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Helen Zeese Papanikolas
A famous historian used her girlhood memories of Carbon County to completely change the way we understand Utah’s past.She passed away in 2004, but Helen Zeese Papanikolas is still revered in Utah as an historian whose work made it impossible to…
The Bear River Massacre
The Bear River Massacre was an event that changed the landscape of northern Utah and the fate of the Shoshone people.In the early morning cold of January 29, 1863, between 270 and 400 Shoshone men, women, and children were killed by the U.S. Army…
Mormon Foodways
Each culture has its own specific food traditions, and here in Utah we have funeral potatoes!The ways people prepare and consume food are some of the most culture-specific practices to be found within communities. Here in Utah, we have a heritage of…
Julius Taylor and the Broad Ax
For four years Julius Taylor operated his black newspaper, The Broad Ax, for African Americans living in Utah. Taylor was not only a racial minority in Utah, he was also non-religious and a democrat.In the 1890s there were about six hundred African…
Martha Hughes Cannon
The story of an ambitious and successful young woman who lived in polygamy.In the late nineteenth century, Mormons in Utah practiced polygamy, an institution seen as barbaric by the rest of the country. One polygamous wife found plural marriage both…
Utah Folk Music
Utah’s rich tradition of traditional music ranges from ancient and modern Native American songs and dances to a variety of European and American musical traditions.While it is not well known, Utah has a rich heritage of traditional music, both…
From Cabinetmaker to Undertaker: Niels Lindquist
A Swedish immigrant went from furniture maker to undertaker in the Logan area during the 1800s.Neils Lindquist was an accomplished cabinetmaker who converted to Mormonism and emigrated from Sweden to Salt Lake City in 1863. He built furniture in Salt…
Zane's Antipolygamy Crusade
A key figure in the struggle over polygamy was US Supreme Court Justice Charles Zane. His tenure on the bench saw hundreds of people convicted of illegal cohabitation or polygamy, leading some to call his work an “antipolygamy crusade”.The…
Protesting the Vietnam War in Salt Lake
The anti-war movement came to Salt Lake City in 1969, culminating in a rally that the Salt Lake Tribune called “the largest peace demonstration in Utah history.”In October 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War, more than 4,000 Utahns took to the…
Mayor and Salt Flats Racer Ab Jenkins
Salt Lake City mayor, Ab Jenkins, was known for his fearless racing speeds along the Salt Flats in Tooele County.On Labor Day 1950, Utah native Ab Jenkins broke a bundle of national and world speed records on Utah's salt flats. He was 67.Born in…
The Shoshone Colony of Washakie
The founding and eventual demise of the Shoshoni settlement known as Washakie.In 1880, a handful of Shoshoni families and a few Mormon missionaries settled on a plot of land near the Utah-Idaho border and called the settlement Washakie in honor of an…
The Termination and Restoration of Utah’s Paiute Indian Tribe
The federal termination and restoration of the lands of the Paiute Indian Tribe illustrate the complicated relationship between state, federal, and tribal claims to land.On September 1, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed Public Law 83-762,…
Manuelito
Manuelito was one of the last Navajo leaders to surrender to the US military in the late 1860s.Born near the Bear Ears in extreme southeastern Utah, the man known to whites as Manuelito and to the Navajo, or Dine, as Man of Dark Plants Emerging and…
Grace Oshita
The experiences of a young girl who lived in Utah’s Topaz Internment Camp.Shortly after the United States declared war on Japan following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Grace Oshita’s father was picked up by the FBI and detained as a suspected…
Elizabeth Wood Kane
After Elizabeth Wood Kane arrived in Utah with her husband, her letters home became the manuscript for a book about Utah culture. Her writings shed some important light on the frontier and Mormon social customs.Most students of Utah history are at…
Kanosh
Kanosh, a leader of the Pahvant Utes, used negotiation with white settlers to ensure the survival of his people.In 1856, Kanosh, an influential leader among central Utah’s Pahvant Utes, delivered a speech before Utah’s territorial legislature.…
Plum Alley
Plum Alley, a narrow lane in downtown Salt Lake City, marks what used to be the heart of a vibrant Chinatown.Today, if you find yourself in downtown Salt Lake City walking along Second South past the Regent Street Parking Terrace, you’ll notice a…
Simon Bamberger
The fourth governor of the state, Simon Bamberger, was Utah’s first non-Mormon and only Jewish governor.Ninety-two years ago, Simon Bamberger was elected governor of the state of Utah by more than 4,000 votes, leading what the Davis County Clipper…
The Indian Scare That Never Was
An alliance between Mormons and Shoshone Indians put the non-Mormon residents of Corinne on edge. Concern over an alleged uprising by the alliance shook the town to its foundations.In 1875, fears of an armed uprising by Shoshone Indians swept through…
Isom Dart
The mysterious murder of an African-American rancher in Daggett County.In 1900, African-American rancher Isom Dart was gunned down while walking from his cabin to his corral in Brown’s Park, a valley that straddles the borders of Utah, Colorado,…