THE BUZZ AROUND UTAH
Ice anglers hook
‘ugliest fish in the West’
by ALLIE WISNIEWSKI
Something smells fishy at Flaming Gorge
Reservoir, and it’s not the thousands of
burbot caught every year at the Burbot
Bash ice fishing contest. Well, that might
be a contributing factor, but the decline of
the fishery at this massive body of water
between Utah and Wyoming has been rais-
ing eyebrows among locals for years. Bur-
bot, an invasive species of fish introduced
to the reservoir illegally, have been disrupt-
ing the natural balance of the ecosystem.
Dubbed “the ugliest fish in the West,”
anglers who compete in the annual Burbot
Bash should have no qualms about pluck-
ing these pesky fish from the ice. Since the
Ryan Kelly/Flaming Gorge Chamber of Commerce
10 UTAH LIFE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023
first contest in 2011, more than 39,000 bur-
bot have been caught, making this unique
event a true conservation triumph.
Over almost 48 hours throughout the
weekend, more than a thousand participants
spread out across the frozen lake, catching
as many burbot as they can. This is serious
business – at night teammates often rotate
between sleeping and fishing, so as not to
lose any precious time. After all, there’s up to
$20,000 in cash and prizes on the line.
The average winning team catches about
200 fish, but anglers don’t have to be that
prolific to have a chance at prize money.
In the “tagged fish” category of the derby,
hooking just one fish, if it happens to be
tagged, can be worth more than $1,000.
Event co-director Ryan Kelly has seen it
happen before: One year, the very last team
to present their catch had just a singular
burbot, but it happened to be worth $2,500.
“They weren’t even going to come check
it in,” Kelly said. “They said, ‘There’s no
way we’ll win!’ ”
The unpredictability and by-design
“level playing field” of the competition is
part of what makes it so much fun. Kelly
says the event has amassed a sort of cult
following, with avid fans of the event even
planning their vacations around it.
With a cold winter in full swing, com-
petition is projected to be fierce when this
year’s bash is held on Jan. 27-29. More infor-
mation can be found at burbotbash.com.
Ice anglers on frozen Flaming
Gorge Reservoir catch burbot.

A crew stabilizes Old Irontown’s ruins. A stone kiln is one of the most striking structures.
Ruins stand fast at Utah’s
first ghost town
by MATT MASICH
Resembling a massive beehive, a stone
kiln stands in the countryside 24 miles
west of Cedar City. It is one of few rem-
nants of the bygone Iron County commu-
nity of Iron City. Abandoned after local
iron production ceased in 1876, Iron City
– now known as Old Irontown – holds the
distinction of being the first modern Utah
city to become a ghost town.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints made the first attempt to establish an
iron industry in the area in 1851, but that
effort ended before the decade was out. In
1868, the non-church-affiliated Union Iron
Co. decided to give iron production in the
area another go, founding Iron City.
Miners extracted iron ore nearby, then
brought it to Iron City to smelt it in a fur-
nace. The resulting pig iron was then fur-
ther refined in the puddling furnace at the
molding house, where workers created
finished products like clothes irons. Two
kilns were built to smolder stacks of pin-
yon and juniper to create the charcoal that
fueled the furnaces.
By 1870, Iron City had 97 citizens liv-
ing in 19 households. By the next year, the
town had a post office, general store, brick
schoolhouse, boarding house and butcher
shop. Iron from Iron City was used to cast
the dozen oxen supporting the baptismal
font at the St. George Temple.
Joshua Hardin
At its height, several hundred people
lived in Iron City, but by the mid-1870s,
the operation was in trouble. The high
cost of shipping iron in wagons – there
wasn’t yet a railroad in the area – made
the venture unprofitable. The iron works
closed in 1876. Within a few years, the
town was abandoned.
Today, much of what is left of Iron City
is preserved as a satellite park of Frontier
Homestead State Park. There are restrooms
and a picnic area, and the Discover Trail
takes visitors past the remaining structures.
Most impressive is the sole remaining kiln.
Also standing tall is the chimney from the
molding house’s puddling furnace. Further
down the trail are the ruins of houses.
Last year, the state park oversaw resto-
ration of the structures to ensure Utah’s
first ghost town doesn’t disappear.
Joshua Hardin
New regional
magazine joins
Utah Life family
THE PUBLISHER OF Utah Life
has added a new title to its roster
of regional magazines. In October,
Utah Life parent company Flagship
Publishing acquired Maui Nō Ka ‘Oi
Magazine, a Hawaii-based print pub-
lication dedicated to exploring the
life and culture of Maui.
Maui Nō Ka ‘Oi becomes the fourth
magazine in the Flagship Publishing
family, joining Utah Life, Colorado
Life and Nebraska Life.
Flagship Publishing owners Chris
and Angela Amundson began their
journey as magazine publishers with
the purchase of Nebraska Life in 2005.
They subsequently founded Colorado
Life in 2012 and launched Utah Life
in 2018.
The addition of Maui Nō Ka ‘Oi
springs from Flagship Publishing’s
commitment to innovating its busi-
ness while maintaining continuity in
the presentation of its stories and pho-
tographs. There is also an opportuni-
ty for the existing magazines to gain
from Maui Nō Ka ‘Oi’s experience.
Amundson noted that, despite their
geographic distance, Utah and Ha-
waii share a cultural bond. Starting in
1872, Native Hawaiians became some
of the earliest emigrants to settle Utah,
thanks in large part to the strong pres-
ence of Utah-based Latter-day Saint
missionaries in Hawaii.
Utah Life subscribers interested in
subscribing to Maui Nō Ka ‘Oi can visit
mauimagazine.net.
HONEYCOMB 11

The Salt Lake City sextet Flamingo Jazz play music combining New Orleans, Havana
and Miami flavors. A favorite in their repertoire is “I Lost My Sugar (in Salt Lake City).”
Band proves Utah ‘jazz’
is not just basketball
by ALLIE WISNIEWSKI
Swing dancers fill the minimal stand-
ing room between candlelit tables at
Lake Effect’s Rabbit Hole Lounge, a dim,
downstairs venue reminiscent of a 1920s
speakeasy. At this swanky burrow, every
Wednesday just before 8 p.m., a line of
people thirsty for gin and jazz snakes
through the upstairs dining room, every-
one waiting patiently to see Flamingo.
Looking toward the stage, the audience
doesn’t see a pink bird but Jake Chamber-
lain, vocalist and frontman of Flamingo
Jazz, singing the crowd favorite “I Lost My
Sugar (in Salt Lake City).” He sings with his
hands, gazing past the crowd through the
bar’s exposed brick walls, as though visit-
ing a faraway land of feeling and melody
accessible only to him. The group both
hypnotizes and electrifies, serenades and
stimulates, their brand of jazz and blues a
self-proclaimed “melting pot” of New Or-
leans, Havana and Miami flavors – diverse
flavors that came together in Utah.
Flamingo’s six members are all lifelong
musicians from across the West, coming
together serendipitously after parting
12 UTAH LIFE | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023
Flamingo Jazz
with previous groups to forge a brand-
new sound. Long before there was a
weekly jazz night, there was a fresh idea
germinating Chamberlain’s brain. What
would happen if he took the soloist-stud-
ded standards of the New Orleans sound,
added a singer, combined five excellent
instrumentalists, sprinkled in some Latin
stylings, and infused it all with his soul
background, inspired by the likes of Ste-
vie Wonder and the Temptations? As it
turned out, Flamingo would happen.
“There’s a lot of jazz that you sit and you
think,” Chamberlain said. “Our jazz – you
sit and you smile. Or you stand and you
dance. That’s what we wanted it to be.”
If it wasn’t already apparent, Flamingo
aren’t your typical sextet. By their own defi-
nition, they’re sort of like a boy band, if a
boy band played jazz – and also like a rock
band, if a rock band played jazz. Before the
show, the boys appear a motley crew, all
sitting around a booth, each member bran-
dishing his own personal style. But even
when the lights go up and they’re moving
as one, all wearing their showtime suits,
there’s an unmistakable sense of novelty,
authenticity, individuality that oozes from
the stage. Flamingo is banishing the widely
held belief that jazz is reserved for an older,
more serious crowd.
“We’re not Miles Davis,” Chamberlain
laughed, “but we’re going to have a good time
and play music people enjoy listening to.”
And enjoy listening they do. The band
has only been around for about a year, but
it’s quickly amassed a local cult following,
often selling out its weekly residency at
the Rabbit Hole. Their debut album, The
Flamboyance, garnered inspiration from
the dynamic and ever-evolving improvi-
sations made possible by the opportunity
to perform so regularly. Drummer Matt
Morrison said these weekly gigs gave
them a bigger canvas on which to con-
tinue their experimentation, ultimately
birthing a deliciously accessible collection
of tunes designed to inspire and uplift.
“We didn’t want the Utah Jazz to only
be a sports team,” said saxophonist Kenny
Fong. Definitively, Flamingo can consider
that mission accomplished.
Flamingo consists of Jake Chamber-
lain (vocals), Kenny Fong (saxophone),
Parker Andrezzi (trumpet), Matt Morri-
son (drums), Aidan Woodward (upright
bass) and Christian Lucy (piano/organ).
Their debut album The Flamboyance is
streaming now on Spotify, Apple Music
and Amazon Music.
Flamingo Jazz
Flamingo Jazz has developed a cult fol-
lowing for its often sold-out shows at
Lake Effect’s Rabbit Hole Lounge.
 Big John helps Helper tout its mining glory
Coal mining is a huge part of the heritage of the
Carbon County town of Helper. The embodiment
of that heritage is Big John, the 18-foot-tall statue
of a coal miner located just down the street from
the town’s Western Mining and Railroad Museum.
Big John is one of hundreds of larger-than-life
figures made by International Fiberglass, a Cali-
fornia fiberglass boat builder that branched out
into making tall fiberglass advertising figures
in the 1960s. The original model depicted Paul
Bunyan holding an axe, but Helper modified it to
a miner with a pickaxe.
The fiberglass figures were also popular with
automotive businesses, many of which modified
the giant men to hold a muffler, earning the sculp-
tural goliaths the nickname “Muffler Men.” While
there are nearly 200 Muffler Men still standing
in the United States today, connoisseurs rate Big
John as one of the most impressive. Chris Amundson

FOLLOW THE 2022 UTAH LEGISLATIVE SESSION ON

DAILY LOCAL NEWS UPDATES

PLUS, IN-DEPTH CONVERSATIONS & ANALYSIS ON:

ACCESS UTAH.................................MON-THURS 9-10 A.M.

BEHIND THE HEADLINES...............................FRI 9-10 A.M.
BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE.................THURS 10-10:30 A.M.

L I S T EN ANY WH ER E
A T U P R. OR G
O R O N T HE UPR
M O B I L E APP

HONEYCOMB 13