Browse Items (455 total)
Sort by:
John Muir in Utah
Naturalist John Muir found himself in Salt Lake City in the late 1800s. Muir was attracted by the dazzling landscape of the Great Salt Lake and Oquirrh Mountains, and wrote effusively about Utah’s scenery.In 1877, naturalist and future Sierra Club…
John Lyon, Utah’s Own Robert Burns
John Lyon’s popular Mormon poetry and hymns secured his place in the hearts of many Mormon poetry lovers.In 1853, Scottish weaver and poet John Lyon immigrated to Utah after joining the LDS church. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, to working-class…
John Christopher Cutler
Learn about the political career and mysterious suicide of Utah's second governor, John Christopher Cutler. In 1846, John Christopher Cutler was born in Sheffield, England to a merchant family. After converting to Mormonism, the Cutlers picked up…
John Charles Frémont: Ad Man for Manifest Destiny
Explorer John Charles Fremont’s belief in “Manifest Destiny” paved the way for Western migration. By the early 1840s, US leaders in favor of Western expansion lobbied for better surveys of the territory and reliable maps. The US government…
Joe Hill
Joe Hill has become a deeply ingrained part of Utah folklore. The Wobbly songwriter was executed for murder in the state in the early 1900s.At the turn of the twentieth century, the labor movement in the United States was on the ascendance as workers…
Jewish Pioneers of Clarion
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…
Jean Baptiste, Grave Robber
The mysterious disappearance of a grave robber who literally stole the clothes off of people’s backs.When George Clawson dug up his brother Moroni’s body a week after it had been buried in a Salt Lake’s cemetery, he made the startling discovery…
Japanese Fire Balloons Reach Utah During WWII
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…
James Farrell
The record left behind by an Irish brickmaker living in Salt Lake City provides a unique insight into the life (and strange death) of one of Utah’s immigrants.A little more than 112 years ago, an Irish immigrant named James Farrell was found dead…
It's a Bird! It's a Plane!
Airplanes played a pivotal role in attracting tourism to one southern Utah town. On September 27, 1920 the first airplane cast its shadow over Cedar City, Utah. Who was flying it? And why were they flying there? In the early 1920s,…
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,…
Iosepa: An Unlikely Hawaiian Home
The voyage of Hawaiian Islanders to the windswept desert of Skull Valley could only have happened in Utah. Once established in Utah in 1847, the Mormon Church drew thousands of new converts who came to build a new home in “Zion.” By the…
Intermountain Indian School
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…
Ingenuity & Engineering: Green River’s Hastings Ranch Waterwheel
You know those world-famous Green River melons? Well, they need lots of water to build that juicy goodness. Learn how one farm along the Green River solved the problem of getting water to its fields.
The town of Green River, Utah, is known for its…
Industrialism Drives Utah Women to the Workplace
American industrialism at the turn of the 20th century brought Utah women out of their homes and into the workplace. There they faced inequality and wage disparity.The turn of the twentieth century saw dramatic changes that created new opportunities…
Indoor Plumbing Eases the Domestic Burden
Most of us take for granted the luxury of having running water inside of our homes. But, indoor plumbing is a relatively new phenomenon that has made life significantly easier!
At the turn of the twentieth century, just 1% of homes in the United…
Indefatigable Artist Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert
Utah artist, Minerva Kohlhepp Teichert, is considered to be among the top women American artists- a teacher, dancer, rancher, and tenacious painter, she was heavily inspired by the religious and pioneer stories told by her parents.Artist Minerva…
Incident at Mountain Green
In 1825, long before permanent settlers began arriving in present-day Utah, a run-in between British and American trappers triggered an international incident that sparked concerned reactions from as far away as Canada and Great Britain.One of the…
In This Little Town of Ours, We Have a Literary Club
In 1928, a women’s club in Moab adopted an official song that crowed: “In this little town of ours, we have a literary club, and we derive from it everything good, it helps the town and public in numerous ways.” Learn more about these women and…
In Praise of Leisure
Tourists and Utahns alike enjoy the Beehive State for its many opportunities for outdoor recreation. Learn how much of that recreation originated in the way people worked.The state of Utah is widely known for its outdoor recreation. Skiers…