest 1993)

   There are many mysteries referenced in the book.  One of them has to do with the pyramids –  (no, not “The Pyramid” newspaper you’re reading right now; though, that’s a mystery too).

   Another mystery is about the vanished Anasazi people.  Two more examples:   where was Eden? – and what about secret cities of gold.

   That book got me thinking.  I’m wondering about the question, “What are the Mysteries of Sanpete County?”

    I didn’t think there were those kinds of deep mysteries here in Sanpete.  But then, I did some thinking and did a little research.  Let me just say, the mysteries of Sanpete are real – real murky and controversial.  That’s why they’re mysteries.

   There are some Sanpete “mysteries” that are factual and researchable.  One such example is the “Huntington Mammoth.”  Even though the nearly complete skeleton of the mammoth is sometimes associated with Emery county, the excavation site is in  Sanpete County.

   The actual fossilized bones were unearthed on August 8, 1988 and are kept in the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah.  An impressive replica of the skeleton is displayed in the Fairview Museum in Sanpete.

   I’m thinking that someone should organize a “fan fest” hockey party in Fairview.  “Mammoth Mania” is happening right now with Utah’s NHL hockey team in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

   Maybe the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers could stitch together a gigantic team hockey jersey and drape it on the mammoth skeleton.  It would be Sanpete’s version of the team mascot “Tusky.”

   Another “mysterious” factual situation in Sanpete is the Jewish Settlement of the community called Clarion (now a “ghost town” – southwest of Gunnison).  It was established in 1911.  It only lasted a few years.  I’ve visited the site and seen some of the graves.  It’s a mystery that they lasted as long as they did out there in the middle of nowhere.

   Like anywhere, Sanpete has history.  Much of history is verifiable through sources.  The past is a fascinating, mysterious “land of intrigue.”

   But, if you go back far enough or get “fringey enough” things are going to get shrouded in heavy-duty mystery fast.  See what you think about this stuff that follows.

   There is Sanpete lore,  and perhaps believers in it, that there are “Adam altars” in our area.  Remember that mystery from my library book – where is Eden?  I’ve been in Sanpete a long time.  I’ve yet to see the smoothed out stone altars associated with Adam and Eve.  Maybe I need to get off the couch,  cut down on the TV ball games, and head for the hills.

   I’ve also heard “chatter” relating to Noah’s ark and Sanpete.  I’m not clear on whether the ark landed here, or  “took off” from here.   I would say that it launched from here, based on the unicorn horn fossil that my left-handed cousin’s brother-in-law’s Dad’s half-sister’s Danish uncle claims to have found while deer hunting.  But don’t take the way I tell that as a lack of credibility on my part  (or,  do take it that way).

   Now, let’s get to the mysteries of ancient Book of Mormon inhabitants living in or passing through Sanpete.  For many years, tradition held that the last Book of Mormon  prophet dedicated the site of the Manti Temple.  This tradition was based on an account of Brigham Young declaring that event.

   I was at the meeting in Manti when a church representative “took the wind out of the sails” of the tradition.  Brigham had a  conversation on Temple Hill the day the decision was made as to the temple’s location.  The records of that conversation do not meet the church’s rigorous standards of historical corroboration and scholarship. Therefore, I’d say the story is in the realm of mystery.

   There is an uncontested account of “Brother Brigham’s” sealing up the treasures of the earth in Sanpete.  This was done on the occasion of President Young’s dedication of the site for the Manti Temple. The presumption has been that those who volunteered and worked on the construction of the temple wouldn’t be distracted by chasing after treasure because of the “sealing up.”

   Not too long after having moved to Sanpete in the 1980’s, I had a little talk with a visiting authority of the church.  Sanpete was in pretty poor economic times back then (as some would say it is now).

   I wondered out loud to the church leader if it wouldn’t be appropriate and timely for someone at church headquarters to lift or release the sealing up of the treasures that Brigham had put on us. He looked at me with a look that tested my seriousness.  I gave him a look that communicated that I was at least  “semi-serious.”

   As I remember it, he said to me, “Let me look into that.”  I’m supposing that the matter is still being “looked into.”  Decades are but an “eye blink” in the eternal scheme of things, you know?   Whether a real or symbolic “unsealing” will ever take place is in the realm of mystery.

   Well, we’ve just scratched the surface of the mysteries of Sanpete.  We didn’t even talk about caves, petroglyphs, rattlesnakes, Indian princesses, murders, or ghosts.  Maybe we’ll do a sequel sometime.

   My main mystery right now is how do I get a bag of books into the house past my wife.  Shush, please don’t tell on me.   — Merrill