Town #38: WELLINGTON CITY est. 1878

Wellington is a small town six miles southwest of Price. It was settled in 1878 by 13 pioneer families, and is named named for Justus Wellington Seeley Jr who served in the Emery County Court.

We had to pass through Wellington to reach Nine Mile Canyon where we were able to see these wonderful petroglyphs. These are the petroglyphs that adorn, along the top, Utah's newest license plate. The canyon's name was misleading though, because we drove more than nine miles along that canyon. Or so it seemed to us.

Town #37: Helper est. 1881

I know that it is about time that I add some more towns to my list. Spring is trying to return and all those Utah towns are calling to us. I'm not sure what happened last fall, but I didn't finish posting about the rest of the towns that we saw. Last Labor Day weekend, we took a fun trip around Utah and stopped at many Utah towns. Our first stop was Helper, seven miles north of Price. This was a scary picture because we had to pull over to the side of the busy highway to take it.


A couple of days later, we stopped at Helper again on our way home and found a much better sign along the quiet town streets.


Helper sits just at the point the highway comes out of Price Canyon. It is a railroad town established by the Denver Rio Grande Western Railway. It is known as "The Hub of Carbon County". Its name comes from the helper engines that would help the trains make it up the steep Price Canyon. Because of the railroad, Helper has always had a diverse population. We like Helper because it has so many of the old original buildings on its main street still. Helper also has a great museum in one its old hotels based on the railroad and coal mining history in the area.


The Balanced Rock Cafe is another reason why we like Helper. They serve the best grilled ham and cheese sandwiches anywhere in Utah. They let you pick out both the type of cheese and bread that you want. Very tasty!

Town #6: Price est. 1879

For our next set of Utah towns, we headed southeast. Our first stop was Price. Price is the county seat for Carbon County. Carbon County is named for all the coal mining that takes place within it. Price started out as a small farming community that had the typical irrigation problems that plagued so many early Utah settlements. The character of Price changed 4 years later when the railroad was completed because all of the sudden, Price became the center for the growing coal mining industry. Immigrants from Europe poured into Price to supply the mining demand. Price is still very much connected to the coal industry, and we often see long trains full of coal rolling out of Price.
John here is standing in front of the only welcome to Price sign that we could find. It was alittle scary taking this picture because we had to pull off the side of highway 6 to take it.

Here is a picture of downtown Price. It is still a busy viable downtown. We are always glad to see old buildings still being used. We tried to find a cafe here to eat at, but the only one that we found that wasn't a bar didn't serve dinner. Dang!

One of Price's current claims to fame is their Prehistoric Museum. It was too late to see it this time, but we have visited on previous trips here. This is a picture of two of our children three years ago, the last time we took a look. It is a good museum with plenty of things to keep the kids interested. The museum is connected with the College of Eastern Utah which is also in Price.
The dinosaurs came out of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry south of Price. We drove out there once too. It is in some of the most desolate country I have seen.