Wasatch Springs Plunge

Yes, of the whole state of Utah!

Years ago, my father was in interior demolition and construction.  I don’t remember a lot of construction, but as a young child, I do remember the demolition—especially since I got to “help” on some of the sites.  This was probably meant to keep me busy, and focus some of my extra energy, but I always found it really interesting.  My parents probably remember me complaining about it, but they’re wrong.

Like the time I removed the molding from shelves at the back of a shoe store.  For whatever reason, there was a treasure-trove of pens and pencils hidden behind that molding, and I was allowed to keep whatever I found!  Later, fairies came and took the pens and pencils back to their evil lairs, but that’s just the nature of fairies.  There’s no accounting for them.

One particular site that my father worked on which I remember reasonably well was the Children’s Museum of Utah.  The site for this was an old hot springs spa in North Salt Lake called the Wasatch Springs Plunge.  I recently discovered that the Children’s Museum (at least this one) moved to the Gateway center in downtown Salt Lake City in 2006.  But from 1983 to 2003, the museum was housed at the old Wasatch Springs. 

This is especially memorable to me for two reasons.  First, I had just read about the Giant’s Causeway in some book with illustrations of the hexagonal basalt columns created by volcanic heat.  Second, I stood at the bottom of one of the old pools which had small hexagonal tiles.  I equated the two and thought that the hot springs had, somehow, been shaped in the same way as the Giant’s Causeway.  The regular, uniform shape didn’t throw me for a moment.  Many of the tiles had been popped, and I was allowed to collect them.

I’m sure my parents thought I was nuts, but I kept them like some kind of found treasure for many years.  I don’t know exactly what happened to them, but I have my guess that those fairies that infested our house probably took them away.

Either way, I came across an article today on the Wasatch Springs Plunge, which provided a thumbnail sketch of the building and site history.  It was a nice trip.