CITY Creek
Canyon is one of the natural gems of Salt Lake City. And, “City Creek as a
resort” was an August 12, 1883 headline in the Salt Lake Herald.
The story
stated that Big Cottonwood Canyon had been the camping resort of choice to
date, though it is a long day trip to access it from downtown.
“But City
Creek is right at your door; a man can attend to business up to 5 or 6 o’clock
and ride or drive up the pleasant canyon six or seven miles in three-quarters
of an hour, and remain overnight at a place where blankets are essential to
comfort, where the fly doth not buzz and the mosquito settles down with the
mantles or night; and the next morning he enjoys a pleasant ride down the cool
canyon, where the birds are singing, the green boughs waiving, the waters
murmuring and everything is quiet and calculated to assist the proper digestion
of bacon, ham and beans.”
Looking down into the south end of City Creek Canyon.
“It is a
very cheap luxury,” the story also stated, and one of the best ways for bracing
against the withering heat of summer.
-Mosquitoes
didn’t earn much, if any, press in Salt Lake City’s earliest decades. That may
be because the pesky insects were only considered a small nuisance among the
ruggedness of pioneer life.
One of the
first references of mosquitoes was in the Deseret News on August 9, 1871 under
the headline of “How mosquitoes bite.”
Surprisingly,
the story states that after mosquitoes suck a person’s blood, they release
poison into the wound.
“If he (a
mosquito) were as big as a kitten, and his poison as strong in proportion, a
‘bite’ from him would kill us,” the story stated.
(Today we
know mosquitoes do suck a human’s blood, but release not poison, but an anti-coagulant
into a wound
– and the possibility of them transferring disease, like the West Nile Virus,
is a significant danger.)
The Salt
Lake Tribune of June 16, 1873 humorously stated, “Mosquito shooting is a
favorite pastime in the lower wards” of Salt Lake City.
Indeed, the
July 8, 1875 Tribune reported on an outdoor outing to Ogden by Masons at a
beautiful grove. It stated, “after reaching the grove, divided time between
dancing, croquet, partaking of bounteous lunch and fighting the festive
mosquito.”
Next, the
Deseret News of August 15, 1877 printed a story, “The Mosquito of the
Yellowstone.” The entire story emphasized how bad that the future Yellowstone
National Park was infested with the peskiest flying insects ever.
“Anyone who
has ever been bitten by a Yellowstone mosquito will not need to be told how he
feels … Seriously, the soldiers station in that country find life almost
unendurable at this season of the year.”
-In another
historical tidbit, a severe summer storm on July 28, 1904 knocked out power
during some of the prime evening hours in downtown Salt Lake City. The Deseret
Evening News of July 31, 1897 reported that at 5:45 p.m. the power went out.
All street cars stopped and electric lights were out and a concert in the Salt
Lake Tabernacle was half-way in progress and had to be halted. Then a downpour
struck and pedestrians ran for shelter. The outage lasted by 20 minutes in some
locations, but far longer in others.
-Ogden Canyon was the site of a huge explosion on July 30, 1897 at an old powder mill. The Deseret Evening News of July 31, 1897 had the headline, “A terrific explosion.”
There was
one victim, William Bowlder, who was described as a “charred and blistered mass
of flesh.” The roof of the building was blown 100 feet away and Bowdler was
hurled 15 feet from the site. The structure was a total loss.
-Finally,
the same Deseret Evening News of 1897 also reported that a young man in Weber
County was bitten by a rattlesnake and was slowly recovering. Said to be a
“snake charmer” of sorts, who experimented with snakes, the bite was
accidental. The bite happened in the community of “Coal Patch,” east of
Pleasant View. The man, named Johns, was said to not want to handle snakes
anymore.
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