"MYSTERIES AND LEGENDS OF UTAH" by Michael O'Reilly, Globe Pequot Press, 192 pages, $14.95
Like any state in the West, Utah's history is full of intrigue and mystery, riddled by unfinished stories and plagued by unanswered questions.
From elusive gold mines to rough robberies and lingering ghosts, there are plenty of tales about Utah and the rugged territory it once was.
Michael O'Reilly, author of "Mysteries and Legends of Utah," was given the difficult task of selecting and writing up the tales of the most interesting people and places of Utah's history. Though he didn't have to come up with the premise of the book, he was charged with the responsibility of compiling the stories.
"It was really a matter of which ones had interesting characters, which ones had clear narratives and which ones were exciting for people from anywhere to read," O'Reilly said.
His favorite story is included as the second chapter in the book and is titled "The Lost Rhoades Gold Mine and the Secret of Carre Shinob." He said this story, about a fabled gold mine full of ancient treasures, was his favorite because it has all the elements of a great mystery, especially a wide range of interesting characters.
"It involves Brigham Young, who was ordering people to get as much gold as they could so they could have currency here, and there was Thomas Rhoades who brought so much gold back, and his son Caleb who had access to the mines, then Isaac Morley, who was a famous Mormon from the time," O'Reilly said. "Then you have the great Indian chiefs, Chief Walker and Chief Arapeen … and you have Butch Cassidy."
O'Reilly said that there were many other interesting stories that he wanted to include but couldn't use, due to lack of real information. One of these was about a notorious grave robber named Jean Baptiste who was banished to Antelope Island. The Great Salt Lake popped up in another unexplained story O'Reilly said he wanted to use.
"There was a man from Australia who brought in these whales on rail cars and released them in the Great Salt Lake, and they just disappeared, and no one knew what happened," he said. "I couldn't really find anything, but I know it wasn't just an urban legend, because there was one article from the (Salt Lake) Tribune on it … That would have been a cool one."
The book does include other, more bizarre stories that deal less with history, real or imagined, and more with the paranormal. Chapters on ghosts, Big Foot and UFOs are less historical than theoretical and include a variety of sources of ranging credibility.
"I don't consider myself as much a historian as I do a journalist," O'Reilly said. "Those chapters were more interview-based, more of a colorful feature piece. I try to do everything with an open mind, no matter who they are, and that makes a good reporter. You don't want to judge anybody."
O'Reilly also said he most enjoyed the research side of the project.
"When you're in the depths of the research, I really enjoyed that, because it doesn't feel like work when you're learning stuff and when you're writing and writing well," he said.
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