Browse Items (455 total)
Sort by:
Wendover and the Atomic Bomb
In 1945, the world's first nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, by the crew of the bomber Enola Gay. Most of us have been taught about the destruction that occurred from the atomic blast, but did you know that the tiny Utah town of Wendover…
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…
What's for Dinner? Salt Lake Valley's Prison Site
A Salt Lake Valley archaeology site holds clues to that age old question- ‘what’s for dinner?’ The surprising answer may change the way we understand Utah’s ancient past.For most of us living along the Wasatch Front today, making dinner for…
What's so Special about Utah's Danger Cave?
A seemingly non-descript cave in Utah’s west desert holds the key to understanding Utah’s ancient past.To the untrained eye, Danger Cave near Wendover, Utah, is utterly unremarkable. But ask any archaeologist about this dusty desert cave and…
Wildhorse Canyon Obsidian Quarry
A pre-historic obsidian quarry in western Utah was used for thousands of years to manufacture razor sharp tools and weapons.Overlooking the west desert in Beaver County’s Mineral Mountains is Wildhorse Canyon, a remote, dry, scrappy place that…
William Rishel’s Bike Ride
The 100-mile summer bike ride of William Rishel and Charlie Emise across the Great Salt Lake Desert almost ended in disaster.
In 1896, to promote his growing chain of national newspapers, publisher William Randolph Hearst cooked up a wildly…
Winter Quarters Mine Explosion
A disaster in the Winter Quarters mine left hundreds of miners dead and others severely injured. It remains the fourth deadliest mining disaster in U.S. history.According to the stopped watch on a dead Finnish miner, 10:28 A.M. on May 1, 1900 marked…
Women Hold the Line in Carbon County
When Carbon County coal miners from the National Miners Union went on strike in 1933, their wives, sisters, and daughters were right there beside them. These women proved to be formidable adversaries in the fight for workers’ rights.
Women have…
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…
Women's Suffrage & Consititutional Convention
Utah women won the right to vote not once, but twice. Women's Suffrage – that is, the right of women to vote – was won twice in Utah. In 1871, national suffrage leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony visited the Utah Territory to…
Women’s Home Missionary Society
Female Methodist missionaries in Utah forged relationships with women across religious lines, protecting and advocating for women in need throughout the state.Between 1880 and 1890, the number one recipient of resources from the Women’s Home…
Working for the Best Snow on Earth
Utahns have looked to the mountains for minerals, lumber, water, and even grazing lands. But how were our mountains re-imagined into the skiing playgrounds we know today?Alpine skiers claim that Utah has the best snow on Earth. But before people…
Working on the Railroad: Utah's Chinese Pioneers
Chinese immigrant laborers built the railroad from California to Utah. On May 10, 1869 the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads joined at Utah’s Promontory Point, completing the first transcontinental railroad system in the United…
YESCO Lights up the Streets
Main streets throughout postwar Utah depended on conspicuous signage to entice passersby to stop and shop. Learn how one Utah company used eye-catching neon to meet that demand.Walk down any main street in Utah and you might notice relics of a recent…
Zane's Antipolygamy Crusade
A key figure in the struggle over polygamy was US Supreme Court Justice Charles Zane. His tenure on the bench saw hundreds of people convicted of illegal cohabitation or polygamy, leading some to call his work an “antipolygamy crusade”.The…