Big Rock Candy Mountain in southern Sevier County, whose fame was enhanced by folk singer Burl Ives, is being reopened by an original member of the singing group The Beach Boys.
Mickey Doyle said he plans to make the site a destination resort. He is reopening a gas station and minimart and is negotiating with the trustee for purchase of the balance of the complex.The resort has been owned by John Gledhill, but financial problems forced it into bankruptcy and receivership.
The "Big Rock Candy Mountain" song was written many years ago by an employee of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad when it operated a spur line into Marysvale, Piute County. It was later popularized by Ives.
The name comes from a brilliant yellow rock outcropping on the mountain.
Much of the song, which depicts a "burly bum came a-hiking," is fictional. But so-called "bums" rode the train and some of them undoubtedly did their share of hiking when the song was composed during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
An occasional bluebird may be heard singing at the site and there is a "lemonade spring," but it doesn't really produce lemonade. Minerals make the spring yellow.
Big Rock Candy Mountain is located adjacent to U.S. 89 near the south border of Sevier County and about 10 miles north of Marysvale.