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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.
Like all of Utah's Indigenous peoples,…
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.
For 17 days at the dawn of a new millennium, 3.5 billion…
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…
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,…
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.
Utah's state motto is “industry,” a word that may not necessarily bring to mind images of Shakespearean actors or landscape…
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.
During the 1970s, Spring City residents used federal…
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?
Did you know there is a mile-long passage running underneath the…
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…
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…
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.
On July 4th, 1980 hundreds gathered…
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.
Before Moab was a world famous tourist destination, it was a mining town. In the…
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.
In the late 1950s, the National Park Service began assessing lands for a new national park in the…
Town That Drowned: The Rockport Reservoir Tradeoff
If you could provide drinking water for thousands of people by displacing twenty-seven farming families, would you do it? Utah leaders faced this very dilemma in the 1950s. Find out what they decided.
How would you weigh the cost of progress? As…
The Last Brothel in Utah
Urban spaces in twentieth century Utah are known for their vice -- gambling, prostitution and more. But did you know the last brothel to close in Utah was actually in a rural town?
Sitting in the second floor windows of Helper’s Carbon Hotel,…
Utah’s Green Book
In the 1940s, new roads, affordable cars, and an interest in national parks meant that more Americans were packing up their vehicles and hitting the open road. For Black travelers driving through rural areas of Utah, the Green Book was a vital…
Ghost Towns: Cisco
A former railroad and ranching hub, the tiny settlement of Cisco became a ghost town after highway travel through the remote area was rerouted. But is Cisco still a ghost town today?
On the eastern edge of Grand County, a few miles south of…
Utah’s Gay Rodeo
Saddles, denim, country music, and… drag queens? It’s an unexpected combination but an important one for community and belonging in queer rural Utah. Find out more about Utah’s famous gay rodeo.
Utah is known for its rodeos. Burly cowboys ride…
Rural to Rockets: Box Elder County Takes Off
So, you are a giant aerospace company and you want to build a rocket plant: what do you look for? This week, learn how one Utah town met all the requirements to become a center for the US rocket industry and how that decision forever changed its…
West Desert Wasteland: Pollution and Sovereignty in Rural Utah
Just around 45 miles west of Salt Lake City is a vast landscape shrouded in mystery and controversy. It’s also a holding place for some of the US military’s deadliest materials.
Perhaps no part of Utah suffers as much disregard as Utah’s arid…
The Militarized West
World War II and the Cold War brought the military to much of rural Utah, transforming those places in the process. The economic boost that followed was long-lasting in some communities, but devastatingly short-lived in others.
While the federal…