Salt Lake Temple: Most Expensive LDS Temple Ever?

By Lynn Arave

THE next time you enjoy the gothic and symbolic features of the one and only Salt Lake LDS Temple, consider it’s dollar price to build -- $3,469,118.

That was the price given by Elder George Reynolds, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, back in 1895, to a Philadelphia newspaper, as quoted in the Deseret Weekly News of March 23, 1895.

Factor in the inflation and even in 1916 dollars (the furthest back an on-line government inflation calculator goes), that price equals at least $86,559,450 in 2017 dollars.

(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hasn’t revealed the actual costs of any temples for many decades now.)

However, in contrast the San Diego Temple, which opened in 1993, was reported by the Los Angeles Times to have cost an estimated $24 million. (That’s $40.6 million in 2017 dollars.)

                                                             San Diego Temple.

And, the original Ogden Temple, that opened in 1972, cost $4.29 million (or some $25 million in today’s dollars.)

Note that the Salt Lake Temple required some 40 years to build – far more than any other temple. Also, some volunteer, unpaid labor was used back then, or the price over four decades likely would have been much more, likely $100 millon plus.

Furthermore, Elder Reynolds in that 1895 article stated that exact costs of the temple were impossible. Still, he said about the Salt Lake Temple’s construction:

“In the early stages the progress was slow and very expensive, for it took four yoke of oxen four days to bring a single stone from the quarry twenty miles distant.”

He said some estimated it cost $100 for every stone cut, moved by oxen to the temple site and then laid in place. He also stressed that metal and other materials were very expensive to obtain, especially until the railroad came long.

                                                        Pencil drawing by Steve Arave

Levan, Utah: Sinkng the 'Navel myth'

By Lynn Arave

Is the Beehive State’s most common “belly button” joke true? Is Levan, Utah, in Juab County, actually named for being the word “navel” spelled backwards, since geographically a belly button would be about where this town is located, in the center of Utah?

As amusing and widespread as this strange name origin is, it is likely not true. However, myth can supersede fact over time and that is almost surely what has happened with Levan’s origin.

Consider the following:

-The likely first-ever public reference to the town of Levan was in the Deseret News on May 6, 1868:

“A new town site has been surveyed between           chicken and pigeon creeks on the east side of the valley some three and half miles northeast of the old Chicken Creek settlement. A field has also been surveyed and improvements have commenced. The new location is called Levan.”

Now one problem here is that you’ve got to adjust for history and different borders back then. In 1868, there was NO State of Utah -- that was 28 years distant.

It was the Territory of Utah, with the borders including a portion of western Colorado and a chunk of Wyoming. Thus, the Territory was wider in 1868 than today and not as conducive to adding a "navel" to it, at least where Levan is located.

Wyoming was made a state three months after the community of Levan began (taking away that "chunk" from Utah) and the State of Colorado came along in 1876. So, Utah's borders weren't like today until 1876, eight years after Levan came along.

(Nevada was made a State in 1864, but Utah territory kept a portion of today's Nevada until boundary changes in January of 1867.)

Even if Brigham Young named the community, it likely wasn’t for the navel reason.

And, furthermore, why in the world would Brigham start out a new town with a joke kind of name, given the rough living conditions of the territory back then?

The masterful book, “Utah Place Names,” John W. Van Cott states on the Levan monkier: “There are several French, Latin, or Piute interpretations of the name, suggesting it means East of the Sunrise, Land of the Sunrise, Rear rank of a moving Army, Frontier Settlement or Little Water. The tongue-in-cheekers say the name is a reverse spelling of Navel, because it is located in the center of the state. Several different spellings have been recorded.”

Any of those meanings probably make more sense than navel.

Yet, ultimately Navel is still becoming the origin of the name Levan, because of extreme popular reference over time.

Former Levan Mayor Connie Dubinsky was quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune on March 4, 1997 as saying,

''We don't really know for sure, but that's what we tell people.'’

So, this is really more a case of almost universal acceptance of a myth that becomes truth over time. Thus, technically Levan is not a 'belly button" town, but it is the "Navel" community by default.

AND, ever since one of the last new sections of I-15 opened in 1986 and meant most Utahns bypass Levan, the little town needs ALL the publicity it can get.

Levan is located about 11 miles south of Nephi along U-28. Before 1986, the majority of drivers went directly through Levan.

Also note too that U.S. Highway 89, between Logan and Brigham City, is not almost universally called "Sardine Canyon," even though the actual Sardine Canyon isn't traversed there. Again, popular usage became the rule.)

Secondly, note also that some local histories of Levan don’t even have the Chicken Creek reference correct, since they state that Chicken Creek was Levan’s original name. No, Chicken Creek was a former settlement, located 3.5 miles northeast of Levan.

-Another strange moniker was the town of Payson’s original title. It was originally named “Peteetneet.”

It was titled for the creek in the area and after a local Indian chief. Later, the branch of the LDS Church was named Peteetneet too. Then, the town was renamed after James Pace, a settler who led the emigrants there. At first it was spelled “Pacen” and later “Payson.”

-Here are some other odd Utah names, past and present:

Delicate Arch in Arches National Park was originally known by three other names: Schoolmarm's Bloomers, Cowboy Chaps and Mary's Bloomers.

Fairfield, west of Utah Lake in Utah County, was first known as Frogtown, for the plentiful amphibians in the nearby Sevier River.

"Ragtown" was the original name for Magna, which also, for some reason, surrendered its attractive second title, "Pleasant Green" too.

Baptist Draw, in Emery County, received its name when early settler Joe Swasey "baptized" his dog by tossing it into one of the draw's water pockets.

Bottle Hollow, Uintah County, was so named because it was a mile-long dump for empty liquor bottles of U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Duchesne in the 1880s.

China Lake in Summit County got its name either after a Chinese man and his mule drowned in it or because it was said you could sink down to China before reaching the bottom of the deep lake.

Deadman Ridge, Garfield County, got the title after Myron Shurts was killed by lightning there in 1912.

SOURCES: Deseret News Archives, “Utah Place Names,” by John W. Van Cott.

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Utah's own 'Noah's Ark'

                                                   Photographs by Ravell Call and Lynn Arave

By Lynn Arave

THE  search for Noah's ark has sparked many an ambitious expedition or documentary over the years. However, some 40 miles from Zion National Park is Utah's own Noah's Ark, as officially named on government maps.

Of course, this isn't the real ark, but it's intriguing nevertheless -- especially with its red color. 

It is located about five miles southeast of Parowan on the south side of First Left Hand Canyon at an elevation of 8,592 feet above sea level.

Approaching 1,000 feet in length, this red rock formation is about twice the estimated length of the biblical boat, which is commonly said to be at least 300 cubits (a cubit is commonly believed to be 18 inches long), or about 550 feet long and 45 feet high.

There's a signed trail starting in the Vermilion Picnic Area that leads to a closer view of Noah's Ark. However, the view from the road and picnic area is not bad.

Although signs say the trail is 1 mile long one-way, it is closer to 1.5 miles long. It climbs steeply in places, starting from an elevation of 6,927 feet above sea level and topping out at 8,037 feet — for a total climb of 1,110 feet.

There is some shade along this trail, but it is not one to do in the heat of a summer day.

The trail ends on a small plateau that also offers a view of the Little Salt Lake and the surrounding area.

There's also Grand Castle, a kingly sort of red rock formation to the north of Noah's Ark. To the west and near the canyon floor is Vermilion Castle.

The Dixie National Forest has no additional information available on the Noah's Ark Trail.

Bruce Matheson, a longtime resident of Parowan, said the formation is a landmark for all locals in the canyons. He doesn't know where the name came from. Its origin is not mentioned in the history books, and it is just assumed that some early settler starting calling it Noah's Ark and the name stuck.

"The Parowan area has some of the most gorgeous rock formations around," Matheson said. "The colors are very vivid."

He's heard of a few men over the years who have managed to get to the top of Noah's Ark, though it looks to be a steep and risky climb.

Mike Ward, who lives in Paragonah, says Noah's Ark and the surrounding area are spectacular.

"The whole area is a stunner," he reported in an e-mail to the Deseret Morning News.

He said Second Left Hand Canyon, to the south, is his favorite — especially since it has a mountain bike trail that connects with Brian Head.

• To reach the Noah's Ark Trail, go south on I-15 to Parowan (Exit 75) and go through town, turning left (east) off Main Street onto state Route 143. Turn left after about one mile and go east into First Left Hand Canyon, which heads to Yankee Meadows. (This is a paved, narrow road with 13 percent grades, if you continue past Vermilion.)

Watch the signs and turn into Vermilion Picnic Area and drive the dirt road loop, looking for the signed trailhead. There are restrooms in the picnic area.

• The Parowan Canyon area is also home to a slew of other oddly shaped features. For example, there's Free Thought Canyon; Valentine Peak (where the sun rises each Feb. 14 perfectly lined with its summit); Squaw Hollow; Hole in the Rock; Billy West Canyon; and Yankee Meadows.
-From  a Deseret News article on Nov. 8, 2007, by Lynn Arave.

                                Looking west from the Noah's Ark area

Kodachtrome Basin:: A wonderland of pale spires, cliffs and arches

                                                              Grosvenor Arch.                  Photo by Ravell Call


By Lynn Arave

MILLIONS of years ago, springs and spouting geysers welled upward in an area not unlike portions of today's Yellowstone National Park. Over time the source of these waters dried up; the sediment-filled spouts solidified, surrounded by a landscape of Entrada sandstone. More eons passed, and while the softer sandstone eroded away grain by grain, the plugs of these mineral faucets - made of harder stuff - proved more resilient.

Today, frozen in time, they're a geologic phenomenon and a centerpiece of Kodachrome Basin State Park, a sparsely visited wonderland of pale spires (those ancient cores), cliffs and arches - such as the spectacular Grosvenor - carved in the region's malleable sunset-colored sandstones.For many years the area, known as both Thorley's Pasture (for rancher Tom Thorley) and Thorny Pasture (for the cactus there), and for a time as Chimney Rocks, was a popular local attraction - especially after a better dirt road made access easier in the 1930s.

Kodachrome leaped to national notoriety when it was featured in the September 1949 issue of National Geographic magazine in an article by writer-photographer Jack Breed about south-central Utah proclaiming the "First Motor Sortie Into Escalanteland." The expedition into a basically unsettled area of the Colorado Plateau involved 15 adventurers, three Jeeps, two trucks and 35 horses. Because of the "astonishing variety of contrasting colors in the formations," they applied the name "Kodachrome Flat" to the area.

For some time there was talk that Kodak, which owned the term "Kodachrome" for its slide film, opposed such use of its product's name. Eventually, however, that proved not to be the case, and today Kodachrome Basin has Kodak's blessing. (In fact, official park brochures used to list Kodak as the "official film" of the state park.)

The state of Utah bought land for the preserve in 1962. But the first real improvements - a campground and ranger residence - weren't built until 1974. In 1988, modern restrooms and hot showers were added.
The park had only 1,000 visitors per year in its early days, but by 1992, visits had multiplied to 64,000.
The naming of neighboring Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in the mide-1990s raised interest in Kodachrome too.

The desert climate and slickrock also make the Kodachrome vicinity a great place to visit in late fall or early spring, when many other Utah state parks are too cold for a comfortable visit. 

The park can also have a wide temperature range in a single day because of its 5,800-foot elevation. 
There are at least 67 chimneylike "sand pipes" in the Kodachrome area. Such spires, found nowhere else in the world, are up to 52 meters high. The most significant are found in the Grand Parade area near the campground.

Chimney Rock, a giant thumb rising from the plateau, is one of the most popular scenic attractions. A dirt road leads to the formation about a mile from the campground on the park's east side. The short but bumpy ride can be quite a sight, as in late summer when sightseers pass through a gigantic field of blooming sunflowers.

                                  The approach to Grosvenor Arch.                               Photo by Ravell Call.

Grosvenor Arch, about 10 miles southeast of Kodachrome, is perhaps the area's most famous formation - and deservedly so.

A beautiful and impressive stone rainbow on the lip of a soft-orange mesa, Grosvenor (pronounced Grove-nor) was named by the National Geographic expedition in 1949 in honor of the society's president, Gilbert Grosvenor. The arch, with a 99-foot span, tops out at 152 feet above the ground.

Breed described the arch in his 1949 article:

"This striking natural bridge is carved of creamy rock, a rarity in a land of brilliant reds. Actually it is a double arch, with the larger span on the end of a buttress that cuts from the main sandstone butte."
A smaller arch within the state park bears Tom Shakespeare's name. The former manager of the park discovered it in the 1970s while looking for a coyote den. His name was selected over options like "Tom Thumb's Arch" as a result of a local contest. A side road on the way to Chimney Rock leads to the Shakespeare trailhead, where a sandy, 600-yard trail leads to the arch.

Hiking is a popular park pastime. Besides the Shakespeare Arch trail, visitors can explore the Panorama, Eagle View and Angels Palace trails. Panorama is the longest round trip at 3 miles.

A visit to Kodachrome can be a pleasant, half-day jaunt or a camping and hiking destination. The state park offers a modicum of solitude - a quality that's now just a memory in the region's other, more-crowded national and state parks.
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- TO REACH KODACHROME: Kodachrome Basin State Park is south of Cannonville, off U-12, one of Utah's "scenic byways." The park is about 290 miles from Salt Lake City. 

Calf Creek -- Predicted for national park status back in 1930

CALF CREEK, a wondrous southern Utah waterfall was "discovered" in about 1930 and Garfield County residents thought the landmark deserved National Park status.
Calf Creek is located between the Utah towns of Boulder and Escalante, off Highway 12. The popular lower falls features an approximate 130-foot water drop of the Escalante River, while the upper falls is about 90 feet high.
According to the book, "Utah Place Names," the box-like canyon of the lower falls, was used to almost naturally hold calves in place, presumably during the early 20th Century.
A Garfield County newspaper report from May 9, 1930 praised the completion of a new road through the area, where cars "can go up the grade in second gear." Still, the rest of the road in the area was reported as rough and dangerous.
Notwithstanding, the newspaper reported stated: "Then, about three-fourths of a mile above camping grounds is a most wondrous side canyon, called 'Calf Creek,' which is sufficient in grandeur that there is an application to have it designated as a national park. The marvelous waterfall is a 136 feet in height, sending its silvery sprays over most beautiful ferns. The formation of canyon and all compose a spectacle which is not an exaggeration when called a scenic paradise."
Of course, the national park status didn't easily come to pass. Calf Creek was designated as a National Recreation Area on Aug. 31, 1963.
A $2 user fee began in July of 1975, based on the popularity of the area.
Calf Creek was part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, created in 1996, and so it did finally gain national status.
Today, a 2.5-mile long trail along the river leads to the lower Calf Creek falls, while a slickrock slope takes more rustic hikers to the upper falls, still not readily marked along the roadside.

NOTE: Some maps erroneously list Calf Creek Recreation Area as California Creek Recreation area.

Utah Outdoor Myths

By Lynn Arave

UTAH is high elevation territory, with a vast amount of outdoor opportunities and open spaces. However, there are some things about the Beehive State's outdoors that a simply myths -- incorrect beliefs.
-Here are some of those myths:

1. The Crimson Trail in Logan Canyon is so named because of the spectacular fall colors there.
FALSE:

This family-friendly, moderate hike was originally called “The China Wall” in its earliest days, because of the long wall-like formation that lines both sides of Logan Canyon in the area.

Later, the Crimson name took over, often wrongly believed to be based on the vivid fall colors of foliage in the area — which, arguably, are indeed striking there each autumn.

However, there is a historical reason for the Crimson title.

From 1877 to 1926, there existed a “Brigham Young College” (and high school) in Logan, sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This trail in Logan Canyon was often considered the “Senior Walk” for graduating students and the school’s colors were crimson and gold. Hence the “Crimson” trail name.

When the college closed, Logan High was built on the site and it retained the same school colors. -- From the Ogden Standard-Examiner of Sept. 1, 2016, by Lynn Arave.

                       Looking across Logan Canyon, south to where the Crimson Trail is.

                       The Wellsville Mountains from near Sardine Summit.

2. The Wellsville Mountains are the steepest mountains in the world.
FALSE:


Some reports claim the Wellsville Range is the steepest mountains in the world. They certainly are among the steepest in Utah — especially near Sherwood Hills. However, geographically speaking, there is no standard for determining the steepness of mountains, and parts of the Brooks Range in Alaska would surely exceed the Wellsvilles. -- From the Deseret News, June 22, 2001.

-Also, the Wellsville Mountains are a sub section of the Wasatch Mountain range.

                                         The south side of Kings Peak.

3. Kings Peak is so named because it is the king, the tallest of Utah's mountains.
FALSE:
As the  original metal plaque atop Kings Peak (shown below) states, the mountain is named for Clarence King, who was the first director of the U.S. Geological Survey (1979-1881.)
Kings Peak is Utah's tallest mountain at 13,528 feet above sea level.

                       Plaque atop Kings Peak, from the 1990s. 

                Kings Peak, center, as a triangle shape, as seen from Henry's Fork Basin.


4. Kings Peak has always been known as the highest peak in Utah.
FALSE:

Kings Peak, High Uintas, hasn’t always been recognized as the highest point in Utah. An April 15, 1911 Ogden Standard-Examiner article stated that Emmons Peak in the Uintas, at 13,694 feet above sea level, was tallest. That was the general belief of that year.

(In reality, Emmons is today’s 4th tallest in the Utah at 13,440 feet.)

However, just two years later, the Vernal Express newspaper on Jan. 23, 1913 stated that South Kings Peak was the state’s tallest summit at 13,498 feet. North Kings was second at 13,496 feet.

The Roosevelt Standard newspaper reported on Aug. 20, 1924 that members of Salt Lake’s Wasatch Mountain Club had hiked Kings Peak. On top, they “salted the peak,” by placing a bottle of briny water from the Great Salt Lake on its lofty summit.

The water bottle also had the signatures of Utah Gov. Charles R. Mabey and others on it.

A Jan. 30, 1947 article in the Vernal Express newspaper stated that in the mid-1940s, two men climbed North Kings Peak and constructed a two-foot high monument on the highest part of the summit.

Then, one of the men proclaimed, "There, that makes them even."

Other newspapers of the era referred to the "twin Kings Peaks."

For 53 years, that was the accepted belief, that South Kings was tallest in the Beehive State. So, anyone hiking Utah’s tallest in that time period went to the southern peak, missing or passing by the actual tallest peak – (North) Kings Peak at 13,528 feet.

In June of 1961, a helicopter crash-landed on Kings Peak. The crewmen walked away unharmed, but this crash took place on today's South Kings Peak. (Good thing too, as South Kings has a lot more usable space on top. If they would have crashed on today's Kings Peak, the copter likely would have slid down hundreds of feet on one side or the other.)

It wasn’t until 1966 that new measurements by satellite proclaimed the north Kings as highest and re-measured South Kings Peak to be second-highest at 13,512 feet.

Ironically, the U.S. Forest Service had placed the first official plaque on Kings Peak one year earlier in 1965. Back then, it estimated that only 30 people a year hiked on average to the summit. -- From the Ogden Standard-Examiner, July 24, 2014, by Lynn Arave.

        Mount Nebo from the south end,                               Photo by Ray Boren

5. Mount Timpanogos is the tallest summit in the Wasatch Mountains.
FALSE:

Consult any accurate map, like Forest Service or USGS Maps and they will confirm that Mount Nebo is 11,928 feet above sea level, while Mount Timpanogos is only 11,750 feet.

-Additionally, the Wasatch Mountains extend much further than most realize. They stretch from Mount Nebo on the south to Soda Point, just north of Grace, Idaho, on the north end. Thus, even the mountains west of Bear Lake are Wasatch Mountains.

                 Ravell Call atop Mount Nebo South Peak.                    Photo by Ray Boren.

                   Soda Point, the northern most part of the Wasatch Mountains, in Idaho.

                             Utah's southeast border sign, near Four Corners.

5. Utah's state borders are perfectly straight lines, north to south.
FALSE:

Utah has been called a "pretty, great state." Surprisingly it's a "pretty crooked state," too. And we're not talking crime, but the state's deceptively tidy shape.

Minus the distinctive notch in its northeast corner, Utah is commonly thought of as a perfect rectangle. However, those fourth-grade Utah history students are drawing it all wrong with straight lines.In fact, if the borders had been drawn straight - as intended - some Idaho border towns, like Franklin, might straddle the state line. At least one other community, Strevell - now a ghost town - would definitely have been in Utah.

Also, the state would be somewhat larger, maybe several hundred acres bigger, because of land that ended up in Idaho, Colorado or Wyoming.

Utah's true borders contain at least seven crooked spots that are considered "pretty" crooked by mapmaking standards, though perhaps only "slightly" irregular by public perceptions.

These irregularities vary from as small as a quarter of a mile off the true mark to almost a mile in error.

Looking closely at the official Utah State Highway Map, two of the irregularities can be spotted. On the small statewide map on the cover of the Utah Atlas & Gazetteer, a third crooked spot can be seen.

With the Gazetteer's detailed topographical maps, three more crooked locations can be readily seen. The seventh error stands out most on the Bureau of Land Management's overall state map.

Three of the irregularities involve a meandering line, while three others look like notches and the seventh resembles a hump. (See story above.)

Were these six crooked spots meant to be there?

"They're survey errors that were made when the state boundaries were laid out," said Gary Nebeker, chief of operations for the Salt Lake office of the U.S. Geological Survey Center.

The Salt Lake office of the Bureau of Land Management is the caretaker of the original survey documents made on the Utah state line boundaries. It agrees on the cause for the crooked lines.

"It was primarily survey errors," said Daniel W. Webb, chief cadastral surveyor for the BLM in Salt Lake City.

He said surveyors in the late 1800s had crude instruments and pulled 66-foot-long chains for measurements.

A colleague of Webb, Dave Cook, is a cartographer with almost 40 years of map experience with the BLM and the National Weather Service.

After several hours of examining the original, 100-plus-year-old diaries of the different federal surveyors, he could find no apparent reasons for their mistakes.

Cook speculated that surveyors were paid by the mile, so they were in a hurry. If they made a mistake - even if they knew it - they weren't likely to go back and redo it.

Survey crews traveled in parties of one to two dozen men and suffered harsh conditions on Utah's rugged borders in the 1870s and 1880s. Rocks and wooden posts were the common markers left by survey parties. They theoretically put markers every mile along state boundaries, though obviously some are missing more than a century later.

Cook said the sad thing is that we live with these mistakes. Longtime federal laws make states rely on existing survey monuments for borders, whether they are in the right place or not.

"Monuments prevail," he stressed.

Those laws have been challenged by various courts over the years and have always been upheld.

Even with exact location technology available with orbiting satellites, no federal entity has the time or money to correct such errors, according to Webb.

At best, small adjustments may be made as specific landownership issues are raised.

Since Utah's borders are crooked, so are those in the adjoining states of Idaho, Wyoming and Colorado. Cook believes many other states probably have similar boundary problems. For example, the same surveyor who made at least three mistakes across the Utah-Idaho border also kept going west to the Pacific Ocean.


Checking detailed Oregon maps, he made at least four similar mistakes along its southern border with California. (-From the Deseret News, July 26, 1998, by Lynn Arave.)

Back when football was banned at BYU – and almost in the entire state

                    Rice Stadium, The University of Utah football stadium.

By Lynn Arave

“OPPOSED to the game of football” was a headline in the Deseret News on Dec. 8, 1905. Too many injuries and even the death of a Utah football player in a game during the 1900 season combined to create a ban on football at the Provo school.

Football was played at BYU, when it was named Brigham Young Academy, from 1896-1903. But, about the same time as the Brigham Young University name came along in 1903, the sport of football was discontinued there, for some 16 years.

In fact, “Mormon Church is against football” was a Nov. 18, 1908 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune. This report stated that all schools operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would now also ban football. The matter had been under review for a year and many students petitioned for football, but it was considered too violent and too injury prone.

This wasn't just an LDS Church stand against football. Institutions all over the U.S., like Harvard and Columbia, were also against the sport for its brutality.

"Not for gentlemen" was a common saying at schools which banned football.

"Football is a hospital feeder," was another slogan against gridiron play.

Nation-wide, there were at least 45 deaths and hundreds of serious injuries reported from the 1905 college football season.

President Theodore Roosevelt that year met with sports officials from Harvard, Yale and Princeton to hopefully get football injuries reduced. President Roosevelt’s sons played the game and he wasn’t out to halt the sport, just make it safer to play.

“Present football is too dangerous” was a Nov. 19, 1909 Tribune headline. Schools in New York State banned all football games in 1909, citing, “bones were broken and pupils otherwise injured.” By 1910, the University of Kansas also banned football.

Some football rules had been changed in the early 1900s to try and make it safer, but numerous injuries still continued.

                 College football could have been banned at Utah in 1909.

The Utah State Legislature had House Bill 165 proposed in 1909, that would have halted all football play in the State – especially at the University of Utah and the Agricultural College. However, the bill was finally withdrawn before a vote.

In BYU's case, it was the General Board of Education of the LDS Church, which prompted the ban on football. According to the Deseret News, some students left BYU, or didn't attend there, because of this ban.

(Of course, no one dreamed back then that BYU would ever be the national champion in college football, as it was in 1984, some 64 years after the ban was lifted.)

Since football was banned at BYU during those years, a church-wide ban meant the sport was also halted at Weber Stake Academy (forerunner of Weber State University).

Finally, more rules were changed and advances in football equipment both helped make the game safer for players.

Football returned to BYU in 1919 as an intramural sport. The next two seasons BYU had limited college play and finally the Cougars had a full football season in 1922, though the team’s record was a dismal 1-5.

-Football was perhaps its most brutal in the late 19th Century. The Ogden Standard-Examiner reported this in 1885 about the Ogden High Football team:

“The boys have laid in a good supply of shin plaster, and for a week or past, they have had a carpenter busily engaged in manufacturing crutches. Several competent surgeons have been retained for the occasion (upcoming game) and will be in attendance.”

-It also wasn’t just brutality that cancelled football games in the early 20^th Century either. An October 3, 1908 game of the University of Utah’s freshman team against Ogden High was cancelled due to bad weather. A few years later, a soggy, wet field also cancelled a game.

Also, a November 1907 gridiron contest of West High School against Ogden High was cancelled by the Board of Education due to rowdy, public disturbances caused by Salt Lake players in their improper advertising of the upcoming game.

-Finally, yes, college teams routinely played high school teams in Utah during the early 20^th Century. In October of 1912, the University of Utah Freshman Team whipped Ogden High 56-0. With a shortage of other prep teams in the area back then, preps even played college teams as far away as Montana.

(-Originally published in the Deseret News on Nov. 21, 2017.)

Besides the alcohol prohibition of the 1920s, there were also vast game sanctuaries established in Utah

                                         Mount Ogden in Weber County                       Photo by Whitney Arave

By Lynn Arave

THE roaring 1920s had more prohibition in place than just with alcohol -- there were many game sanctuaries designated across the nation, including in Utah, prohibiting hunting and firearms.

Weber County was the first in Utah with its Mount Ogden Game Sanctuary in 1920. This 180-square-mile wildlife preserve stretched from Willard Peak to Weber Canyon and from the foothills east to Ogden Valley. It featured no hunting or gun-toting allowed. Signs were posted and penalties were up to $200 for violations, according to various reports in the Ogden Standard-Examiner.

“Bird Sanctuary is created in East Mill Creek” was a June 5, 1920 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper. Although just 16 city blocks in size, no hunting or firearms were allowed there.

The City of Murray followed with its own game sanctuary between 900 East and 1300 East and between 45^th South and 49^th South. This sanctuary not only protected birds, but small animals and even fish, according to the Telegram of July 13, 1920.

The Telegram of June 30, 1921 reported plans for a 49,000-acre game preserve in Big Cottonwood and Mill Creek Canyons. Deer and elk herds were to be added to the area. This preserve still allowed an annual deer hunt and continued as a reserve into the early 1940s.

By August of 1922, Salt Lake County declared a huge bird sanctuary, stretching from Ensign Peak on the north, across the foothills to 7500 South.

A year later, in July of 1923, Mount Timpanogos was designated as a game preserve too, with no firearms allowed. In 1931, the St. George area also considered a preserve for the Pine Valley Mountains.

Cache County established a 10,000 acre preserve for deer and elk in the summer of 1933, according to Telegram of June 8 that year. The mountain boundaries stretched from the Logan River south to the Blacksmith Fork, as a precursor to the much smaller Hardware Ranch of today.

Some of these sanctuaries, like Weber County’s, were gone by the late 1920s. Others faded away by the late 1930s. Not only were the vast areas had to patrol, but they let the populations of some of the more undesirable animals spike out of control. For example, in the Mount Ogden Game Sanctuary, coyotes prospered and they not only attacked hen houses more in the valley below, but rabies fears worsened too.

     Malans Peak in Weber County, where the Game Sanctuary used to be in the 1920s.

Mountain Lions were also on the rise and attacked more cattle and sheep, even though dogs were used to keep chasing them further eastward in Weber County. Deer populations were also rising and more deer were causing problems along the foothills of Weber County each winter.

Davis, Box Elder and Morgan counties likely had a huge increase in hunters during the 1920s, since much of Weber County was off limits. Deer hunting still happened each year in most of Utah, despite the fact it was outlawed in the Mount Ogden Sanctuary. For example, in 1926, Utah deer hunting season was from Oct. 20-30.

This same time period -- the mid-1920s -- was also when the grizzly bear was pretty much wiped out long the Wasatch Front. The legendary "Old Ephraim" in Logan Canyon was killed by a sheepherder in 1923 and the last grizzly in the Mount Nebo area was also taken out in the 1920s.

In the end, regular annual hunting seasons for deer and other animals were established as the rule of the land, instead of having vast game preserves.

The exceptions were the establishment of bird refuges along the shores of the Great Salt Lake and other water sources, with limited annual hunting seasons for ducks and other waterfowl. For example, the Bear River Bay was declared a bird sanctuary in June of 1925.

Best April Fool's Day Prank in Utah -- From 1907?

By Lynn Arave

ONE of the best April Fool's Day pranks ever in Utah has to be a story that was published in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper on April 1, 1907.
"Almost Fabulous find of Gold in sight of the City" was an April 1, 1907 headline in that newspaper.
If you were reading the newspaper back then, you probably knew what day April 1 was. However, reading this story digitally now, on different days of the year, is another outcome ... one surprise and skepticism.
The sub headline on the story stated: "Ore worth $20,000 a ton, Discounting Galconda and King Solomon's Mine; Discovered by George M. Gutch and E.V. Smith; Ancient prospecting."
The long story contained great detail about this find of immense gold in City Creek Canyon. It said the founders' were honest men and explained how Spanish gold like this was a likely possibility in Utah.
The story called the find one of the most wonderful discoveries in all the history of the world.
And, the story ends with this line: "This is the first of April."
All in all, this was a great piece of fiction by the writers at the Telegram.

A giant Cross almost ended up atop Salt Lake's Ensign Peak; Also suggested for Timpanogos Peak

                                 Ensign Peak, center, and left of the Utah State Capitol.



By Lynn Arave

A giant cement cross almost ended up on the top of Ensign Peak in 1916 -- and was even suggested for Timpanogos Peak instead.

"Church is granted permit to place cross on peak" was a May 25, 1916 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.
The Salt Lake City Commission had voted 4-1 to grant the request "to erect a reinforced concrete cross on Ensign Peak, as a memorial to the pioneers and to typify that 'This is the place.'"
C.W. Nibley, Presiding Bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had petitioned the Commission with the request.
"Cross to be built upon Ensign Peak" was a May 26, 1916 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune.
Commissioner W.H. Shearman cast the only opposing vote and said that the proposal had already generated too much controversy. He said the American Flag along should grace the top of the peak.

                         Today's trail up the east side of Ensign Peak.

Why didn't the cross ever get built?

-"Jews are opposed to cross on peak" was a May 23, 1916 Salt Lake Tribune headline. Two Rabbis argued that public ground is not the place for a religious symbol of any type and that it would not be a symbol representative of all citizens of Salt Lake City. They also stated that such a public cross would arouse bitterness and destroy a united spirit of citizenship in the City.

-"Religion should not be advertised on the mountain tops, but rather should be housed in the human heart," Rabbi William Rice stated.

- In a counter argument, Commissioner Karl A. Scheid stated:
"That the Mormon Church, which has so frequently and
So unjustly been accused of not being a Christian church at all, should volunteer to place Christianity's most sacred emblem on Ensign Peak, that place so hallowed by the memory of pioneers days, is to my mind and event of first importance."

-Eventually even LDS Church Apostle Orson F. Whitney spoke against a cross on Ensign Peak. He said the cross was a Catholic symbol and that if it should be placed anywhere, it should be on Mount Timpanogos, in memory of Father Escalante -- the first White Man known to visit Utah Valley. (Salt Lake Tribune, May 30, 1916).

-Utah State Senator George H. Dern (also eventually a Utah Governor) proposed that Utah should construct a giant concrete cross in Utah over the entire state. That is, highway-wise Utah should build a 16-foot-wide concrete road that goes from the north end of Utah at the Idaho line to the south end of the state at Arizona; and another road from the Colorado line to Nevada -- and this a giant "cross" covering the entire state -- one that would open the state to travel and tourism and a "cross" that would not be controversial. (Salt Lake Tribune May 24, 1916).

-The proposal for the cross on Ensign Peak was challenged in the local courts and eventually the plan just faded away -- probably, mainly because of the concerns of the non-LDS Churches in Salt Lake.

                    The eventual non-controversial pioneer monument atop Ensign Peak today.

The current monument atop Ensign Peak was built in the mid-1930s, with the first stone  laid in July of 1934.