Upper left, the mouth of Parleys Canyon
HATE driving
over bad and bumpy roads? Just over a century ago, Utahns had an annual
opportunity to improve their highways on what was known as “Good Roads Day.”
“Scenery of
Parleys Canyon is changed”. Rotarians celebrate Good Roads Day by practical
demonstration. Luncheon is feature. Blistered hands and aching backs repaid by
the work accomplished” was a June 8, 1917 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune.
The story stated
that on June 7, more than 200 yards of the Parleys Canyon road “underwent a
complete change” and “at the same time a monstrous overhanging cliff, which
threatened traffic on the road to Park City, was completely removed.”
Some 100
Salt Lake businessmen, members of the Rotary and Commercial clubs, attacked the
dirt and rock with shovels and picks.
The F.C.
Richmond’s Machinery Company had used dynamite to erase the overhanging rock on
the road. Utah Power and Light Company, Portland Cement and other businesses
also assisted in the work. An elaborate luncheon was set up down the roadway to
feed the workers.
After a good
day’s work, the stretch of road, considered the most dangerous in the canyon,
“appeared a broad, smooth boulevard, where two motor cars can easily and safely
pass.”
MORE
HISTORY:
-“Student
with bat fells three hazers” was a March 29, 1912 headline in the Salt Lake
Tribune.
The story
stated that a Brigham Young University student in Provo, Robert Hammond,
refused to help whitewash the “Y” on the mountainside, as did most of the other
students. Hammond said preparing to return home to St. Anthony, Idaho the next
day.
Upset fellow
students stormed his room, with the announced intention of shaving his head as
a punishment.
Hammond
responded by providing knockout blow with a baseball bat to three of the
intruding students. Hammond was disarmed and students were still preparing to
shave his head, when Provo Police arrived. One of the students attacked the
police for interfering and was arrested.
The police
were preparing to leave with the prisoner and with Hammond, who they wanted to
take for his protection, when a BYU class president also interfered with
police. One of the officers drew his revolver and told the leader he would be
shot if he advanced. He didn’t but was also arrested and taken to jail.
The three
students hit by the bat were not seriously injured.
-Six years
later, in 1918, the Tribune published a story on University of Utah students
refurbishing their lettered symbol on the mountainside.
“Giant ‘U’
given annual scrubbing. Class antics feature hillside bath” was an April 13
story that year.
The story
stated that the concrete symbol was cleaned and whitewashed by a large group of
University men, as directed by their athletic leader, Homer Warner.
After
completing the task, the men marched in an orderly fashion down the mountain
and past the campus Administration building. They saluted the American flag and
sang patriotic songs. They were then treated to a luncheon served by the women
students.
Next, the
sophomore men had a rope pull over a mud pond against the freshmen men. The
sophomores won the pull, but a free-for-all broke out and many sophomores were
thrown in the pool too.
Finally, the
university baseball team had a game against East High, which the collegians
won. A benefit dance ended the day’s activities.
The block 'U' on the lower University of Utah campus today.
-The
University of Utah Daily Chronicle newspaper of Nov. 3, 1922 listed the history
of the “U” on the hill, whose origin dates back to the fall of 1905.
The story
claims, “so far as anyone in this region knew, it was the first symbol of its
kind to be founded.” (Only one of the colleges in California was believed to
have started the letter in the hillside tradition any earlier.)
The letter
on the hillside was predated up to six months by a controversy on the
mountainside.
A student
realized in the spring of 1905 that a nearby lime kiln had an ample supply of
white lime, while a nearby mine featured a black, coal-like substance.
“One morning
the whole campus was surprised to see the letters ‘07’ blazing forth on the
hillside,” the story stated. “The idea had not been patented and for several
weeks a series of class fights and strenuous battles were held. One night the
letters of one class would be put there, only to be changed the following
morning.”
Soon,
classes would camp on the hillside to protect their letter creations and so
schoolwork was seriously disrupted by the competition.
By the fall
that year, student body officers had the class letters removed and replaced
with a temporary block “U”.
“The letter
excited so much comment and was considered such a fine thing that the student
body officers desired to make it permanent.”
A two-day
holiday was granted to all male students in the spring of 1906 and money was
raised on campus and from the community. The result was a concrete symbol.
Looking down on the University of Utah campus today.
However, a
gravel road had to be built to the site and borrowed horses struggled to haul
materials there. Nearby Fort Douglas loaned out six mules, plus wagons and
drivers for the task.
(There was
another brief controversy between classes over symbols on an old smokestack on
campus, but eventually the University President stopped that fiasco.)
Campus
officials were proud that the letter grew out of class strife to become a
unifying symbol for the University.
Three
students, Carl Scott, H.L. Marshall and
Stayner Richards are credited with the original idea of putting class letters
on the mountainside.
