Utah History
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The Pony Express in Utah: The Journey of a Lifetime
Pony Express riders were usually small men or boys armed with only pistols and knives. Being a rider meant overcoming extreme weather conditions and harsh terrain while avoiding bandits, thieves…
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Forgotten Trades: Pioneer Skills are Making a Comeback
Pioneer-era skills have made a resurgence among Americans. Things like sourdough baking, sewing, raising chickens, cows, and bees, are gaining popularity with some starting their own full-fledged self-sustaining farms.
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What Happened to Utah’s Fremont People?
Eight hundred years ago, a culture that had endured for centuries largely vanished from Utah’s archaeological record. Their abandoned granaries, changing pottery and unfamiliar moccasins offer clues—but no simple answer.
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Nine Mile Ranch: Preserving Utah’s Historic Nine Mile Canyon
Nine Mile Canyon is famous worldwide for its Fremont and Ute rock art panels, some of which are pecked ‘petroglyphs,’ while others are painted ‘pictographs.’ The canyon, home to the…
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The Utah Bombings That Exposed One of America’s Greatest Forgers
On an ordinary October morning in 1985, downtown Salt Lake City was shattered by a blast that killed businessman and document collector Steve Christensen. Hours later, a second bomb tore…
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Utah Archaeology Month 2026: Events, Sites, and 13,000 Years of History
“Utah is filled with 13,000 years of human history,” explains archaeologist and State Historic Preservation Officer, Chris Merritt. “Every single artifact tells us something about the people that came before…
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Brigham Young and Valley Tan: Inside Utah’s First Mormon Distillery
Brigham Young is remembered for leading the Mormon pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley, but fewer know he also oversaw Utah’s first recorded distillery in 1854. Valley Tan, a locally…
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Whiskey, Bullets & a Buried Town: Archaeologists Reveal Alta’s Wild Past
Before Alta was known for powder days and lift lines, it was a silver mining town clinging to the side of a narrow canyon. In the late 1800s, men lived…
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Highway 6 and the Midland Trail: Utah’s Transcontinental Highway History
From Price Canyon to Delta’s desert stretch, Utah played a central role in building the Midland Trail, one of America’s earliest transcontinental highways and the foundation of today’s Highway 6.
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The Only Full Bottle of Alcohol Ever Found in Utah Was Unearthed in Alta
When a backhoe rolled a corked bottle out of the dirt at Alta this summer, no one immediately grasped what they were holding. It wasn’t empty. It wasn’t shattered. It…
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Why Price, Utah, Needed a Rock and Fossil Shop
After years in Salt Lake City and an interlude in Oregon, Kathie Chadbourne settled on Price as the location for her new rock shop. The town appealed to her because…
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From Immigrant Miner to U.S. Senator: The Rise of Thomas Kearns in Park City
In June of 1883, 21-year-old Thomas Kearns arrived in Park City with little to his name and no guarantee of success. Like many young men drawn to the mining camps…
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Moab’s “Negro Bill”: The Impactful Legacy of William Grandstaff
William Grandstaff — known in Moab’s early history as “Negro Bill” — was a soldier, cowboy, and one of the first Black pioneers in the region. His life left a…
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Danites: Inside the Legend of Mormonism’s Secret Enforcers
Whispers of a secret Mormon militia still echo across the American West. Once active for only a moment in 1838, the Danites left behind a legend far larger than their…
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Utah’s First Capitol Wasn’t Salt Lake City
Utah’s early territorial years were full of unexpected decisions, shifting plans, and political experiments that shaped the state long before modern borders were drawn. One quiet community along I-15 played…
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The Real Story of Thanksgiving in Utah
Utah’s Thanksgiving traditions trace back to pioneer proclamations, early desert harvests, and a unique blend of faith, survival, and community. From Brigham Young’s 1851 declaration to the rise of Dixie…