Weekly Gem #292, A land that's fair and bright

Published 8/5/2023

Location: This weekly gem is located 5 miles north of Marysvale, UT (see the Clue Me! Map). Big Rock Candy Mountain is a land that's fair and bright. The handouts grow on bushes. And you can sleep out every night...

At least that's what the song says. But this is not the "Big Rock Candy Mountain" that Harry McClintock sang about in 1928. The song came first. Then some clever locals put up a sign naming this the Big Rock Candy Mountain. They even discovered a nearby Lemonade Springs (where the bluebird sings). Yum!

Big Rock Candy Mountain is sure to whet your geological appetite. The colorful stripes on the mountain are beautiful and look almost good enough to eat. At least if you’ve got a craving for hematite, pyrite, or kaolinite. Or maybe … there’s a lake of stew that you can paddle all around in a big canoe.

In fact, there was quite a concoction about 20 million years ago, with hydrogen sulfide, oxygen, groundwater, and heat, under a helluvalotta pressure. Then the “stew” blew and spewed sulfer-laden ash, rocks and lava. As the landscape eroded, the presence of different minerals has shown up like colors in a swirled candy sucker, reds, yellows, oranges and white. Yum!

So, we'll see you all this comin' fall in the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

Harry McClintock (“Haywire Mac”) was an adventurous soul with a short attention span. He ran away to join the circus at the age of 14. He went to Africa to help build a railroad. He was a mule packer in the Philippines. He was a spellbinder for the union movement. In between these activities he rode the rails as a minstrel, a hobo, and a railroad employee.

And of course, he was a songwriter: https://youtu.be/tLKdxjCpw6U

One evening as the sun went down

And the jungle fire was burning

Down the track came a hobo hikin'

And he said, "Boys, I'm not turning

I'm headed for a land that's far away

Beside the crystal fountains

So come with me, we'll go and see

The Big Rock Candy Mountains


In The Big Rock Candy Mountains

There's a land that's fair and bright

Where the handouts grow on bushes

And you sleep out every night

Where the boxcars all are empty

And the sun shines every day

On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees

The lemonade springs where the bluebird sings

In The Big Rock Candy Mountains


In The Big Rock Candy Mountains

All the cops have wooden legs

And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth

And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs

The farmers' trees are full of fruit

And the barns are full of hay

Oh I'm bound to go where there ain't no snow

Where the rain don't fall, the wind don't blow

In The Big Rock Candy Mountains


In The Big Rock Candy Mountains

You never change your socks

And the little streams of alcohol

Come a-trickling down the rocks

The brakemen have to tip their hats

And the railroad bulls are blind

There's a lake of stew and of whiskey, too

You can paddle all around 'em in a big canoe

In The Big Rock Candy Mountains


In The Big Rock Candy Mountains

The jails are made of tin

And you can walk right out again

As soon as you are in

There ain't no short-handle shovels

No axes, saws or picks

I'm a-goin' to stay where you sleep all day

Where they hung the jerk that invented work

In The Big Rock Candy Mountains

I'll see you all this comin' fall

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains"

.........

Here's the hidden gem entry from our Clue Me! map.

Clue

The lemonade springs where the bluebird sings

Description

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Why It's Interesting

Does the old song make you think of these rocks? Or the other way around?

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