Text by Janell Tuttle photographs from the Utah State Historical Society Aerial of Alta and Snowbird Alta is nestled in the Wasatch Mountains of Little Cottonwood Canyon. When silver was discovered in 1864 people moved to the area and the area grew until the 1880s. At this time the value of silver declined and the population of the town decreased …
Coalville
Martha Sonntag Bradley Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 Summit County’s early history is largely defined by a trail. The road through Echo Canyon taken by a series of immigrant groups, some famous for the disasters that befell them, others for the success of their colonization efforts, became the line that drew history in this mountainous canyon to the northeast of the …
Utah’s “Ugly Duckling” Salt Flats
John Cobb’s Railton Special, 1947 Jessie Embry and Ron Shook Utah Historical Quarterly 65 Fall 1997 In the United States, the Bonneville Salt Flats had an inauspicious start as a racecourse. In 1896 travel promoter Bill Rishel crossed the flats while helping locate a coast-to-coast route for a bicycle race. He discovered the salt flats were not bicycle friendly as …
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 …
Draper Irrigation Canal
By Adam R. Eastman, PhD Excitement and optimism defined the local outlook in Salt Lake and Utah counties a century ago. New irrigation projects and cash crops combined with new processing plants and transportation infrastructure to create an agricultural boom in Utah. Bluffdale and the Jordan Narrows were at the epicenter of those developments. The Salt Lake and Utah electric …
History to Go
For over twenty years History to Go has been a rich source for Utah history, mined by teachers, students, researchers, and the public. We are pleased to report that History to Go now has a new online home under the banner of the Utah Historical Quarterly. All content is reorganized according to the latest scholarly thinking. Content is more …
Shoshone Indians
Brigham D. Madsen Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 At the time of major white penetration of the Great Basin and the Snake River areas in the 1840s, there were seven distinct Shoshoni groups. The Eastern Shoshoni, numbering about 2,000 under their famous Chief Washakie, occupied the region from the Wind River Mountains to Fort Bridger and astride the Oregon Trail. Their …
Navajo Indians
Robert S. McPherson Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994 The Navajo Indians in Utah reside on a reservation of more than 1,155,000 acres in the southeastern corner of the state. According to the 1990 census, more than half of the population of San Juan County is comprised of Navajo people, the majority of whom live south of the San Juan River. Scholars …
‘Swearing Elders’ Left Legacy of Lively Debate Among Mormon Intellectuals
http://www.sltrib.com Will Bagley, History Matters Published: 12/01/2002 Edition: Final Section: Utah Page: B2 The last three surviving “Swearing Elders”—Everett Cooley, William Mulder and Brigham Madsen—met recently to reminisce about the adventures of this remarkable group of Mormons. What came to be known as the Mormon Seminar was one of many “study groups” formed after World War II to encourage …
He Was an Outsider in Utah but Not for Long
Lyndia Carter History Blazer, February 1996 Mathew William Dalton was a busy man in the fall of 1850. A newcomer to Ogden, he hurried to find work and get a house and shop built before winter set in. The settlers had been kind, loaning him tools and a team and wagon. They had even helped him “raise” the house. Young …