1902 quake shook the life out of the Utah hamlet of Hebron

        This map shows with the "X," approximately where Hebron was located.

TREMBLER was the last straw to break Utah town's back …

You won't find the city of Hebron on most Utah maps these days. It's a ghost town, having met its demise almost 100 years ago when earthquakes — possibly including the famous San Francisco quake of 1906 — sent the residents packing by damaging most of its brick buildings.

Located seven miles west of Enterprise in Washington County, this biblically named town thrived in the late 1800s because of mining work in the area.

The Pine Valley earthquake on Nov. 17, 1902, damaged almost all houses in Hebron, many severely. There may not have been a chimney left standing in the town.

The quake destroyed so many homes that residents slept in the tithing granary or in Orson Welcome Huntsman's slab-type house at night.

"People are frightened, seven distinct shocks were felt at Pine Valley" was a Salt Lake Herald headline from Nov. 18, 1902. Aftershocks continued for weeks. Snow and cold increased the suffering in late November.

According to a 1902 diary excerpt from Huntsman, the quake got people seriously thinking about moving down canyon to Enterprise. The quake wasn't the only difficulty in Hebron. Water was sparse in dry years and yet other years there was flooding.

St. George and Santa Clara also had substantial damage from the quake. "St. George damaged by earthquake, Buildings shaken and cliffs torn asunder; some made seasick" was a Deseret News headline from Nov. 21, 1902.

Salt Lake County residents, mostly those in the southern end, also felt the Pine Valley quake. The shocks produced lots of fear and frenzy and even stopped clocks in Salt Lake City, though no damage was reported.

"Earthquake sways big buildings of Salt Lake" was a Herald headline from Nov. 18, 1902.

No one knows the exact magnitude of those early 20th Century quakes in Utah. There were no seismographs in the state then.

The Pine Valley quake is believed to have been 6.0-plus and its largest aftershock on Dec. 5, 1902, is estimated at 5.0.

Some 3 1/2 years after the Pine Valley quake, the great San Francisco earthquake came along and may have destroyed what was left of Hebron, according to one historical report. This apparently caused its remaining residents to move away.

Today a few remote home sites dot the road west of Enterprise. One small side road leads to the Hebron Cemetery, about all that's left of a once thriving pioneer town.

The San Francisco quake was recorded by seismographs all over the nation and was believed to be about 7.7 in magnitude. It apparently had a greater effect on Hebron than any other area in Utah, perhaps because of the damage that still existed there from the previous quake.

Sue Nava, seismic network manager at the University of Utah, said the Pine Valley quake was significant and caused considerable damage. However, she disputes claims that the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 would have caused any damage in Utah, even in southwest Utah and Hebron.

She said the San Francisco quake would have produced some shaking in Utah, but she's skeptical and unaware of any damage it caused here.

U.S. Geological Society records show that the March 12, 1934, "Kosmo" (Hansel Valley) earthquake has been Utah's largest since the pioneers settled here, being a 6.6 magnitude.

-Written by Lynn Arave and originally in the Deseret News, March 4, 2001.

1936: When Hogle Zoo almost moved back to Liberty Park

                                                     The front to Hogle Zoo today.

SALT Lake City’s Hogle Zoo moved from its original Liberty Park Location to its current mountainside residence near the mouth of Emigration Canyon in 1931. However, less than five years later there was a seldom reported in history effort to move the Zoo back to Liberty Park.

“Plans to move Zoo to Liberty Park Indorsed (sic)” was an April 24, 1936 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.

The Zoo, then called “Hogle Gardens,” had originally moved because its elephant, Princess Alice, periodically broke free and roamed 700 East Street, putting the community in an uproar. A menagerie of clothing often adorned the pachyderm’s back after she ran through various backyard clothelines in the area.

A petition signed by a large group of S.L. citizens sparked the return to Liberty Park proposal. It not only believed the Park was a more central location for the zoo, but noted that some animals – especially Princess Alice – were homesick for their former home.

Indeed, an April 29, 1936 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram stated, “Princess Alice pining for Liberty Park, says ‘Dutch’ Shider, once her trainer.”

“She isn’t happy at the Gardens,” Shider said, “She pines for Liberty Park.”

                                             An elephant at Hogle Zoo in the late 1980s.

(On Nov. 15, 1931, the three-ton elephant had rebelled and injured a trainer and demolished a wooden trailer that was to move her to the new Zoo site.)

In 1936, there were 93 animals and 133 fowls housed at the zoo. (However, strangely the bears were not moved from Liberty Park and resided there alone for some years.)

Harold B. Lee, Salt Lake Commissioner of Streets and Public Improvements said he wanted to see the zoo in a place where the greatest majority of the people desire it.

The Zoo had resided at Liberty Park for nearly 25 years.

Not mentioned at the time were controversies that happened soon after the move to the mouth of Emigration Canyon. For example, the water supply to the Zoo was cut off in 1934 for failure to pay a $195 bill. The Zoo’s flamboyant superintendent threatened to turn all the animals loose if the water was not turned back on – and service was soon restored.

In addition, some of the original Zoo buildings at its mountainside location were not first class, or well kept.

Yet, the Zoo remained at the Mouth of Emigration Canyon, where it has expanded today to become one of the largest animal collections in the western states.

(Note: This was originally published in the Deseret News.)