John S. McCormick, Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Utah was among the states hit hardest by the Great Depression of the 1930s. That claim surprises many people, who assume, for various reasons, that it was spared the worst. A few statistics make the point. In 1933 Utah’s unemployment rate was 35.8 percent, the fourth highest in the nation, and for the …
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 …
Utah Banker Marriner S. Eccles Helped Design FDR’s New Deal
Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, March 1995 The Great Depression lasted from 1929 until war production revived the economy in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Although conservative economists argued that the depression reflected normal cycles and should not be addressed with extraordinary measures, the high levels of unemployment and general suffering forced policymakers to seek new approaches. One of …
The Salt Lake Valley Smelter War
Jeffrey D. Nichols History Blazer, April 1995 Americans tend to believe that pollution is a relatively recent phenomenon and that concern about the problem only began to surface in the 1960s. In the first decade of the 20th century, however, farmers in the Salt Lake Valley united to fight against industrial pollution. Although they won the short-term battle, the larger …