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Porter Fork, Millcreek
Canyon
After driving up Millcreek
Canyon, for
approximately 4.5 miles, a small, nondescript sign on the south side of
the
road marks the beginning of Porter Fork. Almost immediately after
turning
up this paved road the route is blocked by a locked gate. For those
that are
interested in hiking the trails beyond the gate in Porter Fork, there
is some
room to park just off the road. However, those that own one of
the 45
cabins in Porter Fork, are able to drive beyond the gate to their
summer
homes. The paved road is in fairly good condition. However,
it is
relatively narrow and only allows for the passage of one vehicle at a
time. The road winds its way through the summer home community,
up to the
border of the Mt. Olympus Wilderness Area. The Porter Fork claim
stops at
this point, where the end of the road is once again gated and
locked.
Beyond the gate, public access is only allowed to those traveling on
foot.
"The
right-of-way for the construction of highways over the public
lands not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted."
Construction:
"Means an intentional physical act or series of intentional physical
acts
that were intended to, and that accomplished, preparation of a highway
by a
durable, observable, physical modification of land for use by highway
traffic."
The road up Porter Fork
was originally constructed to
provide access to timber, and mining claims in the canyon. Since
then,
the road has been paved and has had gates installed at its beginning
and end.
Highway:
"Means a thoroughfare that was prior to the latest available date used
by
the public, without discrimination against any individual or group, for
the
passage of vehicles carrying people or goods from place to place."
The road through Porter
Fork provides access to private
cabins and to hiking trails in the upper reaches of the canyon.
The road
is only accessible to the public on foot. The beginning of the
road is
blocked by a large locked gate, allowing only those with keys (i.e.
homeowners
and authorized officials) to drive up the canyon.
Unreserved
public lands: "lands owned by the United States...that had not
yet
been set aside, dedicated, withdrawn, reserved, settled, preempted,
entered,
appropriated, or disposed of, or on which claims had not been located."
The construction of this
road took place before the
reservation of the canyon as part of the Wasatch National Forest.
The
road was originally constructed to provide access to the timber in the
canyon.
The first
cabin built along the road up Porter Fork was constructed in
1907. It
originally served as a cooking and bunk house for miners working claims
in the
area. As the large mining operations in Millcreek Canyon began to
be
abandoned most of the miners left the canyon. Eventually, the log
cabin
they were using in Porter Fork was converted to a summer home
(1925). The
earliest summer homes, constructed as such, in Porter Fork were built
by Archie
Gilbert and Wm. Hines in 1922. Over much of the following 50
years, the
Porter Fork Summer Home community grew to include 45 cabins. The
last of
these was constructed in 1968. All of the cabins in the area,
including
the road that accesses them, are situated on Forest Service land.
Homeowners were granted the right to construct their cabins under
special use
permits from the Forest Service.
Prior to
the arrival of the Porter Fork summer homes, the area was first used
for
industrial purposes. As was the case with most of Millcreek
canyon,
settlers came into the area in search of timber and to look for
suitable sites
to construct mills. This particular area gets its name from
Chauncey W.
Porter. Porter constructed Mill No. 3 at the mouth of this
canyon, then
known as the South Fork of Millcreek. It is believed that his
mill first
went into operation in 1849. Not long after its completion, in
June 1853,
Porter petitioned the county court for the right to build a road up the
South
Fork. The court granted his request and the roads construction
began. From this time on, the South Fork of Millcreek was known
as Porter
Fork.
Logging
and milling in the area continued through the late 1800’s.
However, by
the beginning of the 20th century most of these activities
were
displaced as mining and prospecting began to move into the area.
Although
most of Millcreek Canyon as a whole did not reveal many significant
mineral
deposits, several promising claims had been found in upper Porter
Fork. A
handful of these claims were still maintained until fairly recently
(within the
last 10 to 20 years). One of the first claims to be made in
Porter Fork,
at the head of the canyon, was by a miner known as Indian Pete.
Unfortunately, very little is known about Indian Pete, or his
mine.
However, ten years after his death, on Decoration Day 1889, his name
was
adopted by the Indian Peter Mining & Milling Company. The
Company was
formed to operate several claims in the southwest corner of Porter
Fork.
By the
1920’s the mills were gone and most of the mining had stopped. At
this
time Porter Fork, along with Millcreek canyon began to be used,
increasingly,
as a place for recreation, rather than a site for the extraction of raw
materials. Residents of Salt Lake Valley began to come to Porter
Fork to
explore the hiking trails of the canyon, or to construct a summer
retreat.
Bureau of Land
Management. Geographic Report for mining
claims within 2S2E sections 2, 3, 4, 9, & 10, and 1S2E section 26.
August
10, and September 21, 2005.
Keller, Charles L. Lady
in the Ore Bucket: A History of
Settlement and Industry in the Tri-Canyon Area of the Wasatch Mountains.
Salt Lake City, UT, USA: University of Utah Press, 2001. p 57.
Kroenke, Loren.
Salt Lake District Ranger.
Conversation. August 15, 2005.
Mildon, Helen and John.
Bits and Pieces. A collection of
stories from the homeowners of Porter Fork. Compiled in 1989.
U.S. Forest Service.
Handwritten note included in documents received from a Freedom
of
Information Act request submitted to the U.S. Forest Service on
September 13,
2005.
Bits
and
Pieces (pdf 7.07 MB):
"A history of sorts, of some of the ordinary, and not so ordinary,
people,
events and places that make up the story of Porter Fork." An
account
of life in Porter Fork in the early days compiled by Helen and John
Mildon.
Note
regarding the road in Porter Fork
(pdf 68 kB): A note included with information received from a Freedom
of
Information Act request submitted to the US Forest Service.
Author and
date of note are unknown.