By Tom Martin River running in the Colorado River Basin has a very rich tradition of people hunting, prospecting, and recreating with watercraft. The first people to float watercraft on these rivers were Indigenous peoples using dugout canoes, rafts made of bullrushes, and skin-on-frame craft. The Spanish came next, boating up the Colorado from the Sea of Cortez in 1540. …
Ballet West
Cherie N. Willis Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 From its rudimentary beginnings as a university dance school, Ballet West has grown into one of the world’s leading regional ballet companies. The dance company’s foundation is the result of the drive, expertise, and vision of Willam F. Christensen, who returned to his native Utah in 1949 to choreograph the summer festival productions …
Floods
Linda Sillitoe Salt Lake County, Centennial History The 1981–82 water year had broken all records; then September 1982 climaxed with ten times more moisture than normal. A sense of foreboding grew valley-wide, as autumn mud slides closed Big and Little Cottonwood canyons and creeks flooded, damaging three hundred homes, roads, and bridges. At September’s end, Governor Matheson declared a state …
Daredevil Georgie White Ran Utah’s Great Rivers
Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, August 1995 “Running” Utah’s rivers is an activity that dates back at least to John Wesley Powell’s well-documented explorations in the 19th century. The Powell parties used small wooden boats. Earlier explorers and trappers negotiated the dangerous white water of the Green and Colorado in “bull boats,” crude wooden frames with hides stretched across them. …
Utah’s First State Park
Allan Kent Powell History Blazer, November 1996 Wasatch Mountain State Park, located along the eastern slope of the Wasatch Mountains, became a reality a century after the settlement of Heber City and Midway in 1859. The alpine Heber Valley was characterized by plenty of water, good pasture and farm land, and, compared to many settlements founded at the same time, …
Adventures of an Early Hot Rodder
Miriam B. Murphy History Blazer, June 1996 America’s love affair with the automobile has shaped much 20th-century history from the development of suburbs and interstate freeways to the latest battle over air quality. In the early days of motoring, though, owning a car conjured up images of romance and adventure, especially in the minds of young men like S. Alva …
She Promoted SLC’s Convention Business
Miriam B. Murphy History Blazer, April 1996 From 19 small conventions that brought Salt Lake City businesses $4,000 in trade in 1929, Winifred Preston Ralls had by 1951 boosted those figures to 270 conventions worth an estimated $18 million. A native of Kansas, she served as a secretary in the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office before taking up the study of …
City Planning in Ogden
Patricia Comarell and Fred Aegerter Beehive History 12 Problems began to develop as Ogden’s population grew. The city changed from an agricultural village to an urban place. The large, one-acre lots were divided, leaving some long, deep lots with houses set near the street. Because most residents no longer grew their own food, the centers of blocks were often empty …
Glen Canyon Dam Controversy
Martha Sonntag Bradley The History of Kane County Perhaps the most important public dialogue that portended great changes for Kane County at mid-century was the debate concerning the construction of Glen Canyon Dam. A joint meeting of the Colorado River Basin states committee and the Upper Colorado River Commission called for a billion dollar upper basin states’ storage program with …
Lake Powell
Martha Sonntag Bradley History of Kane County Red rock canyons and undulating valleys decorate Kane County. Wooded highlands are incised by deep canyons and contained by high cliffs. Wildlife roams amid vegetation adapted to the generally dry climate. Rivers are fronted by towering cliff walls. Layer upon layer of rock tells the story of the land, and the story of …