Erosion problem of pioneer trail realized in the 1930s; Plus, a second Thurston Peak and Malan's Peak fires

                    This is the Place Monument at the mouth of Emigration Canyon.

THE early pioneer trails of the 19th Century were etched firmly in the soil as a semi-permanent historical marker for later generations. However, by the 1930s, it was apparent that the trails were also causing significant soil problems.
"Early pioneer trail forms soil problem" was a May 23, 1937 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner.
This Associated Press story outlined how the  original pioneer trail through the Wasatch Mountains was producing soil erosion that had to be dealt with.
"A winding mountain trail that almost a century ago led Mormon pioneers over the Wasatch mountains into Salt Lake Valley is just a soil erosion problem today," the story stated. "City, state and federal governments have joined forces to experiment with it."
The story stated that, "Each spring melting snows coursed down the rutted trail until it deepened and widened into a 20-foot gully."
Sheep grazing in the same area had made the erosion worse and equaled "a barren gash across the mountains" and "a flood hazard and menace."
As such, the Civilian Conservative Corps ("CCC") was being used to try and shore up the damage. The CCC built terraces, planted more foliage and a fenced trail for sheep to follow in the area around Little Mountain in Emigration Canyon.

                          The other "Thurston Peak" (Unofficial name), east of Centerville.

-MORE HISTORY: Thurston Peak is the not only the highest peak east of Layton city, but it is also the tallest peak in Davis and Morgan counties, straddling the county line.
At, 9,706 feet above sea level, this peak was not officially named until 1993. It had previously been labeled as a benchmark from Francis Peak.
However, the name "Thurston Peak" is not a unique title to Davis County.
When a United Airline Plane crashed in Davis County on Nov. 4, 1940, the crash site was identified as being on "Thurston Peak" or "Thurston Mountain." This peak was said to be on the south side of Ford's Canyon, east of Centerville.
A fleet of newspapers on Nov. 4, and Nov. 12-13 of 1940 all identified the crash site as being on "Thurston." These included the Salt Lake Tribune, the Salt Lake Telegram and the Davis County Clipper.
Although not named "Thurston" on official government maps, locals in the Centerville area had referred to the mountain as such for many years.
Yet, when the highest point in Davis County was officially named in 1993, the knowledge of this earlier "Thurston Peak" had apparently been forgotten. The name had been lost to history, some 50-plus years after the 1940 crash of the airplane, which killed all 10 passengers.





-THE annual hike by Weber State College students to Mount Ogden routinely lit a fire on Malan's Peak, left photo, (or in Malan's Basin), below the higher peak, to create a "Flaming W" symbol. However, this was NOT the only event to light Malan's Basin on fire. According to the Ogden Standard-Examiner of May 3, 1941, "Peak fire will roar if drive is successful" was the headline. A fire was to be lit if efforts to find local housing for thousands of high school students competing in the national regional high school music contest was successful.

                            Malan's Basin, with Mount Ogden in the far background.

When Lagoon held a 'Bathing Girls' Revue'; Plus more history

BACK in 1918, Lagoon resort hauled in plenty of white sand to Farmington, to create its own

version of "Walkiki Beach.” To highlight the second year of the sands, it again held a “Beauty Parade.”

The Salt Lake Tribune of July 15, 1919, described it this way, “Walkiki Beach will be the scene of brilliant affair on the occasion of the second annual Bathing Girls’ Revue next Friday. Sixty beautiful maids – forms divine – suits superb – will vie for first honors on the white sand beach, while swimming races, high diving and fancy diving contests will augment the interest of the occasion.”

A few years later, Lagoon even hauled in more white sand to expand its beach, promoting its fresh water setting in favor of Saltair’s briny and muddy beach.

                                Malan's Peak.

MORE HISTORY: Weber State College used to set fire to Malan’s Basin, to create a “Flaming Block W” each fall on the mountainside during its annual hike up the Wasatch Mountains.

“College seeks locations for fires on peak” was a Sept. 5, 1939 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner.

“Locations for a huge ‘flaming W’ on Malan’s heights and a campfire program in Malan’s basin for the annual Weber College moonlight hike were being sought today by school and student body officials …” the story stated.

                                                        Malan's Basin today.

The hike that year was planned for Sept. 25, the evening of the opening day of school.

(That same newspaper reported that the very first ever issue of the college’s new newspaper, The Signpost, was due out on Sept. 18.)

Two years prior, the Standard-Examiner of Sept. 15, 1937, reported that “Novel features planned for the hike included lectures on moonlight and snakes by the faculty members and a song and yell fest around a flaming block ‘W’ in Malan’s basin,” that story stated.

The Flaming W hike was discontinued during World War II. It was restarted in 1988 as a much longer annual hike to the highest peak in the area, Mount Ogden, which overlooks Malan’s Basin.

(Because of forest fire danger, no fires were held in the modern event, though in the fall of 1977, having a fire on Malan’s Peak was discussed by college fraternities, but never happened.)

-Bears were commonly killed in the early 20^th Century around Ogden and most of the country. “Five bears killed” was a Nov. 2, 1909 headline in the Ogden Standard. “Bill” Wilson, Jr., one of the managers of the Hermitage in Ogden Canyon, killed four black bears, south of the Shanghai Bridge, a day prior. Richard Wilson of Huntsville also killed a fifth bear in the same area shortly thereafter.

                              A more rustic campfire area in Coldwater Canyon today.

-Coldwater Canyon, a side canyon about a mile up Ogden Canyon, used to contain picnic tables and even “water hydrants,” according to the Standard-Examiner of April 10, 1941. Coldwater was also a prime source of drinking water for Ogden City, prior to Pineview Reservoir.

                                         The western side of Fremont Island.

-“The new look at progressive Weber County” was the title of a full-page advertisement in the Standard-Examiner of March 28, 1965. This ad, by the Weber County Commission, featured a wish list of future plans. Included were the development of Fremont Island and Malan’s Basin, two things which never happened.

-Finally, the Ogden Junction newspaper of June 20, 1874 reported on “That earthquake,” perhaps the first quake in the Ogden area. “We have the testimony of several trustworthy ladies and gentlemen that mother earth did tremble and quake about two minutes past midnight on Wednesday night or Thursday morning, whichever your please,” the story stated.

When dynamite could have destroyed Lone Peak ...

COULD Lone Peak have been destroyed by a dynamite blast in 1937?

 “Will dynamite crash hilltop(?)” was the headline of an Associated Press story in the Ogden Standard-Examiner of August 19, 1937.

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.”

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.

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.)

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.”

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.

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.
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.
(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.)

In any event, according to www.lostflights.com, 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).

(There have been four deaths on Lone Peak in the past 20 years. Two were from lightning and two were from falls off cliffs.)

-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.

-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.

-“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.

-“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.

-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.

                                         Malan's Peak is east of Mount Ogden Park.

-ANOTHER HISTORICAL TIDBIT: 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.

(Malan’s Peak is east of 32^nd Street in Ogden.)

Some 90 students made the first-ever such hike in 1937, according to the Standard-Examiner of Sept. 20 that year.

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.

“A flaming W on the mountain was lit at seven-thirty,” the Standard-Examiner of Sept. 10, 1938 reported.

This annual hike eventually stopped, but was restarted in 1988, though the fire tradition ceased.

                                                   Taylor Arave poses on Malan's Peak.

-All material was originally published in the Deseret News on May 13, 2020.