Sevier - Marysvale, Utah - Big Rock Candy Mountain

The old tourist stop is still there. A humongous family was having dinner at the restaurant when we were there, and service was a little slow because of it. Amazing stop, however.

Apparently Butch Cassidy's house is twenty miles up the road, but we couldn't find it at 11 pm that night. [Damion, 05/20/2008]

Tipster Tracy reminded us about this place. It's an old tourist attraction at the base of a vivid rock formation -- the "Big Rock Candy Mountain." It was named after a Depression Era ballad attributed to Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock about a fantasy land for hobos. The song was famously interpreted by Burl Ives in the 1950s, and more recently, on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. The mountain is a combination of sulphur, alunite, and other colorful minerals.

Doug was there as a child and vaguely recalls a large, tacky souvenir store/restaurant at the base. The nutty owner had plugged up the "Lemon Springs" and bottled the smelly water to sell to tourists. When we checked in the mid-1990s, it was closed and tied up in legal wrangling. The gas station across the street sold rock candy and cassettes of the song.

After a recent visit, Tracy Hansen sez: "There was a store open, in fact there were two or three little gift shops attached to hotels and rv parks. The animals were gone, though, and it was a lot cleaner than I remembered." [Roadsideamerica.com Team, 06/29/2006]