“ONE human life -- $2.66. That is the price placed upon life per individual in Utah by those changed with enforcement of the state’s traffic laws,” the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper of Nov. 19, 1943 reported.
The
Telegram’s headline was “Utah’s 84 traffic deaths this year emphasize trivial
cost of killing.”
The story continued:
“On the basis of 84 persons killed in Utah traffic (accidents) to date this
year, the average fine paid to fix responsibility for each fatal mishap totaled
only $2.66. There were no jail sentences imposed. In only three cases have
manslaughter charges been filed. In only six of the 12 fatalities in Salt Lake
City have any kind of charges been filed.
The story
reported that the $2.66 is the average Utah fine assessed for the blame in a
fatal accident. The fine averaged $5.76 in Salt Lake and only $1.95 elsewhere
in Utah.
The lengthy
story then listed a summary of all 84 accidents.
This report,
given during the middle of World War II, obviously sought to reduce traffic
fatalities and was a precursor to safety campaigns by the Utah Highway Patrol.
(Note that
$2.66 in 1943 monetary value is equal to $38.80 in today’s dollar values.)
-“Herd of stampeded cattle meet death in the Lake” was an April 12, 1900 headline in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper.
Some 200
head of cattle were grazing in a pasture between Hooper and Syracuse. Then,
Joseph Manning of Hooper reported that a great storm arose and the herd
stampeded to the west and even the Great Salt Lake didn’t stop them.
Ultimately
the cattle ended up more than a dozen miles to the northwest, near Little
Mountain.
“Many of
them were swamped in the mud and perished,” the story reported. “Others waded
out till they became exhausted, and still others swam for miles. Some were
found eighteen miles from shore. In all, 41 perished. Four were extricated from
the mud alive.”
The animals
belonged to a variety of ranchers in Davis and Weber counties.
In its
report of the cattle drowning, the Davis County Clipper newspaper stated that
old time residents of the area said that the strong east canyon winds also used
to drive cattle from the Farmington area way out west to Antelope Island.
-The first
newspaper mention of fog in Utah territory was in the Deseret News of Dec. 15,
1853.
The report
described the fog in Salt Lake City as very deep and dark, very much like the
English fogs of fall, winter and spring.
-Here’s how some Utah residents of 1881 helped the poor: “Tomorrow morning Mr. A. Greenwell and a party of nimrods are going to the Little Mountain (west of Ogden), in quest of rabbits. They say they will return in the evening, with 400 and distribute them to the hungry free gratis, on Fourth Street (of Ogden).” From the Ogden Herald, Nov. 8, 1881.
-Back in 1910, the early days of the automobile, travel was slow, particularly on rough and out-of-the-way roads. For example, the Ogden Standard newspaper of Feb. 28, 1910 reported that it took residents of Hooper some three hours to travel to Ogden. J.H. Fowles, a Hooper resident, said it ought to only take an hour to travel that distance. (Note it takes approximately 15-20 minutes to travel from Hooper to Ogden today.)
-The Salt
Lake Tribune of Sept. 6, 1896 was a report of the Little Mountain area. It
stated that the Native American settlers before the pioneers used Little
Mountain as a chosen spot. They came to the spot to bury some of their dead.
However, the same Tribune story displayed total ignorance over where the cross carved in stone on Fremont Island came from. This report stated the cross was already there when John C. Fremont and company arrived on the Isle in 1843. (In fact, team member Kit Carson himself carved that cross during their 1843 visit).
So, this
newspaper report speculated that some earlier Christians – perhaps even Spanish
missionaries must have visited the Island and carved that cross.
No comments:
Post a Comment