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The Story of the English Sparrow
A bird once considered to be helpful pest control, the invasive English Sparrow made it on a legislative “hit list” in the 1800s.Most Utahns have heard the tale of how in 1848 a flock of California gulls swooped down and gorged themselves on a…
The Spark That Ignited the Black Hawk War
Conflict and rising tensions between a group of Ute Indians and Mormons in Manti, Utah led to an incident that sparked Utah’s Black Hawk War. In 1865, on the same day Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee were negotiating an end to the American Civil…
The Shoshone Colony of Washakie
The founding and eventual demise of the Shoshoni settlement known as Washakie.In 1880, a handful of Shoshoni families and a few Mormon missionaries settled on a plot of land near the Utah-Idaho border and called the settlement Washakie in honor of an…
The Serracino Expedition
Persistent tales about a lost Spanish colony piqued the interest of Jose Rafael Serracino. Like many explorers before him, he was inspired to put together a search party and leave Santa Fe to explore the West. In 1811, more than three decades after…
The Scofield Relief Fund
A story of the fundraising efforts to help the victims of one of the deadliest mining disasters in American history, the 1900 explosion at Utah’s Winter Quarters Mine.The Winter Quarters Mine Disaster of May 1, 1900 brought international attention…
The Savage Poem Around Me: Alfred Lambourne and Great Salt Lake
Maybe you’ve seen his paintings in Utah’s museums, or read his famous book called Our Inland Sea. Learn about 19th century artist Alfred Lambourne, who was Great Salt Lake’s biggest fan.
Perhaps no one loved Utah’s Great Salt Lake as much as…
The Salt Palace and the End of Salt Lake’s Japan Town
A small area of downtown Salt Lake City used to be “Japan Town”, an area that served as the focus of the city’s Japanese American community. The area was demolished in the 1960s in order to make room for the Salt Palace.These days, if you turn…
The Salt Lake Deserets
Baseball in the nineteenth century was more than just Salt Lake City’s “favorite pastime.” The game became an outlet for the tensions between Mormons and the growing number of residents who did not adhere to the dominant faith and…
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 Rockville Bridge
Learn how the 1924 construction of a little bridge in the middle of nowhere put southern Utah’s people to work and opened the region’s scenic wonders to the world.By 1924, fifteen years after Zion Canyon became a national monument – and later a…
The Rise/Fall/Rise of Fisher Brewing Company
An impressive mansion on Salt Lake City’s west side serves as a reminder of Utah's beer history and the prosperous titan who ran the largest brewery in the West.
Utah’s strict liquor laws are something of a hilarious nuisance for many visitors to…
The Rag Man
Rightly or wrongly, others often see our work as defining who we are, and prize some occupations over others. Meet George Goddard, who spent three years traveling Utah and collecting waste.Today, most Americans make recycling a regular part of their…
The Posey War
Tensions between white and Native American populations in San Juan County escalated over limited resources and mutual misunderstanding. The eventual armed conflict between the two groups has been called “The Last Indian Uprising”.In 1923,…
The Pony Express in Utah
The story of the Pony Express, a western mail route that traversed Utah, and its short but sensational history.One hundred fifty years ago, the Pony Express mail service operated between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. The Pony…
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 Origins of Rose Park
Rose Park began as an affordable, working class neighborhood. But the true costs for the subdivision would not be revealed until decades later.
In 1947, housing developer Alan Brockbank scoped out a plot of land not too far from the center of Salt…
The Old Spanish Trail
Utah’s position as a social and cultural crossroads of the west began well before European settlement. Native trading and war parties gave way to Spanish exploration throughout the territory along the Old Spanish Trail.Utah’s always been a…
The Ogdenites
Followers of Marie Ogden created a unique religious community just outside of Monticello.In 1933, the followers of Marie Ogden arrived in San Juan County's Dry Valley and began to create their version of God's kingdom. Ogden had dabbled in the occult…
The Murder of George Demetrakopolous
The murder of Greek labor agent, George Demetrakopolous, and the hunt for his killer in 1908.In the early 20th century, a contentious relationship existed in Utah’s mining camps between Greek immigrant laborers and the agents of Greek labor padrone…
The Mountain Man: a Romanticized Symbol
Rugged individualism is practically synonymous with the American West, and mountain men are the embodiment of that ideal. But the ideal tends to mask the real significance – and legacy – of mountain men in Utah.
In the early nineteenth century,…