tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68051449270158913332024-03-20T08:11:00.474-07:00The Mystery Of Utah HistoryLynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.comBlogger252125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-44972353534814391792023-07-01T18:23:00.003-07:002023-07-03T13:35:21.587-07:00The 'Fruit Heights Dinosaur' appears on the mountainside<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinv3Rkshl6LM5Y0MYvus04hJYBT3vfwcpaxDEv5PzN-tZFW5-HVOnwsWlsTlzVhyoUixtIL6g6_J1232R90g6st4bbP7-Fy0kP1ew2Wl63MDZpTQZyP6FIPr6sdfIDZtpslDHf0-tqXt4HDxr5fmmPJcEzMLCZaNElOLq2pr5FyjPZkMM0b1yOaSks9Co/s4032/No.%201%202nd%20snow%20horse,%20July%201,%202023%20by%20Leann.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinv3Rkshl6LM5Y0MYvus04hJYBT3vfwcpaxDEv5PzN-tZFW5-HVOnwsWlsTlzVhyoUixtIL6g6_J1232R90g6st4bbP7-Fy0kP1ew2Wl63MDZpTQZyP6FIPr6sdfIDZtpslDHf0-tqXt4HDxr5fmmPJcEzMLCZaNElOLq2pr5FyjPZkMM0b1yOaSks9Co/w480-h640/No.%201%202nd%20snow%20horse,%20July%201,%202023%20by%20Leann.JPG" width="480" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 17.12px;">Look at the dinosaur-like shape, south of the Francis Peak Radar domes, Picture taken from Layton's Main Street at 1000 North. Photo by LeAnn Arave.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 20pt;"> A new animal-like shape in the snow appeared on the Wasatch Mountains, above Layton on June 30, 2023.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 20pt;"> Located south of the famous “snow horse,” this snow shape is south of and just below the Francis Peak radar domes and resembles a dinosaur with a long tail in this view. In other views, it looks more like a horse and some on social media say it looks like a dog, dragon, or even a kangaroo.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 20pt;"> Perhaps the shape could be titled the Fruit Heights Dinosaur, since that's the closest town to it?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 20pt;"> The author has never seen this shape appear in at least the last 32 years, so it may relate to all the extra snow the Wasatch Front received in the winter of 2022-2023. If so, the shape may not reappear for decades. It may also mean that subtle changes in the Wasatch Mountains occur more often than commonly believed.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 20pt;"> On July 1, 2023, the actual snow horse shape hit a rare milestone, with half of it still being visible. In pioneer legends, that meant water would flow from all the Wasatch Mountains creeks all summer long, if any part of the snow horse was still visible on July 1.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr2JSYLL4bhm9VlhWRMf0DVWbGVJ5LV2aKeLVfm3zntI-QlbfvYzsDBbqKhnypW4ZtzpdHoZisouEzQpkEhA1gd3NURv_Nj3rrZpPSjPz_BP9uQ7e1_HYXe99bI1-QNxhThdiONiVWS3K9YYv6KiU6Kn-p2o0urOAQsjDed2iUExBHp0l2XMQEsDB0b1U/s3648/IMG_0001.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="3648" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr2JSYLL4bhm9VlhWRMf0DVWbGVJ5LV2aKeLVfm3zntI-QlbfvYzsDBbqKhnypW4ZtzpdHoZisouEzQpkEhA1gd3NURv_Nj3rrZpPSjPz_BP9uQ7e1_HYXe99bI1-QNxhThdiONiVWS3K9YYv6KiU6Kn-p2o0urOAQsjDed2iUExBHp0l2XMQEsDB0b1U/w640-h360/IMG_0001.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> Another view of the new animal shape.<p></p><div><br /></div>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-13535255522739309042021-08-06T20:49:00.003-07:002021-08-07T12:02:03.665-07:00Newspapers.com equals the only real time travel<p><b><br /></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtic0do8d_8wRpP1SRlTr2uhyQB8nZkbXZIAu9Sv5sjkpKu4KDV3PlT74ST55xozH67RjKc5Mxn6f8q3xKZknaPWN8ayLgqDQat3-S7ZAdXJSgkSVK_NbAefdnbwdGc78_Cw-cUgZy5Uh/s2048/Oct2010+032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhtic0do8d_8wRpP1SRlTr2uhyQB8nZkbXZIAu9Sv5sjkpKu4KDV3PlT74ST55xozH67RjKc5Mxn6f8q3xKZknaPWN8ayLgqDQat3-S7ZAdXJSgkSVK_NbAefdnbwdGc78_Cw-cUgZy5Uh/w640-h480/Oct2010+032.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>Newspapers, like the Deseret News, have a wealth of information in their archives.</p><p style="font-weight: bold;"><b><br /></b></p><b> </b><span style="font-size: large;"><b>HAVE</b> you ever dreamed of traveling through time?</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> <span>OLD newspapers are the only known way to do this.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Newspapers.com offers an almost endless archive of old newspapers from across the country -- and even some foreign entries.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Just search by name or keyword and it is amazing what can be found about parents, relatives and others.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Until the late 1970s, EVERY speeding ticket and fender bender were usually printed in local newspapers. Also, coverage of weddings used to be very detailed with the names of the entire wedding party. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Some former classmates or friends, who one has lost track of, might be able to be located through old newspapers. At the least, it is almost always possible to find out what they did before the year 2000 or so. (Not everyone is on Facebook.)</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggdw5p8SU-mw8I2TTbW_R__5-wVvmr5WCPCSu5_DzEHrgTkfpkBaKuPmHjI6b15MMeiLnl3QyodyEbcy8wfgDwQeUTOfCx9t2PsVtlgEcHPZJveJZUp8Rcsp6-Az6BPXt4SyIFGlY9YRfP/s2048/Oct2010+036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggdw5p8SU-mw8I2TTbW_R__5-wVvmr5WCPCSu5_DzEHrgTkfpkBaKuPmHjI6b15MMeiLnl3QyodyEbcy8wfgDwQeUTOfCx9t2PsVtlgEcHPZJveJZUp8Rcsp6-Az6BPXt4SyIFGlY9YRfP/w480-h640/Oct2010+036.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>You don't have to rely on library shelves for historical information these days, just the Web.<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">If a person is in their 50s or more, they will especially be excited about what can be found about relatives and friends. Even some of their own accomplishments, that they didn't know were even in a newspaper back in the day, might be discovered.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">But be warned! These searches can create some family mysteries that may not be fully solved, because key people involved might have passed on. So, don't wait too long to do newspapers searches.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The author personally found that an uncle had survived a head-on collision with a gasoline tanker; that his great-grandfather constructed the first bridge in Morgan, Utah -- and much more. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Newspapers.com also offers a free, seven day trial.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvf1sM4hq8IViQG6gnCc2J7_ZxZWkNLHys23xDGA1th06YlvMq6jBW11lfSTH4Quxm4-whh3Yqz_XC6BpIq97DcwbkFi2i-eQw3MkTWysvT7xz1wj0MaP671RF-wVhleT5prnmc18R4rkl/s2048/Oct2010+039.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvf1sM4hq8IViQG6gnCc2J7_ZxZWkNLHys23xDGA1th06YlvMq6jBW11lfSTH4Quxm4-whh3Yqz_XC6BpIq97DcwbkFi2i-eQw3MkTWysvT7xz1wj0MaP671RF-wVhleT5prnmc18R4rkl/w480-h640/Oct2010+039.jpg" width="480" /></a></div> One of the original Deseret News presses, from the 19th Century.,<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-17466092561410677542021-03-10T18:47:00.005-08:002021-03-10T18:48:51.775-08:00When Davis County's Bluff Road was gated <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3CDRVaS12yY-2mKnghgzBhdnKm0L4h18W8oZxI30mtgVeXyKCupsSm6PWGzDzDzhXQs0sRkKaLrufsdE15j8LO3OJwNR6x_Di1mKqP6vSuTsui_m7YOjMCxPx3y_eTVjQN2hbKmkPzeKF/s2048/Bluff+Road+sign.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3CDRVaS12yY-2mKnghgzBhdnKm0L4h18W8oZxI30mtgVeXyKCupsSm6PWGzDzDzhXQs0sRkKaLrufsdE15j8LO3OJwNR6x_Di1mKqP6vSuTsui_m7YOjMCxPx3y_eTVjQN2hbKmkPzeKF/w480-h640/Bluff+Road+sign.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>BLUFF</b> Road is a prominent north-south corridor road in west Davis County today.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The highway traverses through Syracuse on the south and proceeds into West Point and Clinton.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">However, in 1926-1927, during the decade when automobiles began to become popular, the road was gated shut.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">According to the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Bountiful on March 11, 1926, Thomas Sessions from Syracuse appeared before the Davis County Commission to complain that despite being "a public road -- the old Bluff road -- was closed by a gate having been built across the road."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Commission referred to the matter to the Davis County Attorney, with instructions to have the road opened to the public.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The next time this issue came up in any newspaper, it was some 19 months later, in the Dec. 22, 1927 Weekly Reflex. This article stated that Lawrence Corbridge constructed the gate across Bluff Road.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">O.W. Willey of Syracuse objected to the road being closed, it blocking access to some of his property. The County Commissioners ordered the road to be county property and that the gate can be opened at any time.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">The Bluff Road was one of the key pioneer trails in Davis County in the 19th Century.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCsVRaL9KWZ_PTLZdl6XGqTMx-SGsOjROlbwyXmageMMSMdUlBAU-nntRKpukQKSxGsZuY13Jf8mJtmweRT3ZDpEPW3ssc-F4RHKoVKOzQYoEoicWBi7E4lUTxy9vrjEfVAffe0vu10cG/s2048/Bluff+Monument.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdCsVRaL9KWZ_PTLZdl6XGqTMx-SGsOjROlbwyXmageMMSMdUlBAU-nntRKpukQKSxGsZuY13Jf8mJtmweRT3ZDpEPW3ssc-F4RHKoVKOzQYoEoicWBi7E4lUTxy9vrjEfVAffe0vu10cG/w480-h640/Bluff+Monument.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"> The monument to Bluff Road's pioneer legacy.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAssXF7hUS1iTFZdvYbN0j0N0r_ENpmoAhRclwOsO4usIxSq9ff3HUey1q-CqGCb9bo9Nmfe1WifSOLInVA5ABdgJZCwe8Eac3xhE8P7ogcF7VjNxXBfPtc75ZbPpXIJe8LQ2uHyPDVsBa/w640-h480/Bluff+road+sign2.JPG" width="640" /></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-15508302178640485512021-02-11T14:16:00.001-08:002021-02-11T14:16:20.010-08:00The mystery of Utah’s ‘Mountain of Christ’: Monte Cristo<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJNNLw77DimP-q73uBDaAGjJ9jN2s-cQ8aghSurhV2MKNXQF8N2ZkpWg6IwuktetJpoTck0-RTM7UmV4iy4VoCeJWJQkx9EGQBvmfiXbFnsztPG0EkOAYvzczFf5ZWDHdTy_uKgKRlWpv8/s1600/Monte+Peak2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1079" data-original-width="1600" height="430" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJNNLw77DimP-q73uBDaAGjJ9jN2s-cQ8aghSurhV2MKNXQF8N2ZkpWg6IwuktetJpoTck0-RTM7UmV4iy4VoCeJWJQkx9EGQBvmfiXbFnsztPG0EkOAYvzczFf5ZWDHdTy_uKgKRlWpv8/s640/Monte+Peak2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
Monte Cristo Peak, center, 9,148 feet above sea level.<br />
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b>MANY</b> decades
before a viable seasonal highway (U-39) traversed its heights, the Monte Cristo
Mountains, about 40 miles northwest of Ogden, generated mystery and
fascination.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">Hundreds of
miners had passed below, to the northwest when the La Plata mines were in their
1890s heyday, but even the height of Monte Cristo was unknown in the early 20<sup>th</sup>
Century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">“A grand
trip to ‘Old Monte,’ Near but unknown solitude and grandeur in the Monte
Christo (sic) Mountains” was an August 26, 1908 headline in the Logan Republican
newspaper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">“It is
distinctly a region of scenery and scenery on a scale of grandeur obtainable in
very few places,” the story stated, dubbing it Utah’s “Garden of the Gods.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">“You may
drive all day and meet no one, see no signs of habitation, unless it be a lone
sheep herder’s tent,” the story stated, saying sheep men call the area “Old
Monte” and that its greatest charm is solitude and being cut off from the world
of humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">The Ogden
Standard-Examiner of Aug. 11, 1910 also reported on the mystery of Monte
Cristo. It stated that a party of Ogdenites were going to travel there to
ascertain the height of the tallest peak there, Monte Cristo. Rumors had for
several decades since the La Plata mining boon below, believed the summit to be
between 11,000 and 13,000 feet above sea level.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1rgO0wDeaBlcNYxLRL-pNXaK_UH47dbFgUdsqvZfvJMTCZe0EiMBMSnLTnXqUfyjfzf2JLpnG7xHahjuOKavw_A42aGPboT8kxhyphenhyphenvXIkGbolnrMKpNCDL3iI-Q_3Nyzw0rOeDaM7WXf4/s1600/Monte+Cristo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1rgO0wDeaBlcNYxLRL-pNXaK_UH47dbFgUdsqvZfvJMTCZe0EiMBMSnLTnXqUfyjfzf2JLpnG7xHahjuOKavw_A42aGPboT8kxhyphenhyphenvXIkGbolnrMKpNCDL3iI-Q_3Nyzw0rOeDaM7WXf4/s640/Monte+Cristo.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 106%;"> The Monte Cristo Mountains as seen from Snowbasin.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">The Monte
Cristo mountains are where four Utah counties – Weber, Rich, Cache and Morgan
all intersect and where the nearest towns are Huntsville or Woodruff, both
about 22 bird-flying miles in any straight direction.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">The Salt Lake
Tribune of Aug. 18, 1910 reported on the group’s findings: “The height of the
mountain which many in the party had been led to believe was inaccessible and
one of the highest in the state, was found to be 8,950 feet above sea level.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">(Modern
measurements have upped that elevation to 9,148 feet above sea level.)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq4dX8MS4U-BHDS-P3Itv0S-FHBqh2v6uqdMEpzMlfFaV3vlLHRYkcD4c_NGpKIZ00yifTrc4ymPKTZUpqIu5Q6QcH_aT1CQrFn0ZhSBf3IiaVG2HdjOJriEbkeouuKmvQqf8P9FbRz8Rx/s1600/Monte+Cristo+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq4dX8MS4U-BHDS-P3Itv0S-FHBqh2v6uqdMEpzMlfFaV3vlLHRYkcD4c_NGpKIZ00yifTrc4ymPKTZUpqIu5Q6QcH_aT1CQrFn0ZhSBf3IiaVG2HdjOJriEbkeouuKmvQqf8P9FbRz8Rx/s640/Monte+Cristo+1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="line-height: 106%;"> Monte Cristo and Utah Highway 39 in late May.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">-Who gave
the mountains and tallest peak their religious name, Monte Cristo, is also a
mystery for the ages. According to the book, “Utah Place Names,” by John W. Van
Cott, there are three different claims for the name’s origin:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">1. Miners
returning from California though the range resembled the Monte Cristo Mountains
of California; 2. The name could have been given by early French-Canadian
trappers; and 3. One of the early road builders in the area carried a copy of
the book, “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which he read to his co-workers at night
around the campfire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">However,
since the 1908 Logan Republican story spotlighted to remoteness of the area –
and no road was mentioned, but the name Monte was there – that leaves only
credence for the first two origins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">(Note: “Monte
Cristo” also means “Mountain of Christ” in Spanish.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;"><b>MORE HISTORY
ITEMS:</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">-The Salt Lake
Herald of July 11, 1909 outlined the report of one of the first known
automobile trip to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. This Woolley
Automobiling Party went from Salt Lake City to Kanab/Fredonia and required 39
hours and 20 minutes of driving the 430 total miles before looking down at
Bright Angel Creek from the Rim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">-The Ogden
Bay Waterfowl Management Area was the first federally funded waterfowl
management area in the United States, according to the Davis County Clipper of Nov.
26, 1976.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 106%;">This area is
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<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-59127733711999899852021-02-11T14:14:00.002-08:002024-02-29T19:33:05.104-08:00'Moki' Dugway: The most unforgettable/scariest road in Utah, but a view to die for?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The heart of the Moki Dugway switchbacks.</div>
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Photo by Ray Boren in 2018.</div>
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<b style="font-size: x-large;">WHAT</b><span style="font-size: large;"> the upper Angels Landing Trail in Zion National Park is to hiking (scariest and most unforgettable), the "Moki" (sometimes also spelled "Moqui" or "Mokee") Dugway is the equivalent to highway driving in Utah.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Often known in San Juan County, Utah as "White knuckle hill," this three-mile-long graded dirt road with an 11 percent grade is unique in the State Highway system, it being a segment of Highway 261, from Mexican Hat to Highway 95 (south of Bear's Ears) or a shortcut to Hite Crossing on Lake Powell.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This road climbs 1,200 feet up a sandstone cliff face and has no guard rails. The road is also so camouflaged into the cliffs, that you have to almost be on the switchbacks to see them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 29.3333px;">The road drops 750 feet in just 440 yards.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Going up or down is an experience not soon forgotten," is how the San Juan Record newspaper described driving the Moki Dugway on July 24, 1985. The Dugway has become one of the area's spectacular attractions -- and the nearby Muley Point Overlook doubles the eye candy.</span></div>
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Approaching the cliff the Moki Dugway climbs up is almost invisible until you're driving on it!</div>
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Photo by Ray Boren in 2018.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 29.3333px; text-align: start;">Supposedly, the future Moki Dugway slope is where Ute Chief Posey, though wounded, somehow came down the steep mountain and eluded law officers in the 1920s, intent on capturing the Chief for the final Ute uprising.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">According to the San Juan Record of July 13, 2005, the Dugway's original name was "Isabelle Hill," though no one seems to know why, or when it switched to "Moki." Why some variations of the name spell it "Moqui" or "Mokee" is also unknown, but the shortest spelling is the norm now by common usage.</span></div>
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Even the sign at the top of the Dugway spells it as "Moki" these days.<br />
Photo by Ray Boren.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The switchbacks begin at an elevation of 5,325 feet above sea level and top out at 6,525 feet.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The San Juan Record of July 1, 1998 proclaimed the road, "gives new thrills to the driving experiences of the southwest" ... and "provides access to an overlook on top that provides panoramic views of the area."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">How did this Dugway come to be?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Texas Zinc Corporation began to build the Dugway and a total of 33 miles of road in 1955 from Utah Highway 95 south across Cedar Mesa to Mexican Hat, according to the San Juan Record of Jan. 7, 1965. Plagued by strikes, the road was finally complete in mid-1957 and it provided direct access from the high elevation mines down to a uranium mill at Mexican Hat.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Dugway portion of the road alone cost $1 million (more than $9 million in 2020 dollar value).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The road was deeded over to the State of Utah in 1957 and officially opened as a state highway on Aug. 10, 1957. Yet, the other portions of U-261 were not paved until 1961-62.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"> The Moki Dugway, a gravel segment, is that gap in the red color along Highway 316.</span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">(Texas Zinc Corp. was bought by Atlas Corporation in 1963 and the uranium mill at Mexican Hat closed in 1965.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">San Juan County asked the UDOT to pave the road several times over the decades, including in 1971, according to the San Juan Record on Jan. 21, 1971. However, that never happened and the road remains gravel today.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(To bypass
the Moki Dugway means drivers have to go along U-191 from Mexican Hat toward
Blanding and then turn left onto U-95 toward Hite. The difference in distance
is 30 extra miles without the Dugway, or about 37 minutes extra in travel time.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The movie, "Chill Factor," (1999) filmed on the Moki Dugway.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Drivers going northwest out of Mexican Hat on U-261 see a high cliff in the distance and wonder where the road goes until the switchbacks come into view. It is likely motor home operators, big rig drivers and those afraid of heights who are unaware of the Dugway, surely question their sanity when they encounter the switchbacks going up or down.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Monument Valley High School held the "Moki Dugway Hill Climb," a three-mile footrace on Dec. 14, 1991. Newspapers only contain that one single reference to the race being held.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">One Google review of the Moki Dugway describes it as an "incredibly scary gravel road like going down the side of the Grand Canyon." Another recommends that only those unafraid of heights drive it, while some others thought it was over-rated.</span><br />
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Looking down a portion of the Moki Dugway to U-261 below is like looking out of an airplane.<br />
Photo by Ray Boren.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-"Skyway prospects delight San Juan" was a Dec. 29, 1968 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune. Reporter Carl E. Hayden stated that there was a plan to build a "sky railway" from the top of the Moki Dugway at Muley Point to Mexican Hat.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">People would be shuttled from Mexican Hat and up the Dugway -- about 16 miles -- in buses and then be able to pay to ride a gravity powered cable car about 12 miles straight down as the bird flies to Mexican Hat.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This "would give tourists the breathtaking joy of ascending the Moki Dugway," according to the Tribune.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, the skyway was never built and in today's era, with controversy over increased commercial access to the nearby Bear's Ears area, sacred to Native Americans, the development would probably never happen.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"> Near Bear's Ears, with Navajo Mountain looming in the background.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;"> -Photo by Ravell Call.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>AT LEAST 5 ACCIDENTS ON THE MOKI DUGWAY:</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, people have died on the Moki Dugway. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1. According to the San Juan Record of May 17, 1989, the first death happened about 1965. A man driving down the Dugway stopped and got out of his truck to urinate at the first turn from the stop. Lonnie Wilson, a passenger in the truck said he heard the driver say, "Oh My God!" from the rear of the vehicle and he was gone. His lifeless body was found on the next ridge below.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">2. The newspaper said that scene was nearly repeated in 1989 when Howard Kinlicheeny, age 26, was in a pickup with friends and also stopped to relieve himself. He slipped off the road and fell 40 feet down. He suffered a severed spinal cord and a fracture on his femur.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">3. The San Juan Record of May 11, 1994 carried the headline, "Mother dies in one-car accident." Jane Madison Navaho, 21, of Tonalea, Arizona, died when the car she was a passenger in went off the road near the top of the Dugway. She was thrown out of the vehicle after it plunged 60 feet and then rolled over her. Her husband, Dickie Navaho, was injured and had to extricated from the vehicle. The driver, Mary Stephens of Pasadena, Calif., was able to crawl out of the car. She was the only one wearing a seat belt. The Utah Highway Patrol said Stephens was driving too fast and lost control coming down the Dugway's first curve.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">4. The San Juan Record of July 22, 1987, in a column by Doris Valle, recounted the tale of a driver who walked away from a fiery crash on the Dugway. Richard Nielson was starting to drive down the cliff's switchbacks in a uranium ore truck, probably in the early 1960s. The truck's brakes failed and then the steering, causing it to go over the first cliff coming down the Dugway. Flames erupted under the hood and Nielson's foot was caught by some crumpled metal inside the cab. The flames suddenly died down and started again, twice, with a few minutes in between. He finally got his foot unstuck and though shaken up, climbed back up the hill to the top of the Dugway. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He "came up behind two other truckers who stood aghast, looking down at the smoldering wreckage below. They were ready to climb down to find Richard's body when he tapped one on the shoulder, 'What're waiting for?" he asked. "Let's get on down the road!"'</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">5. According to the San Juan Record of April 13, 2005, a family was almost to the bottom of the switchbacks that year when above them boulders the size of houses came loose and fell on the ledges above. They escaped injury, but a parked road grader higher up the Dugway was damaged by rock fall.</span><br />
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<b> </b> Hikers to Angels Landing today hang on to chains, anchored to pipes. Photo by Roger Arave.
<span style="font-size: large; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large;"><b>MORE HISTORY:</b> The Washington County News of Dec. 24, 1925 stated that the first official trail from the end of the road in upper Zion Canyon to the Narrows had been constructed that year. There were 2 different trails, one for hoses and another for pedestrians, leading from the Temple of Sinawava to the Narrows to the Virgin River.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Also, the newspaper stated that the same year, 500 feet of pipe railing had been added "to render the climb to Angels' Landing safe for the timid person." That was something secure to hang on to during the climb up and down the steep path.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Angels Landing with chains.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"> Photo by Roger Arave.</span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-67895239918963660162021-02-11T14:12:00.003-08:002021-02-11T14:12:46.446-08:00Snow Basin used to host a sports car hill climb; Plus, Mount Ogden's original name and more ...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>SNOW</b> Basin has been site of more than ski races over the decades. For three years, from 1961-1963, there was a "Snow Basin Hill Climb" that raced sports cars on the Snow Basin paved road.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The course included 12 hills in its slightly less than two-mile-long event. It was also billed at the first such car race in Utah for some 20 years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"100 sports cars to compete in Basin" was a May 29, 1962 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. The Ogden Motor Sports Racing Association was the original sponsor of the race.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The first race in 1961 had to be postponed from May 28, to June 9-10, because of inclement weather.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Even though the race's third and final event, in 1963, attracted 1,300 spectators, it was never held again. A car did flip over in that final event, but no one was injured.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitz_gWqsssS7wtWSvGL3yMlwaiUslE-s1tRdhPUDee-XwgJm-kp65uoGGlnXtwRHz52YDQtKnqPE4DxR9d-rsCFODSI7Sg5GRX4qyyCRrmgi2SVdv4V9M0Gjrxg2Rvd_BZYtLxTD7KHNSm/s1600/July2010+031.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitz_gWqsssS7wtWSvGL3yMlwaiUslE-s1tRdhPUDee-XwgJm-kp65uoGGlnXtwRHz52YDQtKnqPE4DxR9d-rsCFODSI7Sg5GRX4qyyCRrmgi2SVdv4V9M0Gjrxg2Rvd_BZYtLxTD7KHNSm/s640/July2010+031.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"> Looking down at Snow Basin from the Wasatch Mountain saddle.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">After the Snow Basin Race was gone, the annual Moab Hill Climb each spring gained great popularity. (It was later renamed the Easter Jeep Safari.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">-Jump forward to July 1, 1967 and a different Snow Basin Hill Climb was held -- this one for bicycles. However, this race began at the mouth of Ogden Canyon, went east up the Canyon and accessed the original Snow Basin Road to the resort. This race also only lasted a few years.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">-MORE HISTORY: The Civilian Conservation Corps ("CCC") helped build the road in Wheeler Canyon in the late 1930s and early 1940s. However, World War II halted their work before the road was completed. According to the Standard-Examiner of Oct. 27, 1955, the Utah National Guard finally completed the road. Several narrow sections of the canyon had to be dynamited to create a two-lane wide road. Today, the road is also titled "Art Nord Drive," in honor of A.J. Nord who was assistant regional forester for the U.S. Forest Service in the area and who pushed to complete the canyon road.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwj1rph47TAN3KzJU_xo-LkbQ2Y3VqIyQQ3mPNgyEHurpoh28gZ0HLKOkKHL_LwXJMw-Y2Vaqza-S2CwgZAsMelCQHQB8CSHlRuv7gGfN1I7PmqY2S9Wnqcic0tlQceWPssUBP8sW6TJ6c/s1600/Ogden+Canyon3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwj1rph47TAN3KzJU_xo-LkbQ2Y3VqIyQQ3mPNgyEHurpoh28gZ0HLKOkKHL_LwXJMw-Y2Vaqza-S2CwgZAsMelCQHQB8CSHlRuv7gGfN1I7PmqY2S9Wnqcic0tlQceWPssUBP8sW6TJ6c/s640/Ogden+Canyon3.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"> An old post card of the original dam in Ogden Canyon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-BEFORE Pineview Reservoir was built (1934-1937), there was a much smaller reservoir located just west of the current Dam and at the head of Wheeler Canyon. "Big storage reservoir" was an Oct. 31, 1905 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune. This Utah Light & Railway Company and Ogden City water storage project provided electrical power, as well as summer water. Sometimes called "Power Dam," it was built from 1909-1910, was an average of 23 feet deep and held 21 million gallons of water. Its construction meant the road through Ogden Canyon had to be rerouted. This dam was drained and replaced by Pineview, located to the east.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrqIE1SnVAR6vV-Hl5Au8K3IQF2Tx7EWH6ipOPoS1zmhuKLGjRawLWKovM9ESpKolDIAExwos4qzwSZawicgucfq0Yl6uVqnmKJiJoxcUOJbDVdQMci-dFulG7_5R7T5cLGoRU3aBvemEQ/s1600/July2010+051.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrqIE1SnVAR6vV-Hl5Au8K3IQF2Tx7EWH6ipOPoS1zmhuKLGjRawLWKovM9ESpKolDIAExwos4qzwSZawicgucfq0Yl6uVqnmKJiJoxcUOJbDVdQMci-dFulG7_5R7T5cLGoRU3aBvemEQ/s640/July2010+051.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"> Mount Ogden from the southwest side.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-</span><span style="font-size: large;">Ogden Peak was the original title for Mount Ogden Peak, according to the first U.S. Geological Survey through Weber County's eastern side in 1873. Next, according the Standard-Examiner of July 19, 1956, the peak was briefly dubbed "Henderson's Peak," to honor one of the men who conducted that first survey. A third temporary name, "Observatory Peak," was the moniker for the mountain during the time of the Malan's Basin Resort, at the end of the 19th Century. By the early 20th Century, Mount Ogden became the accepted name now listed on all maps.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5W9oUcV3GbuvhDJbL5iC5DFeebNlmt4iGwAB9-U2zCqNVMeLsyTP6329dlKMZgILocY-Z_6IC4c2JcL7B8LvdG5-JIfYuvewRn_QyURcRx9RDoHNEJbL3NUcp5wo_NzfzQhSUUkxYW8fY/s1600/DSCN1147.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-size: x-large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5W9oUcV3GbuvhDJbL5iC5DFeebNlmt4iGwAB9-U2zCqNVMeLsyTP6329dlKMZgILocY-Z_6IC4c2JcL7B8LvdG5-JIfYuvewRn_QyURcRx9RDoHNEJbL3NUcp5wo_NzfzQhSUUkxYW8fY/s640/DSCN1147.JPG" width="640" /></a></span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> Mount Ogden as viewed from the eastern, Snow Basin side.</span><br />
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<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-14494973792934854392021-02-11T14:12:00.001-08:002024-02-29T19:35:20.866-08:00When the Great Salt Lake was proposed as a National Park; Plus, more history<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggPA8zgIQECgDv4hcMsH64jiszzFhR1u2PcggNQuCDhz-ShBYT9P3-BSJoCPcT0YnrmrV1c-EnVoE4d8RVPQbo5FuN2WnV7peJ3x-EqbdTOHNmb-f8Wo2LU4S_0I89UbNd4_z8KQ3KhvF3/s1600/Antelope+Summit+view+by+Roger+Arave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggPA8zgIQECgDv4hcMsH64jiszzFhR1u2PcggNQuCDhz-ShBYT9P3-BSJoCPcT0YnrmrV1c-EnVoE4d8RVPQbo5FuN2WnV7peJ3x-EqbdTOHNmb-f8Wo2LU4S_0I89UbNd4_z8KQ3KhvF3/s640/Antelope+Summit+view+by+Roger+Arave.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<b><span style="font-size: medium;"> A view of the Great Salt Lake from Buffalo Point on Antelope Island.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"> -Photo by Roger Arave</span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE</b> Great Salt Lake is one of Utah's most well-known assets. However, few seem to be aware that in 1960 the briny body of water was proposed as a national park.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Of course, that status was never awarded, but Utah Senator Frank Moss did seek it, according to the Weekly Reflex newspaper of March 24, 1960.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Moss explained in the newspaper article that he never wanted the entire lake to be a national park, just a portion of the lake's shore.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He realized even in 1960, that industrial uses were impairing the lake and that developments also threatened it. While he didn't want to restrict any of the economic value of the lake, he was open to studying fresh water bay possibilities and more.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-<b>MORE HISTORY</b>: "Six stranded on Antelope Island get back safely," was an Oct. 27, 1932 headline in the Weekly Reflex newspaper. The men, Nephi Ross, Earl Stoddard, Paul and Francis Fowers -- all from Hooper, plus Frank and Charles Stoddard from West Point.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The men took a motor boat from the West Point Gun Club in hopes of rescuing a boat that was beached off the edge of Antelope Island a week earlier. That task was too difficult and their food supply ran out. They spent a night on the Isle and lit a fire to show relatives they were OK.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A Utah Pacific Airways plane was chartered and flew over Antelope Island in search of the. The pilot never found them, just a herd of about 25 buffalo.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The men finally freed the boat, but a storm preventing them from leaving the island until later in the day.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpQKnkpG4HTKC6RmAAggWte25MjMDZB_i90Zf6gIpoyeWqRzevRSdMgpAEAotMz4Bk636jx0VCkXKDpnuZIcrHJQpZ66ABJ1T2TCBh8uQGv10nLqjjqWY8lwftdI8Jn4ND0uGaEWoR9j8/s1600/Pineview+Dam+by+Whitney.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzpQKnkpG4HTKC6RmAAggWte25MjMDZB_i90Zf6gIpoyeWqRzevRSdMgpAEAotMz4Bk636jx0VCkXKDpnuZIcrHJQpZ66ABJ1T2TCBh8uQGv10nLqjjqWY8lwftdI8Jn4ND0uGaEWoR9j8/s640/Pineview+Dam+by+Whitney.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"> Pineview Dam. Photo by Whitney Arave</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>-FACTS</b> about a proposed Pineview Reservoir: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Cost: $3 million.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Shoreline: 17.5 miles</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Maximum depth: 56 feet in front of the dam.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Highways to Huntsville and Eden rerouted on the sides.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Source: Ogden Standard Examiner of Sept. 28, 1934.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-<b>THERE </b>was an obscure development while constructing Pineview Reservoir: For more than 40 years, the Utah Power and Light Company operated a small reservoir below Wheeler Canyon and found west of the new Pineview Dam. This old reservoir had to be drained and discarded and the old highway rerouted through it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In addition trucks with water tanks hauled fish away as the reservoir was drained.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Standard-Examiner of Oct. 7, 1934 chronicled some of this prep work and that a Civilian Conservation Corps camp was being erected near Huntsville.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-<b>WHEN </b>the Utah State Prison in Sugarhouse was slated for replacement, it eventually ended up in Draper, near Point of the Mountain. Another explored possibility was Antelope Island. However, another proposal is much more obscure -- west of Bountiful, near the Great Salt Lake.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">According to the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Jan. 24, 1929, Salt Lake County was pushing for the prison to be moved northwest of the Cudahy Packing Plant (near today's Cudahy Lane).</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A key problem with that proposal was that the Utah State Constitution required that the prison be located in Salt Lake County. So, Davis County would have to give the land to Salt Lake County for that to have ever happened. This proposal never took place and since Davis County is by far the smallest county of the 29 in Utah, it turned out well.</span><br />
<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-182447581482213742021-02-11T14:12:00.000-08:002021-02-11T14:12:05.896-08:001914: When South Hooper, Clinton and South Weber sought to join Weber County<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyDw_uwa-ecC_P8u0bQV2-qb-eZF3FbwDoN2ODgifyLcFXy4boZcYdwhSm1mSfUuV-xttHUQPrONGvXTcdb7NM5suWzkegOKQqQYxYcFL9IEy_cuRRmxP1WpjUVIRQoO9yXZ5ka1Igdnn1/s1600/38+Davis+County+sign.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyDw_uwa-ecC_P8u0bQV2-qb-eZF3FbwDoN2ODgifyLcFXy4boZcYdwhSm1mSfUuV-xttHUQPrONGvXTcdb7NM5suWzkegOKQqQYxYcFL9IEy_cuRRmxP1WpjUVIRQoO9yXZ5ka1Igdnn1/s640/38+Davis+County+sign.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>DAVIS</b> County is by far the smallest of Utah's 29 counties. However, there was a failed proposal in 1914 that sought to put South Hooper, Clinton and South Weber into Weber County.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">According to the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Kaysville on Jan. 29, 1914, petitions were circulating to make this proposal a reality.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"The principal reason given for the proposal change is the fact that all the residents of the three precincts named regard Ogden as their trading point and they therefore desire to transact all of their business there," the newspaper story stated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">At the time, this land was considered when one of the richest agricultural sections in the area. Also, West Point was not yet a named community, it primarily being called "South Hooper" at the time.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM4MV-JgOHNx6WJZ4OgXtuDiyvjGlu-JDOvhDWdGrC1JdJ8xPeK-nSNgnY79v4dzrVsrM7Pw_vOsJpgbgGrnkcqgrUcPEH6uBl_kdQd5LaEzF4sn_xsdmIV7pfbQC2Bnzv6OLc0jjymQhE/s1600/Hooper+sign.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM4MV-JgOHNx6WJZ4OgXtuDiyvjGlu-JDOvhDWdGrC1JdJ8xPeK-nSNgnY79v4dzrVsrM7Pw_vOsJpgbgGrnkcqgrUcPEH6uBl_kdQd5LaEzF4sn_xsdmIV7pfbQC2Bnzv6OLc0jjymQhE/s640/Hooper+sign.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A portion of South Hooper and all of South Weber had actually at one time been located in Weber County, not Davis.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-size: large;">According to Utah historian Glen M. Leonard in the book, "A History of Davis County," an ecclesiastical disagreement resulted in the southeastern boundary of Davis County moving about one mile north of where it originally was established.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-size: large;">The county line moved south to the Weber River at the east end of Davis County. This meant that the Weber town of Uintah (previously called “East Weber”) was created to define what settlement remained on the north side of the Weber River.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646;"><span style="font-size: large;">The new Davis County town had also already favored the name “South Weber,” even though it was now in a different county, but at least it was indeed on the south side of the Weber River.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-size: large;">Jump ahead to 1877 and a related boundary change was made. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Perhaps someone looked at a map of Davis or Weber County and saw the unusual zag in the county line... created in the 1855 change.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646;"><span style="font-size: large;"> This time instead of keeping the twist in Davis County’s border beyond South Weber, created by the 1855 change, the county line out west was now moved north about a mile to parallel the change made 22 years earlier in the South Weber section. This now made the Davis-Weber boundary line fairly straight from leaving the Weber River until it reached the marshes of the Great Salt Lake.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646;"><span style="font-size: large;">(Besides a crooked boundary, one other factor in favor of moving more Weber County land into Davis County -- by moving the Davis line northward on its west side -- was that Davis County was clearly still the state's smallest county of all. Legislators in 1877 may have felt the tiny county could use a little more land.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646; font-size: large;">The most significant effect this related boundary change created was that Hooper, originally known as “Muskrat Springs” and established in 1852, was now split.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646;"><span style="font-size: large;">This created “South Hooper” on the Davis County side and it was originally huge, going all the way south to today’s 1700 South (Antelope Drive), before the days of a West Point, Clinton and Syracuse. Over the decades as those three cities were established, “South Hooper” shrunk dramatically and only the section of unincorporated Davis County there is today was left. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646;"><span style="font-size: large;">The South Hooper name also faded as the rural area only stretched from West Point at about 5000 West and State Road 37 (“Pig Corner”) about a mile north to the county line.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #464646;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yet, today some of these rural residents still consider themselves “Hooperites,” even though they reside in a different county.</span></span></div>
Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-41269512354710423032021-02-11T14:11:00.002-08:002024-02-29T19:35:51.774-08:00The expedition that identified Utah's lowest point<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNOO1I8RmNXm_gFsoY28F-HrsGOsNZsTtWic6QnZwDMrl0BwbTtkaEeEHlFCiHY82meJ4p6MqRgGE8Vx4RYJUstA4972z47ZTz3J7dEepkQF4X9dqkbZw3VWaoW7je84Oi7T5xEguqhxlz/s1600/Best+landscape+shot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNOO1I8RmNXm_gFsoY28F-HrsGOsNZsTtWic6QnZwDMrl0BwbTtkaEeEHlFCiHY82meJ4p6MqRgGE8Vx4RYJUstA4972z47ZTz3J7dEepkQF4X9dqkbZw3VWaoW7je84Oi7T5xEguqhxlz/s640/Best+landscape+shot.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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This is the Beaver Dam Wash in Arizona, Utah's lowest point is two miles north of here.</div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 32px;"><b>THE </b></span></span><span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">State of Utah prides itself on enjoying “Life
Elevated.” Indeed, Utah has some of the highest average elevations of any state
in the Union. Many know that the Beehive State’s highest point is Kings Peak at
13,528 feet above sea level. However, what is the lowest point in Utah?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Surprisingly, it is not St. George. However,
the lowest point is in that corner of the State.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Travel some 325 air miles straight southwest
from Kings Peak and ultimately drop 11,350 feet in elevation (about 2.15 miles)
and you reach Beaver Dam Wash at the Utah-Arizona border. That’s the state’s
basement at 2,178 feet above sea level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">(In contrast, St. George sits
at 2,800 feet and Salt Lake City's Temple Square is at 4,327 feet above sea
level.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just like Kings Peak, there are no cities or
residences in the area of the Beaver Dam Wash. This is open wilderness.
Littlefield, Arizona is the nearest town, about 10 air miles away, while St.
George is almost 25 miles away as the bird flies. There is a ranch about six
miles north – and some cattle sometimes roam the area -- but that’s it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(The Beaver Dam Wash is also recognized for a
wide variety of wildlife – desert plants, birds, lizards and mammals, etc.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Before 2006, the majority
of sources out there — Internet and books — listed Utah's lowest elevation all
wrong. Some stated the low point was 2,350 feet above sea level and others even
had it at an even 2,000 feet. The truth was about halfway in between.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">It was a June 6, 2006
expedition by three Deseret News staffers who searched the area with a GPS and
came up with the now accepted 2,178 foot elevation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSaNmEBfVaJvmXAkPqE5R_Sb0tbZzr4UWmCPbBxjhgdm1xv2bpMLusjpHRrJV6mLkMgP7Czg6kjocmCzOaplXPy-vxbBB1uuIEYNeQ9zsMxHV91YNBRIDctx2AQTPbQO7FUfmeJ79N6ayu/s1600/Wagon+road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSaNmEBfVaJvmXAkPqE5R_Sb0tbZzr4UWmCPbBxjhgdm1xv2bpMLusjpHRrJV6mLkMgP7Czg6kjocmCzOaplXPy-vxbBB1uuIEYNeQ9zsMxHV91YNBRIDctx2AQTPbQO7FUfmeJ79N6ayu/s640/Wagon+road.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> This is part of rugged road into the Beaver Dam Wash.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">To reach the lowest point
in the State, the trio had to drive five miles on a rugged dirt road and then
hike two miles over trail-less terrain to the Arizona-Utah border, marked with
a chainlink fence. After crossing back into Utah, they had to take dozens of
measurements with a GPS in a myriad of low points until the lowest number was
verified.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Hiking back to their
vehicle was much more difficult than the trek in and far rougher than expected.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg94TDHq52A67EE5ro3V7jMJXzwgFy8mXp7Y2VZFLs9rZpjCHe0Lgr_I3ykt0OVz1l0nNv69rGUh0Vst5Vi5IAJLx4REnJf8jl0SecAOyiX9M7Tj_4q4f3tkdJoEtfOCPUZwwYaum8Gk-AL/s1600/waterin+wash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg94TDHq52A67EE5ro3V7jMJXzwgFy8mXp7Y2VZFLs9rZpjCHe0Lgr_I3ykt0OVz1l0nNv69rGUh0Vst5Vi5IAJLx4REnJf8jl0SecAOyiX9M7Tj_4q4f3tkdJoEtfOCPUZwwYaum8Gk-AL/s640/waterin+wash.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Ravell Call surveys the water in the Arizona portion of the Beaver Dam Wash.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Not only is the Beaver Dam Wash Utah’s lowest
place, but it sports an environment unlike anything else in the State. </span><span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It is in the Mojave Desert, where Joshua trees, yucca, blackbrush,
creosote and other desert plants thrive in a usually dry and scorching
environment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsDAeHFUwNLJP25_2XaBIGjoWSRa_-8YriIJw-nhGoa0CVTudhC7eIUjakf26UmfKwtjqIfow1XsXh-DXO4S8rQokSWta2shOS1XEL6jE_-0BlirZWwkvHBQ0Szo1zgcH_EuR0bd1QaqrU/s1600/Looking+down+on+lowest+point+area.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsDAeHFUwNLJP25_2XaBIGjoWSRa_-8YriIJw-nhGoa0CVTudhC7eIUjakf26UmfKwtjqIfow1XsXh-DXO4S8rQokSWta2shOS1XEL6jE_-0BlirZWwkvHBQ0Szo1zgcH_EuR0bd1QaqrU/s640/Looking+down+on+lowest+point+area.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Looking east down into Utah's portion of the Beaver Dam Wash, where the State's lowest elevation is found.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Deseret News consulted with Mark Eubank, chief
meteorologist of KSL-TV, Ch. 5 at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">"In general, the lower the elevation, the hotter
the temperature," Eubank said. "That is why Death Valley is the
hottest place in North America — elevation near 200 feet below sea level. "There
are no official temperature readings from Beaver Dam Wash, but I feel certain
it averages hotter there than in St. George."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Eubank noted that Mesquite,
Nev., to the southwest of Beaver Dam Wash, runs 2 to 5 degrees hotter than St.
George most days.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Chris Gibson,
meteorologist with the Salt Lake Office of the National Weather Service, agreed.
"It (Beaver Dam Wash) probably is the hottest place in Utah," he
said. He believed said temperatures usually drop 5.5 degrees Celsius for every
1,000 feet of altitude descended. On a hot, still day, he believes Utah's
lowest point would be at least a couple of degrees warmer than St. George.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">June 6, 2006 was a sunny
hot day where Mesquite reached 106 degrees. By late morning in the Beaver Dam
Wash, temperatures were already in the upper 90s. (One of the group’s
thermometers measured 110 degree as they headed back to their vehicle.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEhhRSN9xv0dIOvcRGBsBvNSJrXtmRPATuTlBtJICUAVR5v4o9dj52GCEHKfztWPQQZgd2Kj3o2UVbV5Eqi-My1RqeO8FXZ83yOsTz9V8HZt4iPNFOZAGyTuBiXGJiyxc5w8SdyPU6Hda/s1600/Utah+map+and+2178.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtEhhRSN9xv0dIOvcRGBsBvNSJrXtmRPATuTlBtJICUAVR5v4o9dj52GCEHKfztWPQQZgd2Kj3o2UVbV5Eqi-My1RqeO8FXZ83yOsTz9V8HZt4iPNFOZAGyTuBiXGJiyxc5w8SdyPU6Hda/s640/Utah+map+and+2178.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: #faf9f7; color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The 2,178-foot elevation is now the standard on Utah's official Highway Map.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">While getting lost in the
Wash was unlikely, especially when some power transmission lines go through the area and following them south would lead to the dirt road, there was no trail and
following one’s footsteps back was next to impossible.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXaelSwyoiceb9n4us3nIVrdMybI4lTKKfBltEWJyGmEd0thKiU6WnoWyb-HcEVNXefKGcUys7AqAxUzYz3qrC_YQ46lf5v9IqhxRDBGTGOd7BJcMwcFQNCeXAad6ME_tu9Ax-mfUas4oR/s1600/Lowest+elevation1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXaelSwyoiceb9n4us3nIVrdMybI4lTKKfBltEWJyGmEd0thKiU6WnoWyb-HcEVNXefKGcUys7AqAxUzYz3qrC_YQ46lf5v9IqhxRDBGTGOd7BJcMwcFQNCeXAad6ME_tu9Ax-mfUas4oR/s640/Lowest+elevation1.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The 2,178-foot elevation is spotlighted too at the University of Utah's Natural History Museum. That figure came from this expedition in 2006, by three Deseret News staffers.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">A shortcut through some
heavy brush got you somewhat out of the sun, but slowed the trek down
significantly and required some zigzagging and bushwhacking.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">While the Wash was up to
a half-mile wide in spots, loose sand and gravel, marshes and thick brush made
walking difficult there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiljXfsgSVeOVhHAaRmeiHlVNRh3ejHYwwTe_WcQ1i7xtqxTqhC06mpqOZxYgyVES54WhBNb_4JqXT8y-WPce_fosXWTjQ6vDyBWYHmBG43z6mqGfFEwgaZVXyPJ7lVwfgxXgsVjh60RUEh/s1600/Back+at+vehicle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiljXfsgSVeOVhHAaRmeiHlVNRh3ejHYwwTe_WcQ1i7xtqxTqhC06mpqOZxYgyVES54WhBNb_4JqXT8y-WPce_fosXWTjQ6vDyBWYHmBG43z6mqGfFEwgaZVXyPJ7lVwfgxXgsVjh60RUEh/s640/Back+at+vehicle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Ray Boren back at his vehicle after a scorchingly hot hike into the Beaver Dam Wash.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"> In retrospect, the trio agreed that visiting the Beaver Dam Wash in winter,
early spring or late fall would have equaled a much more comfortable visit than
late spring did.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">That 2,178-foot figure
has recently become the accepted standard of Utah’s lowest elevation. It is now
listed not only on the official Utah State Highway map, but is also highlighted
in a high-low comparison in the University of Utah’s Natural History Museum.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">How do we know that the
elevation the Deseret News came up with is accurate?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">After returning from
their expedition, one of the three D.N. staffers consulted with Mark Milligan,
a geologist with the Utah Geological Survey. He found on detailed quadrangle
maps of the area that the lowest spot in Utah would be bounded by 2,160-foot and
2,180-foot contour lines.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkbRB4_xe5hGmsWdHZQWLwSCZvebcN6-IeQmh-C3AyQVBf-3n0IsAxWK3xysdJ0JxOWF4ByDys0qZ2l5QGGWHVOCZqS8KMYVeQ9sxLoz-WcMZsAWJj6O2m9L95rTnpNz3qxBRe5rxRM3T/s1600/Author+at+fenceline.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXkbRB4_xe5hGmsWdHZQWLwSCZvebcN6-IeQmh-C3AyQVBf-3n0IsAxWK3xysdJ0JxOWF4ByDys0qZ2l5QGGWHVOCZqS8KMYVeQ9sxLoz-WcMZsAWJj6O2m9L95rTnpNz3qxBRe5rxRM3T/s640/Author+at+fenceline.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Lynn Arave stands on the Utah side of the fence separating the State from Arizona, inside the Beaver Dam Wash.The State's lowest elevation was found nearby the fence.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">"The border is much
closer to the 2,180 contour and thus agrees with an elevation of 2,178
feet," he wrote in an e-mail to the Deseret News.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Milligan also indicated
that 2,178 is as close an estimate to the low elevation as is possible, because
the Beaver Dam Wash is very prone to flooding and its elevation can change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Despite the hot
temperatures in the Beaver Dam Wash, it isn't completely waterless. Some year-round
springs keep year-round water there. The water runs as a small stream above
ground at the end of the dirt road into the Wash. Walking north in the Wash,
the water disappears and goes underground.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Utah’s Kings Peak ranks
as the seventh highest high point among the 50 states. However, for low points
in the United States, Beaver Dam Wash ranks fourth among the “highest” of low
points. Only Colorado (3,320 feet), Wyoming (3,099) and New Mexico (2,840) have
higher "low" spot points. (Montana rates fifth-place with an
1,800-foot low point and 21 states have sea level as their lowest elevation.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-b_nqfoC-AymoC_LxGOGbBcGOLVYdUoXwpal609D1uXhqCkeGLL8wNIpxA1xL7qr99EpttalKZxFyvuBWvQ4BcojRbYxaax4Iff3i2Fyb6IvBwilI3o3h_qPKZSvhmbv-fW6A47I6lbAj/s1600/MY+GPS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-b_nqfoC-AymoC_LxGOGbBcGOLVYdUoXwpal609D1uXhqCkeGLL8wNIpxA1xL7qr99EpttalKZxFyvuBWvQ4BcojRbYxaax4Iff3i2Fyb6IvBwilI3o3h_qPKZSvhmbv-fW6A47I6lbAj/s640/MY+GPS.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> The GPS that located Utah's lowest elevation.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24pt;">-To travel to Utah's
lowest point, you really need a truck or four-wheel drive vehicle, unless you
want to walk an extra six miles along dirt roads in the desert. The road is simply
not passable for cars because of several dips in the road that exceed a regular
car's ground clearance.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">To get there, drive to
Littlefield, Ariz., on I-15 and take Exit 8; go north on the old highway that
leads to Shivwits and back into Utah; go past the Beaver Dam, Ariz., community
(elevation 1,860 feet) and cross the Utah-Arizona stateline.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Next, look for a dirt
road that heads left (west), 0.8 mile past the state line. Follow this rugged road
southwest and then straight south for almost five miles into the Beaver Dam
Wash. You will cross two cattle guards and spot several "Mormon pioneer
trail" signs posted along the way. Ignore any side roads and always head
due west.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> Ravell Call photographs the GPS after it located Utah's basement.</span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Park near some large
overhead power lines in a loose gravel area, near the perennial water flowing
through the Beaver Dam Wash.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Be certain to carry
plenty of drinking water and do not hike in the afternoon on hot days. Starting
elevation at the parking area is about 2,076 feet above sea level.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Begin walking northward
and ideally stay on the west side of the wash, carefully picking your route,
about two miles, to a barbed-wire fence you can't miss. Cross over the fence
and find the lowest point from there. (The above ground stream water disappears
just before the fence line.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;">Be sure to keep to the
west of the Wash to avoid some thick brush. Ideally, retrace your steps as much
as possible. The power transmission lines on the far east side of the Wash show
the general way back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><i>-Lynn Arave, a reporter
at the time; Ravell Call, a photographer; and Ray Boren, an editor, were the
three Deseret News staffers who visited the Beaver Dam Wash and identified Utah's
lowest point in 2006.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><i>-The original newspaper
story on this expedition was published Sept. 3, 2006 in the Deseret News.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div style="background: #FAF9F7;">
<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a19; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><i> Lynn Arave at the Arizona end of the Beaver Dam Wash. Note the water in the wash.</i></span></div>
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<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-31670210641649828842021-02-11T14:11:00.000-08:002024-02-29T19:36:18.326-08:00 Great Salt Lake tales of quicksand, unlucky equines and a phantom coyote<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXehlONqy9APRo3ptRQDsFNrV4MKj6DbWI1jjBOKyGZQ5UZ9sIN2M7ufvpuY0z9MuxpC9NAdGiJn7w_X41S-4Nln45C5w-l1GBH01EnwNO7yBvP689JLUt-MXWCa64k9WOsoQvyqxs-CyM/s1600/Fremont+Island+Trip+%25283%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXehlONqy9APRo3ptRQDsFNrV4MKj6DbWI1jjBOKyGZQ5UZ9sIN2M7ufvpuY0z9MuxpC9NAdGiJn7w_X41S-4Nln45C5w-l1GBH01EnwNO7yBvP689JLUt-MXWCa64k9WOsoQvyqxs-CyM/s640/Fremont+Island+Trip+%25283%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Is this pond of water along the sandbar to Fremont Island actually a pool of "quicksand" in the Great Salt Lake? Perhaps, as most of the rest of the sandbar has been dry in late summers recently.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>IT</b> has
always seemed like quicksand in the Great Salt Lake was nothing more than a fanciful
myth. However, according to the Ogden Standard-Examiner of May 28, 1939, two
horses actually died in such “non-existent” quicksand.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">“Horses die
in quicksand of Great Salt Lake after driver missed stakes marking route.
Ogdenite is haunted by experience as steeds drown” was the newspaper headline.
Mike Boam of Ogden was driving a light rig, powered by horses, to travel to
Fremont Island over an underwater sandbar. This route was often used in the
1930s to travel to the 2,943-acre Fremont.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"> In 1944, two horses pulled a wagon over the sandbar to Fremont Island.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"> These men rode horses across the sandbar to Fremont Island in the 1940s.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Boam said
that without warning his two horses “stepped into a patch of quicksand” and
“several hours of labor failed to extricate the animals.” He had to wade about
five miles through knee-deep brine along the “salty highway” to reach the
mainland.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"> Taylor Arave pauses at a pond of water along the sandbar to Fremont Island.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">When he
reached his home in Ogden he was exhausted, but could not sleep. “The look in
the eyes of those horses when I left them wouldn’t let me rest,” he told the
Standard-Examiner.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">By the
following day, both horses were dead, “victims of their own exertions and the
brine they had drunk to quench their thirsts.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Quicksand is
simply sand inundated with water and where the liquid can’t escape, so while
the animals didn’t sink out of sight, they were trapped in a sticky mess.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">(I’ve walked
that same sandbar to Fremont Island twice, when it was above water and mostly
dry. Still, it wasn’t a straight path and at least once I had to curve around a
pond of standing water.)<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt;">Also, in 2020, the
Diesel Brothers, who used to own Fremont Island (before they sold the isle to a
non-profit group) reported in a YouTube video</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 32px;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORFbOW027iM&t=167s&ab_channel=HeavyDSparks</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt;"> that some of their tractors and
equipment had become stuck in “quicksand” along the Fremont Island sandbar.
They were finally able to remove them, with great difficulty. "Peanut butter mud" was one of their descriptions of the briny, wet sand.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Sadly, there are other
horror story for horses involving Fremont Island.</span></span><span style="font-size: 24pt;"> When I first
visited Fremont Island in June of 1982 by canoe, it was hard not to notice a
large herd of ponies that were frightened by my presence and they galloped to
the far west end of the Isle.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"> Looking across the south end of the sandbar to Fremont Island.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt;">I had always
assumed during later visits to the Island that the missing ponies must have
been rounded up and removed. (There were a few other horses living on Fremont
in 2006, when I was visited there, though.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">However, now
I realize that while many of the ponies were removed, 40 of them were shot and
killed on the Island.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Several horses were grazing on Fremont Island in 2008.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt;">An
Associated Press story from March 22, 1988 states that the Idaho rancher who
was leasing the Island at the time shot them, because the cost of removing all
of them was prohibitive and they were over-grazing the Isle and he was going to
put sheep there. He was able to capture and remove about 100 of the ponies by
barge, but the remaining 40 were too hard to catch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">A private
pilot flying over the Island had spotted the carcasses. The “welsh” ponies were
placed on Fremont Island in the late 1950s, as part of a failed plan to make a
recreational development on the Island. So, the animals soon became wild. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">(The A.P.
story can be found at: <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/587130ee35e5a7bc42a1707ee80d605e">https://www.apnews.com/587130ee35e5a7bc42a1707ee80d605e</a></span>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">-Horses and
sheep weren’t the only animals to inhabit Fremont Island. For more than two
weeks in the mid-1940s, a “Phantom” coyote escaped extinction from hunters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The coyote,
who was believed to have hitchhiked to the Isle on a rare chunk of iceberg in
the Great Salt Lake, had killed some 15 of the 800 sheep grazing there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">An army of
dogs and 20 armed men failed to kill the coyote during multiple attempts.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">“Phantom of
Isle still eludes dogs” and “Phantom Coyote has hunters marooned in Lake” were
two headlines in the Standard-Examiner, from March 26 and March 29 of 1944,
respectively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">High winds
not only caused dogs to lose scent of the coyote, but they prevented the
hunters from leaving Fremont.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">“Hunters again foiled in Phantom Coyote chase; New expedition scheduled” was a March 31, 1944 Standard-Examiner headline. Hunters joked about needing to use a silver bullet to stop the animal, as numerous regular bullets had proven ineffective.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Finally, on
the 15<sup>th</sup> day of the hunt, “Island Coyote killed in lake waters” was
the headline on April 4 in the Salt Lake Tribune. A bullet had finally wounded
the coyote and so it jumped in the lake and tried to swim away. A speedboat
caught up to him and he was hauled aboard and killed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Four other
coyotes had been speedily killed on Fremont Island in 1942 after they had
killed numerous sheep, but none were as elusive as the phantom.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 106%;">-The most
famous part of Fremont Island is the historic cross that Kit Carson carved on
the north end on Sept. 9, 1943.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 106%;">Only about
six inches long, this Christian relic was left during the first government survey
of the Great Salt Lake and Island. Writings of the exploration prove Carson
made the cross, though uncertainty about its origin swirled into the early
1940s.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 106%;">“New
speculation arises about Island cross” was a Nov. 2, 1943 headline in the
Standard-Examiner. This story questioned the cross’s origin and speculated that
a bored sheepherder in the 1850s had created it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 106%;">However,
soon after it was universally accepted that Carson was indeed the sure author
of the cross.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: large;">Note: Fremont Island is now owned by the State of Utah, after more than 150 years of various private owners.</span></i></div>
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<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-32188483916867017302021-02-11T14:10:00.000-08:002021-02-11T14:10:32.814-08:00 Coral Pink Sand Dunes was ‘Sahara Desert’ in 1943 -- And more history<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiou-f_votb8P9pndnrFjrJC0I1lvY60sKZ_MOKL93skr5rRhTUBHIe-5ABoTboMuOyOc_GX5m9qK-HfQchqZKHYlYgtfz2cU0wXWqRdxhFu3PlLPdxInSMTq8OvI6ruaK2jZPSmA9vNC9f/s5152/DSCN5708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiou-f_votb8P9pndnrFjrJC0I1lvY60sKZ_MOKL93skr5rRhTUBHIe-5ABoTboMuOyOc_GX5m9qK-HfQchqZKHYlYgtfz2cU0wXWqRdxhFu3PlLPdxInSMTq8OvI6ruaK2jZPSmA9vNC9f/w640-h480/DSCN5708.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> A 1998 photograph of the Coral Pink Sand Dunes/<br /><p><b style="font-size: 24pt;"><br /></b></p><p><b style="font-size: 24pt;">THE</b><span style="font-size: 24pt;"> Coral Pink
Sand Dunes is truly Utah’s mini version of the Sahara Desert.</span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Decades
before Little Sahara Recreation Area, Coral Pink gained world-wide fame through
Hollywood by actually depicting the Sahara Desert in movies as early as 1943 –
all this without “Sahara” in Coral Pink’s name.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Movie
Company awaits approach of spring to resume filming ‘Battle of Africa” was a
January 1, 1943 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Battle of
Africa was a just a part of the movie being filmed at Coral Pink. The film was
actually titled “Sahara.”)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In 1942, the
State of Utah had constructed the first road off Highway 89 into the Coral Pink
area. Hollywood was eager to showcase Utah’s colorful, sandy area.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvjL-wt2vXCm0NimmeKkYRRLZWjva3mNodMVGXf0O5PrUpaaYPjOsFGVBTk3S5jj3q_2Vo2iGmDG5u4XHYXqZrJnhSKsxlFGVJvJMgPMWJiUF1_KnCuAWt07Ma2iPVV8AFMzhJ7CQlzPoL/s5152/DSCN5709.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvjL-wt2vXCm0NimmeKkYRRLZWjva3mNodMVGXf0O5PrUpaaYPjOsFGVBTk3S5jj3q_2Vo2iGmDG5u4XHYXqZrJnhSKsxlFGVJvJMgPMWJiUF1_KnCuAWt07Ma2iPVV8AFMzhJ7CQlzPoL/w640-h480/DSCN5709.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Kids playing at Coral Pink Sand Dunes.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“At any
rate, coral pink sand dunes of southern Utah are a pride and joy of Hollywood
producers,” the Tribune story stated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Coral Pink
was designated as a state park 20 years later, in 1963. It is located 27 miles
northwest of Kanab in Kane County. It comprises 3,730 acres, including some
2,000 acres that are wholly sand.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(In
contrast, central Utah’s Little Sahara Recreation Area, though much larger, at
60,000 acres, was not developed until 1976 and lacks such colorful sand.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-During
Utah’s Centennial of 1947, Kanab was often referred to as “Utah’s Hollywood.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Indeed, the
Piute County News of Junction, Utah, published a widely distributed graphic for
the Centennial by the State of Utah that stated on June 6, 1947, “Everybody in
Kanab, Garfield County, is a potential movie actor, when film companies come to
use the scenic grandeur of the southern Utah country for location of movie
westerns. Even businessmen close up shop to act as extras.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt;">(However,
eventually Hollywood crews began bringing with them armies of personnel,
including cowboys, for their movies, leaving most of Kanab’s 1,500 residents
without much of a chance at movie work.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Harry
Sherman, a Hollywood producer, chose the Zion National Park and Kanab area for
scenes in a new movie, “Ramrod” in 1947.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> In the Salt L</o:p></span><span style="font-size: 24pt;">ake Telegram of February 6, 1947, Sherman said, “We spent weeks
surveying the west by air and decided on Utah as having the greatest scenic
grandeur of any area we saw.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-How capable
were some of the Hollywood actors that portrayed cowboys in actual cowboy
skills? Some were really good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Hollywood turns actor to cowboy” was a November 16, 1942 headline in
the Ogden Standard-Examiner. The story reported that actors Glenn Ford and Big Boy
Williams were in Kanab filming “The Desperadoes” movie, in the summer prior, and
they decided to enter a local Kanab rodeo during their off time, The two actors
ended up winning the “rescue race” event at the rodeo, proving some real-life
rodeo skills.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-MORE
HISTORY: The 64-mile road from Kanab, Utah to Page, Arizona was primarily
constructed in the late 1950s, in conjunction with the Glen Canyon Dam project.
However, this highway wasn’t always Highway 89. According to the Salt Lake
Tribune on August 2, 1959, the highway’s original designation was U-259 on the
Utah road section and highway number 189 in Arizona. It was on August 1, 1959
when road crews in both states began using U.S. 89 as the highway’s consistent title.
At the same time, the former Highway 89 road from Kanab south to Bitter Springs
in Arizona was re-designated as Alternative U.S. 89.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-67250692469381208102021-02-11T14:09:00.000-08:002021-02-11T14:09:01.898-08:00Why ‘Point Sublime’ all but disappeared at the Grand Canyon, North Rim; Plus, Yellowstone’s old Point Sublime trail to the river<p><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"> </span></b></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1UB9XVsGF-hXIyoXbiKzRfw7vOFKHSv5_Tqn6OdOFna3oRLMFbY1vwEjF4Szeml0Yd0TCithsLmRuNE9zBAiqyRoxacNELZfuWU16_k0QsSfStQqxY7TQJbQu5ODzJzrF30LYm4ZRQsDG/s2048/n.+rim+sign.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1UB9XVsGF-hXIyoXbiKzRfw7vOFKHSv5_Tqn6OdOFna3oRLMFbY1vwEjF4Szeml0Yd0TCithsLmRuNE9zBAiqyRoxacNELZfuWU16_k0QsSfStQqxY7TQJbQu5ODzJzrF30LYm4ZRQsDG/w640-h480/n.+rim+sign.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> The sign to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhySs5K7bw1cXjaOiEZ2sFGTM-I9q2Ux1HXBDsAc9x43v0JzKcpsmbAywstMn8ZhMm0QkP_6ln7FDBIfepMkkWg_-3uabCdZOLNqJp-SuCY1_LrVEPlMIz5DvPrHlUGEfJRijFZrDwbzU15/s2048/Lodge.JPG" style="font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhySs5K7bw1cXjaOiEZ2sFGTM-I9q2Ux1HXBDsAc9x43v0JzKcpsmbAywstMn8ZhMm0QkP_6ln7FDBIfepMkkWg_-3uabCdZOLNqJp-SuCY1_LrVEPlMIz5DvPrHlUGEfJRijFZrDwbzU15/w640-h480/Lodge.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><p><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />WHY</span></b><b style="font-size: x-large;"> </b><span style="font-size: 24pt;">is the
lodge and centerpiece of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon located where it is
and what happened to Point Sublime, early ballyhooed viewpoint?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>(OK, the
world-renowned Grand Canyon, North Rim, isn’t in Utah, but its beginnings and
history relied heavily on Kanab and Cedar City.)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The first
decades of trips to the North Rim always focused on Point Sublime, located
about 17 miles west of today’s lodge at the North Rim. This point was so named
because the earliest of visitors to the Grand Canyon all seemed to agree this
was the most stupendous view of all to be found – on either rim.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB0RzbNgUkzlZF09Wl7UCdplahcLKy-c3y-6BkLUOJvce0X6kBvEH-MeflWj-wDnD78QKyXdajBA3rZ6JFz_VVe3SAbGHosNcc1vnnUpxDnTCAxKsant2xK8Ei3oOUJR3t9Z475NvZYprL/s5152/Lodge+north+rim.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB0RzbNgUkzlZF09Wl7UCdplahcLKy-c3y-6BkLUOJvce0X6kBvEH-MeflWj-wDnD78QKyXdajBA3rZ6JFz_VVe3SAbGHosNcc1vnnUpxDnTCAxKsant2xK8Ei3oOUJR3t9Z475NvZYprL/s320/Lodge+north+rim.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 24pt;">The Salt
Lake Herald of December 7, 1892 reported on a large group of men visiting the
North Rim on primarily a wild game trip with “Buffalo Bill.” The group visited
Point Sublime and even Bright Angel Point (location of today’s North Rim
lodge). Brigham Young, grandson of Brigham Young was the primary guide in the
Grand Canyon area, though his horse fell and rolled down a mountain, badly
injuring Young.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">A February
26, 1905 story in the Salt Lake Herald said that Point Sublime is “where all
descriptions fail” and that place offers a view of six amphitheaters so vast
the Yosemite Valley and all of its wonders could be hidden away in a corner
there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">According to
the Los Angeles Times of September 7, 1905, it was Col. William F. Cody in a
group that included John W. Young (a son of Brigham Young) who first proposed the
idea of making a national park from the Kaibab Plateau of the Grand Canyon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The same
group also proposed an aerial tramway for the Grand Canyon, to provide inner
canyon access for everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The Deseret
Evening News of March 24, 1906 stated another reason for the early popularity
of Point Sublime – there was a copper mine there, frequented by Utah miners.
One such group of miners that winter had underestimated the severity of
snowfall on the Kaibab Plateau and with a lack of provisions, had to survive on
just meat for 12 days before they got back to Kabab. The group also thought it
depressing that they could see the railroad running on the South Rim of the
Grand Canyon, just 12 or so miles distant, but could not profit from that.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height: 107%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 24pt; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtLZ4fmyErDYBKZiyKOGz7lso7rKVc26e9zdyttaq3INrKBHBYSyDgrEuNYMSkBBikUkHZGvfzbrJVwLMEgddkOpe-Onnraxve0oBvzZqfHY8YcZOuvPUzSiwboo3Y3a32GLT_HIYWZf2/s5152/1933+map+of+North+Rim+from+Piute+County+News.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNtLZ4fmyErDYBKZiyKOGz7lso7rKVc26e9zdyttaq3INrKBHBYSyDgrEuNYMSkBBikUkHZGvfzbrJVwLMEgddkOpe-Onnraxve0oBvzZqfHY8YcZOuvPUzSiwboo3Y3a32GLT_HIYWZf2/w640-h480/1933+map+of+North+Rim+from+Piute+County+News.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="line-height: 107%;"> A 1933 map of the North Rim, from the Piute County News.<br /><o:p style="font-size: 24pt;"><br /></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt;">“Million
dollar hotel for Point Sublime” was a June 15, 1916 headline in the
Washington</span><span style="font-size: 24pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 24pt;">County News of St. George.
That dream has never realized.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The Deseret
News of August 16, 1917 reported that “Point Sublime reached now by
automobile.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Dr. George
Worthen James, author, speaking to the Salt Lake Rotary Club declared, “that
the best point from which to view the Grand Canyon of the Colorado can be
reached through Utah and northern Arizona, this being Point Sublime on the
north rim.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">That was
stated in the Salt Lake Herald-Republican newspaper of June 16, 1920. Dr. James
said probably only 10 men in the room realized that now. (He also inaccurately
predicted that one day 5 people will view the Grand Canyon from the North Rim
for every 1 at the South Rim, when the reverse actually happened at an even
higher rate.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">However, the
July 25, 1920 Salt Lake Telegram stated that there was much bitterness over the
fact that the Department of Parks had denied automobile access to the North
Rim’s “two big view points” -- Point Sublime and “Skidoo Point” (today’s Point
Imperial), in favor of only allowing road travel to Bright Angel Point.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYkcmjVqV2lQzV4oqOaD4eHs7X8hodChV0dSeVm10ysa3d4vx-hMsOsVSYwKTqyWZFzRFyDL9Y_4B3w-sJluUWmR2oDJpNEH3Au9NXIBMdVlUCQyTIwf9DLXNUfkWI9l-1iE7WUlkn9rr/s2048/N.+Rim+view.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguYkcmjVqV2lQzV4oqOaD4eHs7X8hodChV0dSeVm10ysa3d4vx-hMsOsVSYwKTqyWZFzRFyDL9Y_4B3w-sJluUWmR2oDJpNEH3Au9NXIBMdVlUCQyTIwf9DLXNUfkWI9l-1iE7WUlkn9rr/w480-h640/N.+Rim+view.JPG" width="480" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> The North Rim at Bright Angel.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt;">The Salt
Lake Tribune of June 22, 1923 stated, “The automobile road of today brings one
only to Bright Angel Point. In the days of wagons, people journeyed westerly to
Powell’s Plateau and to Point Sublime, a stupendous, soul-stirring viewpoint …”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Thus, it was
when the Grand Canyon became a national park in 1920 that Point Sublime and the
viewpoints east of Bright Angel were not open to autos. (Though in the later
decades, good roads were made eastward to Point Imperial and Cape Royal, but
western views from Bright Angel were still denied.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Today, Point
Sublime is only accessible by a very rugged 17-mile, one-way, four-wheel drive
path. Or, there’s the five-mile-long Widforss Trail for hikers, that travels
almost a third of the way west, toward Point Sublime, but ends at Widforss
Point (named for </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: #561b11; font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">artist Gunnar Widforss, who
painted the Grand Canyon in the 1920s<b>-</b>1930s<b>)</b>.</span><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR3yUXQOt2IzjCJC3fQVscdDb8XlH5HwuyJqvFOEYGgPHoxJHdq0954Ii5C6CP3VyA5HBKHMegeQIO0JSJiYZ7T1BY5yyFJulhk4SCSqvIJKa3wQc5Za-0UqWeWIDxxq0GRUJ5pc9H4UMi/s2048/Leisure+view.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR3yUXQOt2IzjCJC3fQVscdDb8XlH5HwuyJqvFOEYGgPHoxJHdq0954Ii5C6CP3VyA5HBKHMegeQIO0JSJiYZ7T1BY5yyFJulhk4SCSqvIJKa3wQc5Za-0UqWeWIDxxq0GRUJ5pc9H4UMi/w640-h480/Leisure+view.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="line-height: 107%;"> There's still a great view of the Grand Canyon from where the North Rim Lodge is today.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The National
Parks Service designated Union </span><span style="font-size: 24pt;">Pacific Railroad to initially develop the North
Rim. Although it never made a rail line there, it chose Bright Angel Point as
centerpiece for the North Rim primarily because Roaring Springs below offered
reliable water, a scarcity in the area. (In fact, even today Roaring Springs
water is piped to the South Rim as their main source of H2O, though studies are
now underway to seek a closer underground water source around Phantom Ranch at
the bottom of the canyon).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8suqwO9Ud6SNUhSNXzQVQXDolQsAtIRkLKX1T0DPFlDYswq2hF5wJKEzGxPIP4jLMo5PNZFUVw7pLIKqssw47VmhmxYGLmnQLEaEjVvIlhNrcVWmWO6EnCMKn2bmZDMbemJzi5X5izOC/s2048/Lodge2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV8suqwO9Ud6SNUhSNXzQVQXDolQsAtIRkLKX1T0DPFlDYswq2hF5wJKEzGxPIP4jLMo5PNZFUVw7pLIKqssw47VmhmxYGLmnQLEaEjVvIlhNrcVWmWO6EnCMKn2bmZDMbemJzi5X5izOC/w640-h480/Lodge2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Today's North Rim Lodge blends into the native rock.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt;">The North
Rim Lodge opened in 1928 after construction continued during an entire snowy
winter to do so. The lodge eventually featured 140 nearby cabins.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">However, a
fire completely destroyed the four-year-old lodge on September 1, 1932. Despite
the Great Depression, the Utah Parks Company <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">(designated concessions
company) rebuilt a smaller, but sturdier lodge by 1937, using original
materials leftover from the fire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The lodge
did close during most of World War II, but has been open ever since.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaEJ_4vCNXU43Dv4jHc8YeoB8D8T2iDuoaXtvwJjCawqt9rgoSCSkwIH1eh7VWHraT_ldxgpFjqZifiV_9eNI44jbCyljBtuUtqniVAe_Heuhd-O-M16Mn2UEz3wqf0etcc46CZKTcr0Z/s2048/DSC_2913.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="2048" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaEJ_4vCNXU43Dv4jHc8YeoB8D8T2iDuoaXtvwJjCawqt9rgoSCSkwIH1eh7VWHraT_ldxgpFjqZifiV_9eNI44jbCyljBtuUtqniVAe_Heuhd-O-M16Mn2UEz3wqf0etcc46CZKTcr0Z/w640-h416/DSC_2913.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="line-height: 107%;"> The start of the trail to Supai today from Hilltop. Photo by Ravell Call.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt;">-Here’s yet
another intriguing Grand Canyon historical tidbit: According to the Arizona
Republican newspaper of Phoenix from April 27, 1925, plans were being made to
build an automobile road to Supai, at the bottom of Havasu Canyon. This was to
allow visitors to “see one of the most interesting of Indian tribes in their
canyon retreat” and enjoy “its beautiful waterfalls.” The road never happened
and nothing but a foot/horse trail (or helicopter travel) can access Supai
today.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-style: italic; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFDGaPhpQPbO28n6c81jsRdtl4z-cmdV1pJCHFcSMkbnmUsvVHaDtIzd_D-rTnr45w9MZ9X5YR1OpQTnBrK9cQqg2Gve9bnVtYSpleH-iYLFrGPQP5COSXs-37VxyFbSjLVnvbJm_2J9eM/s2048/DSC_2921.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1334" data-original-width="2048" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFDGaPhpQPbO28n6c81jsRdtl4z-cmdV1pJCHFcSMkbnmUsvVHaDtIzd_D-rTnr45w9MZ9X5YR1OpQTnBrK9cQqg2Gve9bnVtYSpleH-iYLFrGPQP5COSXs-37VxyFbSjLVnvbJm_2J9eM/w640-h416/DSC_2921.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="line-height: 107%;"><i style="font-size: 24pt;"> </i>The trail to Supai after the first switchbacks. Photo by Ravell Call.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>-</i><b>BACK TO THE REGULAR GRAND CANYON -</b><i>- </i></span><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The North Kaibab trail in the Grand
Canyon from the North Rim to Phantom Ranch is one of the longest canyon trails,
at 14 miles.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">(Compare
that to the South Rim’s Bright Angel Trail, 9.9 miles, or the South Kaibab at
7.4 miles. Descent or climb wise, the North Kaibab is 5,850 feet in elevation
change vs. 4,860 feet for the South Kaibab, or 4,460 for the Bright Angel.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The North
Kaibab lacks the spectacular Grand Canyon views that the South Kaibab has,
because it is located in a deep side canyon, where Bright Angel Creek flows
down.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">According to
the Arizona Republican newspaper of Phoenix on August 16, 1921, the North
Kaibab trail was a nightmare for hikers in its early years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">“The almost
ice-cold creek had to be crossed 117 times between the Colorado River and the
North Rim; and this in itself is no picnic,” the story stated.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">It also
advised that only “a seasoned athlete who has no objection to strenuously
roughing it” could handle the rugged path up or down.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Only five
hunting parties had went up or down the North Rim that season, because of the
rough trail involved.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">-However,
some 11 years earlier, Emory C. Kolb, youngest of the Kolb photographers on the
South Rim, did make a daring solo jaunt across the Grand Canyon sometime in the
early summer of 1910.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">According to
the Arizona Daily Star of Tucson on June 28, 1910, Kolb volunteered to deliver
a message to a tourist on the North Rim and he did it in one day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">When he got
down to the Colorado River, there was no one to help pull the cable across the
water, so Kolb had to overhand the 450-foot-long cable – and his thermometer
measured 100 degrees that day. Then, he proceeded up the wild North Kaibab
trail and did find the woman to deliver the letter to on top.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbkDT8eBivnwjsT80s7ET8L9xFezvk66oFFXGWTNWYHP_V3y0DC8PhUPMaW2ypGI-m2PcFbxU4eed1WfXvThfb_NTHf2ZkWVudd6AJiQ4WE7RVrtA0n5zJc_jC-ZSYqonOczG7xXKvmng/s5152/DSCN5573.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbkDT8eBivnwjsT80s7ET8L9xFezvk66oFFXGWTNWYHP_V3y0DC8PhUPMaW2ypGI-m2PcFbxU4eed1WfXvThfb_NTHf2ZkWVudd6AJiQ4WE7RVrtA0n5zJc_jC-ZSYqonOczG7xXKvmng/w640-h480/DSCN5573.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone<br /><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /><br />-The North Kaibab trail has also had a number of washouts over the decades. For example, in August of 1936, a cloudburst not only wiped out most of the trail coming down from the North Rim, but it also destroyed 3,000 feet of the pipeline from Roaring Springs, that supplies the North Rim.</span><div><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Two hikers were on the North Kaibab trail at the time of the cloudburst and narrowly escaped with their lives. They had to cling to a two-foot-wide ledge to barely be above the waterline. (-From the Williams News, Aug. 28, 1936.)</span></div><div><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">-Another heavy rainstorm in August of 1948 also severely damaged the North Kaibab trail and mule trips down could not be resumed that summer. (-From the Arizona Daily Sun on Aug. 11, 1948.)<br /><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt;">-<b>YELLOWSTONE
NATIONAL PARK</b> also boasts its own Point Sublime. Named in the early years of
that National Park, it is located just north of Artist’s Point on the Grand
Canyon of the Yellowstone River.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">However,
today there’s just a three-mile roundtrip trail to Point Sublime and back and
most visitors call it a “disappointment,” according to on-line reviews by
hikers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Why is it a
disappointment?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Simply
because it isn’t what it used to be.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvYACIF-C8L86pI3H361xImCkmrW3kgyv7oBRYIuqaTsEMy3NOIS2ZdEhrU6eGM62qyM2Aw3aJc1rH2vyKSgL2bFOcmjqNy_M4QDjV__AV6OideRGP4K06256QZ0ac4EACP14cEjKK-U0/s5152/DSCN5572.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjvYACIF-C8L86pI3H361xImCkmrW3kgyv7oBRYIuqaTsEMy3NOIS2ZdEhrU6eGM62qyM2Aw3aJc1rH2vyKSgL2bFOcmjqNy_M4QDjV__AV6OideRGP4K06256QZ0ac4EACP14cEjKK-U0/w640-h480/DSCN5572.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt;">“New
attraction offered at Park.</span><span style="font-size: 24pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 24pt;">Grand Canyon
of Yellowstone may now be descended on horseback” was a headline in the Salt
Lake Tribune on July 5, 1921.</span></p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The story
explained that since the close of the 1920 season, work on cutting a trail to
the BOTTOM of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone was done. The result is a
horse that actually leads to the river level, not just the rim.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">The story
states that this is the second trail that leads to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
of the Yellowstone. The other is the Uncle Tom’s footrail that is located
southwest of Artist’s Point.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Today, Uncle
Tom’s Trail is the ONLY trail that goes to the bottom of Yellowstone’s Grand
Canyon. How long the Sublime under the rim trail was open is unknown.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;">Danger
likely closed the Sublime descending trail and erosion may have obliterated all
traces of it under the rim trail.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-38186393528516715662020-09-30T09:24:00.003-07:002024-02-29T19:36:54.453-08:00New Layton, Utah History book now available<p><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy7fnvqAtxjA3GCN0m2MLtYpKW0ZnUsXhFOUs7SISH8PjnpeI-pKUkDdsfck1TU9xBw1SDW6Na15vCttoPxlPVz9ZQDqOVy2iE751QznHf9RQZrkmb_Y1VP52H5e5lZsHS-kZPXl5oqLIn/s1024/Layton+book+promo1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="746" data-original-width="1024" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy7fnvqAtxjA3GCN0m2MLtYpKW0ZnUsXhFOUs7SISH8PjnpeI-pKUkDdsfck1TU9xBw1SDW6Na15vCttoPxlPVz9ZQDqOVy2iE751QznHf9RQZrkmb_Y1VP52H5e5lZsHS-kZPXl5oqLIn/w640-h466/Layton+book+promo1.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br />There's a new Layton, Utah history book, that premiered on October 26, 2020, from Arcadia Publishing in its "Images of America" line.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: x-large;">The book is written by Lynn Arave, also author of this Mystery of Utah History blog.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: xx-large;">With more than 170 photographs, this book would make a great gift for any new or long-time Layton resident, or someone who grew up in Layton City.</span></p><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span id="goog_600245381"></span><span id="goog_600245382"></span>(There's also a new history blog to accompany this book at: https://laytonutahhistory.blogspot.com/)</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><span><span style="font-size: x-large;">--</span><span style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">NOTE that the book was delayed by the publisher for 5 months, from May to October 2020, because of the Coroniavirus.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>-IF you would like a copy of the new history book on Layton, Utah, you can order it from a variety of sources for $21.99, or less:</b></span></div><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">--on Amazon</span><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781467104968&i=stripbooks&linkCode=qs">https://www.amazon.com/s?k=9781467104968&i=stripbooks&linkCode=qs</a><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">--Or from Barnes and Noble at:</span><br /><br /><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/layton-lynn-arave/1135498880;jsessionid=BBCAF0636AA08D36361AFE15AF583EBC.prodny_store01-atgap01?ean=9781467104968">https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/layton-lynn-arave/1135498880;jsessionid=BBCAF0636AA08D36361AFE15AF583EBC.prodny_store01-atgap01?ean=9781467104968</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: x-large;">--Or from the publisher, Arcadia at:</span><br /><br />https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Products/9781467104968<br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>IF you can't decide if you'd like to purchase a copy of the book, a free 31 page preview of the 127-page book is available from Google a</b>t:</span><br /><br /><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Layton/m0PZDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22lynn+Arave%22&printsec=frontcover">https://www.google.com/books/edition/Layton/m0PZDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22lynn+Arave%22&printsec=frontcover</a><br /><br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-33366122020807089102020-09-03T16:53:00.002-07:002024-02-29T19:38:12.481-08:00An actual Howard Stark -- Not the fictional father of 'Iron Man' Tony Stark -- And the real one crashed his airplane in Utah<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uCY1Lu2nnfDnExg6rxQNW8i6i659D6bO189Q025qQhaou8QguYqzomRdSmaHgeNj5DnaVoHRhSIaOIIc3wqfA3ApcH-dskml9cbrs48tMz_flYEOWdDsMYx6fG82Zh8k9iKK0bJmlIcT/s1600/Mountains+eastof+Huntsville.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6uCY1Lu2nnfDnExg6rxQNW8i6i659D6bO189Q025qQhaou8QguYqzomRdSmaHgeNj5DnaVoHRhSIaOIIc3wqfA3ApcH-dskml9cbrs48tMz_flYEOWdDsMYx6fG82Zh8k9iKK0bJmlIcT/s640/Mountains+eastof+Huntsville.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;"> The Monte Cristo Mountains, far background.</span> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 24pt;"> </span></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>THERE </b>actually existed a real Howard Stark who was both a legendary pilot and an
inventor -- and he died in the aftermath of a plane crash in northern Utah. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Mention Howard Stark to anyone today and they may instantly think
of the fictional Howard Stark from the Marvel comics and movie universe, who
was the late father of "Iron Man," alias Tony Stark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">A June 16, 1936 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune: "Search
party follows lost U.S. flier's trail for five miles. Major Stark wandered down
Lost Creek from plane after crack-up last January."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">My gosh, there was a real Howard Stark who flew airplanes in their
early decades!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/598532516/?terms=Search%2Bparty%2Bfollows%2Blost%2BU.S.%2Bflier%27s%2Btrail%2Bfor%2Bfive%2Bmiles">https://www.newspapers.com/image/598532516/?terms=Search%2Bparty%2Bfollows%2Blost%2BU.S.%2Bflier%27s%2Btrail%2Bfor%2Bfive%2Bmiles</a><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Stark flew U.S. mail in airplanes. He was flying from Rock Springs, Wyoming to Salt Lake City on January 16, 1936, when all radio contact
was lost. A winter storm apparently forced him to land on a remote Utah peak,
Observatory Peak, 28 miles northeast of Devil's Slide and east of Huntsville,
Utah, in a blizzard. His plane was not discovered until 5 months later, in June
of 1936, but he was not there and presumed dead somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Another newspaper article on Stark in the Weekly Reflex of Jan.
23, 1936, stated that he was "a nationally known authority on blind
flying."'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/597323448/?terms=a%2Bnationally%2Bknown%2Bauthority%2Bon%2Bblind%2Bflying">https://www.newspapers.com/image/597323448/?terms=a%2Bnationally%2Bknown%2Bauthority%2Bon%2Bblind%2Bflying</a><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">The Salt Lake Telegram newspaper of Sept. 22, 1939 carried the
headline: "Aviator's body rests in S.L."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/289130912/?terms=Aviator%27s%2Bbody%2Brests%2Bin%2BS.L.">https://www.newspapers.com/image/289130912/?terms=Aviator%27s%2Bbody%2Brests%2Bin%2BS.L.</a><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">After more than 3 1/2 years, Stark's body was found by a sheepherder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">This story referred to Stark as the "ace blind flier of the
department of commerce." He survived his plane crash, but not the winter
conditions of trying to walk to civilization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">-If you conduct a Google search for "Howard Stark," you
will find six full pages of results all on the fictional Howard Stark of Marvel
comics and movies (including posts that speculate on Marvel bringing the
character back to life).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Finally, at the top of page 7 of a Google search results is an
article in Vintage Plane magazine from May of 2002 about this real life Howard
Stark. Its headline is: "Howard Stark: The Pioneer Aviator of instrument
flying."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">This article, by John M. Miller, says that Stark was flying a
Stinson Model S plane for the U.S. Department of Commerce, headed to the West
Coast to give more instructors to other flyers about using instruments in
airplanes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Ironically, Stark had never been west before and his plane and
equipment were not designed for the high altitude flying of Utah. The author
believes he made an emergency lan</span><span style="font-size: 24pt;">ding in a snowstorm and froze to death trying
to walk to safety in deep snow and minus 20 degree temperatures.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">The author of the article stated that "Howard Stark is really
the almost forgotten but true father of today's instrument flying … Howard
Stark, Charles A. Lindbergh and Clyde Pangborn are my civilian pilot heroes ...
Stark's 1-2-3 system has served as the basis for what we know now as
partial-panel flying."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">So, there you have it. A snapshot of the real Howard Stark. A
first-class pilot and a civilian one, just like the fictional Howard Stark.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Note that the first mention of the fictional Howard Stark in Marvel
comics was in the Iron Man comics of 1970. Iron Man made his first debut in
1963, along with Tony Stark. The father, Howard Stark, was added 7 seven years
later and it is highly likely that the two Marvel comic writers who created
Howard Stark were oblivious to the real one, since he is rarely, but unjustly
mentioned in history. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><i>(-Originally published on August 18, 2020 in the Deseret News.)</i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
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Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-61797913172977953502020-07-14T09:24:00.002-07:002024-02-29T19:37:49.704-08:00When Hollywood disliked Southern Utah’s brightly colored terrain – And even got stranded in a slot canyon<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuiyzdYeclutg_FrDJSycQyYviOMD2C5Rnz8vCWpmuJFS4gMneTbBZmf1mFE2TNspIKxd4dXrCehyphenhyphenZ7bfQFBGVuPdthFVGJKajK_oUOdotuMc1T8MwCKziDqd-ALne0e5sSz-d1Z6oUA51/s1600/Colored+rocks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1043" data-original-width="1600" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuiyzdYeclutg_FrDJSycQyYviOMD2C5Rnz8vCWpmuJFS4gMneTbBZmf1mFE2TNspIKxd4dXrCehyphenhyphenZ7bfQFBGVuPdthFVGJKajK_oUOdotuMc1T8MwCKziDqd-ALne0e5sSz-d1Z6oUA51/s640/Colored+rocks.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Some of the colored rocks, located northeast of Kanab, near Cottonwood Canyon.</div>
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Photo by Ravell Call</div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>SOUTHERN</b> Utah is world famous for its brightly colored rocks. However, there was a time
when Hollywood disliked the Kanab area's landscape.<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Colored
rocks of Utah plague film company” was an Oct. 6, 1940 headline in the Salt
Lake Tribune.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The hues of
Kanab area rock were simply too bright for the Technicolor filming process
Hollywood was using at that time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Thousands
of tourists visit Utah every year to gaze with wonder and delight at the
brilliantly colored rocks dotting the landscape,” the story stated. “But these
same rocks are a source of annoyance and expense to Twentieth Century-Fox now
on location here for the filming of Zane Grey’s ‘Western Union.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/598868492/?terms=Colored%2Brocks%2Bof%2BUtah%2Bplague%2Bfilm%2Bcompany">https://www.newspapers.com/image/598868492/?terms=Colored%2Brocks%2Bof%2BUtah%2Bplague%2Bfilm%2Bcompany</a><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What did
Hollywood do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“A crew of
men had to be hired to ‘redecorate’ the rocks along Paris Creek, which
cameramen said are too bright for technicolor filming,” the story reported.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The extra
cost of the painting before filming was not reported, but was believed to be
only a small part of the $100,000 (more than $1.8 million in today’s dollar
value) that the film studio was expected to spend in the Kanab area for the
movie.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And, that
wasn’t the only problem Hollywood encountered in the area. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“While
scouting for the Paria (Creek) location, Director (Fritz) Lang and his
technicolor staff were marooned when a sudden rain filled the arroyos between
Paria and Kanab, blocking their return. They spent the night waiting for the
waters to recede while a rescue party tried in vain to reach them,” the Tribune
story stated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(This may
have been the first public notice that Utah’s slot canyons can be dangerous
during storms.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The studio
had 470 employees in town for the movie, as well as using about 300 Kanab
residents for extras, cowpunchers and wranglers, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Robert
Young, Randolph Scott and Dean Jagger were among the stars in the “Western
Union” movie. The Gap and Johnson Canyon were among the other filming
locations.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<br />
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-A similar scenario
happened about 10 years later in 1950, when a headline in the Aug. 12 Ogden Standard-Examiner
was, “Mountain ‘Flash Flood’ Maroons Hollywood Unit.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A Hollywood
crew of 64 members were stranded after a torrent seven feet deep filled
Buckskin Creek, about 40 miles east of Kanab. A heavy rain and hail produced
the flood and the crew was delayed about eight hours, until after midnight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The crew,
which included actors Robert Ryan and Walter Brennan, plus actress Claire
Trevor, were hungry, but there were no injuries. The RKO movie “Best of the Bad
Men” was being filmed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/598787810/?terms=hollywood%2Band%2Bkanab">https://www.newspapers.com/image/598787810/?terms=hollywood%2Band%2Bkanab</a><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-MORE HISTORY: The Kolob Canyon Road is a
scenic drive at the far western edge of Zion National Park. The first mention
of a possible paved highway into this area was back in 1955.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Parowan
Times newspaper of May 26, 1955 carried the headline, “Highway into Zion
Monument ‘possible.’”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/544506765/?terms=Highway%2Binto%2BZion%2BMonument">https://www.newspapers.com/image/544506765/?terms=Highway%2Binto%2BZion%2BMonument</a><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The story
stated that Zion Park Superintendent Paul R. Franke had visited the Kolob
Terrace area and said a road would open up an area even more beautiful than
Zion Canyon itself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In pre-I-15
days, the prospective road was mentioned as leaving U-91 and entering the
“finger” canyons of the Kolob Terrace through Taylor/Dry Creek. The road was
built in the early to mid-1960s and opened on Sept. 30, 1967.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-There was a
“ghost ship” on the Great Salt Lake in the late summer of 1887. The Salt Lake
Herald of Sept. 4 that year published the headline, “A strange affair.
Mysterious appearance of a Fisher Boat near Lake Park.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
12-foot-long rowboat was found unmanned, between “Church Island” (today’s
Antelope Island) and Lake Park (forerunner to Lagoon on the shores of the GSL,
west of Farmington). The boat was found drifting south, several miles from
shore, full of provisions for an extended trip.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/80027409/?terms=fisher%2Bboat%2Band%2Blake%2Bpark">https://www.newspapers.com/image/80027409/?terms=fisher%2Bboat%2Band%2Blake%2Bpark</a><span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With some
difficulty it was towed to shore at Farmington and included clothes, utensils
and fishing supplies, but no food.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Where the
ship came from was never determined and whether its owner met with an accident,
or the boat just slipped out of reach was never publicly recorded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"> Goblin Valley.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt;">-Goblin
Valley is a well-known Utah State Park, established in 1964. However, the area
was known by earlier titles. “Mushroom Valley” was its first name, given to it
by its discoverer, Arthur Chaffin in 1949. (He had first spotted it in the
1920s, but didn’t return for decades.) According to the Richfield Reaper
newspaper of Oct. 1, 1953, the area was also known by a different name – “Little
Gnomeland.”</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22little+gnomeland%22">https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22little+gnomeland%22</a><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The article
also referred to the formations as goblins, but expressed concern over how easily
the shapes could be vandalized, with nearby U-24 being completed, though there
was not yet a direct road to the valley itself. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><i>(-Originally published in the Deseret News on July 14, 2020.)</i></span></div>
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<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-65178311576745623412020-06-24T09:06:00.003-07:002024-02-29T19:37:30.848-08:00A pair of never built roads in Bryce Canyon National Park: One in the bottom and the other a loop road<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<b style="font-size: x-large;"><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQQnCVVkc1nO_ZEBys6KqOsRyQiVL5NSUyD8Z25oKpsIaMyp5cdqxlNFFbLTSZ80EJCjMhH7Yjp4AIhdaYmHopNo5eYwSLVZkac6r0X3seXcbuHTAx1Q_hJuNkCjraqYNlX3vYQU_FmxRQ/s2048/DSC_0281.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1371" data-original-width="2048" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQQnCVVkc1nO_ZEBys6KqOsRyQiVL5NSUyD8Z25oKpsIaMyp5cdqxlNFFbLTSZ80EJCjMhH7Yjp4AIhdaYmHopNo5eYwSLVZkac6r0X3seXcbuHTAx1Q_hJuNkCjraqYNlX3vYQU_FmxRQ/w640-h428/DSC_0281.JPG" width="640" /></a></div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div>BRYCE</b><span style="font-size: large;"> Canyon National Park had somewhat of a lackluster beginning, being in the shadows of the more highly esteemed sister park, Zion. From almost changing Bryce's name away from "Canyon" (since geologically it is NOT a canyon); to it almost became only a Utah State Park; to being administratively under Zion Park until 1956; </span><span style="font-size: large;">Bryce has had some major "what ifs?"</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">And, here are two others to add to that list -- 1. In 1931 there was a failed proposal to create a loop road from Highway 89 through Red Canyon to Bryce and then back to Highway 89 at Long Valley Junction; 2. In 1951 there was a strong move to build a road on the floor of Bryce Canyon itself.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Government plans new road to Bryce Canyon" was a March 28, 1931 headline in the Iron County Record newspaper of Cedar City.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This tentative road reached Rainbow Point (where the Bryce park highway ends southward today) and then would head due west to Highway 89 at the Long Valley Junction of U-14.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"The entire road would be about 27 miles long, with five miles being private lands and most of the balance in the Powell and Dixie national forests," the story stated.</span><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJy-75NLTwh0iiPSglJ1GGi0_J1o32l-qsA76fkKskBRdFADuTggptIBHmLpdIc8uWpTUMQ_265M4mLra5FCuPPpGQ-cMLtYJmZrnHMlNZkHsyevHgdxWfcFfM7gnbovHq3njlkCKw8K0s/s5152/Rainbow+point+sign.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJy-75NLTwh0iiPSglJ1GGi0_J1o32l-qsA76fkKskBRdFADuTggptIBHmLpdIc8uWpTUMQ_265M4mLra5FCuPPpGQ-cMLtYJmZrnHMlNZkHsyevHgdxWfcFfM7gnbovHq3njlkCKw8K0s/w640-h480/Rainbow+point+sign.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> Today's end of the road southward in Bryce Canyon.<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The story also stated, "The new road would make it possible to visit Bryce via the present route through Red Canyon and then return over an entirely different route, eliminating all retracing. Most of the route would be at 8,000 ft. elevation and would add much to the pleasantness of the trip in hot summer months."</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpc1PrYrgFWn6uygY3gvHGRyfvbMEaY7KIoHLLe3BxPBYe2OMzbfnO8DYTppcW28VqMy9ioMtcJV0QYISul6pSI8splQKDInbqR1ieqU39JplmbPWhNzgpwtp5sid7FXCL1HdzH8ZlimBs/s5152/End+of+Bryce.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpc1PrYrgFWn6uygY3gvHGRyfvbMEaY7KIoHLLe3BxPBYe2OMzbfnO8DYTppcW28VqMy9ioMtcJV0QYISul6pSI8splQKDInbqR1ieqU39JplmbPWhNzgpwtp5sid7FXCL1HdzH8ZlimBs/w640-h480/End+of+Bryce.JPG" width="640" /></a></div> The parking lot turnaround at the end of 18 miles of road in Bryce Canyon.<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Why didn't this road ever get built? Constructing the loop highway was contingent upon the State of Utah being able to cooperate and create five miles of road through the private lands. This apparently didn't happen, likely because of property acquisition issues. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Yes, the more recent proposal in 1951 was to build a paved road below the rim.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHFZOgcwPOIFs48u4L8csanJjFHDAg3O3hZQnLEqFRgFfJiLV5rARYdGs4Zzq2BIn58ogDEaGyxjEZ9kqi_0OSZdg4HiPWGZLnfTSyabrh7XfMO55Oqo2bIStt5jDc8KirsIhlVUkPy3yA/s5152/West+of+Bryce.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHFZOgcwPOIFs48u4L8csanJjFHDAg3O3hZQnLEqFRgFfJiLV5rARYdGs4Zzq2BIn58ogDEaGyxjEZ9kqi_0OSZdg4HiPWGZLnfTSyabrh7XfMO55Oqo2bIStt5jDc8KirsIhlVUkPy3yA/w640-h480/West+of+Bryce.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div>The rugged terrain looking west from today's south end of the road in Bryce Canyon. But if a 1930s proposal had happened, Bryce Canyon National Park would have had a loop road and a highway would have descended below in this picture and connected with Long Valley Junction.</div><div><br /></div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">"Civic clubs will support move for road on floor of Bryce Canyon": was an August 30, 1951 headline in the Richfield Reaper newspaper of Utah.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bryce Canyon put Panguitch, Utah on the national map, as the entrance, the last town before the now popular national park. So, the Associated Civics Clubs of Southern and Eastern Utah, along with the Panguitch Lions Club, held a meeting in town to discuss the idea of a road at the bottom of Bryce.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"The Club agreed to support a suggestion by State Representative John Johnson of Tropic to the effect that a road can be built on the floor of Bryce Canyon so that visitors can view the real scenic attractions of the area," the Richfield newspaper story stated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">It continued, "The main beauty of Bryce Canyon cannot be seen from the rim of the canyon."</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgspo84I3iz9zx0D0q4qgK9qixZ6H42d_xvRvXffqUVTlDUhadYoGArQ3mMyZsLK1xYItGbXSbdU25uKD6EhpEVoqQQ5QQY7GbrFHebo_QkoSVPD8T3DuDXJyJKRBqNKEO0I_f6N6_cKcWr/s5152/DSCN6083.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3864" data-original-width="5152" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgspo84I3iz9zx0D0q4qgK9qixZ6H42d_xvRvXffqUVTlDUhadYoGArQ3mMyZsLK1xYItGbXSbdU25uKD6EhpEVoqQQ5QQY7GbrFHebo_QkoSVPD8T3DuDXJyJKRBqNKEO0I_f6N6_cKcWr/w640-h480/DSCN6083.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /> Hikers on the Navajo Trail in Bryce.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdsAHurfa1pcDwWv1qqYVAixPcd8Gp_5i18gNXobsGzeaMvmUc5s1Gbc-9rkGvSCzxooiC5hJUjV2a_Xzt5Nra5vqjvUmf5BKu_qL_xfdXDcsMhak-GTQqQm5qljT152fqQfy8YRfnggr5/s1600/DSC_0295.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdsAHurfa1pcDwWv1qqYVAixPcd8Gp_5i18gNXobsGzeaMvmUc5s1Gbc-9rkGvSCzxooiC5hJUjV2a_Xzt5Nra5vqjvUmf5BKu_qL_xfdXDcsMhak-GTQqQm5qljT152fqQfy8YRfnggr5/s640/DSC_0295.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
Imagine a paved road through the middle of this?<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">So, there you have it. Of course, the road was never built, but it leaves little to the imagination to envision a road going through the bottom of Bryce. Many, many natural features would have had to have been demolished to make room for such a road. Hiking would also not be a big activity as it is today in Bryce with such a road. Why hike, when you can drive down?</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>
<span style="font-size: large;">-In 1920, Bryce was just picking up steam with tourists. "Volunteers repair Bryce Canyon road" was a May 6 headline that year in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper. A "road day club" had just been formed in Panguitch, with up to 47 men volunteering their time to smooth out the dirt road from Panguitch through Red Canyon and onto Bryce so that automobiles had better access.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5iv7uU0-izUUTnP2ve9EULT6KCbuFjT47a9E-xMKX23GyYVbbLAc5X1_CrPZ5FYDKR9SZrWlV1vGcqm_s5V6TdYMm33O9bonigQF7XFHJ7ehzCT2xbcE3BuyrkR4JO1RxcBcHyLVGxHm1/s1600/DSC_0278.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5iv7uU0-izUUTnP2ve9EULT6KCbuFjT47a9E-xMKX23GyYVbbLAc5X1_CrPZ5FYDKR9SZrWlV1vGcqm_s5V6TdYMm33O9bonigQF7XFHJ7ehzCT2xbcE3BuyrkR4JO1RxcBcHyLVGxHm1/s640/DSC_0278.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
The iconic tunnel in Red Rock Canyon.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-Initially, for more than a decade, the road to Bryce Canyon ended at the northwest rim of the amphitheater, probably near today's Sunrise Point. Walking or horse travel was the only way further south.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">However, the Salt Lake Tribune of Dec. 6, 1929, reported that the National Park Service had allocated $13,700 to survey and begin to construct a road eight or more miles long southward along the rim of Bryce in the summer of 1930.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This road was "to afford visitors opportunity to view the canyon from many vantage points, instead of the one point now reached by the main highway," the Tribune story stated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">(At the time time, the Park Service allocated $280,000 to improve roads along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, particularly from the Bright Angel Camp to Point Imperial and Cape Royal.)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogjQ2FJ2Mq5g3TXkDlXuO8m1T_xW9WjouqoQdTxTrAPUMbWG2oxe0SJp8o2JY3glRRQGKDYu8FpC8tRIlD6k04SPm3B7jBvPZQ71XFy0D8WPIgBT2LqRzSY5IEE3LoDStFXTooJYnjnY8/s1600/DSC_0330.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgogjQ2FJ2Mq5g3TXkDlXuO8m1T_xW9WjouqoQdTxTrAPUMbWG2oxe0SJp8o2JY3glRRQGKDYu8FpC8tRIlD6k04SPm3B7jBvPZQ71XFy0D8WPIgBT2LqRzSY5IEE3LoDStFXTooJYnjnY8/s640/DSC_0330.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
There are some small cliffs along the Navajo Trail in Bryce.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-Finally, while Zion has been host to a lot more accidents than Zion, given its sheer cliffs and towering rocks, Bryce Canyon has also not been immune to accident from falls.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Some examples:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1. "Fall from Bryce Canyon cliff seriously injures Cedar girl" was a June 23, 1932 headline in the Beaver County News. The girl slipped off a cliff near Point Supreme and suffered three breaks in her pelvis bone and a broken arm. It took rescuers several hours to reach her.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2. "Girl has close call in Utah park accident" was a July 13, 1946 headline in the Logan Herald-Journal. The 14-year-old-girl from Buffalo, N.Y. slipped off a sandstone cliff in Bryce and went down 100 feet "before she clutched the edge of a projecting chunk of sandstone -- one of the many spires which have made the canyon famous," the story reported. She was rescued with ropes by a park ranger. The girl's physician father treated her many cuts and bruises, but nothing was broken.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">3. The Ogden Standard-Examiner of April 22, 1954, reported that a 61-year-old woman tourist from Illinois died in a fall at the park on April 21 that year. She stepped over a log barrier at the Far View Scenic Point, lost her balance and plunged 90 feet to her death down a cliff. She died instantly.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">4. A man died in cliff fall in Bryce in September of 2003.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAmQvymZ5ctGwRMxhq7hNobozvEcxLARQUMUG6ieQCXV7BPKOSwltnhWpWtKGgaFUx3IPdOi7zpfAXFbBukFFEa5hRX9OewHNJ9U2uT0bZiDEZ6f2nNK8XqtTFl4ObvOH9otqZbED4oBkR/s1600/DSC_0337.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="1600" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAmQvymZ5ctGwRMxhq7hNobozvEcxLARQUMUG6ieQCXV7BPKOSwltnhWpWtKGgaFUx3IPdOi7zpfAXFbBukFFEa5hRX9OewHNJ9U2uT0bZiDEZ6f2nNK8XqtTFl4ObvOH9otqZbED4oBkR/s640/DSC_0337.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> -Another milestone in Bryce National Park happened in November of 1936 when it began staying open in winter, to Inspiration Point. Years later, that led to snowmobiling and cross country skiing there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>-Originally published in the Deseret News on June 24, 2020.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-24374632455905221962020-05-13T10:32:00.003-07:002024-02-29T19:40:15.347-08:00When dynamite could have destroyed Lone Peak ...<br />
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<b style="font-size: 24pt;">COULD</b><span style="font-size: 24pt;"> Lone
Peak have been destroyed by a dynamite blast in 1937?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Will dynamite crash hilltop(?)” was the
headline of an Associated Press story in the Ogden Standard-Examiner of August
19, 1937.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The story stated,
“Lone Peak, lofty outcropping of the Wasatch range upon which a great airliner
crashed last winter, is to be blasted at its tip into a tomb for the tragedy
that claimed seven lives.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On December
15, 1936, a Western Air Express Boeing 247 crashed just below Hardy Ridge on
Lone Peak. Most of the aircraft was hurled over the ridge and dropped over a
thousand feet into the basin below.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lone Peak is
an 11,253-foot above sea level summit in the Wasatch Mountains, located east of
Draper. (However, strictly speaking, Hardy Ridge is located hundreds of yards south
of Lone Peak, above Hardy Lake.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The A.P.
story stated that Western Air Express had secured permission from the U.S.
Forest Service to dynamite the mountain top. This was in order to “bury the
crash area which now attracts sight-seers and which, because of frequent rock
slides, is considered a menace.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The story
stated that the seven bodies, luggage, mail and plane parts were all recovered
after six months of searching, followed by two months of digging and removal
work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It does NOT
appear that Lone Peak itself was ever dynamited. No reports of such a blast
could be found in old newspapers or through Google searches.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">However, at least one person who read this report said a book on the history of the plane crash does mention that dynamite was indeed used to cover up the crash site.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">(The Lone
Peak area includes a lot of unstable looking rock and so an explosion could
have likely altered the appearance of the area somewhat.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In any
event, according to <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="http://www.lostflights.com/">www.lostflights.com</a></span>, Amelia
Earhart herself participated in the search for the plane early on, but it
wasn’t located until July of 1937 (the month Earhart disappeared).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(There have
been four deaths on Lone Peak in the past 20 years. Two were from lightning and
two were from falls off cliffs.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Notwithstanding
the Lone Peak area’s disastrous plane crash, it has always been a popular
hiking destination. “Teachers climb peak” was a Sept. 6, 1915 headline in the
Salt Lake Telegram newspaper. The story said 15 principals and teachers from
the Jordan School District climbed the peak on Labor Day weekend. They faced a
heavy wind and snowstorm half-way up the mountain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-The
American Fork Citizen newspaper of Sept. 8, 1923 stated that six men climbed
Lone Peak, also on Labor Day weekend. They camped overnight and had a large
fire that could be seen from all over the area.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-“Wasatch
Mountain Club hikers ascend Lone Peak” was an Aug. 4, 1925 headline in the Salt
Lake Telegram. A party of 14 took three days to complete the hike.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-“Hikers
climb peak to set new record” was a Telegram headline on Oct. 3, 1938. Wasatch
Mountain Club members, Odell Pedersen, W.C. Kamp, Orson Spencer and Keith
Anderson all climbed the peak in 3 hours and 58 minutes, one of the speediest
times ever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Three
members of the Wasatch Mountain Club scaled Lone Peak from the east side, that
includes a 700-foot-high wall of granite. They did it in July of 1958,
according to The Midvale Sentinel newspaper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"> Malan's Peak is east of Mount Ogden Park.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-<b>ANOTHER HISTORICAL TIDBIT:</b> This
probably wouldn’t be safe in today’s drought conditions, but in the late 1930s,
Weber State College students would hike to Malan’s Peak and Malan’s Basin each
September and have a block “W” fire.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt;">(Malan’s
Peak is east of 32</span><sup>nd</sup><span style="font-size: 24pt;"> Street in Ogden.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some 90 students made the first-ever such hike in 1937, according to the
Standard-Examiner of Sept. 20 that year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In 1938,
approximately 150students made the hike. They left the college
campus at 6:30 p.m., drove to Taylor Canyon and reached the Basin about 9 p.m.
and returned about 1 a.m.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“A flaming W
on the mountain was lit at seven-thirty,” the Standard-Examiner of Sept. 10,
1938 reported.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This annual
hike eventually stopped, but was restarted in 1988, though the fire tradition
ceased.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"> Taylor Arave poses on Malan's Peak.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">-All material was originally published in the Deseret News on May 13, 2020.</span><br />
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Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-78329223221444058772020-04-11T18:38:00.002-07:002024-02-29T19:39:42.687-08:00 A look at early ship wrecks on the briny and unpredictable Great Salt Lake<br />
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p> The Great Salt Lake southwest of Antelope Island. </o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><b>THERE</b> seems
to have been plenty of boaters on the Great Salt Lake in Utah’s earliest
decades who shipwrecked, or nearly so – and a significant number of them ended
up stranded temporarily on Fremont or Antelope islands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps the
lack of weather forecasting, sparse communication and underestimating the punch
of the GSL’s briny-laden waves all contributed to the disasters.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The first of
these involves two near-wrecks by the Lake’s first-known white explorers, the
John C. Fremont party, which included mountain man Kit Carson, who conducted a
U.S. Government survey there. On Sept. 9, 1843, Fremont and his four of his men
paddled a poorly made inflatable rubber boat to Fremont Island. However,
half-way there a strong wind began to blow and white caps appeared on the
lake’s surface. They had great difficulty in reaching the Isle, especially as
air in the boat leaked out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">After their
survey, they returned to the mainland, but faced a big incoming storm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Carson’s
diary stated they had not gone more than a league, when an incoming storm
threatened them and the boat was leaking air. Fremont urged them to "pull
for their lives," Carson noted, that "if we did not reach shore
before the storm, we would surely all perish." Pulling at the oars with
all their might, they barely made it. "Within an hour, the waters had
risen eight or ten feet," Carson wrote.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Christopher Layton.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt;">-Christopher
Layton, a prominent early Layton pioneer, is the namesake for today’s Layton
City. One of Mr. Layton’s lesser-known experiences was a shipwreck in the Great
Salt Lake. In April of 1872, a small steamship, the Kate Connor, owned by
Layton, ran ashore off Antelope Island (then known as “Church Island”) and
became stranded.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Salt
Lake Tribune had reported on May 2, 1872, that the accident happened during a
big storm. There were about 10 people on board the craft and it was carrying
cedar posts at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The fierce
spring storm almost swamped the boat and the passengers scurried to safety on
Antelope Island. Eventually, a sailboat was used to transport them back to the
mainland.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvM2Cxv-SIbT81GO5rYyR3EGsoUdRYMhhUCdvX_WN0AkdovPEozNkjdDdGQgiTsEi4lK7bHRAAWL85fdmvf2z293uMn7rqHaEthnuCbkOW9vaVCTqaUkE9R5e9ZKeSNRCdkpdqe6rxKiog/s1600/Nelson+Arave+boat+wreck.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvM2Cxv-SIbT81GO5rYyR3EGsoUdRYMhhUCdvX_WN0AkdovPEozNkjdDdGQgiTsEi4lK7bHRAAWL85fdmvf2z293uMn7rqHaEthnuCbkOW9vaVCTqaUkE9R5e9ZKeSNRCdkpdqe6rxKiog/s640/Nelson+Arave+boat+wreck.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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A section of the map at Hooper City Hall.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Next the
wrecks get personal for myself. A large pioneer map of the Hooper area, on the
wall at the Hooper, Utah City Offices (drawn and produced by the late Hooper
historian, John M. Belnap), lists Nelson Arave (one of my great grandfathers) as
having wrecked a boat on Fremont Island in the Great Salt Lake in 1874. Three
years later, in 1877, there’s a reference in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial
Star (Volume 39, p. 223) that states Nelson Arave had built two large boats to
transport cedar posts and wood from Promontory (Point) to Hooper. Presumably,
it was one of those two boats that wrecked on the isle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6g-QZsa8dWvzHkz0GPQdtRWgfGT3BjCmTSI58Cufm3LkKYOh1b01uGq4tf3CVTNhRHrjxBOnsZ_E94X6IJVR_Pwnrob8PdKwNoaa3A-tDFELQxNS-1COy-ZTYcPwyDvRv6vdJMF0xUz0/s1600/Nelson+Arave.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn6g-QZsa8dWvzHkz0GPQdtRWgfGT3BjCmTSI58Cufm3LkKYOh1b01uGq4tf3CVTNhRHrjxBOnsZ_E94X6IJVR_Pwnrob8PdKwNoaa3A-tDFELQxNS-1COy-ZTYcPwyDvRv6vdJMF0xUz0/s320/Nelson+Arave.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 107%;"> Nelson Arave</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt;">-Four years
after Nelson Arave’s wreck on Fremont Island, one of his friends, Charles
Smaltz, wrecked his large boat too on Fremont Island, in 1878.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-The Salt
Lake Tribune of May 18, 1875 reported that the City of Corrine Steamboat (150
feet long and three decks high) had carried 80 passengers on a recent GSL
excursion. However, a big storm struck and at one point the fear was the boat
would capsize or sink. It didn’t, but the boat was eventually anchored about
200 yards off shore of Antelope Island to ride out the storm.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This was
“one of the roughest voyages ever experienced on the Salt Lake,” according to
the Tribune story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The Salt
Lake Herald in an April 21, 1882 story stated of the dismal history of boating
in the GSL: “The fate of these steamers makes it clear that the people of Salt
Lake City are not of a sea-going turn …” The story also described the lake as
“capacious.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Blanch
Wenner, who lived on Fremont Island with her parents from 1886-1891, told the
Salt Lake Telegram on June 17, 1939, that it sometime took several days on a sailboat
to reach the Island in bad weather – and sometimes required a stay on Antelope
Island first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-The Salt
Lake Tribune of Sept. 21, 1913 mentions a lawsuit over the wreck of the boat
“Argo,” that was used to transport sheep to Fremont Island and yet was
destroyed in a storm in 1912.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;">-Finally, 15
Hooper boys took a 35-foot boat to Fremont Island in 1924 and were stranded
overnight when the boat’s motor wouldn’t start. They used signal fires to alert
relatives, but eventually got the motor running and returned to the mainland
(-From the Ogden Standard-Examiner of Feb. 25, 1924.)<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">And, even the 1930s weren't always safe on the lake. Hazel Cunningham of Salt Lake City had a quest for GSL marathon swimming and this effort also highlighted the finicky lake's dangerous side. "Four rescued as boat sinks in lake storm" was a June 12, 1936 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 34.24px;">Her first attempt at a record swim was met with disaster as a sudden lake storm overturned the boat following along. A Salt Lake Tribune sportswriter and three of Cunningham's friends spent 4 hours in rough water with her before being rescued. The boat tipped over about three miles from Saltair beach. (It was just over a month later when Cunningham successfully made her record swim from Saltair to Antelope Island in fair weather.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">-There were,
of course, a number of boat wrecks on the GSL after these. Bottom line is, the
Great Salt Lake is not to be underestimated – even today.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUBtGhwd3H0LSoZMi2otXJXOtnGSE76ATYCAX-bOz2EINc10yRvfSDVhnlP01nHyylK9t-qsRvmYRA5cKWeMvcDzD0LEJggeEO56MYT_hlfWsqJxXG66GdL04XlxWA9ea8s80Fq-HkPHg9/s1600/Boat.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUBtGhwd3H0LSoZMi2otXJXOtnGSE76ATYCAX-bOz2EINc10yRvfSDVhnlP01nHyylK9t-qsRvmYRA5cKWeMvcDzD0LEJggeEO56MYT_hlfWsqJxXG66GdL04XlxWA9ea8s80Fq-HkPHg9/s640/Boat.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 107%;"><o:p> The Arave family on a tour boat near Fremont Island in the early 1990s.</o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">-This story was originally published in the Deseret News on April 8, 2020.</span><br />
<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-40294733549947031172020-03-25T20:58:00.003-07:002020-04-05T17:36:38.732-07:00A pair of antique advertisements: One from Ogden in 1959; And one from Parowan in 1933<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>HERE</b> are 2 classic ads from past decades in Utah:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg27OJaFr5n8e4Kpi-R3cxEEj9V56OwmqcM4G2co7mf1eFsc1Nu5ggO6_yu2-3urCNsNTglWwm1V5YE6GPmCSLiaATyOMuJjItFOA6NtxOXA3Ca7Flqv7WPcZQ4LLb_lY9_nP4KWCjFDMRS/s1600/KLO+Berthana+ad+Oct.+2%252C+1959.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg27OJaFr5n8e4Kpi-R3cxEEj9V56OwmqcM4G2co7mf1eFsc1Nu5ggO6_yu2-3urCNsNTglWwm1V5YE6GPmCSLiaATyOMuJjItFOA6NtxOXA3Ca7Flqv7WPcZQ4LLb_lY9_nP4KWCjFDMRS/s640/KLO+Berthana+ad+Oct.+2%252C+1959.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">A KLO radio ad from the Ogden Standard-Examiner of Oct. 2, 1959.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_H0jlk5cK9auCc0YtvwrUuosUPyD9QTwQKr-7Hc2IujH37nsSZO5Ev8eHpvMY6_SDTfI3D0tIzOlrKXEzWooKxETBMDiq0A4-1CBa28hILUYoqheFlP273W0WuyCe_OZ0Z83T4CQ30d7h/s1600/Parowan+Canyon+summer+1933.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_H0jlk5cK9auCc0YtvwrUuosUPyD9QTwQKr-7Hc2IujH37nsSZO5Ev8eHpvMY6_SDTfI3D0tIzOlrKXEzWooKxETBMDiq0A4-1CBa28hILUYoqheFlP273W0WuyCe_OZ0Z83T4CQ30d7h/s640/Parowan+Canyon+summer+1933.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">An ad in the Parowan, Utah Times newspaper of July 21, 1933.</span><br />
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Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-74069663150001041142020-02-03T19:31:00.000-08:002020-02-03T19:31:06.047-08:001907: When Davis County farmers had too much water<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi68nJLtEL0LGTUyhsJt-y6Avc9Z2Oq9mGUwgtcQQRhjBVNdoJZ8_ByaR22pjB7ZntnYUhpNAjcQZeLv08tVo5jwqgN-ej5PyobKX0OOpLYtIixLEi3WkPsBn6FYyWNmhYBIFB-t0hVA68R/s1600/Rain+water+in+2015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi68nJLtEL0LGTUyhsJt-y6Avc9Z2Oq9mGUwgtcQQRhjBVNdoJZ8_ByaR22pjB7ZntnYUhpNAjcQZeLv08tVo5jwqgN-ej5PyobKX0OOpLYtIixLEi3WkPsBn6FYyWNmhYBIFB-t0hVA68R/s640/Rain+water+in+2015.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
A rain storm in 2015 left deep puddles of water in Layton City, near Hill Field Road and Main Street.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"Farmers in Davis face hard problem. Heavy rains have saturated lands with too much water. Draining is of no avail" was a March 13, 1907 headline in the Inter-Mountain Republican newspaper.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The story reported that many Bountiful residents had moved to the north of Davis County for the open spaces and larger farmland available. However, recent wet seasons have caused them to wonder if they made a mistake in moving.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">At one point, this was one of the driest areas in Davis County, but now saturated soil is making farming delayed and difficult.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">This wet soil first became apparent in the spring of 1904. Where it used to require a 40-foot drill downward to access water, now it is on the surface in the spring season.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">-The wet seasons also helped grass grow tall and wild near the mouth of Weber Canyon and caused some large grass fires on July 23, 1907, according to the Ogden Daily Standard of that date. Some wheat fields were destroyed and it took an army of 200 men fighting the fires to preserve some threatened homes.</span><br />
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<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-79570617281518077672020-02-03T18:43:00.001-08:002020-02-03T18:43:21.923-08:00Road to Francis Peak completed in 1938; The 1940 proposal to run the road all the way to Parley's Canyon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisesB96eL2mvjZtLMpQP-BPzxFl48rbG73YYARTFMsieioR8TzCmZ-xn2Uy3w8RVlV8qew1JGMRbqmPQPNeGEW4qrv5pfk553pGxGdhlQtjShdIigFvS-A-N7uusqXIUSOmgyJFmhyphenhyphenQZ90/s1600/Farm+Canyon1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisesB96eL2mvjZtLMpQP-BPzxFl48rbG73YYARTFMsieioR8TzCmZ-xn2Uy3w8RVlV8qew1JGMRbqmPQPNeGEW4qrv5pfk553pGxGdhlQtjShdIigFvS-A-N7uusqXIUSOmgyJFmhyphenhyphenQZ90/s640/Farm+Canyon1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
A sign at the top of Farmington Canyon.<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE </b>5-mile dirt road from the top of Farmington Canyon to Francis Peak was NOT built in the late 1950s when the Francis Peak radar station was constructed. It was built more than 20 years earlier by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) and was completed in 1938.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">According to the Davis County Clipper of Sept. 2, 1938, men of the CCC Company No. 940 constructed the five mile road in a two year project. It started as 12-feet wide and the U.S. Forest Service widened it to 22 feet.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTKpFLvg1G9PnJXRHE06-eEbav03Y6qfLlNwtXoA9_5CLchyphenhyphenwg10VA8nQY2iL7QU7uvK0nXGp7DjMB6g9b8Ip2HmzKa6Bv0n2ktvBHD1eTlZtKp4fJnibpqANNIvOyJjRBFTtPjUN1o1W/s1600/Farm+canyon3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTKpFLvg1G9PnJXRHE06-eEbav03Y6qfLlNwtXoA9_5CLchyphenhyphenwg10VA8nQY2iL7QU7uvK0nXGp7DjMB6g9b8Ip2HmzKa6Bv0n2ktvBHD1eTlZtKp4fJnibpqANNIvOyJjRBFTtPjUN1o1W/s640/Farm+canyon3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
The junction at the top of Farmington Canyon.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">"It will open up the scenic beauty around Francis Peak," the Clipper story stated.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The initial purpose of the road was to support erosion control. That's because the Farmington area suffered devastating floods in the 1920s, from overgrazing and also sudden cloud bursts.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIvc1aNhpYluZ67ztR9leajUbOsMvRt1FyvZktyYLW82Hag4igimWsRK09LE2cJ3BykEMMimeGC0ARoTqDNuvQPn05HbuG0VdhVzFfwpyeu2mc7ZFQF5h3Xuiq4oG8CVpzeWcOX1V68eC-/s1600/Farm+Canyon2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIvc1aNhpYluZ67ztR9leajUbOsMvRt1FyvZktyYLW82Hag4igimWsRK09LE2cJ3BykEMMimeGC0ARoTqDNuvQPn05HbuG0VdhVzFfwpyeu2mc7ZFQF5h3Xuiq4oG8CVpzeWcOX1V68eC-/s640/Farm+Canyon2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
An upper section of the road through Farmington Canyon.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikCNaWiWkhUChFdUzQpC63e9tI4nJ4Szk9Mw_6RqaYZw0QLMAxxELqvqoU_m2GtuUc41lMWaUpFeup70REIytOHGXDJiJVro0ZWG9BMjLgv8-x8Ux09oUwqimYXM5Vood6zp5BxbJXszxa/s1600/Lynn+at+Francis+Peak+Radar+Tower+%25281995%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1452" data-original-width="952" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikCNaWiWkhUChFdUzQpC63e9tI4nJ4Szk9Mw_6RqaYZw0QLMAxxELqvqoU_m2GtuUc41lMWaUpFeup70REIytOHGXDJiJVro0ZWG9BMjLgv8-x8Ux09oUwqimYXM5Vood6zp5BxbJXszxa/s320/Lynn+at+Francis+Peak+Radar+Tower+%25281995%2529.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
The northern radar dome atop Francis Peak.<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">-That same year, the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper heralded the completion of the entire mountain road, with the headline, "Farmington and Bountiful connected by scenic loop" was an Aug. 31, 1938 headline in the Telegram. This 17 mile stretch was also constructed by the CCC. (The side road north of Francis Peak was a connecting route.)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The road, today's "Skyline Drive," was begun in 1933 by the CCC for erosion control and access. The steepest portion of the road is through Farmington Canyon and that section is 7.5 miles long.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In order to avoid drilling through rock, the Canyon road included two bridges.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The Bountiful Peak Campground and Picnic Area is about one mile south of the top of Farmington Canyon. That facility was dedicated on Aug. 22, 1941, according to the Clipper of Oct. 15, 1941.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZg9xFOar8S3QXJSNLo6TnuAFzJy2gHMz8GAiIW8wjL4y8qTWfTVml6CnQVnOHRnqfnqKaVDyfm02IRjF7-MSaTw4EWN1AC5E-HhVWe0H-tOiIZdToKo-fbNl4NmEdFbuYgBkuAwJX9_1M/s1600/Farm+Canyon4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZg9xFOar8S3QXJSNLo6TnuAFzJy2gHMz8GAiIW8wjL4y8qTWfTVml6CnQVnOHRnqfnqKaVDyfm02IRjF7-MSaTw4EWN1AC5E-HhVWe0H-tOiIZdToKo-fbNl4NmEdFbuYgBkuAwJX9_1M/s640/Farm+Canyon4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Note the switchbacks up the north side of Farmington Canyon.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">-It didn't happen, but in 1940, plans were proposed to connect the Davis County mountain road with Emigration Canyon. The Salt Lake Telegram of March 27, 1940, reported the proposal by the U.S. Forest Service. Likely, the United State's entrance into World War II at the end of 1941 doomed that ambitious plan.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">However, that tentative road was surveyed as 29 miles long and run along the edge of City Creek and end at Little Mountain in Emigration Canyon. (Originally, the road was to go all the way to Parley's Canyon.)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7t7wBmbnyZvKXr3qrijkrIVx8qKURxGQYCrSxdUG2_pCBVQQFUgZkCW7zYzaLmdwwDMMR98B3Lj1x9QOQsu8dchUtEAMwGkYGnJHfc9pV-JzbI6oCXo80vdqiKxmJhsJsnuXp6ON3PYhP/s1600/Radar+towers.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7t7wBmbnyZvKXr3qrijkrIVx8qKURxGQYCrSxdUG2_pCBVQQFUgZkCW7zYzaLmdwwDMMR98B3Lj1x9QOQsu8dchUtEAMwGkYGnJHfc9pV-JzbI6oCXo80vdqiKxmJhsJsnuXp6ON3PYhP/s640/Radar+towers.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span>A view from Layton City toward Francis Peak.<br />
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<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-41136104662583610502020-02-03T18:09:00.011-08:002024-02-29T19:40:43.817-08:00How about 'Dern' Air Force Base, instead of Hill AFB? Plus, Utah's version of Kitty Hawk flying<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicPk1fFSBZmS5Di_WqvA0JDHEaad1ylhVSYKbEHmPBZ7SXO2VDud9_bPq4zkvjTjpQgFeqvLPox-kiz-z-WjNKxOgq8uSVW2aNo7fpxpvcL3NFxGW4YtDcQNPndCfvcf-yG-3urm9arRwz/s1600/Hill+2015+2.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicPk1fFSBZmS5Di_WqvA0JDHEaad1ylhVSYKbEHmPBZ7SXO2VDud9_bPq4zkvjTjpQgFeqvLPox-kiz-z-WjNKxOgq8uSVW2aNo7fpxpvcL3NFxGW4YtDcQNPndCfvcf-yG-3urm9arRwz/s640/Hill+2015+2.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<b style="font-size: x-large;"> </b> Hill Air Force Base, as seen from the Layton foothills.<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>WHAT IF?</b></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">It could have been that Hill Air Force Base (celebrating its 80</span><sup>th</sup><span style="font-size: 24pt;">
anniversary in 2020) had a different name</span><i style="font-size: 24pt;">.</i></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">The original Utah proposal was to name the base "Dern Field,"
after Utah's sixth governor, George Henry Dern (who served from 1925-1933).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Dern was later the U.S. Secretary of War under President Franklin
Roosevelt from 1933 until his death, in 1936.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">According to the Davis County Clipper of Jan. 24, 1990, it was
U.S. Representative J.W. (James William) Robinson, a Democrat from Utah, who
made the suggestion to name the air base after Dern.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">This honor wasn’t just to honor the late Governor/Secretary Dern
for his high political offices. According to the Ogden Standard-Examiner of
Feb. 4, 1940, Dern had “made an inspection” in 1935 of the potential air base
land in northern Utah and “became very sympathetic towards its potential
possibilities.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">“Secretary Dern’s efforts were responsible in a large measure for
renewed interest in this project,” The Standard-Examiner further reported.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">This led to the War Department securing options on 4,135 acres of land
in the area where the Ogden Chamber of Commerce was promoting as ideal for a
future air base and ordnance depot site. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Although most Utahns likely agreed it was a good idea to honor
Dern with the base name, it apparently did not square with current Army Air
Force policy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">According to the 1990 Clipper story, Army General H.H. Arnold
responded to Robinson's naming proposal that the base "would probably be
named after an army flier who performed distinguished flying service in Utah,
or whose death occurred in that vicinity."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Notwithstanding, the Hill Top Times newspaper of Jan. 1, 1946
stated, “War Department General Order No. 9 names site OAD ‘Hill Field’ in
honor of Major Ployer P. Hill.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">(“Hill Field” was the base’s original name and it was retitled,
“Hill Air Force Base” on Feb. 5, 1948.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Major Ployer "Pete" Hill was killed while piloting the
experimental Boeing B-17 ("Model 299") bomber at Wright Field, Ohio
on Oct. 30, 1935.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">However, Ployer Hill had no ties to Utah and Wright Field was more
than 1,600 miles from today's Hill Air Force Base.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 24pt;"><i>(Strangely, the crash was caused because the crew forgot to remove the pins from the flaps on the plane before takeoff. This "why?" mystery has led to a lot of speculation, including if the crew had been drinking before takeoff? ... But almost 9 decades later, there's no way to ever solve this mystery.)</i></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">The fact that the sandy area where today's Hill Air Force Base is
actually located on a "Hill,” elevated from much of the surrounding area,
has made the title more appropriate over the decades.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;"><span face="graphik, system, -apple-system, ".SFNSText-Regular", "San Francisco", Roboto, "Segoe UI", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, "Lucida Grande", Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #4b4b4b; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yes, there is no indication of displeasure with the base’s name, or any known move to rename it. In fact, during its early years, Hill Field paid tribute to the daring test pilot on the anniversary of his death. “Field recalls tragic death of Major Hill. Army Base pays tribute to officer who died seven years ago,” was an Oct. 29, 1942, headline in the Standard-Examiner.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">In addition, the base’s naming finally had its late arriving Utah
connection in the 1960s. The Standard-Examiner of Nov. 7, 1965 reported that Major
Hill’s only son, also named Ployer P. Hill, served a tour at Hill AFB as a
major, from 1964-1966, prior to a combat mission in Vietnam.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">(The younger Major Hill died on Jan. 21, 2008 at the age of 83 in
Florida.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">Yes, “Dern Air Force Base” doesn’t sound right after more than 80
years. It could have been, but the Hill name is both appropriate and deserving
today.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 24pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;"><b>-MORE HISTORY:</b> The famous Wright Brothers flight at Kitty Hawk,
North Carolina in 1903 had a big effect on one Utah resident -- even some eight
years later.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">"Ogden aviator comes to grief" was an Oct. 19, 1911
headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">"Fired by the accounts of the glider experiments of the
Wright Brothers in North Carolina, Ray Irwin, 14 years old, constructed a
biplane glider with a wingspan of 26 feet ..." the Telegram reported.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">The young man, with the help of others, took off from the
sandridge and glided some 300 feet and across the Weber River until it plunged
to the earth and crashed in the sagebrush. Irwin escaped with minor injuries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 24pt;">The Salt Lake Herald Republican newspaper of Oct. 19, 1911 hailed
Irwin as "Ogden's first aviator." That newspaper said Irwin sprained
his left leg on impact and that crash broke the framework of his glider. He
apparently had some 300 spectators of his short flight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;"><br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>(-Originally published on September 19, 2020 in the Deseret News.)</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<br />Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-83170130527320303672020-01-15T08:20:00.000-08:002020-01-29T15:15:23.827-08:00Visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 1896<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVj4DMglRmY10f42KQqDlg_hisjbpgoPc0ygE1gTu70Bo28jJ0M_pw3_v6nhZtW9oSDCRb2HLz7eyJ1POwZGpBnMAMtK4q9r6YTC9Tyzpr7fV1O-59F0Omqes_uinh_-9N5J2jnXdSBYwn/s1600/DSCN4762.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVj4DMglRmY10f42KQqDlg_hisjbpgoPc0ygE1gTu70Bo28jJ0M_pw3_v6nhZtW9oSDCRb2HLz7eyJ1POwZGpBnMAMtK4q9r6YTC9Tyzpr7fV1O-59F0Omqes_uinh_-9N5J2jnXdSBYwn/s640/DSCN4762.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>VISITING </b>the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in the late 19th Century was truly an adventure. Unlike the South Rim, which a railroad accessed it, the North Rim was still a wilderness.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Kanab to the Kaibab. An expedition to the Grand Canyon" was a June 28, 1896 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Kanab is the outfitting point for an expedition from the north to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado," the newspaper reported. "The essentials comprise a water keg of not less than five gallons' capacity for a party of three, plenty of blankets and a food supply for at least a week."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The journey from Kanab to Point Sublime viewpoint of the Grand Canyon required 75 miles of wagon travel and another 13 miles by trail, after the wagon road ends. The story stated that the final 13 miles are best taken by those who are familiar with the area, as the path is very faint and confusing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>("Point Sublime" was apparently the original North Rim viewpoint used by early visitors. However, it is about 5 miles west of today's North Rim lodge and center.)</i></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE_veJMdteOXjxi2OFJVaxPgrkgWRZaRt9O-O8jN9hzTyH4chA3vV9os0WV1d-Zk6zuJoxF_wRGy3AT_Sd7f7-AGr8KTSkcTaTWgDh6N5JuH-R9HtdpZ7RZjWgb8RIjFWT6MrU6jf7pAD5/s1600/DSCN4779.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE_veJMdteOXjxi2OFJVaxPgrkgWRZaRt9O-O8jN9hzTyH4chA3vV9os0WV1d-Zk6zuJoxF_wRGy3AT_Sd7f7-AGr8KTSkcTaTWgDh6N5JuH-R9HtdpZ7RZjWgb8RIjFWT6MrU6jf7pAD5/s640/DSCN4779.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon today is a 90-minute drive from Kanab, or about 79 miles of paved road.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYAIbfyaPFOCLwpwbMpRY90JHH4X5ZKqTDG8MsdS6TUEPKDtC_yjzcz0syT4yjjWwFE4C77amv4sxQALvg257tk9ulvXTl6J2II4NJ-tjqye9nla-409xM1gKrfePMrxGxcQGTk4lmvMM4/s1600/DSCN4786.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYAIbfyaPFOCLwpwbMpRY90JHH4X5ZKqTDG8MsdS6TUEPKDtC_yjzcz0syT4yjjWwFE4C77amv4sxQALvg257tk9ulvXTl6J2II4NJ-tjqye9nla-409xM1gKrfePMrxGxcQGTk4lmvMM4/s640/DSCN4786.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-10485290789941864562020-01-14T09:24:00.002-08:002020-01-29T15:15:22.486-08:00When Cache Valley fed 200 Native Americans all winter in 1860<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eGIe9heRtlrFRAkYsYIT6XIbIdtwgxK2EygqR54Y7fSaijxiDZ1TqlMwbNxNqx1TAbVZ9ES9hhA7Wp8VVFEn5RnfBJF96SMKrLmhUuLbQiXcFUqhT2LwxwWjVjUBdrz4bop4v1vkShJg/s1600/Logan+Temple+%25287%2529.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6eGIe9heRtlrFRAkYsYIT6XIbIdtwgxK2EygqR54Y7fSaijxiDZ1TqlMwbNxNqx1TAbVZ9ES9hhA7Wp8VVFEn5RnfBJF96SMKrLmhUuLbQiXcFUqhT2LwxwWjVjUBdrz4bop4v1vkShJg/s640/Logan+Temple+%25287%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<b><span style="font-size: medium;"> The Logan Temple, an icon in Cache Valley today.</span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b><span style="font-size: large;"><b>THE</b> winter of 1860 was a cold and snowy season and one where the residents of Cache Valley took care of some 200 Native Americans.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">According to the Deseret News of March 21, 1860: "The people in that (Cache) Valley have been greatly annoyed with Indians during the winter and they have had to feed about two hundred of them most of the time since last fall, which has been a heavy tax, but it had to be borne, as there was no alternative but to fee them or do worse," the News reported.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The roads that winter from Ogden to the Box Elder County line were good, but from there on to Cache Valley were bad, an almost impassible.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6805144927015891333.post-21909061738502147092020-01-14T09:13:00.000-08:002020-01-29T15:15:22.845-08:00Back when Davis County was all about agriculture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgslHPtvzUk_osGwgSjPNlPaEf8pXCebXMW-0k9WsOtAQEMYcyzm6tE4lDmwO85ObVkzn3xoFXm17McUSijKHW9vFSgYer5CQNODaqgsUTVFJKbTM08TKlc5_epUoST-n48Cr4sBtdeDUfB/s1600/38+Davis+County+sign.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgslHPtvzUk_osGwgSjPNlPaEf8pXCebXMW-0k9WsOtAQEMYcyzm6tE4lDmwO85ObVkzn3xoFXm17McUSijKHW9vFSgYer5CQNODaqgsUTVFJKbTM08TKlc5_epUoST-n48Cr4sBtdeDUfB/s640/38+Davis+County+sign.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>SOME</b> 120 years ago, agriculture was what Davis County was best known for. A story in the Salt Lake Herald Republican on Jan. 1, 1899 touted Davis County as a narrow strip of land, but one that was very fertile.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">With two railroad lines traversing the county, it was seen often by many travelers, but few know how many crops were harvested there.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Davis County is essentially an agricultural district," the story stated. "And in the wonderful variety of its products it is unsurpassed."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Bountiful and Centerville in particular were touted as breadbaskets for the people of Salt Lake County. There were all canning factories and dairies in Davis County.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A Herald Republican story on Dec. 31, 1899 stated that Davis County was rich in "wealth, products, resources and energy."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>Lynn Aravehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04072138865814563264noreply@blogger.com0