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Eight-Hour Workday
The reality of an eight-hour workday remains elusive for many Utah workers, but it is still considered the national standard, and one we take for granted. Learn how Utah became the first state to adopt the eight-hour workday.During the late…
Citizen Activists Derail MX Missile System
A grassroots movement of Utah citizens helped derail government plans to base the MS Missile System in Utah’s Great Basin.When the United States Air Force announced its plans in 1979 to build its new MX Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System in…
A Question of Loyalty: Utah & the American Civil War
Despite Utah’s lack of direct involvement in the Civil War, they played a key role in the interests of leaders in Washington over the struggle for control of the western territories.One of the saddest episodes in American history was the Civil War,…
The United Order of Orderville
The United Order of Orderville, a Utopian living experiment, thrived for a decade in southern Utah.When people hear the term “communal living,” what often comes to mind is a group of hippies, not a group of 19th Century Mormons. However, the…
Women's Suffrage & Consititutional Convention
Utah women won the right to vote not once, but twice. Women's Suffrage – that is, the right of women to vote – was won twice in Utah. In 1871, national suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony visited the Utah Territory to…
SLC Bicycle Revolution
Are you a bicycle commuter? Do you appreciate riding smooth roads on the way to work? Learn how cyclists fought to get Salt Lake City roads paved back in 1901.Salt Lake City is recognized nationally as a Bicycle Friendly Community, with more than 80…
The Case of Anne Bradley
The tumultuous love affair between former Utah senator Arthur Brown and his mistress, Anne Bradley.In the twenty-first century we consider political scandals and courtroom drama to be characteristic of modern times. But a hundred years ago, things…
The Great White Palace: African American Segregation in Utah
The old Hotel Utah has a storied history of hospitality that is shadowed by the racial prejudice common throughout Utah right into the 1960s.Located on South Temple and Main Street in downtown Salt Lake City, the venerated Hotel Utah was known in its…
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…
A Grand Old Lady - Salt Lake's Ambassador Club
The captivating and controversial past of Salt Lake City’s old Ambassador Club.An imposing structure sporting spires and turrets on Salt Lake City’s 5th East is long gone, but its ghosts include those of polygamist wives and a controversial…
Freak Smoking Ban Overturned
A massive public protest against a state smoking ban forced the Utah Legislature to overturn the law in 1923.Debates about the sale of cigarettes and smoking in public venues are hardly new to the Beehive State. In 1923, a determined crowd of Utah…
New Deal Building Efforts in Utah
As the national debate rages over the federal budget and controversial bailouts, it’s worth remembering the impact of federal spending in Utah during the Great Depression.The Great Depression of the 1930s hit Utah harder than most states. Between…
Slavery of African-Americans in Early Utah
Slavery of African-Americans in Utah began with the settlement of Mormon pioneers in 1847 and lasted for 15 years until the practice was made illegal in 1862.Three slaves, named Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with the first Mormon…
The Beginning of Public Libraries in Utah
Public libraries are a staple of many of Utah’s communities. Learn how public libraries got started in Utah.October is National Book Month and libraries all over Utah are celebrating with book festivals and activities to help bring readers and…
Kid Activists Honor the ‘Father of Television’
A group of school children fought in the Utah legislature to win recognition for one of the world’s most important inventors.Can you imagine the world without television? Its impact is everywhere, yet few people realize that the inventor of the…
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,…
Civic Minded Women of Kanab Make History
Women in the southern Utah town of Kanab made history- and a difference- in 1912. The entire town board was comprised of women, and their agenda was to make Kanab a better place to live.In January 1912, the southern Utah town of Kanab made history…
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…
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.…
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…