We always drive by this little town on our way to Utah, and finally, we decided to stop.
Opal was a pretty significant railroad stop on the Oregon Short Line — a branch of the Union Pacific that greatly reduced the likelihood of dying of dysentery, killing your oxen in an ill-advised attempt at fording a river, or shooting 3,400 lbs of food but only being able to carry 100 pounds back to your wagon. It was also a major livestock depot for that area’s sheep and cattlemen.
Modern Opal still has the mercantile that was built to replace the original tent store, but it is currently unused. I found a news article from a few years ago that said the old Merc was being converted to a custom ammunition factory, which would be cool. It does look like they hired their first employee:
We’ll revisit the story of Opal at a later date, but for now, here’s some other photos we took. Some of these were taken a few years ago.
Something we’re looking forward to is going back and playing Bring Your Own Putter putt-putt golf. Yes, this town has a fine mini-golf course that was covered in snow, but that looks very fun
Opal, we’ll be back!
