A look at University of Utah spring traditions in 1918: whitewashing, ducking, track meet and dancing

                                     The block U on the University of Utah campus.


A century ago, University of Utah students had some unusual traditions.
According to the Salt Lake Herald newspaper of April 13, 1918, the "U Day" at the University of Utah was a busy, mostly outdoor day.
First, the freshman male students, 489, in number that year, hauled brooms, water barrels and sacks up lime up to the "U" symbol on the mountainside. They then proceeded to give the lettering its annual whitewashing.
After completing that task, the freshman men went to the gymnasium where the women students gave them a banquet. Next on Cummings Field, the Freshman class lost to the Sophomore Class in a tug-of-war. This mean the Frosh had a "public ducking."
Later in the day, an annual athletic contest, a track meet competition was held between University Faculty and the Chronicle's editorial staff (student newspaper). The honors mostly went to the writers. However, the usual cross county race was canceled.
The following day, an informal dance was held to climax the "L" celebration at the University.
So it was about a century ago at the U. in Salt Lake City.

Lake Side, between Kaysville and Farmington, the first Great Salt Lake resort

      The Lake Side resort was located a mile or so north of this area, along the Great Salt Lake.

THE first established resort along the shores of the Great Salt Lake is also perhaps the most obscure and forgotten -- "Lake Side."
Located between Farmington and Kaysville, the first mention of the resort was in the June 9, 1870 edition of the Salt Lake Herald newspaper.
The Utah Central Railroad had a "Lake Side Station" in 1870 and passengers from Salt Lake paid $1 for a fare there. Then, it was a half-mile walk west to the actual resort.
John W. Young, a son of Brigham Young, established the resort. (John Young was an apostle in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and later was a First Counselor in the First Presidency.)
Haight's Grove provided shade at Lake Side resort and in 1870, it was another 440 yard walk to the actual Great Salt Lake water.
Lake Side later, in 1872,  became more well known as a stopping point for the steamer, "City of Corrine" as it boated on the lake between there and Lake Point, on the south end of the briny waters. Such a boat cruise lasted three hours (Salt Lake Herald May 8, 1872).
It was a good thing for the boating at Lake Side, because a May 22, 1872 Deseret News story stated that the resort itself had a Marshy bottom" for land. The reporter noted that for 30 or 40 dollars worth of labor, a good trail could be created for passengers walking from the Lake Side train station to the boat ramp.
However, once the reporter caught sight of the City of Corrine Steamer, he stressed how large and streamlined it was, drawing all attention away from the bleak shoreline around the Great Salt Lake.
By July of 1883, the Salt Lake Herald of July 19, 1883 stated that a new pleasure boat offered trips from Lake Side.
The resort's final newspaper mention was in the summer of 1886 in the July 27 issue of the Salt Lake Herald. That was likely its final season and it is probably no coincidence that Simon Bamberger's much better developed "Lake Park" resort a few miles south premiered that summer. (That was the forerunner to Lagoon.)

The boat’s Corrine name was later changed to Garfield, according to the Salt Lake Herald newspaper of July 31, 1910.

This was a large stern wheelboat, really made for use on a river, like the Mississippi, and not so safe on the Great Salt Lake, as passengers were said to attest.

One of the final trips the boat made included some 75 passengers, with a Captain Dorris at the helm. The boat left from the south end of the lake, with the destination being Promontory Point on the north end.

However, a heavy storm struck almost immediately and the captain lost control of the boat. It drifted toward Antelope Island and as darkness set in, all attempts to anchor the boat failed. It was daybreak before boat control was regained. The danger had kept most of the passengers from even eating as the storm was so fierce and the danger so high.

 -And, yes, it is all the "Lake" names of the historic resorts along the Great Salt Lake that make examining them so confusing ...

     Farmington's Buffalo Trail is located slightly south of where the Lake Side resort was located.

Interstate through the Virgin River Gorge opened in 1973

                                             The Virgin River Gorge opened in 1973.

IT is probably the curviest portion of I-15 anywhere -- the Virgin River Gorge -- and it opened in the winter of 1973.
This 29 1/2 mile section of interstate highway is taken for granted today, but it saves some 45 minutes in travel time over the old route -- and believe it or not, it is considered a safer route than its predecessor,  the "Utah Hill" (or "Old Highway 91), that started in Santa Clara and ended up in Beaver Dam, Arizona.
In fact, that old stretch of highway produced 23 fatalities just between 1968 and the Virgin River Gorge opening five years later.
The Virgin River Gorge section of I-15 was dedicated on Dec. 21, 1973 (and had opened to traffic a week or so prior).
According to the Iron County Record newspaper of Dec. 20, 1973, it was the most expensive stretch of rural interstate highway ever built at the time -- costing $61 million (or almost $337 million in 2017 dollar values).

                   The Virgin River Gorge is mountain grades and curves.

An engineering marvel, the highway passed through some sections of gorge that were only 150 feet and others with 2,000-foot high mountain cliffs rising up.
This section of I-15 directly connects St. George, Utah with Littlefield, Arizona.
Governor Calvin L. Rampton said during the highway's dedication that Arizona State officials had to be greatly credited for their help on the highway construction. Even though it was a landlocked portion of their state where the road went, Arizona was a key component in its completion.
The highway stretch's completion also required assistance from Nevada -- a rare three state effort.
Flashfloods and quicksand in the Gorge made construction difficult. It required more than 4 years of work, plus 5 bridges over the Virgin River and 12 places where the river had to be rerouted to accommodate the roadway.
A helicopter pilot was killed in 1969 after he crashed in the Virgin River Gorge while doing survey work there. A special dune buggy was brought in from Texas to aid in the surveying of the Gorge.
Although ALL of the Gorge is NOT in Utah, the Utah Department of Transportation often does a lot of the maintenance on the freeway there, for Arizona.

              The Virgin River Gorge section of I-15 is an engineering marvel.

Farmington narrowly missed having an Insane Asylum in 1880

                           Looking down a section of Shephard Canyon, lower left.
                                                                                                                Photo by Roger Arave.

FARMINGTON, Utah is the capital of Davis County, but it narrowly missed becoming the home to the territory's insane Asylum back in 1880.
According to the Deseret News of June 30, 1880, there had been some strong consideration given to locating the asylum near the mouth of Shepherd's Canyon in Farmington.
The story states that there was a desirable property available at Shepherd's for a reasonable cost. It was also within a mile of the Utah Central Railroad line.
A government vote actually passed to locate the asylum in Farmington. However, many Salt Lake City residents protested the location and so the vote was reconsidered.
In the end, the  Insane Asylum was located in Provo.

Cedar Breaks -- The 'Circle of Painted Cliffs'

                    Cedar Breaks is similar to the larger Bryce Canyon.

CEDAR BREAKS was originally called "Circle of Painted Cliffs" by the local Paiute Indians.
However, like Cedar City, Cedar Breaks is technically misnamed. Early pioneers mistook the Utah Juniper trees for Cedar trees. AND, by the time the error was apparent years later, the two names were firmly affixed. It was common in the 19th Century to call badlands "breaks."
The first settlers in the mountainous area around Cedar Breaks  arrived in 1868. They mainly stayed in the Brian Head area in the summer, with herds of cattle pasturing there. Since most of the these settlers were from Ireland, the area was for a time called "Little Ireland."
"Building Hotel at 'Breaks'" was an Oct. 12, 1921 headline in the Parowan Times newspaper.

Isaac Lemmon and his son, Thomas, erected a hotel, of sorts, at Cedar Breaks that summer and early fall, with financing from the Adams family. With a rough automobile road accessible as early as 1919, they were hoping for many tourists in the summer of 1922.
This became known as "Minnie's Mansion" and offered accommodations, food and even dancing. It was on the north end of the monument, near what was known as Ollerton Flat.
Still, it was only a seasonal operation, given the heavy winter snows in the area. It closed in less than 5 years, due to a lack of profit. Little trace of the hotel and its few other buildings remain today.
The Utah Parks Company, owned by Union Pacific Railroad, built its own lodge on the south rim of Cedar Breaks in 1924. Small tour buses took passengers to the area. It was marketed as part of a loop with Zion Canyon, Bryce Canyon and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The lodge seated 120 guests and chicken dinners were the house specialty.
It wasn't until 1933 that Cedar Breaks became a national monument. Sitting at an elevation of 10,300 feet, the area has heavy winter snows.

                The visitor center at Cedar Breaks National Monument.

Soon after, in 1937, some 27 men from the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) built a visitor center and ranger cabin at Cedar Breaks. This kept Cedar Breaks going well for about a decade.
However, after World War II, railroad travel diminished with increased automobile usage. The Utah Parks Company in 1970 donated the lodge to the National Park Service. They, with no public input or fanfare, tore the lodge and hotel down in 1972. The neaby cabins were sold and hauled away.
Only the small visitor center remained.
The only bright spot to their demolition was that public awareness was now high in Southern Utah for saving historic structures and so the lodges at Zion Canyon and Bryce Canyon did not suffer the same fate.

-Note that the town of Brian Head, to the north, is at 9,800 feet above sea level, the highest elevation city in Utah -- and second in the nation (behind Leadville, Colorado, at 10,200 feet.) The adjacent Brian Head Ski Resort opened in 1964.

-Brian Head Peak, the highest in Iron County at 11,307 feet, is the landmark for the area. A dirt road, passable in mid to late summer, leads to the peak, actually more of a plateau.
Brian Head was either named for an early government surveyor, Brian; or for William Jennings Bryan, a Secretary of State for the U.S.
According to the Parowan Times newspaper of June 5, 1929, there was originally a flag pole and cairn of rocks atop Brian Head Peak in the early 1900s. However, it was gone by 1929.
There is a sign and small building at the top of Brian Head Peak today. The structure was built by the CCC in 1935.

-The road from the north, U-143, out of Parowan, is the steepest paved state road in Utah. It tops out at 10,567 feet above sea level and has a 13 percent grade.

-A disastrous forest fire in 2017 ravaged the area.