1894 in Utah: When bicyclists outraced horses over 50 miles – Plus, a mini S.L. Temple Square tale

IT was an unusual race: man vs. beast and over an artificial track the human was the victor, with some 600 people watching.

“Ponies beaten by bikes. An exciting fifty-mile race for blood. Exhibition of endurance. The wheelmen covered the distance in 2:45 1-5 and won the race by a lap and a half – The dangerous freaks of a bolting mare – Ogden wild over the bicycle races.”

That was the headline in the Salt Lake Tribune of August 27, 1894.

Bert Austin of Farmington and Charles Parr of Mill Creek were the horse riders, while D.E. Brockbank and Jack Prince and “Shock” were the two human cyclists (or “wheelmen” in that day’s vernacular).

Since the horses had to remain on the outside of the track, located somewhere in Ogden, they were given a 3 ½ lap lead to make it even.

Public bets were made on the outcome of the race, though it was said to be poorly advertised.

The bikes rolled rather smoothly over the gravel track, while the horses threw up gravel, even into the spectator area. Even a brief rainstorm didn’t deter the racers or the spectators.

After some 32 miles of the race, the horses were faltering and some spectators were hissing and catcalling at them.

Cries of “foul” were also frequent when the horse riders would “spank” their animals, trying to gain more speed. The cries only stopped when the hitting did.

One of the horses would also sometimes take a diversion off the track and into the weeds, only to return with some lost time. The rider was described as “just was well of been a monkey on her back” of the horse for all it cooperated at times.

At the 45-mile mark, the cyclists had taken the lead and though the horses gained back some of the distance, they were beaten.

-MINI TEMPLE REPLICA? Jump ahead some 27 years and the Salt Lake Telegram of Dec. 13, 1921 sported an intriguing little news item: “Will decide upon acceptance of land” was the headline.

A gift of six acres of ground were proposed to be donated to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the Harry Culver Company of Los Angeles. The land was on Grand View Boulevard in Ocean Heights – just outside the city limits of Venice, California (a city that merged with Los Angeles in 1926).

If accepted by the First Presidency of the Church, the site was proposed to include a “$500,000 temple to resemble Salt Lake Temple Square …”

Church members were said to be eager to build homes nearby and that a golf course could also be constructed nearby. The story even claimed that C.W. Nibley (Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church) contemplated building a home in the area at a later date.

Yet, the gift of land was apparently not accepted and the mini Temple Square idea never happened.

                        Illustration in the Salt Lake Herald of President Snow's ride.

-Yet another unusual LDS Story: “President Snow compared automobiles with ox teams” was a May 16, 1900 headline in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper.

President Lorenzo Snow had beaten Joseph F. Smith in an earlier 15-mile automobile race down by Cove Fort, according to the story.

Now he had ridden another horseless carriage in Salt Lake City. “’Oh, my, it is as wonderful as it is glorious,’” the Herald quoted President Snow as saying after his latest motorized ride. Though he had to shake the dust off his clothes after the ride, he seemed to have an affection for such “novelty.”

Later. President Snow said in the story, “I was thinking of getting a bicycle, but I guess the automobile is what I want, after all. It is quite different from driving an oxcart. That is the way I saw Salt Lake City first. But fifty years makes a great difference in most everything. In 1849 when we came here I drove one of the ox teams over the same roads, but we made on an average of 100 miles a week, while I believe that carriage would have no difficulty in covering about thirty-five miles an hour on good roads.”

President Snow also said that he has heard that there will be no stables or horses in “The City of Zion in Jackson County,” something he previously could not understand. Yet, now the use of automobiles might explain that.

He furthermore said that not having to carry oats in the bottom of a buggy, to feed horses, is also not something he would miss.