On a day just before 9/11, Mary Ellen Sloan went for what she thought would be a typical walk around her Avenues neighborhood. She knew nothing of the goings-on inside the well-maintained Queen Anne house at the corner of 1300 East and South Temple. Its sign simply read ‘Zen Center.’ She felt compelled to climb the steps and returned the next evening for a class. “I went in … [Read more...]
Neat Utah Places to Explore – If You Can Get In
Neat Places to Explore - If You Can Get In As if Utah doesn’t have an endless supply of natural landscapes and historic sites to discover, the state is also packed with mysterious underground wonders just begging to be explored ― if you can only get into them. Driving up Little Cottonwood Canyon, I often forget there is an entire world tunneled into the granite. … [Read more...]
Squaw Peak Road – My favorite Sunday drive in Utah
I rediscovered the great American road trip in the 1980s after returning from graduate school in Alabama. I had just started up Provo Canyon in my car when I saw the turnoff to the Squaw Peak Road (FS Road 27) on the right leading to the Rock Canyon area above downtown Provo. The Rock Canyon “Gorge” is easily visible from I-15, immediately above the Provo LDS Temple, and … [Read more...]
Red Acre Center – Community-Supported Agriculture Program Offers Fresh, Local Food
Sara Patterson’s love of gardening led her to start a farm that now feeds several dozen families and cofound a nonprofit that advocates for policies benefiting small rural and urban agriculture. The venture just outside of Cedar City is thriving. The for-profit Red Acre Farm sells shares in the operation, and in return, the 40 member families get food for three meals a day, … [Read more...]
Grafton – A Silver Screen Ghost Town
Covered in dust and aged by tragedy, there’s an old town situated outside of Zion National Park. Now a ghost town, Grafton was repeatedly abandoned by Mormon settlers because of its inhospitable environment. Illness, severe elements, and Indian attacks made the town lethal to most of its inhabitants. In 1859, five families settled along the Virgin River in what would become … [Read more...]
Fringe Gambling in Utah- New Law Takes Another Swipe at a Persistent Pastime
Whether in the form of poker games in mining town saloons to less obvious games of chance such as church raffles, gambling has been a secret vice in Utah since before statehood. For nearly as long state lawmakers and police have been playing a game of Whack-a-Mole in trying to eliminate it. Utah lawmakers took another whack at “fringe gambling” by passing a … [Read more...]
Spelunking in Utah – Exploring the Vast World Beneath – Cavers Take Their Sightseeing Underground
Utah is an outdoor playground on all levels, from 13,528 feet atop Kings Peak in the Uintas to 1,227 feet below ground in Main Drain Cave — the deepest cave in Utah and 11th deepest in the nation. The Beehive State’s underground world, shaped by water, minerals and time, is filled with colorful formations like helictites — hollow twiglike deposits of calcite or aragonite — and … [Read more...]
Hidden Utah
It’s more fitting than ever that our annual “Hidden” issue is delivered when a sinister, hidden threat has gripped our country, leaving our leaders and the media scared and irrational. In our ensuing panic it is now estimated by the New York Times that as many as 40% of our nation’s small businesses could close this year. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the real threat … [Read more...]
The Last of The Hobos and Utah Phantom Train
I grew up on a “haunted” racehorse farm close to the border of Vineyard and Orem. Trains would run north and south along the tracks exactly west of the farm. These trains ran past a bar that was literally “on the other side of the tracks,” and just a stone’s throw away from my farm. I believe the bar was called Danna and Shirley's Hitching Post. Many of my nights were spent … [Read more...]
Allen Park in Sugar House is Saved From Development
Allen Park is a tiny hidden gem in Sugar House. Hidden on purpose, because the residents wished that nobody would ever find it. Anyone under the age of forty has probably never seen it nor toured the place, as it was intentionally overgrown and out of sight. The last time we went to Allen Park, about five years ago, we were chased out. One resident told us in a very unfriendly … [Read more...]