When the Mormon pioneers arrived in Utah they found an inhospitable desert. A few decades later, Utah was a major transportation hub with flourishing communities and electric lights illuminating orderly streets and fruit trees. So how did these destitute refugees create a prosperous, modern society in a matter of years? You can get some insight into this phenomenon by … [Read more...]
Cache Valley Canals: Early Pioneers Worked for Their Water
In the spring of 1860 Logan City’s early settlers got to work digging their first major canal. The season before they managed to grow food by hand-digging irrigation trenches on individual lots. But to produce food on a scale necessary to support a whole community they needed to directly tap the mountain snow runoff. By mid-May, the completed Logan and Hyde Park Canal was d … [Read more...]
Mormon Economics in Early Utah
Utah is defined by two factors; natural beauty and Mormonism. No matter how the state evolves and changes, Mormonism was the reason for the founding of the state. After the Mormon pioneers were driven from Missouri and Illinois, they headed west, many on foot, to the deserts of what was then Mexico. Prophet Brigham Young saw a location that would be a gathering place for the … [Read more...]
Allll Aboard! Bamberger Railroad Connected SLC and Ogden
Boyd and Gail Thomas eloped in 1944. They took the train from Salt Lake to Ogden, and kept their marriage a secret for as long as they were able. Their means of transportation? The Bamberger Railroad. Bamberger Railroad started in 1891 with money from Simon Bamberger’s coal and mining operations in Utah. Originally called the Great Salt Lake and Hot Springs Railway, the r … [Read more...]
Plum Alley: Chinatown was Downtown
It is easy to see what has been dubbed Salt Lake City’s Chinatown while driving down State Street in South Salt Lake. The shining red, gold and blue towering traditional Chinese archway marks the entrance to a collection of Chinese restaurants and a large Asian market. What is less recognizable is the location of Salt Lake City’s original Chinatown which was established in th … [Read more...]
Utah’s Hidden History
Welcome to our hidden history issue! You might have picked this magazine up thinking you would find only pages of summer patios and parties. Nope! That’s what you call a bait and switch. It’s a device commonly used in publishing. Better known in online publishing as “click bait”. But not quite, because in the center of this booklet you will find incredible restaurant patios. Rea … [Read more...]
At Rest Far From Home: German Prisoners of War Were Killed After Germany Surrendered
At Fort Douglas Military Cemetery, dead warriors rest in peace. Amongst the quiet rows are nine white grave markers with distinctly German names: Otto Bross … Ernst Fuchs … Gottfried Gagg ... They all have the same date of death—July 8, 1945. This is no coincidence. For the past seven decades these weathered tombstones have borne silent witness to a war crime committed in Utah. … [Read more...]
#MeToo Pioneer Style
Stories of sexual assault, harassment and misconduct by politicians and people of influence seem to permeate the headlines with alarming increase. Unfortunately, many stories of this nature could almost be written on a template where only the names of the perpetrator and victims change. Consider the story of John W. Dawson, Utah’s third Territorial Governor. Although, it took p … [Read more...]
Adobe Brick is Where Salt Lake Met the Mud
Salt Lake Valley is home to a punctuated and heterogeneous clash of architecture. Its booming expansion rendered a diversified display of structural and cultural evolution. I was born and raised in Utah since 88’—and in this short time, I have seen the rise and urbanization of Riverton, the Jordans, Bluffdale, Sandy, Draper, pushing westward into Daybreak, and overtaking Her … [Read more...]
Delta’s Topaz Museum Brings Life to a Difficult Time in Our Past
It was 30 years in the making when the Topaz Museum finally opened in July. Its director, Jane Beckwith, said, “We come together today as a community that balances immigration … with kindness, or in this case, a lack of kindness.” The museum commemorates the internment of Japanese-Americans in southwestern Utah after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. President Franklin Rooseve … [Read more...]