[Leanan]

Sort of an odd tangent, but not completely unrelated to peak oil, IMO.

A few years ago, some kids found a skeleton hidden in a cave on Webb Hill, in Utah. A quick and dirty summary can be found here, if you're curious:

http://web.ksl.com/dump/news/cc/skelton.htm

As it turned out, the skeleton belonged to a youth who died sometime before 1920, possibly in the "Spanish" flu pandemic. Some people are trying to use the power of the Internet to discover his identity, and put up a Web site. It includes some information on what the area was like around the turn of the century, from historians and just really old locals. Such as this:

http://www.webbhill.com/local/aldercrosby.htm

Sort of an interesting glimpse of life in the U.S., at the beginning of the Age of Oil. AAA and automobile companies competing to build roads across the U.S. Trying to get communities to build roads, by offering free car rides in hick towns like St. George. People living on one-acre lots in town: big enough to grow food, small enough to feel like a community. The importance of religion: people would travel several days by buggy to get married in the church.

Perhaps most sobering are the population statistics. Though it was a beautiful area, and an important religious capital, only 2,000 people lived there. There wasn't enough water to grow a lot of crops, so not much opportunity there, despite the church.

Now, it's become a retirement haven. There are 50,000 people living there now, with 50,000 more in the surrounding area.

As for the mystery...still not solved, but it seems likely that the boy was a transient of some sort. They were apparently very common during that time. Not really part of the community, just passing through, looking for work. Often, young men from families so poor they had to push their children from the nest as soon as possible.