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The Ku Klux Klan
The presence of the Ku Klux Klan was not just limited to the southern United States. In fact, the KKK had grown enough to march through the streets of Salt Lake City in the early 1920s.In 1922, a small crowd of hooded and caped Ku Klux Klansmen…
Reva Beck Bosone
Reva Beck Bosone’s political ambitions began as a lawyer in Carbon County and eventually led her to become Utah’s first congresswoman.In 1948, Reva Beck Bosone became the first woman elected to Congress from Utah. Born in American Fork to…
General Booth Comes to Utah
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was received warmly by a large crowd in Salt Lake City on his visit to Utah.In 1894, William Booth arrived in Salt Lake City by train. Booth, an Englishman who was born into a poverty-stricken family…
Utah’s First Armistice Day
Across Utah, the end of World War I was met with large celebrations. The excitement across the state seemed to function like a collective sigh of relief.In 1918, the signing of the armistice with Germany that effectively ended World War I became the…
The Death of Louis Price
In 1895 the burned body of a man was found near Nephi, Utah. The identity of his killer remains a mystery.In 1895 the burned body of a young man named Lewis Price was found up Salt Creek Canyon near Nephi. His parents had sent him up the canyon to…
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 Salt Palace and the End of Salt Lake’s Japan Town
A small area of downtown Salt Lake City used to be “Japan Town”, an area that served as the focus of the city’s Japanese American community. The area was demolished in the 1960s in order to make room for the Salt Palace.These days, if you turn…
Evans Family Singers
The death of two brothers in the Winter Quarters mining blast was made especially tragic by their recent success as a part of their family’s musical performance troupe.In 1900, two brothers, David and Richard Evans, were killed in a tremendous…
The Circleville Massacre
Tensions between white settlers and Native Americans resulted in the massacre of over a dozen Paiutes in Circleville, Utah.In 1866, one of the worst tragedies in Utah history occurred in the town of Circleville on what is now the Piute-Garfield…
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…
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…
Medical College of Utah
For two years, the small mountain community of Morgan was home to a medical college.In 1880, papers were filed incorporating the Medical College of Utah in the tiny town of Morgan. For an 80-dollar-a-term tuition bill, students would learn all the…
Women in Utah Politics
The early political history of Utah women began with the 1870 law that gave women the right to vote.With all of the attention on Hillary Clinton’s historic campaign for President, it might be interesting to take a look at the history of women’s…
Kit Hansen
A newspaper article about a robbery reveals more than the story of a crime in Salt Lake City. It also tells us about the history of racism in Salt Lake City.A little more than a century ago, a man was robbed on the streets of Salt Lake City. Hardly…
The Bee Inspector
Salt Lake City’s bee inspector is an official position that reminds us of Salt Lake County’s very real agricultural past.Few people these days know that Salt Lake County has a bee inspector. Hiring someone to watch bees in Utah’s most urban…
Isom Dart
The mysterious murder of an African-American rancher in Daggett County.In 1900, African-American rancher Isom Dart was gunned down while walking from his cabin to his corral in Brown’s Park, a valley that straddles the borders of Utah, Colorado,…
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…
The Bartleson Party
The first emigrant party to cross modern-day Utah on the way to the West Coast.In 1841, a small group of emigrants set out from Sapling Grove, Missouri, to begin a new life in the Far West. Scholars still disagree about how many were actually in the…
Mixing the Sacred and the Secular in Beaver
The relationship between the desires of the spiritual community of Utah and the non-religious needs of the West characterize the growing Mormon frontier.In 1856, a small party of fifteen Mormon families left Parowan in Iron County intent on carving…
The Arsenal Hill Blast
An explosion rocked Salt Lake City in 1876, killing four people.In 1876, as Utahns were converging on Salt Lake City eager to attend the LDS Church’s general conference, a powerful blast rocked the northern part the city, shattering windows,…