Boomer Canyon Mine

Across Daniels Canyon from the Bethers and Boren Mine, in Boomer Canyon, Robert Giles discovered several intriguing Spanish tree signs. Cut into a patriarch pine is a Catholic cross, with the letter "U" atop its right arm. Only a short way further up canyon, hidden at the top of a rockslide, is a mine tunnel, no doubt as ancient as that old cross on the pine. Two elk hunters recently came upon it entirely by accident. According to their account, they crawled back beyond its caved entry, using only matches for light. But they made a hasty exit when they came upon two skeletons, one of a man and the other of a mule or burro. The human skull had a hole through it, as if made by a bullet, or perhaps an arrow. They claim taking that skull to the local sheriff's office, but apparently little investigation was made, for records disclose no follow-up. The hunters, more interested in elk than skeletons, never returned to Boomer Canyon.

Aaron Daniels, the pioneer settler at Heber Valley, probably knew of that old mine, for in the history of Wasatch County it is written that he built a small cabin at the mouth of Boomer Canyon. One can't help but wonder why he would build his home in such a gloomy and secluded place, when he had the entire valley below in which to locate his cabin site. Remember, in his journal Daniels wrote of finding an old Spanish mine in Daniels Canyon. Did he build his cabin at the mouth of Boomer Canyon to be close to that mine?--Faded Footprints, pg. 29