Ideal Beach at Bear Lake - 110 years of "Rich" (County) History

 

                                       Looking west along the Ideal Beach shoreline.

ALMOST 57 years before Sweetwater development company came to Bear Lake Valley, Ideal Beach at Bear Lake began and prospered. As it turns out, Ideal Beach has about 110 years of "rich" (in Rich County) history. Who knew that the resort is so long-standing!

“The Ideal Beach at Garden City attracts visitors from all points of the compass,” The Logan Journal newspaper of June 29, 1915 declared, in what is the first media reference to the resort.

Getting to the resort – and even Bear Lake—in 1915 was no easy task. In fact, Boy Scouts in the summer of 1915 took a train from Ogden to Logan and then hiked more than 40 miles over the mountains, so they could camp at Ideal Beach, one of the biggest recreational developments on the lake at the time. (Ogden Standard-Examiner, August 10, 1915.)

“Ideal Beach on Bear Lake destined to become leading resort,” a headline in the Logan Republican newspaper of August 19, 1915, boasted. The resort had 21 tents and featured dancing each evening. The resort then, an always, was pretty much in the same location, the southwest corner of Bear Lake.  That’s where there was a sandy beach and wind and weather was as good as it gets along the lakeshore. However, again, getting to Bear Lake was a trial in 1915, as it required 3 ½ hours of auto travel, just from Logan.

“Ideal Beach is the place for summer outings,” the Logan Republican stated on June 26, 1917. The resort back then had 42 cottages and tents, a café, 21 rowboats, two canoes and several motor boats. It even had a shooting galley, tennis court and an ice cream parlor. The Ole Reeves Jazz Orchestra provided the music for evening dancing and entertainment.

In 1925, the Bluebird Orchestra from Logan, was the music provider. That year, the resort offered free use of their campgrounds.

By 1951, Ideal Beach even had roller skating in the summer and ice skating in the winter. Rates were $15 a week for a cabin rental then.

Big changes began at Ideal Beach in 1972, when Sweetwater development purchased the resort. This was the beginning of the timeshare era and the 2-by-4 cabins were razed and the circular skating rink was remodeled into condominiums (and even now still has a circular shape). By 1977, Sweetwater offered four weeks of use for a timeshare with a price tag of $50,000.

By 1982, Sweetwater/Ideal Beach had 4,700 timeshare owners and 106 condos, 90 of which were public.

Five years later, in 1987, the timeshare owners, who had not been satisfied with the management of Ideal Beach, brokered a deal and began ORE company to management their timeshares at not just Bear Lake, but other recreational properties in the Intermountain West., that totaled some 13,000 owners.

                                                  A huge open space of green lawn.

                   The condos as they appear looking south from the beach.

Today it is Bear Lake Timeshare that is one company that offers investments at Ideal Beach, while IdealBeachResort.com manages rentals and also the sale of individual condos. The resort itself is governed by a homeowner association and a board of directors.

 With a huge lawn space, great for all kinds of games, the resort is very family friendly and has a large playground too. It offers mini golf, has two swimming pools and tennis courts. The resort has a general store too, complete with ice cream and some clothing. Seasonally, jet skis and other aquatic rentals are available at the beach, maybe 150 yards from most condo units.

 The Ideal Beach Resort is located at 2176 S. Bear Lake Boulevard, in Garden City, Utah. Rentals ae available year-round.

  The resort’s email is: info@idealbeachresort.net and the telephone number is (435) 946-3364.

  NOTE: The author has been vacationing at Ideal Beach most summers for the past 20 years, as a guest renter. He has no other connection or financial ties to Ideal Beach.

 

 

 

                           The extreme northeast condo unit.

 

 

 

 

Clearing up Utah Pioneer History: "Old Emigrant Road" vs. "Pioneer Trail" in Hooper, Weber County

 

                                  Emigrant Road monument sign on 3700 S. Bluff Street, Syracuse.

UTAH HISTORY can be confusing, especially when there are many different names for the same things – and when historic names are modernized – then contemporary  history searchers are bewildered as to what is being referenced.

As an example, take the so-called “Pioneer Trail,” in Hooper, Weber County.

In essence, this “Pioneer” trail is more properly named in most history books by one of these 4 titles: The Old Emigrant Trail, Bluff Road, Old Traveled Road, or the Salt Lake Cutoff.

It was only in the lone history of Hooper book, “History of Hooper, Utah Land of Beautiful Sunsets,” by John M. Belnap (published in 1976 and available free in an on-line version on Family Search, by using an LDS Church log-in) as the so-called “Pioneer Road.”

That pioneer title has apparently caught on in Hooper City, itself over the decades, and although Belnap’s book is certainly unique and very accurate otherwise, the “Pioneer Trail” title is not. It may sound simpler, more fitting and conform well to the general “Mormon Pioneer” term, it has obviously led to much confusion and bewilderment.

(Obviously, LDS Church leaders in Hooper ran with the confusing title and hence the “Pioneer Trail Stake” name in Hooper  for one of its stake's titles – and LDS Church headquarters also must have approved the name, probably since the path was indeed a “Pioneer” trail. There is also a Pioneer Trail Ward in Hooper as well.)

By accessing Belnap’s Hooper history, he accurately states in page 18 of his book, that the trail (with some of my extra historical information added) started in Salt Lake City. It headed northward, through Bountiful, Woods Cross and Centerville, likely following near today’s I-15 corridor. When Farmington was reached, the trail veered northwest into Kaysville and Layton – then going straight west on what is today’s “Gentile Street."

There is even evidence of a way station at the far west end of Gentile Street, in today’s Syracuse City. (That also likely ties into how the "Gentile" name became attached to the road, since mostly non-LDS Church members used it early on.) The trail went west, because that avoided hills and very sandy areas around Roy and Hill AFB, plus there were more water sources and grasses for animals to eat.

 

                  The Syracuse Emigrant Road marker/monument.

There is a large historical marker, by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, in northwest Syracuse, commemorating the “Old Emigrant”/”Pioneer Trail,” next to an LDS Chapel on Bluff Road, at 3700 South. From Syracuse on, the trail followed what is known today as the Bluff,” in northwest Davis County. 

It passed by today’s Jensen Nature Park, the Syracuse Arts Academy and Schneiter’s Bluff Golf Course, to name a few modern waypoints. (In fact, there is a 6-mile, paved trail, named the Old Emigration Trail, that goes below the Bluff in Syracuse and West Point.

When the trail reached today’s Hooper, it was often just east of main Hooper Canal, or the eastern side of Hooper. There is firm evidence that “Muskrat Springs,” the actual water source, was also a resting spot along the trail too,

The trail then continued into West Weber and Plain City, before veering northeast and reaching the old Utah Hot Springs, at the border of Box Eler County. At the City Rocks in southern Idaho, some 125 miles distant, the trail met the California Trail. The trail was more than 200 miles long, because unlike today’s I-84 route, it avoided the steep mountains northeast of Tremonton and veered more toward today’s Grouse Creek area and specifically went by the future town of Yost.

This trail was used by thousands of travelers from the late 1840s, until 1869, for about two decades, when the transcontinental railroad made it mostly obsolete. Better roads also being built over the decades also called for most of the trail to be abandoned, except in urban areas.

(In defense of the “Pioneer Trail” LDS Stake name, it does sound better than being called say, the “Emigrant Trail Stake,” which would also be confusing as it would appear  to relate to Emigration Canyon in the Salt Lake area, rather than in Weber County … but the “Pioneer Trail Stake” name does come with its own confusing historical accent – though perhaps there was no better title than “Pioneer Trail Stake” in this specific case.)

References:

“History of Hooper, Utah Land of Beautiful Sunsets,” self-published by John M. Belnap, 1976, p.18.

Daughters of Utah Pioneers historical marker, at 3700 South Bluff Road, in Syracuse.

“Images of America Layton Utah,” by Lynn Arave, Arcadia Publishing, 2020.

https://walkrideusa.com/states/utah/individual-trails/old-emigration-trail-utah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sixteen Vintage Photographs of Lagoon Park

 What follows are 16 vintage/old photographs of Lagoon Amusement Park, Farmington, Utah.

All pictures are from the Deseret News Archives and most are from the 1960s, or earlier....

This picture shows Lagoon's 3 main buildings, probably from the late 1880s, when it was located by the Great Salt Lake, 3 1/2 miles west of where it is today....

This photo shows visitors to Lagoon in the summer of 1898... Only a few years after the park moved eastward.

The Deseret News story in November of 1953, after the fire that caused significant damage to Lagoon and its owners' pledge to rebuild.

The east end of the roller coaster was destroyed by the fire in November of 1953.

This is the Lagoon "Showboat," that cruised the park's lake in 1959.

This is Lagoon's Patio Gardens, in 1959, where many famous bands performed over the decades.

The Wishing Well at Lagoon was a centerpiece of Mother Gooseland at Lagoon in the late 1950s and into the 1960s.

These slides were probably the most popular fixture inside the last Fun House at Lagoon. Riders slid down on a gunny sack...

This rotating tunnel was worth a crawl inside the Fun House, at Lagoon Park of old.

This high speed, spinning wheel was also inside Lagoon's Fun House. Unlike its nearly flat counterpart wheel, where riders got kicked off and the last person left on won, this wheel just pinned riders to the side of the bowl-like wheel by centrifugal force.

Lagoon's former "Million Gallon Pool, with water fit to drink," was the predecessor to today's Lagoon-A-Beach. Note the tall metal slippery slide, that the pool also featured.

Lagoon's old swimming pool boasted a variety of diving boards in its deep end.

This "Flying Swings" ride lasted just a single season in 1964, before it was replaced.

These "Paddle Boats" at Lagoon were foot and pedal powered only. They were gone by the early 1980s.

The Space Scrambler ride is shown running in the mid-1960s.

An actor/stuntman falls in a wild west show at Lagoon's Pioneer Village, during the summer of 1976, its inaugural season.

The 'Fruit Heights Dinosaur' appears on the mountainside

 

Look at the dinosaur-like shape, south of the Francis Peak Radar domes, Picture taken from Layton's Main Street at 1000 North.                                                         Photo by LeAnn Arave.

  A new animal-like shape in the snow appeared on the Wasatch Mountains, above Layton on June 30, 2023.

 Located south of the famous “snow horse,” this snow shape is south of and just below the Francis Peak radar domes and resembles a dinosaur with a long tail in this view. In other views, it looks more like a horse and some on social media say it looks like a dog, dragon, or even a kangaroo.

 Perhaps the shape could be titled the Fruit Heights Dinosaur, since that's the closest town to it?

  The author has never seen this shape appear in at least the last 32 years, so it may relate to all the extra snow the Wasatch Front received in the winter of 2022-2023. If so, the shape may not reappear for decades. It may also mean that subtle changes in the Wasatch Mountains occur more often than commonly believed.

  On July 1, 2023, the actual snow horse shape hit a  rare milestone, with half of it still being visible. In pioneer legends, that meant water would flow from all the Wasatch Mountains creeks all summer long, if any part of the snow horse was still visible on July 1.

 
                                                 Another view of the new animal shape.

Newspapers.com equals the only real time travel

Newspapers, like the Deseret News, have a wealth of information in their archives.

 HAVE you ever dreamed of traveling through time?

 OLD newspapers are the only known way to do this.

Newspapers.com offers an almost endless archive of old newspapers from across the country -- and even some foreign entries.

Just search by name or keyword and it is amazing what can be found about parents, relatives and others.

Until the late 1970s, EVERY speeding ticket and fender bender were usually printed in local newspapers. Also, coverage of weddings used to be very detailed with the names of the entire wedding party. 

Some former classmates or friends, who one has lost track of, might be able to be located through old newspapers. At the least, it is almost always possible to find out what they did before the year 2000 or so. (Not everyone is on Facebook.)

You don't have to rely on library shelves for historical information these days, just the Web.

If a person is in their 50s or more, they will especially be excited about what can be found about relatives and friends. Even some of their own accomplishments, that they didn't know were even in a newspaper back in the day, might be discovered.

But be warned! These searches can create some family mysteries that may not be fully solved, because key people involved might have passed on. So, don't wait too long to do newspapers searches.

The author personally found that an uncle had survived a head-on collision with a gasoline tanker; that his great-grandfather constructed the first bridge in Morgan, Utah -- and much more. 

Newspapers.com also offers a free, seven day trial.

                            One of the original Deseret News presses, from the 19th Century.,

When Davis County's Bluff Road was gated

 

BLUFF Road is a prominent north-south corridor road in west Davis County today.

The highway traverses through Syracuse on the south and proceeds into West Point and Clinton.

However, in 1926-1927, during the decade when automobiles began to become popular, the road was gated shut.

According to the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Bountiful on March 11, 1926, Thomas Sessions from Syracuse appeared before the Davis County Commission to complain that despite being "a public road -- the old Bluff road -- was closed by a gate having been built across the road."

The Commission referred to the matter to the Davis County Attorney, with instructions to have the road opened to the public.

The next time this issue came up in any newspaper, it was some 19 months later, in the Dec. 22, 1927 Weekly Reflex. This article stated that Lawrence Corbridge constructed the gate across Bluff Road.

O.W. Willey of Syracuse objected to the road being closed, it blocking access to some of his property. The County Commissioners ordered the road to be county property and that the gate can be opened at any time.

The Bluff Road was one of the key pioneer trails in Davis County in the 19th Century.

                 The monument to Bluff Road's pioneer legacy.

The mystery of Utah’s ‘Mountain of Christ’: Monte Cristo

                         Monte Cristo Peak, center, 9,148 feet above sea level.

MANY decades before a viable seasonal highway (U-39) traversed its heights, the Monte Cristo Mountains, about 40 miles northwest of Ogden, generated mystery and fascination.

Hundreds of miners had passed below, to the northwest when the La Plata mines were in their 1890s heyday, but even the height of Monte Cristo was unknown in the early 20^th Century.

“A grand trip to ‘Old Monte,’ Near but unknown solitude and grandeur in the Monte Christo (sic) Mountains” was an August 26, 1908 headline in the Logan Republican newspaper.

“It is distinctly a region of scenery and scenery on a scale of grandeur obtainable in very few places,” the story stated, dubbing it Utah’s “Garden of the Gods.”

“You may drive all day and meet no one, see no signs of habitation, unless it be a lone sheep herder’s tent,” the story stated, saying sheep men call the area “Old Monte” and that its greatest charm is solitude and being cut off from the world of humanity.

The Ogden Standard-Examiner of Aug. 11, 1910 also reported on the mystery of Monte Cristo. It stated that a party of Ogdenites were going to travel there to ascertain the height of the tallest peak there, Monte Cristo. Rumors had for several decades since the La Plata mining boon below, believed the summit to be between 11,000 and 13,000 feet above sea level.

                           The Monte Cristo Mountains as seen from Snowbasin.

The Monte Cristo mountains are where four Utah counties – Weber, Rich, Cache and Morgan all intersect and where the nearest towns are Huntsville or Woodruff, both about 22 bird-flying miles in any straight direction.

The Salt Lake Tribune of Aug. 18, 1910 reported on the group’s findings: “The height of the mountain which many in the party had been led to believe was inaccessible and one of the highest in the state, was found to be 8,950 feet above sea level.”

(Modern measurements have upped that elevation to 9,148 feet above sea level.)

                                   Monte Cristo and Utah Highway 39 in late May.

-Who gave the mountains and tallest peak their religious name, Monte Cristo, is also a mystery for the ages. According to the book, “Utah Place Names,” by John W. Van Cott, there are three different claims for the name’s origin:

1. Miners returning from California though the range resembled the Monte Cristo Mountains of California; 2. The name could have been given by early French-Canadian trappers; and 3. One of the early road builders in the area carried a copy of the book, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which he read to his co-workers at night around the campfire.

However, since the 1908 Logan Republican story spotlighted to remoteness of the area – and no road was mentioned, but the name Monte was there – that leaves only credence for the first two origins.

(Note: “Monte Cristo” also means “Mountain of Christ” in Spanish.)

MORE HISTORY ITEMS:

-The Salt Lake Herald of July 11, 1909 outlined the report of one of the first known automobile trip to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This Woolley Automobiling Party went from Salt Lake City to Kanab/Fredonia and required 39 hours and 20 minutes of driving the 430 total miles before looking down at Bright Angel Creek from the Rim.

-The Ogden Bay Waterfowl Management Area was the first federally funded waterfowl management area in the United States, according to the Davis County Clipper of Nov. 26, 1976.

This area is located west of Hooper and is located on the delta of the Weber River, near where it dumps into the Great Salt Lake. Development there began in 1937 and includes 16,700 acres. The Hoard Slough portion to the south was developed 21 years later in 1958.