Mining legacy hasn't stunted Herriman

HERRIMAN (Deseret News) — Almon Butterfield was raised on the farmlands of Herriman in the Great Depression, scrapping with his seven brothers, playing in the dirt — and when no one was looking and he was thirsty — taking a drink from the ditch.

His family would raise cattle, pigs and grow rows of corn and potatoes in that soil, where he often emerged wet and muddied from his shenanigans before tackling his chores.

"We weren't even aware we were contaminated," he says now, waving a hand toward the ground outside his home.

"The mining brought in all this lead and arsenic and all those other nasty things," he pauses, winking, "that will do us all in."

Butterfield, going on 75 in the spring, shrugs.

"How many kids you know who play in the dirt anymore?"

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