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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…
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…
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…
Land and Murder in Beaver County
Land distribution turned deadly for one man in Beaver County. Newcomer John Howard was shot and killed as a result of mounting tensions over claims to land.Utah has at times been a violent place, especially when distribution of lands has been at…
Reva Beck Bosone
Reva Beck Bosone’s political ambitions began as a lawyer in Carbon County and eventually led her to become Utah’s first congresswoman.In 1948, Reva Beck Bosone became the first woman elected to Congress from Utah. Born in American Fork to…
The Ku Klux Klan
The presence of the Ku Klux Klan was not just limited to the southern United States. In fact, the KKK had grown enough to march through the streets of Salt Lake City in the early 1920s.In 1922, a small crowd of hooded and caped Ku Klux Klansmen…
Socialism's Legacy of Reform
Utah is considered a firmly conservative state. However, in the early 1900s, the Utah Socialist Party became a political force to be reckoned with.Now that the elections of November are over, let’s take a moment to look back at a time when Utahns…
Prohibition in Utah
Utah’s history of anti-liquor laws began before Prohibition in the United States.Years before the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified in 1919, prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation of "intoxicating liquors"…
Utah Votes for Bryan
Voters from Utah went crazy for Democratic presidential hopeful William Jennings Bryan in the election 1896.When it comes to politics, these days national news outlets list Utah as among the reddest of the Red States. But it wasn't always so.…
Kingsbury's Purges
A series of rash faculty firings at the University of Utah in 1915 exposes the concern over the influence of “radicals” in the United States at the outbreak of World War I.The year was 1915, and a handful of popular professors were about to lose…
The 1872 Constitutional Convention
A bizarre political moment in Utah's long trek towards statehood exposes the tension between politics and religion in the Deseret. In 1872, delegates met at the Salt Lake City Hall to create a new state called Deseret out of the old Utah Territory.…
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…
The First State Arts Agency in the Country
Utah was the first state in the nation to establish state arts support!
In 1965, Congress established the National Endowment for the Arts to support arts organizations and artists throughout the nation. Part of its mandate was to give funds to any…
Remembering Calvin Rampton
A reflection on the life and long political career of Calvin Rampton, Utah's longest serving governor. Rampton was born in Bountiful, attended Davis High School, and then graduated from the University of Utah with bachelors and law degrees. Soon he…