Becky BartholomewHistory Blazer, January 1996 In the late 1800s a building boom occurred in Salt Lake City. Concrete had not yet been developed that was strong enough to be used for building foundations, so granite and sandstone blocks were used instead. Quarries in Little Cottonwood Canyon furnished the granite. Red and white sandstone came from quarries in Emigration Canyon. Initially, heavy …
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The most commonly asked questions about Utah’s past and present.▸Whose land was Utah founded on?The Utah Division of State History acknowledges that the land Utah resides on has always been indigenous lands. Utah was founded on the lands of the Ute, Navajo, Paiute, Goshute, and Shoshone.▸When did Utah become a state?Utah was the 45th state to enter the United States …
The Mormon Trail: A Photographic Exhibit
Curated in 1997 by Linda Thatcher During the 1800s more than 500,000 emigrants crossed the Western plains hoping to find a new and better life for a variety of reasons. One of the largest groups to move west was the Mormons. From 1847 to 1868, 70,000 Mormon pioneers made the trek on foot, in wagon trains, or handcart companies to …
History of Park City
Jami Balls The first discoveries of precious metals in the mountains around Salt Lake City appeared in the early 1860s. Colonel Patrick E. Connor of Fort Douglas instigated the search, encouraging his men to prospect with the purpose of bringing non-Mormons into the Utah Territory. The first recorded claim of the Park City Mining District was the Young American lode …
Park City
Philip F. Notarianni Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The Park City Mining District comprises a tract that lies between the steep wall and ledges that mark the crest of the mountain range on the west and the mountain meadows of Heber, Kamas, and Parleys Canyon along the eastern foothills. Some thirty miles southeast of Salt Lake City, Park City is situated …
Iosepa
David L. Schirer Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Iosepa was established in Tooele County’s Skull Valley in 1889 as a community for Hawaiian members of the Mormon faith who wished to immigrate to Utah to be close to the temples and headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Iosepa lasted as a community until 1917 at which time …
American Fork
Betty G. Spencer Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 American Fork, in northern Utah County, is located fifteen miles northwest of Provo and thirty miles southwest of Salt Lake City. It is bordered by Utah Lake on the south and by the Wasatch Mountains to the east. Adjacent to it lie the recently organized communities of Highland and Cedar Hills, the unincorporated …
Salt Lake Theatre
Ronald W. Walker Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Public buildings often speak beyond themselves, suggesting the aspirations and activities of the people who occupied them, and few nineteenth-century Utah structures tell as important a story as the Salt Lake Theatre. Built in 1861 on the northwest corner of State Street and First South Street in Salt Lake City, it survived two-thirds …
The Civilian Conservation Corps
Kenneth W. Baldridge Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 When Franklin D. Roosevelt took over as president in March 1933 the country was in the midst of the worst depression ever experienced in the United States. Among the organizations established to help relieve the situation was the Civilian Conservation Corps, not only one of the first to begin operations across the country …
The Civilian Conservation Corps Was a Boon to Utah
W. Paul Reeve History Blazer, February 1995 Compared to the rest of the nation Utah was hit particularly hard by the Great Depression of the 1930s. In 1933 Utah’s annual per capita income of $300 was a mere 80 percent of the national average, and 35.8 percent of Utah’s work force was unemployed. The New Deal legislation of Franklin D. …