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Stout and Spirited: Utah's 19th Century Liquor Industry
The surprisingly stout and spirited history of the liquor industry in 19th century Utah!During the late 1800s, Utah had a thriving liquor industry. LDS Church President Brigham Young had no qualms about producing or selling alcohol. He built a…
SLC Bicycle Revolution
Are you a bicycle commuter? Do you appreciate riding smooth roads on the way to work? Learn how cyclists fought to get Salt Lake City roads paved back in 1901.Salt Lake City is recognized nationally as a Bicycle Friendly Community, with more than 80…
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…
Steen’s Folly: Utah’s Frenzied Uranium Boom
A frenzied uranium boom swept up southern Utah in the 1950s. The boom had a long term impact on the health of countless miners.On July 6, 1952, a down-on-his-luck uranium prospector named Charlie Steen made a major strike near Moab, Utah. His…
Salt Lake City’s Red Light District
Salt Lake City’s Red Light District was the target of an unusual cleanup campaign in 1908.Prostitution is known as "the world’s oldest profession," and was established in Utah by the 1850s. While laws made prostitution illegal, Salt Lake City…
Citizen Activists Derail MX Missile System
A grassroots movement of Utah citizens helped derail government plans to base the MX Missile System in Utah’s Great Basin.When the United States Air Force announced its plans in 1979 to build its new MX Intercontinental Ballistic Missile System in…
Christmas Gift Giving in Pioneer Cedar City
Imagine you live in 19th century rural Utah. Christmas is coming and your children look forward to a celebration with Santa and gifts. There are no stores, no mail orders. How would you meet their expectations?“It [was] a two-room log house with a…
Solstice Sun Tunnels
Sun Tunnels, an art installation by Nancy Holt, has become a unique part of Utah’s heritage.On June 21, 1976, the day of the summer solstice, New York artist Nancy Holt gathered several friends under the massive skies of Utah’s west desert to…
Hoop Mania Sweeps Utah
Utah women were captivated by “hoop mania” back in the 1860s. The fashionable hoop-skirt swept through Mormon society.The headline on the September 7, 1859 issue of Salt Lake’s Valley Tan newspaper read “Progress of the Hoop Mania.” The…
Utah's First Masonic Lodge
Utah’s first Masonic Lodge was established by American soldiers with a lot of time on their hands.You may be familiar with the imposing Egyptian-style Masonic Temple in downtown Salt Lake City, but did you know that this wasn’t the first Masonic…
Early Education in Utah
In Utah, one-room schoolhouses evolved into the publicly supported education system we have today. Utahns struggled to find an adequate solution to the question of education, and was the last territory in the nation to provide a free public school…
The United Order of Orderville
The United Order of Orderville, a Utopian living experiment, thrived for a decade in southern Utah.When people hear the term “communal living,” what often comes to mind is a group of hippies, not a group of 19th Century Mormons. However, the…
A Question of Loyalty: Utah & the American Civil War
Despite Utah’s lack of direct involvement in the Civil War, they played a key role in the interests of leaders in Washington over the struggle for control of the western territories.One of the saddest episodes in American history was the Civil War,…
Henry Adams Visits Utah
Henry Adams, one of the leading historians of his day, visited Utah on a geographic expedition with his childhood friend Samuel Emmons in the late 1900s.In 1871 as Samuel Emmons, Arnold Hague, James Hague, and others conducted the United States…
The Electrification of Daggett County
Daggett County, home to the hydro-electric juggernaut Flaming Gorge Dam, did not receive electricity until well into the 20th century.Though it is now home to the hydro-electric juggernaut, the Flaming Gorge Dam, Daggett County, in the northeastern…
Clarence King Expedition
The US Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel began its examination of the American West under the leadership of Clarence King. The survey team explored northern Utah, and provided an in-depth analysis of Utah’s geography and environment.In…
Artesian Park
Ogden Valley’s Artesian Park contained wells that provided fresh water to the growing population of the city.As the city of Ogden grew into a transportation and finance center in the early 1900s, new sources of fresh water were needed to sustain…
Masashi Goto
The wreckage of a plane and the body of its young pilot was found in the Uinta Mountains in 1929.On July 8, 1929 Nymphus Simmons, a sheepherder, found wreckage of a plane and the body of a young man in Dry Canyon near Soapstone Basin in the Uinta…
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…
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…