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Equitable Water Distribution: the 1962 Bear River Project
Utah has an insatiable demand for water, and the Bear River is one of northern Utah’s most abundant sources. Despite this, efforts to fully develop it have long been stymied by a combination of geography and politics.
All of Bear River’s natural…
Erased History: Chinese Workers in Park City
Barred from lucrative work and hounded by local residents, it took years of discrimination against Chinese workers to erase their contributions to Park City.All that remains of Park City’s once-thriving Chinatown is a name on a parking garage:…
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…
Eugene Jelesnik: The Man Behind the Music
How did a Jewish, Ukranian violin player become one of Utah’s most beloved local celebrities? Learn about the life of one extraordinary man.
Eugene Jelesnik, skillfully riffing his violin wearing one of his thirty-seven sparkly dinner jackets, was…
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…
Even the Grasshoppers were Starving: The 1934 Drought
The 1934 drought that ravaged the nation was a natural disaster that came at the worst possible time for Utahns. Find out how officials helped guide the state through this catastrophe with help from the federal government.
In 1934, a historic drought…
Exile at Topaz
Thousands of Japanese Americans were forced into exile in the Utah desert during World War II. Two months after the December 1941 attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 mandating the…
Faking the Greatest Snow on Earth: Brian Head Resort's Snowmaking
Utah boasts the greatest snow on earth, but the pristine powder isn’t always nature-made. The fake snow saves tourist seasons, but at what cost?
Skiing is big business in Utah! The state’s geography allows for a light, fluffy powder that tends…
Family Wash Day the Old-Fashioned Way
Laundry Day. Hate it or love it, it is easier to do now than it ever has been. Learn how one Utah family washed their clothing before indoor plumbing.In the 1900s, before the luxuries of rural electricity and indoor plumbing, washing clothes was a…
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…
Feeding the Steam Beasts: Piping Water to the Transcontinental Railroad
Steam locomotive engines need water – a lot of it. But here in Utah – the second driest state in the Lower 48 – finding water to feed these steam beasts was a real problem for the railroad companies. Learn more about how they solved this…
Fighting Fire with Water
Firefighting is dangerous work. It also requires a lot of water! Today we are used to seeing fire hydrants in every neighborhood, but for many Utahns at the turn of the 20th century, such community water infrastructure was completely new.
In the…
Fighting for a Museum: Daughters of Utah Pioneers vs. Marmalade Neighbors
Museums are usually established in the public trust and in the public interest. But one museum in Salt Lake City’s Marmalade District caused a whole whirlwind of drama -- and even a state Supreme Court case.
Located at the top of Salt Lake City's…
Fistfight Between Old & New: The 1971 Park City “Riot”
Tensions between the old and new are not new to rural Utahns – but in 1970s Park City, these tensions erupted into an actual brawl between two seemingly opposite groups: hippies and miners.
Park City’s population rapidly changed during the…
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…
Flood Control And Watershed Management
Living in the desert means dealing with extreme conditions. Sometimes that means drought, but other times the problem is too much water all at once. Learn how Utahns in Manti looked upstream to tackle the problem of flooding.When you live in the…
Floyd Dominy: Legacy of a Lightning Rod
Floyd Dominy was more than a government bureaucrat. As commissioner for the federal Bureau of Reclamation, Dominy was a lightning rod for the controversy over humanity’s relationship to the natural environment and had an outsized impact on the…
Flying Monkeys and Fighter Pilots
Imagine you are a fighter pilot needing to escape your plane when something goes wrong. Your life depends on the work of scientists who – more than sixty years ago – filled the Utah desert air with sonic booms and flying monkeys.Being a fighter…
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…
Folk Artists Work to Preserve Cultural Traditions
It might be easy to think that the production of folk art isn’t really “work.” But whether or not folk artists make a living through their creativity, their labors require hard-earned mastery of skills. Learn about two Utah women whose art was…