 Lessons in Resilience |
Over long years of colonization, the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation faced severe setbacks. But the Tribe continued to adapt to new conditions and found ways to preserve their culture and traditions. |
2024-12-30 |
 2002 Winter Olympics Bring Utahns Together |
Utah's snowy peaks and valleys became the stage for athletes from around the world during the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake. But the Games were much more than a sporting competition. |
2024-12-23 |
 Utah Tree History: A Landscape in Flux |
Utah history isn't just about the people who lived and worked here. It's also about some of the oldest living organisms in our state -- trees! Learn more about our arborous elders. |
2024-12-16 |
 Nine Mile Canyon: Resource Exploitation vs Cultural Preservation |
Nine Mile Canyon contains an estimated 10,000 rock art sites created over a thousand years ago, and that's just the beginning of the canyon's historic and cultural value. But natural gas exploration and extraction nearby pose challenges to preservation efforts. |
2024-12-09 |
 The Energy Transition Powered by Rural Utah |
When you flip your light switch, do you know which part of rural Utah your electricity is coming from? Historically, fuel for the energy grid came from rural areas in the form of fossil fuels. But even as utilities transition to alternative energy, that energy is still sourced in rural Utah. |
2024-12-02 |
 Poultry Co-operative Transforms Utah Agriculture |
The switch from Utah being a net importer of turkeys to becoming a substantial exporter in the 1920s can be attributed to the efforts of one man -- Benjamin Brown -- and the poultry co-operative he organized. |
2024-11-25 |
 Radio: Bridging the Distance Across Rural Utah |
Today, we have 24 hour news channels and TikTok to share breaking news and current trends. But for Utahns isolated by distance in the early 20th century, the radio did a tremendous job of connecting residents in rural communities to each other and to the larger world. |
2024-11-18 |
 Ephraim Relief Society Granary |
In the late nineteenth century, the local Granary building in Ephraim gave women an unusual public presence on Main Street, and became a proud symbol of early female autonomy, economic success, and charitable endeavors. |
2024-11-11 |
 Arts Drive Rural Utah |
Just like alfalfa fields and amazing vistas, art is easy to find in rural Utah. It is also a major economic driver. |
2024-11-04 |
 Spring City and the Politics of Preservation |
Living in a historic home can be lovely -- but for Spring City residents in the 1970s, the influx of so-called "outsiders" sprucing up pioneer-era historic dwellings was a source of contention. |
2024-10-28 |
 Cedar City's Sheep Tunnel |
Running underneath Cedar City is a concrete tunnel that is now a hang-out for adventurous kids and graffiti artists. But, what was this secret pathway originally intended to do? |
2024-10-21 |
 Liberty Park: Salt Lake City's "Central Park" |
Today, Salt Lake City's urban sprawl and poor air quality are noteworthy, but the problem isn't exactly new. Public parks were once seen as an antidote to the bad effects of increasing urbanization -- kind of like a little bit of the "country" in the city, if you will. |
2024-10-14 |
 The Magical Van's Dance Hall |
Every weekend across Utah, dancers fill nightclubs twisting to the latest tunes. But did you know that one of the most extravagant and celebrated dance halls in the Beehive State was found in the remote town of Delta? Learn what all the fuss was about. |
2024-10-07 |
 Copper Mine Swallows Company Towns |
Demand for copper in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries reshaped Utah's once-rural Bingham Canyon into an enormous open-pit mine supported by thriving company towns. But that same demand for copper went on to consume those same company towns. |
2024-09-30 |
 Flying Professors |
Today, remote learning usually happens over a computer. But did you know that Utah colleges once used airplanes to bring professors directly to classrooms in rural areas? These "flying professor" programs represent just one chapter in a longer history of distance education. |
2024-09-23 |
 Sagebrush Rebellion in Grand County |
When local officials in southern Utah's Grand County declared independence from the federal Bureau of Land Management in 1980, they took rhetoric of small government and individual freedom to a whole new level. |
2024-09-16 |
 Wastelanding |
When you think of Utah's desert lands, do you picture a pristine wilderness or an arid waste? How we treat this landscape depends on the value that we assign to it. |
2024-09-09 |
 Brigham City Peach Days |
Every autumn, large crowds descend on the small rural town of Brigham City for "Peach Days." It's the oldest harvest festival in Utah. And it all started with a one dollar investment in peach pits back in 1855. |
2024-09-02 |
 Utah Rejects the White Elephant |
The United States federal government controls about 65% of land in Utah. The goal of maintaining these lands for public use tends to polarize Utahns. But there was a time when Utah leaders were not averse to federal regulation of public lands. (Wait... what?) |
2024-08-26 |
 The Canyonlands Controversy |
Canyonlands is more than just Utah's third national park. Its designation in 1964 occurred after a fight over who exactly public lands are meant for. |
2024-08-19 |
