The Great Salt Lake was born Lake Bonneville ― the massive inland sea that covered the entire area that is now the Salt Lake Valley, Provo/Orem Valley, and well north of Ogden. The sea extended as far North as Idaho and South to Nevada. It was 150 miles from east to west and 250 miles from north to south. Its shores extended high on the east “benches” and its waves lapped … [Read more...]
Utes Used Psychedelics in Shamanic Rituals, but What Did They Eat?
A year ago on the Utah Stories podcast, we examined the practices of Native Americans in shamanic rituals, including their usage of psychedelics to conduct “vision quests” to better understand their purpose in life. We spoke to Dr. Reid Robison, who described their usage of DMT, peyote, and mushrooms in detail and how those practices are being emulated today to treat everything … [Read more...]
Utah’s Identity Crisis: Will Crony Capitalism Define Utah’s Future?
Get the story behind the settlement and development of the Great Basin in this episode of the Utah Stories Show that dives deep into Mormon Pioneer history and the community building efforts of the early pioneers. Find out what they had right, that we have largely forgotten. Why is this relevant today? Utah has now more tech jobs per capita than any other state. Our … [Read more...]
Salt Lake’s Eclectic Past: Salt Lake’s Extensive History of Quarantining Its Residents
When Rachel Quist began researching and writing about Salt Lake City’s history in 2010 as a way to get to know her city, she found that most Salt Lake City historic makers told a particular version of Utah history, often from the point of view of Mormon pioneers or mining tycoons. “There must be much more interesting history that I don’t know about that does … [Read more...]
How Ogden got its name
A Brief History of the Ogden Valley Prior to the arrival of the Mormon pioneers, the Ogden Valley was recognized by Indians as a special place. Abundant game in the area made the traverse across the mountain pass (now called Trapper’s Loop) a seasonal migration for the nomadic Shoshone Indians, who camped and hunted the abundant beaver, moose, elk, and waterfowl that are … [Read more...]
Thomas Kane Diverts U.S.-Utah Showdown
One hundred and sixty-two years ago, a small-statured and often sickly thirty-six-year-old Philadelphian lawyer rode through Echo Canyon eastward to find an army and negotiate a peace in a last-ditch, unofficial effort to avert a civil war. He’d already sailed from the east coast of the United States to Panama, where he’d ridden the railroad across the isthmus to the Pacific … [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...]
J. Willard Marriott Library invites Utahns to help preserve history of the pandemic
Did you scour the shelves of countless stores looking for toilet paper this spring? Are you among the millions of laid-off workers who filed for unemployment benefits? Are you social distancing?And what about that 5.7 magnitude earthquake on March 18 and those aftershocks that hit Utah as the coronavirus was spreading? Did you think it was the Big One? Whatever your … [Read more...]
Sugar House Can’t Be Beet
"That is the biggest radish I ever saw!" exclaimed a Sprague Branch Library patron recently. It is just one of many misconceptions about the homely sugar beet, the most recognizable symbol of Sugar House. The four bronze sculptures set in front of the library and at each end of Hidden Hollow look nothing like the red table beets most of us are familiar with. The knobby sugar … [Read more...]