The Walker War

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, The Right Place Although the Paiutes worked out an accommodation of sorts with the Mormon immigrants, the settlers’ occupation of lands that the Utes used for hunting and gathering, along with Mormon attempts to suppress the New Mexican trade, disrupted the Ute economy and society. With such highly combustible tinder laid, a seemingly isolated spark set …

Olene S. Walker

Olene S. Walker was sworn in as Utah’s 15th and first female governor on November 5, 2003. While serving as Utah’s first female lieutenant governor, Walker spearheaded many important initiatives including education programs, budget security measures, healthcare reform, and workforce development. She led the Healthcare Reform Task Force that resulted in establishing the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), ensuring affordable healthcare …

A Meaning For Utah’s Postwar Experience

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, the Right Place The two and half decades following World War II were a time of tension, contradiction, and creativity. Buffeted by McCarthyism, distrust, and right-wing ideology, politics shifted from liberal to conservative to moderate. Perhaps Arthur Watkins and Calvin Rampton best characterize the central tendencies. Although Watkins allowed ideology to rule his judgment during the …

Cedar Fort

Adapted from Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, A history of Utah County. Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1999; “UV Towns: Cedar Fort.” Utah 360. Accessed April 13, 2020; “Historic Information: History of the Cedar Fort 24th of July Celebration.” Town of Cedar Fort, Accessed April 13, 2020. The name Cedar Fort is a misnomer. The town was originally settled in …

Manti

Albert Antrei Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Manti is the county seat of Sanpete County, Utah. Manti, Utah, has a population in 1992 of approximately 2,000 people. It is situated in the Sanpete Valley of central Utah, at an elevation of slightly over 5,500 feet. Manti was settled in late November 1849 by 224 men, women, and children. The group left …

Native Americans in Utah

David Rich Lewis Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Long before Euro-Americans entered the Great Basin, substantial numbers of people lived within the present boundaries of Utah. Archaeological reconstructions suggest human habitation stretching back some 12,000 years. The earliest known inhabitants were members of what has been termed the Desert Archaic Culture—nomadic hunter-gatherers with developed basketry, flaked-stem stone tools, and implements of …

Ute Indians

David Rich Lewis Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Ute Indians (who call themselves Nuciu, “The People”) are Southern Numic speakers of the Numic (Shoshonean) language family. At the time of Euro-American contact, twelve informally affiliated Ute bands inhabited most of Utah and western Colorado. They included the Cumumba (probably a Shoshone band), the Tumpanuwac, Uinta-at, San Pitch, Pahvant, and Sheberetch in …

Slavery in Utah

Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, April 1995 Although the practice was never widespread, some Utah pioneers held African-American slaves until 1862 when Congress abolished slavery in the territories. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with the first pioneer company in 1847, and their names appear on a plaque on the Brigham Young Monument in downtown …

Territorial Days

BRIEF HISTORY OF UTAH Ron Rood and Linda Thatcher Utah’s thousands of years of prehistory and its centuries of known recorded history are so distinctive and complex that a summary can only hint at the state’s rich heritage. The synopsis offered here follows major themes in Utah history and includes some of the significant dates, events, and individuals. The Treaty …