Professor Benjamin C. Pykles

I met Professor Benjamin Pykles a little over a year ago. A close friend mentioned that he was doing an archaeological project at Iosepa. We were introduced and spent some time taking about each others quest to understand what life was like at Iosepa. He mentioned that he first learned of the story while attending BYU. Now that he was teaching in New York, he thought this would be a perfect project.

Last year (2007) Ben and the Tooele County Surveyor marked off a good part of the town. I was fortunate enough to go out one day and document it for KSL-TV. (The video I posted was from that story) During that day Ben and the surveyor staked out the two lots were my grandfather John K. N. Mahoe and his family once lived. We looked over the lots..... Ben picked up an item that looked like porcelain and said, "maybe this was a dish that they ate off of." At that moment I could really imagine them living there. That was a great moment.

Over this past Memorial Day weekend (2008), Ben took my family and I on a tour of the old town site starting with the two lots that were our family lived. I really enjoyed watching my family ponder the things that Ben was talking about. He pulled out a map and showed were the lots were in relation to the old town site. We continued to the town square (Imalani Square) were we found items that could have belonged in the old church. This experience deepened our love and appreciation for our ancestors who sacrificed so much for their faith.