Any parent who has ever lost a youngster in a crowd can imagine Park City resident Bridget Donohue's panic when she couldn't find her thirteen-year-old son, Bobby. Believing he had gone to nearby Heber in the fall of 1898, Bridget must have been very surprised when she learned that Bobby had actually travelled all the way to the Philippine Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. In fact, when Bobby Donohue returned the following year, he wore a military uniform, and was the youngest unofficial veteran of the Spanish-American War.
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 Escalante and Francisco Dominguez, the expedition never reached California, but instead, turned back to Santa Fe, forded the mighty Colorado River, and thus created one of Utah's most popular historic sites, The Crossing of the Fathers.
On September 10, 1911, twelve Jewish families arrived in Gunnison, Utah, to establish a Jewish agricultural community. The group was part of the "Back to Soil" movement, which believed Jews needed to leave the city and live on farms. The Gunnison colony, called Clarion, was one of many established throughout the United States, Canada, and Argentina.
The "I" is fading fast on the mountainside above Brigham City, Utah. Winter snows threaten to erase it for good and with it, the memory of one of Utah's more significant stories: The Intermountain Indian School, a federally-run Native American boarding school.
Utah has become home to people of many backgrounds and cultures since the first Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847. What brought these people to Utah?
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 mouldy flour. They were lucky to be alive.
In 1899, Ramon Gonzalez, his wife Guadalupe, and his children Romana and Prudencio, left their home in Dixon, New Mexico, to settle in Monticello, Utah. A wagon carried all their household possessions, while a few head of livestock followed on the hoof.
Imagine you live in 19th century rural Utah. Christmas is coming and your children look forward to a celebration with Santa and gifts. There are no stores, no mail orders. How would you meet their expectations?
Like many Utahns, Harold Seeholzer loved snow and skiing. But how did his enthusiasm for outdoor recreation turn into one of Cache Valley's most notable ski resorts?
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.
The Japanese bombing of Hawaii's Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II in 1941. But one of the best-kept secrets of the War was a Japanese air offensive on the US mainland using fire balloon bombs, some of which actually reached Utah.
In Utah, one-room schoolhouses evolved into the publicly supported education system we have today. Utahns struggled to find an adequate solution to the question of education, and was the last territory in the nation to provide a free public school system.
The unique discovery of an ancient Fremont Village in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City tells a story of a time before Utah was settled by European pioneers.
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.
