Alta: Mining & Skiing Center

Alta: a Photographic Exhibit Patricia Lyn Scott Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Situated at the upper end of Little Cottonwood Canyon, Alta is a community that has had two lives. Silver was discovered in the area in 1864, and by the following year the first verified mining claim was filed. The first settlement in the area—Central City—consisted of a sawmill along …

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 …

Some Meanings of Utah History

Thomas G. Alexander Utah Historical Quarterly 64 Number 2 Since 1847 Utah’s economy seems to have passed through four phases. The first phase was the Mormon Kingdom, which lasted until the 1880s. The Mormons tried to promote a relatively high degree of economic self-sufficiency, and they were relatively successful for about twenty years. Some vestiges of that Kingdom remain in …

Theater in Utah

Ann W. Engar Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Theater in Utah has its beginnings in the Mormon church and its support of innocent amusement for its people. From this support came the building of the Salt Lake Theatre, one of the best theaters of its time in the West, and the growth of amateur dramatic companies in almost every town and …

Utah’s Immigrants at the Turn of the Century

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, the Right Place Condensed by Brittany Nelson As Utahns struggled to make industrial and urban life more humane, the composition of its population changed rapidly. Although people of British ancestry remained the majority in the state, each train that pulled into the railroad stations of Utah’s major cities and mining centers seemed like a caricature of …

The Lucin Cutoff

Frederick M. Huchel History of Box Elder County When the railroad came through in 1869, the two rival companies, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific, built their tracks around the north end of Great Salt Lake, because the lake was in a high cycle, and technology was not up to the task of bridging the lake. In 1898 Edward …

Governors of the State of Utah

Heber Manning Wells First Governor of the State of Utah from 1896–1905 Republican Party When Utah achieved statehood in 1896, 36-year-old Wells, a Salt Lake City native, became the first Governor of the State of Utah and the youngest governor to date. A former tax collector, city recorder, and secretary of the 1895 Utah Constitutional Convention, Wells was later involved in banking. He set …

Utah’s Black Gold: The Petroleum Industry

Osmond L. Harline Utah Historical Quarterly 31 #3 With the end of World War II, interest in Utah’s oil and gas possibilities was renewed. The annual well-completion rate during 1945, 1946, and 1947 was double the pre-1945 rate, and the stage was set for the birth of the state’s commercial petroleum-producing industry. In contrast to the earlier years, there were …

The Growth of Utah’s Petroleum Industry

Walter Jones Beehive History 16 Utah’s oil industry developed slowly in two distinct phases: a long period of exploration and a more recent time of commercial production. The exploratory period began in 1850 when Capt. Howard Stansbury, while on a survey of the Great Salt Lake for the Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, discovered evidence of “petroliem” along the northern …

Mining and Railroads

Thomas G. Alexander Utah, the Right Place After Utah’s community leaders had convinced the Central and Union Pacific Railroads to build their stations and shops in Ogden rather than Corinne, the railroaders laid the track that spliced the capital and main business center at Salt Lake City into the transcontinental lines. Seven days after the joining of the rails at …