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 …
“Alphabet” Agencies in Utah County
Richard Neitzel Holzapfel History of Utah County When Roosevelt took office in March 1933, the first of his New Deal programs, the Federal Emergency Relief Act of 1933 (FERA), was approved on 12 May. Although the act extended federal participation in relief for two more years, it changed the nature of the funding from loans to direct grants to the …
Philo T. Farnsworth’s Invention
Martha Sonntag Bradley History of Beaver County Born and raised in Beaver, Philo T. Farnsworth won his first national contest by age thirteen after the family moved to Franklin, Idaho, a year earlier. The contest, sponsored by Science and Invention magazine, highlighted his invention—a thief-proof lock. At age sixteen he drew a design for his high school chemistry teacher, Justin …
New Deal Agencies Built 233 Buildings in Utah
Becky Bartholomew History Blazer, June 1996 The Great Depression hit Utah even harder than most other states. From 1932 to 1940 Utah’s unemployment rate averaged twenty-five percent. In 1933 it reached thirty-three percent. Only three other states suffered more severely. Because of this, federal relief efforts were especially intensive in Utah. Soon the state ranked ninth among the then forty-eight …
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 …
Religious Diversity in Utah’s Dixie
Douglas D. Alder and Karl F. Brooks History of Washington County The preponderance of Mormons in Dixie does not mean that other Christian denominations do not exist in Washington County. Roman Catholicism was important in the life of people in Silver Reef when Reverend Lawrence Scanlan built a chapel, hospital, and school there in 1878. Within a decade, however, Silver …
The Rise of Utah’s Latino Population
Thomas G. Alexander From Utah, the Right Place While Utahns struggled with malapportionment and racial discrimination, Utah’s ethnic composition began to change significantly. During World War II, large numbers of Latino people migrated to Utah in search of employment and better lives. Although only about 1,400 Latinos lived in Utah in 1940, more than 7,700 called the Beehive State home …
Utah Jazz
Dave Blackwell Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Although the story of Jazz basketball is a tale of two cities—Salt Lake City and New Orleans—Charles Dickens did not have the Jazz in mind when he wrote of the best of times, the worst of times. But more than a century later he could have. After the move from New Orleans in 1979, …
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 …