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Hobbitville: Allen Park’s Journey From Urban Legend to City Park
Salt Lake City’s “Hobbitville” is not actually a neighborhood for small, shoeless, fantasy people who live underground. Although it IS home to a colorful pride of peacocks. Learn about the real history of Allen Park.
“Tongues in trees, books…
Gilgal Garden: One Man’s Beliefs in Stone
A towering arch made of boulders. Biblical quotes carved into stone pavers. A bird’s house with dozens of entrances. This is not a surreal dream land, but Gilgal Garden, a sculpture park in downtown Salt Lake City. Learn the history of this special…
Cosmic Aeroplane: Salt Lake City’s Countercultural Safe Haven
The heart of Salt Lake City’s countercultural movement found its home in a small, independent headshop in the 1960s and 70s.
Utah’s countercultural movement in the 1960s and 70s was fairly tame compared to the social movements of larger cities.…
Adapt or Die: Utah’s Contested Water History
The story of water in Utah is complex, and rifts often arise in unexpected places. The fact that water sustains us all can sometimes be easy to overlook, but ultimately it an issue we cannot ignore and to which we must constantly adapt.
Utah is…
Electrifying Utah with Steam
When we say “water is power” we are sometimes actually talking about electricity! Find out how harnessing steam electrified Utah for thousands of residents in the 20th century.
The early decades of the 1900s were marked by a growing demand for…
There’s Fluoride in the Water!
Public health campaigns have long sparked fears of government overreach. In the mid-twentieth century, for example, dentists lobbied to add fluoride to Utah’s water supply to support tooth health. Learn more about the decades-long public uproar.
In…
Desperate for Rain: Utah’s Cloud Seeding Industry
Utah communities regularly wish for more rainfall, especially during years of drought. But can they do more than just pray? Learn how scientists in the 1950s harnessed technology to make their own rain.
Today, Utahns experiencing drought due to…
Pink Floyd the Flamingo
Looking out at Great Salt Lake you may have seen it before – a flash of pink wings and long legs… wait, was that a Flamingo? Find out more about Great Salt Lake’s beloved pink visitor Floyd.
In 1988, a flamingo living at the Tracy Aviary in…
Water is Alive: Navajo Connections to the Colorado River
In Navajo belief systems, water is alive and a vital part of a healthy landscape. When Glen Canyon Dam blocked the flow of the Colorado River, a landscape that holds deep meaning in traditional Navajo spirituality was completely transformed.
For…
Floyd Dominy: Legacy of a Lightning Rod
Floyd Dominy was more than a government bureaucrat. As commissioner for the federal Bureau of Reclamation, Dominy was a lightning rod for the controversy over humanity’s relationship to the natural environment and had an outsized impact on the…
State Street River: Salt Lake City’s 1983 Flood
Find out how a season of terrible floods left Salt Lake City residents with a memorable scene: their neighbors packing sandbags to create a river running down State Street.
The uncharacteristically wet winter and spring seasons between 1982 and 1983…
Pools During Polio: Transmission or Treatment?
When Utah joined the nation’s crusade against polio in the 1950s, officials weren't sure what to do about public pools. Were they a place where children got relief from their symptoms or a nexus for mass infection?
After World War II, the United…
Equitable Water Distribution: the 1962 Bear River Project
Utah has an insatiable demand for water, and the Bear River is one of northern Utah’s most abundant sources. Despite this, efforts to fully develop it have long been stymied by a combination of geography and politics.
All of Bear River’s natural…
Utah Wildlife Management: Trout vs “Trash Fish”
Stocking Utah’s waterways with sport fish is a practice that goes back more than a century – so long ago that many people may think these introduced species are native. Find out how this impacts Utah’s true native fishes.
Setting up beside a…
We Can “Build a Dam Anywhere”: Survival of the Central Utah Project
The Central Utah Project – which is still under construction – began with plenty of optimism and ambition. But politics and the inherent difficulty of moving mountains nearly sank the project. Learn how it survived.
The Central Utah Project –…
Moving Mountains: Origins of the Central Utah Project
The vast plumbing infrastructure of the Central Utah Project is the culmination of Utah’s desires to move water to where we want it to be. Find out how complicated and contentious this endeavor has been.
By the mid-twentieth century, the water of…
Faking the Greatest Snow on Earth: Brian Head Resort's Snowmaking
Utah boasts the greatest snow on earth, but the pristine powder isn’t always nature-made. The fake snow saves tourist seasons, but at what cost?
Skiing is big business in Utah! The state’s geography allows for a light, fluffy powder that tends…
Utah’s Expensive Flooding Quick-Fix: The 1987 Bangerter Pumps
Out in Utah’s West Desert is a massive $60 million infrastructure project that hasn’t been used in over thirty years. Can you guess what it is and why it was made?
In the 1980’s, a flooding Great Salt Lake threatened transportation, industry,…
“You Protect the Water:” Uranium Mining & Utah’s Native Peoples
The uranium mining and milling industry in Utah has had a devastating effect on water that disproportionately affected the health and safety of Native American tribes.
During the height of the atomic age after World War II, southern Utah was teeming…
Red Reed Water: Clear Creek as Native Waterway
The valley floor and cliffs of Clear Creek Canyon were sculpted over millions of years and evidence hints that humans moved along its waters as early as 8,000 years ago. You may have driven through this canyon yourself, but do you know the importance…