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 …
The Burgeoning Tourism Industry
Linda King Newell and Vivian Linford Talbot The History of Garfield County A number of federal government measures helped lead to Garfield County’s increased emphasis on the tourist trade. In 1957 President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act of 1956 to create a national interstate freeway system. This thirteen-year program would be the most extensive public works project in …
Interstate 70
Edward A Geary History of Emery County In 1957 legislation sponsored by Senator Wallace F. Bennett of Utah added 1,000 additional miles to the original 40,000-mile Defense Highway System (later renamed as the Interstate system). Utah officials proposed that part of the added mileage be devoted to a new highway connecting Denver with the Wasatch Front metropolitan area, but federal …
Suburbia and the Freeway
Glen M. Leonard The History of Davis County Construction of north-south Interstate 15 through Davis County in the 1960s made the suburban development model a reality and eventually led to the rapid growth of Layton as a new commercial hub. By shortening travel time to Salt Lake City, the new freeway encouraged subdivisions in the middle of the county. The …
Utah State Historical Society
Glen M. Leonard Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 On 22 July 1897, in response to a call from Utah’s first state governor, twenty-seven citizens led by journalist-lawyer Jerrold Letcher organized the Utah Historical Society in Salt Lake City, with Franklin D. Richards as president and Letcher as recording secretary (1897–1915). Created on the fiftieth anniversary of Mormon arrival, the society set …
Utah Arts Council
Carol Nixon Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The Utah Arts Institute was established on 9 March 1899 by the Third Utah Legislature. Representative Alice Merrill Horne, thirty-one-year-old patron of the arts, ran specifically to advance the arts agenda. Thus the first state arts agency in the nation was created, “the object being to advance the interest of the fine arts.” The …
Utah’s Constitution Was Framed in City and County Building
John S. McCormick Beehive History 20 Since its dedication 100 years ago on December 28, 1894, the Salt Lake City and County Building has become firmly imbedded in the fabric of the community. In addition to housing the offices of local government, it is linked to important events in Utah’s history. The convention that drew up the Utah State Constitution …
Southern Utah’s Boom and Bust Uranium Industry
Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, December 1996 The history of much of the American West has been marked by boom and bust cycles. Perhaps the most famous example is the California gold rush, which brought tens of thousands of Forty-Niners to the Golden State, a tiny fraction of whom ever struck it rich. Southeastern Utah has experienced a number of …
Artist John Held, Jr. Created Cultural Icons, 1920s
History Blazer, July 1995 In American Cultural mythology the 1920s conjure up images of bathtub gin, raccoon coats, and tall, impossibly thin, short-skirted “flappers.” F. Scott Fitzgerald nicknamed the period “the Jazz Age” and wrote novels that chronicled the lifestyles of the young and fun-loving. Many of the period’s most enduring visual images were created by one of Utah’s most …