John Eugene Broaddus

Developing national parks and monuments was his special interest. John Eugene Broaddus was born in Plano, Illinois, January 17, 1882, to Henry Arthur and Viola Hail Broaddus. As a young man he came to Salt Lake City in 1900 and apprenticed himself to the Columbia Optical Company. A quick student, he learned the profession of making glass lenses and was …

Juanita Brooks

Matthew Despain and Fred R. GowansUtah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Juanita Brooks, a noted Utah historian, is famous for the integrity with which she insisted upon recounting the saga of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. She was born in Bunkerville, Nevada, in 1898, descending through both her father, Henry Leavitt, and her mother, Mary Hafen, from Mormon pioneers of southwestern Utah and …

John Moses Browning

Richard C. RobertsUtah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The business known as the Browning Arms Company was officially organized in Ogden, Utah, under that name in 1927, a year after its most famous namesake, John Moses Browning, died. In actuality, the Browning organization had been around as early as Jonathan Browning’s arrival in Utah and the establishment of his gun shop in …

Arthur L. Chaffin

A road to scenic southeastern Utah was one of Arthur Chaffin’s accomplishments. Although Glen Canyon gold mining was his first love, Arthur L. Chaffin made impressive contributions to his native state as a road builder and ferry operator as well as a boatman and Indian trader. His construction of a road from Hanksville to Hite, which he then linked in …

Edward Wilbur Clyde

Edward Clyde was a “guiding force behind the $2 billion Central Utah Project.” Edward Wilbur “Ed” Clyde was born November 23, 1917, in Heber City to L. Dean and Ardell Buhler Clyde. He was raised with a comprehension of the importance of land and water in semiarid Utah that a son of a farmer (and later a cattle rancher himself) …

George Henry Dern

Newell G. BringhurstUtah History Encyclopedia, 1994 George H. Dern was a Utah mining man, businessman, and politician. He was born in 1872 in Dodge County, Nebraska, the son of John Dern, a farmer-businessman. Dern attended the University of Nebraska for three years. In 1894, before graduating, he migrated to Utah following his father’s lead in the wake of the elder …

Harold Drake, Sr.

He was a preacher, teacher, and leader in the Navajo Nation. Harold Drake, Sr., was born Christmas Day 1922 in Paiute Canyon, 20 miles southeast of Navajo Mountain, a large laccolithic dome that straddles the Utah/Arizona border on the Navajo Indian Reservation. Four days after Christmas, medicine man Richard Drake carried his premature son out of the hogan to give …

Marriner Eccles

(1890–1977) Eccles built First Security Corp., the nation’s first multibank holding company, which laid the foundation for a business-financial empire that continues to be the leading support of public service projects in Utah. His farsighted monetary policies caught the eye of President Franklin Roosevelt, and Eccles became one of the architects of Roosevelt’s New Deal efforts to end the Great …

Lantie Jesse Eldred

Provoans received many benefits from this merry-go-round man. Born February 25, 1870, in Gardner, Illinois, to Florence Potter and Jesse Eldred, Lantie Jesse Eldred was orphaned at age 12. He bought a merry-go-round when he was 22 years old and headed west. In California he developed a successful carnival until the 1906 earthquake disrupted business. Before long Eldred and his …

Alf Engen

Jodi Hullinger Utah Encyclopedia Alf Engen was born in 1909 in Stenberg, Norway, the first-born son of a famous skiing father, and was subsequently reared to ski. Although a native Norwegian, Engen emigrated to the United States in 1919 and ultimately settled in Utah in 1948. This move proved to be very beneficial to Utah—Engen’s reputation as a world-class skier …