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How Antelope Island Got Its Name
Antelope Island was named by the famous American explorer John Charles Fremont during his travels around the Great Salt Lake.In the fall of 1845, the famous American explorer John Charles Fremont crossed over the Rocky Mountains into eastern Utah…
Elizabeth Wood Kane
After Elizabeth Wood Kane arrived in Utah with her husband, her letters home became the manuscript for a book about Utah culture. Her writings shed some important light on the frontier and Mormon social customs.Most students of Utah history are at…
Plum Alley
Plum Alley, a narrow lane in downtown Salt Lake City, marks what used to be the heart of a vibrant Chinatown.Today, if you find yourself in downtown Salt Lake City walking along Second South past the Regent Street Parking Terrace, you’ll notice a…
The Woman’s Exponent
Mormon women wrote and published a newspaper for and about Mormon women. The paper had a small circulation and was replaced with the Relief Society Magazine shortly after the newspaper declined.In 1872, a unique publication for women emerged in Utah.…
The Park City Dynamite Outrage
An explosion reverberated through the sleeping town of Park City in 1894. Residents woke up to the discovery that someone had planted dynamite under the front stairs of a local house.On the morning of May 3, 1894, a tremendous blast reverberated…
The Godbeites
A group of disaffected British Mormons and merchants formed the Godbeite movement after openly declaring their opposition to the LDS Church.In October 1869, a group of men who had been converted to Mormonism in Great Britain openly declared their…
Simon Bamberger
The fourth governor of the state, Simon Bamberger, was Utah’s first non-Mormon and only Jewish governor.Ninety-two years ago, Simon Bamberger was elected governor of the state of Utah by more than 4,000 votes, leading what the Davis County Clipper…
Samuel Newhouse
Samuel Newhouse helped to shape Salt Lake City’s skyline through his real estate investments.Samuel Newhouse hit the ground running when he arrived in Utah in 1896. Born in New York to Russian-Jewish parents, Newhouse had been a lawyer in…
The Eagle Emporium
The Eagle Emporium remains the Salt Lake City’s “only commercial structure built prior to the completion of the transcontinental railroad.”In 1864, English immigrant William Jennings opened a mercantile business in the Eagle Emporium. The…
Julius Taylor and the Broad Ax
For four years Julius Taylor operated his black newspaper, The Broad Ax, for African Americans living in Utah. Taylor was not only a racial minority in Utah, he was also non-religious and a democrat.In the 1890s there were about six hundred African…
Marriner Eccles
The career of the Utahn who led the Federal Reserve Board through some of the darkest days of the Great Depression.With the Federal Reserve System so much in the news these days, let’s take a look at the Utahn Franklin Delano Roosevelt nominated to…
The Valley Tan
As the Utah War settled to an occupation of the Utah Territory, Kirk Anderson, with financial backing from John Hartnett, started Utah’s second newspaper the Valley Tan, targeting Camp Floyd’s population of soldiers as well as the Gentiles…
The Salina POW Camp Shooting
A shooting in a Salina prisoner of war camp killed nine prisoners and wounded over 20 others. The motive for the shooting remains unclear.At 12:25 a.m. on Sunday, July 8, 1945, two months after Germany’s surrender in World War II, the report of a…
The Founding of SOCIO
The creation of the Spanish Speaking Organization for Community, Integrity, and Opportunity in Salt Lake City sought to identify problems of the Spanish-speaking minority. This group worked on behalf of the community to improve equality and access to…
Martha Hughes Cannon
The story of an ambitious and successful young woman who lived in polygamy.In the late nineteenth century, Mormons in Utah practiced polygamy, an institution seen as barbaric by the rest of the country. One polygamous wife found plural marriage both…
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…
German and Italian Prisoners of War in Utah
Many people know about the Japanese internment camp Topaz, but Utah also held Italian and German prisoners of war during World War II.As World War II raged throughout Europe and Japan, captured enemy soldiers were sent to the United States and Utah…
Forts Cameron and Thornburgh
Two early US Army installations in Utah were built to protect white settlers from the perceived threat of Indian attacks.In 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant formally authorized the creation of a permanent US Army garrison near Beaver named Fort…
Utah Folk Music
Utah’s rich tradition of traditional music ranges from ancient and modern Native American songs and dances to a variety of European and American musical traditions.While it is not well known, Utah has a rich heritage of traditional music, both…
Dry Farming
Adequate water for crops proved to be a challenge for settlers throughout Utah. Those in Box Elder County established a strong dry-farming practice, due to inadequate water supply.When the Mormon settlers arrived in Utah, they immediately planted…