The Day The Elephant Visited Mercur

Nowhere was that great American institution, a circus, more welcome than in a lonely western mining town. So Mercur had eagerly looked forward to seeing a long-heralded and much publicized circus. The advance agent had not taken into consideration that the railroad leading into Mercur known as the Jacob Line, was not a standard gauge line, while the circus cars were of standard gauge and could only reach a point five miles below the town. Hence he was at a loss to produce the parade, which had been promised the people. However, he was determined not to disappoint them, and so while preparations were being made to transport the people on flat ore cars to a level area five miles down the canyon, he very obligingly brought a few cages of the smaller animals, drawn by horses, up the steep incline to the town. The blatant blare of the circus band led the procession of spangled and gaudily painted circus ladies, who bowed to the right and left, bidding all, come to the circus.

Slowly shuffling along behind the ladies came one lumbering elephant who had made the steep climb under his own power, for what would a circus parade be without an elephant! Bringing up the rear were a few horse drawn cages of the smaller animals, which were followed by the clowns. Walled in by the narrow canyon streets, their antics seemed like a private exhibition. The rest of the circus would be seen if one were willing to brave the perils of a chance scorching from the shower of sparks, and the danger always present on a handbraked ore train. Imbued with circus fever, everyone in town took that chance, and boarded the dusty flat ore cars and were taken down the hill to the circus, rather than the circus coming up the hill to them. "If the mountain will not come to Mohammed, Mohammed will come to the mountains." On the way down they did not lack for diversion because the sparks from the locomotives, falling over the open ore cars onto the crowd, caused many minor burns and singed clothing. Much merriment was occasioned by the children's antics in anticipating when and where the locomotive's sparks would shower next."

Mercur is gone now, destroyed by time and later mining operations, but it lives on in the memory of the folks that lived there and in the stories they recorded.

This story is from the “History of Tooele County” and was used by permission.

OLDMAN