WASHINGTON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY (Washington County, Utah)
GENERAL STEAM CORPORATION MILL
Bull Valley, Utah
LOCATION
General Steam Corporation207-10 Atlas Block Plant: 19th South between First and Second West Streets
Salt Lake City, UT
Officers: [See the BYU yearbook, 1927, Page 295]
Washington County Mining Operations and General Steam (Ghost Town)
On General Steam Road in Bull Valley
In the Pine Valley Ranger District, Washington County
Legal Description: T39S, R17E, Section 6.
Approximately 9 miles northwest of Veyo.
37° 25' 23" North Latitude; 113° 48' 12" West Longitude
Wikimapia aerial photo of the General Steam ghost town
Taking the Veyo Shoal Creek Road from Enterprise Reservoir to Veyo, about half to three fourths of the way down, take General Steam Road (the side road, turning right) which leads to a bunch of destroyed building sites. There were some foundations left with mining stuff, etc. The site is probably a half mile long with multiple buildings.
HISTORY
Leroy Albert Wilson, a Mormon excommunicated for defending polygamy, led a strange band of men and women to form a colony in the mountains above Veyo. Only its members, both men and women, knew what the colony stood for. Outsiders did know, however, that Wilson was absolute ruler of the Bull Valley settlement.In the 1950s, Wilson's colony heard of Kanab's uranium strike. He and some of his followers left their colony to explore the possibilities in Kanab. Wilson was shot and killed there.
Public Works Director, Ron Whitehead, reported to the Washington County Commission (Meeting Minutes of December 1, 2009) that the Road Department was currently involved in a joint project with the Forest Service, under a Memorandum of Understanding, to perform repairs on the General Steam Road. That work was scheduled for completion within the next two weeks.
In 2010, the Forest Service plans a cleanup project to remove hazardous materials and other waste from the abandoned mill site.
Contact: Dave Swank, (435)865-3224, dswank@fs.fed.us
PHOTOS
WCHS photos:WCHS-04372 Photo of the abandoned townsite of General Steam
WCHS-04373 Photo of some abandoned equipment at the old General Steam townsite
Photos on the web:
General Steam Corporation stock certificate issued to Roswell DeMille
General Steam Corporation stock certificate issued to Roswell DeMille
General Steam Corporation stock certificate
General Steam Corporation stock certificate issued to Mrs. Martha Lach
REFERENCES
A Brief History of the General Steam Mill by the Pine Valley Ranger District, Dixie National ForestList of photographs held by the Utah State Historical Society
Dixie National Forest cleanup project at the General Steam mill site
Brigham Young University - Banyan Yearbook (Provo, UT), Class of 1927, Page 295