BLACK OUT DRAPERY LINING

This sanatorium even had it's very own cable car.

This old sanatorium was built by St. Jorgen Foundation in Bergen. It should serve as a tuberculosis hospital for the West Coast. Most patients came from the Bergen region, but there were patients from all over the country. The sanatorium was in operation until mid 1950's.

The background for building the sanatorium here was said to be it's dry climate, pine forest and the thin mountain air. It was a recipe believed in the old days to cure people with tuberculosis. On this location they found a whole "package" - it was located on a hill and in a climate that one at the time considered "immune zone" against the disease.

In the year 1900, the plans for the sanataorium was ready. The three story hospital would have 96 beds and modern spa and operating room. An extension was made in 1924 and the capacity increased to 120 beds, and by 1950 it had reached 150 beds.
The construction plan in 1900 included also a separate laundry, stable and icehouse - and not least an electrically driven cable car from the steamship pier at the fjord and up to "rock shelf". It should also be built a 6 km stretch of road with 13 bends up the hill.

The cable car and the power plant to the sanatorium are located in side buildings next to the sanatorium. Calculations showed that the large hospital facility would cost 456,000 norwegian kroner (approx. 76000$ - an enormous sum in those days. Most of the money was acquired in Bergen: Bergen city guaranteed for 200,000 kroner, and wealthy citizens for 175,000 kroner. The final amount turned out to be 777,000 thousand kroner when the plant was inaugurated on 2 in November 1902.

On the opening party there was greeting telegrams from both the Swedish-Norwegian King and Queen, Parliament President Carl Werner and shipowner and later Prime Minister Johan Ludwig Mowinckel. Some years later, it was also built senior housing, two family dwellings for the stoker and the gardener, and "sister house" for nurses. there were also a separate chapel with mortuary.

The first treatment they had to offer - before the vaccine against the disease came after World War II - was partly operations - partly different cures. One of the cures they used here was making sure the patients got enough air daily. Meaning they would lay outside in their beds in both in summer and winter, well-packaged in bags of reindeer skins. They were placed under a huge canopy along the entire south wall and this canopy prevented rain and snow to enter in their air spaces. Around the hospital there was built a large park with roads where patients who were strong enough could exercise.

Another cure they used was known as 'Blowing of the lungs'. This took place inside the 'operation lodge'.
The technique comprised much of the so-called "blowing". When tuberculosis attacked the lungs, it would eat the tissue, consume it so that it formed large cavities in the lung tissue. It was essential to close these cavities. This was done by puncturing the lung where the cavities had formed so that sick lung would collapse and the wounds would be healed exactly where the cavities formed.

Patients here was almost fat on the heavy diet and the hospital had its own pig barn where they made sure that the pigs had an extra thick blubber layer before they were slaughtered. And it was also quite common for relatives to send food and treats in abundant quantities

Every July a rich man in Bergen would send a cargo of oranges to patients and staff.

The distance down to the village, the risk of getting infected and the fact that most patients were visitors, not locals - turned this place into a rather secrete and closed society. The sanatorium even had its own post office and therefore the people here would establish a separate social life. The whole complex was built in 1902 so that women and men were strictly separated. There were two bed suites, operation and cure rooms and separate dining rooms for each of the sexes. This separation of the sexes was kept strict up to a major rebuild that was done in 1937.

Although there were strict gender segregation indoors, it was allowed for girls and boys to come together on the romantic paths in the park, as well as in the decorated assembly hall when it was organized parties, cinema, concerts or theater.
Most of the patients here was young people, and those who were fit enough, would take part part in simple sports activities and games in the park outdoors. It was founded to concerts, and patients set up plays every New Year's Eve and may 17.(Norways independence day) And, after a rich shipowner and other rich people in Bergen gave the sanatorium a film apparatus in 1937, they had cinema once a week.

The sanatorium is now shut down. In the fight against tuberculosis there was a breakthrough - it happened just after World War II. Then came e

Our bed was all made in back our old pickup truck. We weighted down a blue tarp at the tailgate, so we would minimize the amount of sand we would take in when climbing in and out of the back of the truck. We cracked the the canopy side windows open to let a breeze and the scent of juniper and pinon pine, waft in through the screened side windows, and slept very well. The next morning, I climbed the sandstone slopes up behind our camp to take some photos of our camp from above, with dawn's first light arriving.

After we completed our hike to the Rochester Creek rock art panel, we drove the Moore Cutoff road to I-70. It had been a long day and we hoped to get as close as we could to the “Head of Sinbad” pictograph panels, where we wanted to camp for the night in the back of our pickup truck.

I had all kinds of maps and copies from various guide books, along with the pamphlet the folks at the Emery, Utah gas station had given me. Still I wanted to make sure we would head in the right direction so we wouldn’t waste valuable “road trip” find, by getting lost in the wide open desert country of the San Rafael Swell.

We took exit 131 off I-70. I had traveled the Temple Mt. road to Goblin Valley in the past, and this looked like the “shortest” way into Locomotive Point and the Head of Sinbad panels. The BLM map on the information board on the south side of I-70 cinched it. It clearly showed the turns I needed to make and the BLM road numbers I would take to get to our destination. It was getting late in the day so we headed down the dirt road, making a right at the proper place and then we came to the “culvert” passage that would take us back under I-70, heading north.

The dirt road was easy up to this point, but the “rock ramp” built up by off road enthusiasts to get through one of the two big culvert passages looked like it required due care and caution. Once under the interstate the sandy route to Locomotive Point was a pleasure to travel.

We visited the two panel areas. I am going to give them some names so I can refer to them more easily in this narrative. The Head of Sinbad panels face south and are little more than a mile north of I-70. In fact, now that I know where they are, I will be able to easily pick the area out, when driving I-70 between Green River, Utah and Fremont Junction.

The Head of Sinbad “west panel” was disappointing. The heads were missing for the entire row of pictographs. What I have read is that these 3,000 year old pictographs have not been vandalized, yet to me, it looked as though the missing upper portion of the pictographs - - didn’t look natural (if so, the heads should be laying on the ground, below where they fell - -they weren’t).

Next we drove over to the Head of Sinbad “West panel”. This was what we had come to see and it was impressive. There are two sets of figures on at the West panel and they are not far apart. Though the day was almost gone, we spent time staring up at these intriguing pictographs and taking photographs.

Next we drove west then north on a very sandy four wheel drive track until we found a side road leading up to a sandstone cliff sheltered camping spot, under a large pinon pine tree. Here we slept the night under a black desert sky filled with brilliant white stars. Wonderful!

Early the next morning, while my wife organized our traveling gear I clambered up the steep sides of the surrounding sandstone to get some “dawn” photos of the area we had camped. After leaving camp we opted to skip visiting the nearby arch and get back to the West panel of the pictographs, to have the area to ourselves and get some photos with the early morning light. This we did.

After retracing our route back to I-70 we headed east bound for the Black Dragon panel and for a hike up nearby Petroglyph Canyon.
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Road Trip - Utah April 17th - 24th, 2010: My wife and I headed for Southern Utah, just before midnight on Friday the 16th of April (after she got off work at her part time job). We drove straight through to Southern Utah, to take advantage of the good weather forecast early on in our trip. Storms were forecast for later in the trip and in fact we got a pretty good taste of same on Wednesday the 21st.

Here in outline form are the places we visited and hiked:

Saturday 4.17.2010
> Rochester Rock Art Panel near Emery, Utah
> The Moore cutoff road
> Sinbad’s head pictograph panel (we camped under a pinon pine near here)

Sunday 4.18.2010
> Black Dragon Canyon rock art panel (after first taking the wrong turn and doing some interesting four wheel drive travel way up the San Rafael River). Short hike.
> Pictograph Canyon pictographs. Short but interesting hike.
> Drive Hanksville, Torrey, Boulder, to Escalante (check into motel)

Monday 4.19.2010
> Drive out the Hole In The Rock Road. Visit Devil’s Garden and Metate Arch.
> Drive to Dry Fork of Coyote Gulch. Hike down to Peek-a-boo