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Fort Buenaventura: Utah’s First Anglo Settlement
A trading post built by mountain man Miles Goodyear gave Ogden the distinction of being the first Anglo settlement in Utah.Born in Connecticut in 1817, Miles Goodyear headed west at the age of nineteen to seek his fortune. Goodyear traveled widely…
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…
Founding of the Utah History Fair
The Utah History Fair is an academic program that has been getting Utah kids excited about history for thirty years.Across the state of Utah, over 10,000 students per year start projects for the Utah History Fair, a program that gets fourth through…
Frank Chester Robertson: Dreamweaver
Meet Frank Chester Robertson, the famous Utah author who made his living writing popular Westerns that belied his own life of desperation on the Mormon frontier.Frank Robertson wasn’t exactly the kind of writer groomed in literary circles. Born…
Freak Smoking Ban Overturned
A massive public protest against a state smoking ban forced the Utah Legislature to overturn the law in 1923.Debates about the sale of cigarettes and smoking in public venues are hardly new to the Beehive State. In 1923, a determined crowd of Utah…
From Cabinetmaker to Undertaker: Niels Lindquist
A Swedish immigrant went from furniture maker to undertaker in the Logan area during the 1800s.Neils Lindquist was an accomplished cabinetmaker who converted to Mormonism and emigrated from Sweden to Salt Lake City in 1863. He built furniture in Salt…
From Obstacle to Opportunity: Running the Mighty Green River
Historic obstacles to travel on Utah’s Green River are now considered opportunities for adventure. Fast waters, deadly rapids, high cliff walls, and an unknown course have long been obstacles that limited human activity on Utah’s Green…
From the Earth into Bellies: Timpanogos Utes
We no longer work as close to the land as Utah’s indigenous people once did. But that doesn’t mean we don’t work for the same reasons. Learn how Timpanogos Utes made a living and how we might relate.We sometimes forget how much work was – and…
Fuller’s Hill: Salt Lake’s Premiere Urban Playground
Maybe you’ve heard of the Great Saltair Pleasure Resort as a prime example of Utah’s early pleasure resorts. But have you ever heard of Fuller’s Hill? At about 1100 East and 400 South in Salt Lake City, this little-known park had a covered…
Gaslighting about Gas Emissions and Acid Rain
Acid rain used to be a big problem in Salt Lake Valley. As local farmers sought to curb its impact, they found themselves getting “gaslit” about gas emissions from nearby smelters, both in court and in their own fields.
Water normally means life…
General Booth Comes to Utah
William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army, was received warmly by a large crowd in Salt Lake City on his visit to Utah.In 1894, William Booth arrived in Salt Lake City by train. Booth, an Englishman who was born into a poverty-stricken family…
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…
Ghost Towns: An In-Person History Fix
Did you know that Utah is haunted? Our state has an estimated one hundred ghost towns. While reasons for their abandonment vary, ghost towns throughout rural Utah have one thing in common: our desire to idealize a lost past and try to connect to it…
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…
Ghost Towns: Dewey
There are only three roads in Utah that bridge the Colorado River, and only a handful of crossings. The ghost town of Dewey is one of those places and early settlers of the region made good use of this crossing.
Getting across the Colorado River is…
Ghost Towns: Sego, a Coal Town with a Colorful Past
Down a bumpy canyon road in the Book Cliffs of southeastern Utah, curious travelers can find the ghost town of Sego. Named for Utah’s state flower, it’s a dusty coal town with a colorful past.
The canyon where the ghost town of Sego sits has been…
Gilgal Garden: One Man’s Beliefs in Stone
A towering arch made of boulders. Biblical quotes carved into stone pavers. A bird’s house with dozens of entrances. This is not a surreal dream land, but Gilgal Garden, a sculpture park in downtown Salt Lake City. Learn the history of this special…
Goshute Draft Resistance
Goshute Indians in Utah were vocal resisters of the draft during World War I. In 1917, a little less than a month after the United States entered the maelstrom of World War One, a bill passed Congress requiring all male residents of the country…
Grace Oshita
The experiences of a young girl who lived in Utah’s Topaz Internment Camp.Shortly after the United States declared war on Japan following the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, Grace Oshita’s father was picked up by the FBI and detained as a suspected…
Grove Karl Gilbert and Utah’s Terminal Lakes
Here in arid Utah, our terminal lakes are so sensitive that even small-scale nineteenth-century agriculture produced measurable changes. Find out how early geologist Grove Karl Gilbert calculated this delicate balance.
Although short on rainfall,…