Thursday, July 25, 2019

When ‘Good Roads Day’ changed Parleys Canyon; Plus, various BYU and U. of U. tales





                                            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.



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