1892: When Davis County could have lost 2 miles

NORTH Salt Lake City could have been a lot smaller than it is today. That's because in 1892 there was a push at the State's territorial legislature to move the Salt Lake-Davis County line about two miles further north.
This proposed action was because a new stockyards, about 400 acres in size, had just opened at the extreme south end of Davis County and Salt Lake City was envious to have that asset within its own boundaries.
"Keep Davis County intact" was a January 10, 1892 headline in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper. This article noted that such a move would injury Davis County and that it was already by far the smallest county in Utah.
Fortunately, no such boundary change ever took place.
The City of North Salt Lake didn't originate until 1946 and so during the proposal in 1892, all the land there was still unincorporated Davis County property.

1886: The first-ever reference to a community called 'Layton'?

LAYTON, Utah is Davis County’s premier city. It is common history that Layton is an outgrowth of Kaysville City. Layton separated from Kaysville in 1902-1907 and became its own official town in 1920.

But when was the “Layton” name first used?

-It is very likely that name came along in the mid-1880s. In fact, the very first newspaper reference to Layton being its own community, separate from mother Kaysville City, was published on May 7, 1886 in the Ogden Herald newspaper.

“The town of Layton is building up rapidly,” the Herald stated. “There is good demand for everything a farmer raises.”

-Another key reference to Layton, perhaps the first occasion in the Deseret News was on May 4, 1887, where a report on an artesian well was sent “from Layton, Davis County.”

(This water report was also significant, because it noted the very first time that Weber River water was used in Kaysville and Layton.)

-A third, separate reference to Layton was on June 10, 1887, in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper, where people from both Kaysville and Layton boarded a special train to take residents age 70 and over, to an Old Folks’ Day in Ogden.

-A fourth reference to Layton as a distinct area was published in the Ogden Daily Standard of July 26, 1890.

“A wreck on the Utah Central” was the headline and the story stated: “The passenger train which left here (Ogden) at 6 o’clock last evening, ran into a freight at Layton, one mile north of Kaysville.”

-How did the Layton name come about?

It was very likely because Christopher Layton, an early area pioneer, was also the first LDS Church Bishop in what was becoming its own, separate area. Since Kaysville was named after William Kay, an early settler and church leader there, hence the Layton name.

Yet newspaper references or not, the actual Layton took longer to fully create.

The Deseret News on Sept. 29, 1890 still referred to the Kaysville First Ward and the Kaysville Second Ward as the only two ecclesiastic districts in the area.

According to the Davis County Clipper newspaper of May 6, 1892,

members of the Kaysville Second Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-day Saints actually resided in what most recognized as Layton

territory and not Kaysville. Hence, some church members circulated a

petition in 1892, asking church leaders to rename the ward to what it really

was – the Layton Ward.

This was one of the first signs that Layton residents wanted their own

community, separate from Kaysville.

"We do not live in Kaysville City, nor

Kaysville precinct, and why it is called the 2nd Ward of Kaysville we cannot

understand," the newspaper report stated.

Just less than 4 months later, the Ward name change did take place.

“The members of second ward of Kaysville last Sunday decided to change the name to Layton Ward so as to conform

with the precinct and post office and hereafter it will be known by that name.” (-Davis County Clipper, Aug. 31, 1892.)

Before Layton had fully gained its independence from Kaysville, or had become an incorporated community, its identity was obscure.

“There are some people in the large surrounding cities that do not know there is a place as Layton, formerly known as Kays Creek, in Utah,” a story in the January 23, 1892 Ogden Standard newspaper reported.

“They do not know what a fine country we have here for agriculture and stock raising. The town is situated about fifteen miles south of Ogden, with seven hundred inhabitants, also three mercantile stores, a post office, two blacksmith shops, one meat market, a large steam roller mill, a saloon and two railroads running through the center,” the story stated.

The History of Utah's 'Little Sahara'

                                            Youth playing in sand at Little Sahara.

THE Little Sahara is an ATV and sand lovers paradise in central Utah. But when did the recreation area begin?
According to the Garfield County News of March 4, 1976, the Little Sahara Recreation Area was dedicated on April 17 of that year.
The Bureau of Land Management created the 60,000-acre site. located 35 miles north of Delta. An estimated 100,000 people were already visiting the area before it was designated as an official recreation area.
Sagebrush flats and juniper covered hills, plus sand dunes dominate the area.
Sand lovers can thank ancient Lake Bonneville for its origin, as the prehistoric lake's southern shore was a dumping site for sand. Winds then pushed the sand some 150 miles for the original sandbar location to where Little Sahara is today. 

A Brief History of access to Snow Canyon

               Kids playing in a water puddle in Snow Canyon's magnificent rock formations.

SNOW Canyon, north of St. George, didn't even have road access until the early 1940s.
The Washington County News of July 23, 1942 stated that the road to Snow Canyon wasn't open until the summer of 1942. Likely, the outbreak of World War II delayed plans to oil all the road to the newly found scenic attraction.
Snow Canyon was made a Utah State Park in 1958. In an area filled with National Parks, like Zion, Bryce and Grand Staircase-Escalante, it would likely be a national park in any other state ...
Snow Canyon is not named for frozen water, but for two early settlers and leaders, Lorenzo and Erastus Snow.
It features 16 miles of trails, offers a campground -- open year round and some volcanic rock features. Rock climbing, biking and horseback riding are also popular in the Park.

-The volcanic cinder cones in the greater area could have been destroyed in the 1940s ...
"Scenic enthusiasts don't want their mountain cut down" was a March 29, 1941 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.
State road workers had been ready to take away the cinder cones shovel by shovel full, to help with roadbase in the area.
However, residents protested taking the volcanic material away and argued they were tourist attractions of their own.

From Dead Animals to Uranium seekers -- A History of Dead Horse Point and the Shafer Trail

Dead Horse Point is ablaze with sunlight, as viewed from the west.  Photo by Liz Arave Hafen


DEAD Horse Point became a tourist attraction in the Moab area, starting in the late 1930s. However, getting a suitable, paved road to the destination required more than three decades.
"When an old cowpoke a generation ago named it Dead Horse Point, little did he think that someday the horseless carriage would drive to its rim and discharge breathless occupants to be astounded by its majestic scenery," a May 12, 1938 story in the Times Independent newspaper stated.
"All scenery is beneath the feet ..." the story stated. "Dead Horse Point is Moab Utah's newest attraction ..."
The first good auto road (unpaved) and some 20 miles long to Dead Horse Point was completed in the spring of 1938.
"From its rim miles become inches thick strata of sandstone (and) appear as just one thin layer in the panorama. Snow capped ranges ride the skyline in the purple distance. It is more colorful than the Grand Canyon," the Times story concluded.
That was one of the first media reports of Dead Horse Point.
Dead Horse Point is a steep mesa, some 400 yards wide, with a 2,000-foot drop down its vertical cliff walls.
-Some 15 years later, in 1953, another Times Independent story (originally from the New York Times) was not excited about access to Dead Horse Point. "The so-called road to Death Horse Point" was the headline of a July 18, 1953 report.
"Thanks to the needs of uranium mining companies and oil exploration outfits, a hair-rising eighteen mile stretch of so-called highway has been bulldozed in Dead Horse Point," the story stated.
It said locals claim the view there is equal to any other on the Colorado.
"Summer tourists who don't mind leaving pavement behind -- and having theirs hearts pound at overtime speed from the altitude -- will find the new road from Moab to the Dead Horse lookout a relatively easy route into wilderness of spectacular grandeur," the story continued.
Likely this "new road" was the Shafer trail, a jeep path that winds its way up to Canyonlands from the river level. (See the Shafer Trail report at the bottom of this report...)
Dead Horse Point became a Utah State Park in 1959 (Times Independent article of Dec. 17, 1959) and an actual shelter was constructed atop the lookout mesa in the summer of 1962 (Times Indep. report of March 22, 1962).
"Road to Dead Horse Point much improved" was a Feb. 25, 1965 headline in the Iron County Record newspaper. By that year, 15 miles of the 22 miles to the lookout were paved in a $60,000 project.
Previously, the road was considered very dusty. It was then attracting some 52,000 visitors a year.
From 1965 to the early 1970s, an extra mile or so of the highwway was paved each year. By 1971, only one unpaved mile remained.
Today, a wide paved highway leads to Dead Horse and features no thrills for those afraid of heights -- until the overlook point is reached.

-HOW did the place receive its grisly title?
There are 2 versions, according to "Utah Place Names," a book by John W. Van Cott.
1. Rustlers abandoned their stock there in the late 19th Century to avoid a posse and the animals died there, from lack of water.
2. The more plausible tale is that in 1894, Arthur Taylor, a Moab stockman was herding cattle in the area. He came across a number of dead horses, who had apparently perished from lack of water. They could see the Colorado River below, but could not reach the water. Their demise gave rise to the name.

                        The Shafer Trail is not for the faint of heart traveler.

-SHAFER TRAIL ORIGINATION: This is an exciting unpaved path below Dead Horse Point. The Times Independent of Sept. 18, 1952 had a report on its construction. Three tons of dynamite had been used to create the trail so far and it was only 2/3ds complete.
The Shafer name originated from the Shafer Trail Road Group, composed of oil and uranium men, who invested in labor and machinery to better access the area.
"This is one of the finest examples that could be found of a need causing men to tackle the 'impossible,'" the story concluded.
The Times Indep. of Dec. 4, 1952 reported on the first jeep that traveled the entire new Shafer Trail, going from Dead Horse Point to the Valley below.
Just below Dead Horse Point, the jeep required a blast of dynamite and a bulldozer to clear some 1,000 tons of boulders that were blocking a narrow point -- directly below the mesa's lookout point.
Nick Murphy, Jack Turner, Rud Merz, Dick and Bob Mohler and Lawrence Migllaccia were among the brave jeep occupants.
Nate Knight and Norm Hettman were working on the trail further down and used their equipment and skill to clear the path.
Later, the men scoured the cliffs with geiger counters in search of uranium, which is why the trail even exists today.

                           The steep switchbacks of the extreme west side of the Shafer Trail.

BELOW is a June 25, 1998 story from the Deseret News by Lynn Arave and Ray Boren, about the Shafer trail:


-At the end of her latest jaunt to southeastern Utah, Meladye Shively was ready to head back to Denver in her well-traveled (245,000 miles and counting) white Nissan pickup. Having explored Canyonlands' Island in the Sky for the first time, she'd decided to drop off the peninsular mesa toward the Colorado River gorge via the Shafer Trail.

"I'd never even heard of it before," she admitted during a break at a river viewpoint, "but I didn't want to go home the boring way."The precipitous, unpaved Shafer Trail is anything but boring.

As seen from Dead Horse Point State Park nearby, the Colorado and its tributaries have carved an awesome landscape reminiscent of territory a little farther south along the same great drainage - the Grand Canyon.

A major difference, however, is that here a few roads link the plateau above with the river below. The handiest among these is the Shafer - a gully-crossing, side-winding route that is, at times, a cliffhanger.

Literally.

In the 1880s, Frank and J.H. Shafer began improving the trail - once used by Indians and 19th century outlaws - to move cattle to and from summer rangelands. At the head of a canyon they would work the cows up a steep but traversable slope.

"There were spots on it that were maybe 3 feet wide," said John Simmons, an interpretive ranger at Canyonlands National Park. "Ranchers tell stories that if cattle got scared and backed up on the switchback," they could lose a few of the animals when they tumbled over the edge.

Uranium prospectors and oil companies widened the route in the 1950s, during the Moab area's mining boom years. Much of it was included within Canyonlands' northeastern boundaries when the park was established in 1964. "We do grade it periodically" today, Simmons said.

The Potash Road and the Shafer Trail - unpaved for 18 miles between the Moab Salt Co.'s evaporative ponds and Canyonlands National Park's Island in the Sky district - attract four-wheel-drive enthusiasts, mountain bikers and adventurous tourists. The trek makes a good half-day trip.

"When it's dry, we say it's a high-clearance two-wheel-drive road," Simmons said. In other words, four-wheel-drive is a good idea, though two-wheel-drive trucks and sport utility vehicles can manage it. Family cars and vans have been seen on parts of the trail, but that might not be a wise option. Motor homes and those towing trailers should not use the Shafer Trail.

People should also take into account, as Simmons put it, "their level of comfort with heights." The drop-off exposures along the rim and on the switchbacks can be, well, nerve-racking. In some places, he said, it's better to be a driver - with some sense of control - than a passenger.

The Shafer can be approached from either side: at the end of U-279, 16 miles from that riverside highway's junction with U.S. 191 near Moab, or from Island in the Sky, via the turnoff to the White Rim Trail, just beyond the new fee station.

The elevation of Island in the Sky's east rim is about 5,900 feet above sea level. From Red Sea Flat, the Shafer Trail drops a thousand feet in about the first half mile, thanks to a half-dozen dizzying switchbacks. The road levels off near Canyonlands' White Rim (which hosts a renowned 100-mile jeep-and-bike trail of its own) and in the Shafer Basin.

At this point, back-road explorers find themselves 1,600 feet below Dead Horse Point, a blocky rusty-red butte towering overhead much of the way, and just above the Goose Neck, a notable Colorado River meander visible from the state park's viewpoints.

Although the road is passable in most weather, it's always best to keep an eye on the sky. Even a light rain will turn washes into raging streams of colored water. If a flash flood threatens, get to safety as soon as possible.

Cliffs along the trail can also be a hazard. A Moab man was killed in a 500-foot fall in 1967 when he stopped to take photographs along the trail and slipped.

The landscape and geology can take your breath away. The fractured buttes - variously buff or brown or lavender or maroon - look as if they were hand-made by giants for purposes only giants would understand.

The visible formations include the relatively young Navajo and Kayenta sandstones ("only" 175 million to 180 million years old) and, nearer the carving Colorado, the Moenkopi, Cutler and Rico layers (laid down 230 million to 275 million years ago). These rocks were once windblown sands, ancient streambeds and lakebeds and primordial coastal seas and tidal basins.

Shively, who travels the country for business - she's a computer software writer - and for pleasure, was entranced by the view a few hundred feet directly above the Colorado River. A tour van out of Moab stopped nearby and disgorged a flock of sightseers, most speaking French.

She envied the guide's chosen field, visiting such splendor every day. If only she had such a job . . . .

"Then," Shively said, "when we'd stop at places like this, I'd say, `Look, we're in my office.' "

Grouse Creek, or 'Rabbit Creek'? The rabbit invasion of 1887 in N.W. Utah and more ...

GROUSE Creek remains one of Utah’s most isolated communities. It is still an approximate 35-mile drive on an unpaved/gravel road to reach the extreme northwest Utah town from the south. From the north, it is more like a 41-mile drive on unpaved roads.

Historically, Grouse Creek, Box Elder County, received its name from the stream of water by the same name – and it was titled for the plentiful sage grouse in the area when the first settlers arrived in 1876 (or 1875 by some other accounts).

(The small community was originally called “Cooksville” for a brief time, after Benjamin F. Cooke (often misspelled "Cook"), who dug the first well there.)

Was the “Grouse Creek” name truly applicable? No, not if look at the community about 11 or so years after the first settlers arrived.

“A big rabbit trap” was a Feb. 23, 1887 headline in the Deseret News. This story explained that there was a crisis of rabbits, rabbits everywhere in the area and something had to be done before it became “Rabbit Creek” and not “Grouse Creek.”

Thus, this newspaper story stated that settlers constructed a huge wooden trap (more like a large wooden corral) and herded hundreds of rabbits into it. Then, without firing a shot, some 800 rabbits were beaten to death with clubs.

Settlers also liked that this wooden trap could be taken apart and moved elsewhere.

While this type of mass killing seems inhumane by 21^st Century standards, for 19^th Century pioneers it was about their crops and stock having enough food, to ensure the residents’ survival.
(Note that there is a "Rabbit Springs," located five miles southeast of Grouse Creek.)

The rabbit infestation is a sharp contrast to the very first newspaper description of Grouse Creek, in the Deseret News of Jan. 31, 1877. That report stated there were some 20 settlers living there at the time, all law-abiding farmers, but with no LDS Church bishop or official leader.

This D. News account also noted that plenty of gray wolves, mountain lions and wildcats were roaming the Grouse Creek area.

The story also emphasized how the Grouse Creek area was a perfect place for raising horses, cattle and sheep. However, an official government survey was needed to allow such herd raising.

A Deseret News story on July 11, 1877 stressed how Grouse Creek had plenty of room for more settlers.

Grouse Creek even received a post office in April of 1877, with Benjamin Cooke as postmaster. However, by September of the same year, that post office was closed, presumably to a lack of business (Deseret News Sept. 11, 1877).

The Deseret News of Aug. 22, 1877 reported that Samuel H. Kimball (son of Heber C. Kimball) was called as the first LDS Bishop in Grouse Creek (with counselors B. Cooke, Henry Merrill and W.C. Thomas).

By late winter of 1878, the Deseret News of Feb. 1, 1878 stated that there was stock, some 8,000 in number, roaming the 37,000 acres in Grouse Creek Valley.

“There are no rocks in the valley,” the story stated, explaining that 40 families now resided there. One farmer had already harvested some 250 bushels of barley. There seemed to be no shortage of water in the area and one schoolhouse was already in use there.

However, the Deseret News of Aug. 20, 1878 stated that the water supply was a “failure” that summer and settlers were having to haul it long distances to their farms.

Grouse Creek residents received a financial boost in 1881, when railroad work for the area became available (Deseret News July 27, 1881).

The Salt Lake Herald on Jan. 30, 1891 called Grouse Creek a “small, but industrious place.”

So, ended the first 15 or so years of the community’s beginnings.

1890: The First Mention of a 'Swimming Pool' in Utah

Rainbow Gardens, in Ogden, had a swimming pool from the 1920s to the 1970s. This photo was taken about 1950, back when ballroom dancing was still in a popular phase.


THE very first mention in Utah newspapers mentioning "swimming pools" was in the Salt Lake Times of April 30, 1890.
"The circular bathing house, the center of it under a glass roof, is a swimming pool. Water is brought in pipes from Beck's Hot Spring," the Times article stated.
A few months earlier, in the Times of Jan, 16, 1890, reported this about the same swimming pool and unusually cold weather:
"The cold weather has not affected the water in the large swimming pool of the Natatorium. The water is 100 degrees in the pool and 120 degrees in the private baths."
-Some months later, on July 8, 1890, the Times newspaper reported on a $200,000 plan to create an even better and larger bathing house near the hot springs. 
-Mormon pioneers learned from the area's Native Americans about the hot springs north of Salt Lake City. By 1850, an official resort was located there.
-When the 20th Century arrived, a shift soon started to colder water swimming pools in Utah. By the 1920s, Lagoon Park in Farming, had a large outdoor pool. Not to say that hot springs didn't still exist -Beck Hot Springs continued until 1951. There was also a Utah Hot Spring, located near the Box Elder-Weber County line, that lasted until the late 1950s. Rainbow Gardens, at the mouth of Ogden Canyon, also had a swimming pool that remained open until 1972.
-It is also interested to note when swimming pool sanitation became a health concern in Utah.
"Take bath before swimming to be edict of measure," was a Jan. 21, 1917 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper. Later that year on July 31, a new State law took effect that required every person who wanted to enter a public swimming pool had to take a "bath" (shower).
Also, with the same bill, State Inspectors would not regularly scrutinize public pools for sanitation. In addition, any person with the contagious disease was banned from using a swimming pool.