Browse Items (54 total)
Sort by:
Logan Canyon Place Names
Place names can make an interesting study for anyone interested in local and regional history. Two locations in northern Utah’s Logan Canyon illustrate.One of the most popular summer recreation spots in Logan Canyon was and still is a meadow on the…
Winter Quarters Mine Explosion
A disaster in the Winter Quarters mine left hundreds of miners dead and others severely injured. It remains the fourth deadliest mining disaster in U.S. history.According to the stopped watch on a dead Finnish miner, 10:28 A.M. on May 1, 1900 marked…
Artesian Park
Ogden Valley’s Artesian Park contained wells that provided fresh water to the growing population of the city.As the city of Ogden grew into a transportation and finance center in the early 1900s, new sources of fresh water were needed to sustain…
Clarence King Expedition
The US Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel began its examination of the American West under the leadership of Clarence King. The survey team explored northern Utah, and provided an in-depth analysis of Utah’s geography and environment.In…
Twenty Wells
A site near present-day Grantsville provided temporary relief to the Donner party before their dangerous push across the Great Salt Lake Desert.In 1846, a series of overland parties found relief at a site on the south end of the Great Salt Lake near…
Henry Adams Visits Utah
Henry Adams, one of the leading historians of his day, visited Utah on a geographic expedition with his childhood friend Samuel Emmons in the late 1900s.In 1871 as Samuel Emmons, Arnold Hague, James Hague, and others conducted the United States…
The Old Spanish Trail
Utah’s position as a social and cultural crossroads of the west began well before European settlement. Native trading and war parties gave way to Spanish exploration throughout the territory along the Old Spanish Trail.Utah’s always been a…
Building Flaming Gorge
Controversy over public lands has a long history in Utah. The construction of Flaming Gorge Dam was met with resistance, and opinions over the finished product were mixed.In 1968, the Flaming Gorge Dam in Daggett County was dedicated by Ladybird…
The Town that Couldn't Keep its Name
A Grand County mining town that changed its name three times in less than thirty years.More than a century ago, the town of Ballard, in central Grand County, began to sprout up around a coal mine. The town, which took its name from Henry Ballard, the…
Land and Murder in Beaver County
Land distribution turned deadly for one man in Beaver County. Newcomer John Howard was shot and killed as a result of mounting tensions over claims to land.Utah has at times been a violent place, especially when distribution of lands has been at…
The Wolf Years
Anxiety about growing wolf populations led to over-hunting in the early 1900s that nearly eliminated wolf populations in northern Utah.More than a hundred years ago, a massive migration of gray wolves into Utah’s northern counties sparked a full…
The Thistle Mudslide
A giant landslide in April 1983 obliterated the tiny town of Thistle in Utah County.In 1983, the most costly landslide in US history swept down on the tiny town of Thistle, damming up the Spanish Fork River, and severing the rail line that connects…
The Strawberry Valley Project
A federal project diverted water promised to the Ute Tribe into southern Utah County. This water grab harmed Ute claims to land in the Uintah Basin. In 1905 the federal government authorized the Strawberry Valley Project. Designed to divert water…
The Escalante-Dominguez Expedition
In 1776, the same year the Declaration of Independence was signed, a group of Spanish explorers entered present-day Utah Valley. Led by two Franciscan friars named Silvestre Velez de Escalante and Francisco Dominguez, the expedition was launched to…