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John Muir in Utah
Naturalist John Muir found himself in Salt Lake City in the late 1800s. Muir was attracted by the dazzling landscape of the Great Salt Lake and Oquirrh Mountains, and wrote effusively about Utah’s scenery.In 1877, naturalist and future Sierra Club…
Incident at Mountain Green
In 1825, long before permanent settlers began arriving in present-day Utah, a run-in between British and American trappers triggered an international incident that sparked concerned reactions from as far away as Canada and Great Britain.One of the…
Father Escalante and Joaquin
A story of friendship between Spanish explorer Father Escalante and the Ute boy who was his guide through the Utah territory.In July 1776, a group of Spanish explorers set out from Santa Fe, New Mexico in search of a northern route to one of…
Creation of the Utah Territory
Learn why the US Congress had a problem in 1850, and how its solution led to the creation, 160 years ago this month, of a place called Utah.The lands of the American Southwest, an area now covering California, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona,…
Fort Buenaventura: Utah’s First Anglo Settlement
A trading post built by mountain man Miles Goodyear gave Ogden the distinction of being the first Anglo settlement in Utah.Born in Connecticut in 1817, Miles Goodyear headed west at the age of nineteen to seek his fortune. Goodyear traveled widely…
Flash Floods Devastate Willard
Utah has had some memorable floods over the last hundred years. A 1923 flash flood left the northern Utah town of Willard completely under water.Mud. Sandbags. Water down State Street. You may remember the Salt Lake City floods of 1983 and maybe even…
Erosion Control Efforts in Willard Canyon
Why would a bunch of young men from New York have spent the summer of 1933 digging ditches in Utah’s Willard Canyon?It’s the summer of 1933. You’re eighteen years old and recently signed on to the Civilian Conservation Corps, President…
Sex Appeal Sells: The Grand Opening of Zion National Park
In the summer months, tourists descend on Utah’s five national parks, in large part to effective advertising. Learn about the creatively-advertised grand opening of Zion National Park in 1920.In May 1920, Anna Widtsoe had just turned twenty-one.…
Linwood: the Town that Drowned
Every summer, thousands of people flee to the cool waters of Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah’s northeast corner. But few of them would know about the little town of Linwood buried beneath the water’s surface.Linwood grew near the confluence of…
Bear Lake's Monster Sized Secret
Like the famous Loch Ness in Scotland, Utah’s Bear Lake keeps a monster-sized secret in its watery depths. Located at the top of Logan Canyon on the Idaho border, Bear Lake has been at the center of “monster sighting” stories since at least…
Solstice Sun Tunnels
Sun Tunnels, an art installation by Nancy Holt, has become a unique part of Utah’s heritage.On June 21, 1976, the day of the summer solstice, New York artist Nancy Holt gathered several friends under the massive skies of Utah’s west desert to…
John Wesley Powell's First Run of the Colorado River
More than 140 years ago, on August 30, 1869, six men in two wooden boats emerged into open country from the high cliffs and rough waters of the Grand Canyon. They were “blackened, bearded, emaciated, in rags,” and down to their last stash of…
The Crossing of the Fathers
One of the goals of the Dominguez-Escalante expedition was to find a northern route to the Spanish missions in Monterey, California from the Spanish colonial stronghold of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Led by two Franciscan friars named Silvestre Velez de…
Utah Journeys: Finding a Way Through
Migration and travel have shaped Utah. And Utah has shaped the way we migrate and travel. Literally. Over time, travel routes through Utah have tended to stay the same. Utah’s ruggedly beautiful landscape draws admiration and visitors, but has…
"Tieing" Utah Together
Utah’s mountain ranges were raided and its rivers put to work in order to build the national railroad system. When the transcontinental railroad came to Utah in 1868 and 1869 – and as branch lines later spread through the territory – railroad…
Uranium Stories
Those who journeyed to Moab during the uranium mining boom that swept Utah in the 1950s and 1960s changed the tiny town forever. When the Atomic Energy Commission wanted uranium in the late 1940s, its guarantee to purchase whatever could be found…
Nature's Newcomers
Plants and animals that made their way to Utah unleashed unintended consequences upon arrival.
People aren’t the only ones who make journeys. When people traveled from place to place, they introduced new plants and animals into the areas they…
Salt Lake Valley Hot Springs
An area now occupied by an oil refinery, a gravel mine, and a freeway, was once Salt Lake’s premier tourist attraction.
Everyone smells it. A whiff of sulfur, as your car rounds the corner on I-15 between Salt Lake and Davis Counties.…
From Obstacle to Opportunity: Running the Mighty Green River
Historic obstacles to travel on Utah’s Green River are now considered opportunities for adventure. Fast waters, deadly rapids, high cliff walls, and an unknown course have long been obstacles that limited human activity on Utah’s Green…
The Hole-in-the-Rock: Utah's Most Treacherous Stretch of Road
Utah’s most treacherous stretch of road was hacked from the rock with a few hand tools and a bit of blasting powder. Utah’s rugged terrain often translates into treacherous roads. And the most precarious stretch of road might be the…