In the early 1900s, a mining engineer named Edwin Thatcher Wolverton arrived in Utah with ambitious plans. Born in Deer Isle, Maine, Wolverton came to the West as a young man, working for mines throughout Colorado. Having heard legends of old Spanish gold mines around Mount Pennell, he tried for 12 years to stake a mining claim, only to find the mountain already occupied. Eventually, other unsuccessful miners abandoned their claims, and Wolverton finally had his own.
His first project was the creation of a mining mill. His experience as an engineer led to an innovative design that had not been tried before, and offered several advantages. For example, his mill combined ore-crushing and wood-splitting under one roof, powered by the same waterwheel. A system of pulleys and belts allowed him to switch between the two major functions of the mill as needed. He also had a workshop inside the mill, where he did some of his own blacksmithing and wrote detailed diaries and letters about his work.
While his mill was a work of beauty, Wolverton would find little else of value on his claim. He would discover a little gold that he would bring into town to sell, but it was clearly not the windfall he was looking for. Eventually, Wolverton abandoned the claim, and died in 1930 without having ever found his fortune. His headstone was fashioned from one of the granite drag stones from his mill.
Isolated near the summit of Mount Pennell, the Wolverton Mill became the target of vandals. The Bureau of Land Management decided to intervene, moving the mill to their field office in Hanksville in 1974. Now fully restored, the mill still stands today as a monument to both Wolverton’s ingenuity and his unrealized dreams of wealth.
