West Dip

North of U-73,
1 mile south of the mouth of Mercur canyon.

I never paid much attention to West Dip, to me it was just a collection of old and dangerous vertical mine shafts, foundations and nondescript ruins on the way home from Mercur. After spending hours exploring Mercur it was usually getting late and I was too tired, hot and dusty to stop at West Dip. Now Barrick Mineral has fenced Mercur off to ghost town explorers and reportedly nothing remains of the ruins of the town. The fact that Mercur is effectively gone has afforded new interest to exploring the remains of West Dip.

West Dip was first settled in 1895, it was located on the outskirts of Mercur and is also known as West Mercur. The town served as a rest stop for people and freight on their way to Mercur. It is said that West Dip contained homes, a school, a church and several other buildings including the Daisy Mill, which was constructed in 1898 and upgraded to the use of electrical machinery in 1910.

In 1902 a fire destroyed Mercur’s business district, and the town never quite recovered. West Dip’s Daisy Mill was destroyed by fire in 1917 and both towns were soon abandoned after that.

All that remains of West Dip now are cement or stone foundations, rusting remnants of water towers and bits and pieces of rusty machinery. The most striking remains are a set of concrete foundations and a concrete structure that looks like it may have been used to load oar.

These pictures were taken in January of 2003, that year January was unusual for Utah with temperatures in the 60s.

If you visit West Dip, keep an eye out for vertical mine shafts, there are a lot of them in the area and some may not be fenced.

These pictures were taken in January of 2004. It was an unusual year and temepratures were in the 60s.

Sources:

Stephen L. Carr - The Historical Guide to Utah Ghost Towns.

George A. Thompson - Some Dreams Die: Utah's Ghost Towns and Lost Treasures.