Monday, July 22, 2013

Best Kept Little Secret in Utah!

I have driven to Manti and Ephraim dozens of times over the years and not even noticed the sign to Spring City.  Then recently a passenger on my bus told me about the place.  I was so intrigued that Cheya, Kristi and I stopped there a couple of weeks ago while meandering home from Las Vegas.

Spring City is between Mt. Pleasant and Ephraim and just a mile off the main highway.  What we found astonished us!  Here is a tiny little town that time simply forgot.  Nothing seems to have changed in 100 years.  The houses, the church, the way of life, all simple, quiet and entirely distant from our modern world.  There is some of this in Manti, Ephraim, Mt. Pleasant, Fairview and the other Sanpete towns, but each of them is mixed with so much more of the modern.  No false fronts in Spring City!

Here are a few examples:










A number of retirees have purchased and restored the old homes and fixed up the gardens and opened some of the shops.  Others have shops in a granary, chicken coup or barn out back.  Folksy crafts are sold here and there.  A sign on one shops says, "We open when we get here and close when we leave."  Another shop was open, but unattended.  Customers are on the honor system to put the sale on a receipt, calculate the tax and simple leave the money.  We found a large check in the receipt book.  There's a cute art gallery and a handmade Windsor Chair Shop. Unbelievably wonderful hand crafted chairs! 

Nobody seems intent on making a living out of these little shops, they're more of a hobby and things often seem to be sold to make room to create something else.

I loved it so much I went back a week later and spent another hour walking around mainstreet.

Here are a few more treats:













Next time you're in Central Utah, don't miss this one of a kind, utterly non-commercial, quiet little treasure.  I'd hesitate to even mention it for fear crowds would ruin everything.  But then, nobody read Live and Learn anyways.  And if you're headed my way, I wouldn't mind if you picked up a pint of two of bottled peaches from the shop pictured last.






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