A Brief History of the Freeport Center, originally The U.S. Naval Supply Depot

 

         A morning train coming off the Union Pacific mainline heads west into the Freeport Center.

THE Freeport Center was originally a vast U.S. Navy supply depot, commissioned April 10, 1943, to replace large tomato fields and pastures.

A largely untold story is that some homes on the site had to be relocated. Harris Adams, a longtime Layton resident and historian said his parent’s home was lifted up and moved to Layton, as they had no choice but to accept the government’s purchase offer. The family received fair market value for their farm.

This southeast Clearfield location was chosen because it was inland and more safe from any enemy attacks, a big concern in World War II. It was also near Hill Air Force Base and had excellent highway and railroad access. Trucks could move any product from the West Coast to the then U.S. Naval Depot within two days.

Construction took almost 11 months and $25.5 million in 1942-43. Buildings were built in a uniform size and design on a grid pattern. In fact, most buildings have railroad access on one side and truck delivery access on the other side.

 At one time it was the largest supply depot in the world.

The Navy Supply Depot closed in 1962. But it wasn’t idle for very long, when it became privatized.

In 1963, the Freeport and its 6 million square feet were sold to private industry. Freeport Center Associates, purchased the center in 1972. 

The Freeport suffered a recession from 1980 to 1983 when it lost a lot of distribution companies that have since been replaced by manufacturers.

Today the Freeport Center has its own post office and is home to about 70 companies and employs a workforce of about 7,000.

The "Ogden" Hot Springs that were actually in Pleasant View

THE Utah Hot Springs (also originally called Ogden Hot Springs) was actually in Pleasant View and closed in about 1970, after more than 80 years of operation.

 Native Americans had used the hot springs, probably for hundreds of years before the pioneers, in the late 1840s, came to the area.

  The 180-acre resort began in the late 1884, founded by Rason H. Slater, a “horse doctor,” who lived in Salt Lake City. He paid the U.S. Government $400 for the title to the hot springs. His motto for the resort was “The greatest cure of the West,” as he believed its hot mineral waters offered cures for pain and even disease.  (Some people called the hot spring water, “medicated fluid.” The spring waters were naturally heated to as much as 130 degrees.

  Slater also secured endorsements on the water’s health benefits from several Ogden area doctors.

  Located about 8 miles northwest of Ogden, the resort had railroad service in 1892 by the Oregon Short Line and Ogden Rapid Transit Railways, for 30 cents a trip, usually about 30 minutes long. However, at unpredictable times, herds of sheep in the area would delay trains for long periods of time.

  A fire in the early 1900s completely destroyed the original resort, but it was quickly rebuilt. On September 12, 1914, it suffered a transformer fire too.

  The resort changed ownership several times in the late 1920s, selling for $30,000 the first time and $40,000 the second time.

 

                  Old story in the Ogden Standard-Examiner on the resort's history.

By the 1930s, the resort scaled back in acreage, but offered a 40-room hotel, café, dance hall and saloon, with beer 5 cents a glass – besides the hot springs experience. Gambling for nearby horse races also centered around the resort.

  There were even bicycle races staged from downtown Ogden City to the Hot Springs, in the 1920s and 1930s. The hot springs attracted bathers from not just Utah, but Idaho and Nevada too.

  Ironically, few residents of Pleasant View or North Ogden visited the resort during its first 50 years, perhaps because of its gambling and saloon. It was outsiders who kept the resort in business.

 By the 1950s, the resort boasted both and indoor and outdoor swimming pool and the latter featured a tall slippery slide. In that later era, the resort was more of a swimming resort, than a hot springs and patrons came by automobile.

  What seemed to doom the resort were efforts by government officials to want to chlorinate the mineral waters. That liability, plus a downturn in the public wanting to use such hot pools, eventually caused the hot springs to permanently close.

                         Some of today's greenhouses on the old hot springs property.

   Soon after, the hot springs were used to heat greenhouses year-round. By the late 1990s, there were 40 or more greenhouses on the property. (However, the mineral water is so salty, that plastic pipe is used in the greenhouses, instead of metal.)

   A railroad line is still operated on the east side of the old hot springs and some of the heated waters sometimes overrun in the spring, near those tracks.

  Note that some newspaper reports of old confused this hot spring with the hot springs near the mouth of Ogden Canyon (today owned by Rainbow Gardens). Ironically, Rainbow Gardens also operated indoor and outdoor swimming pools and they closed permanently within a few years of those at the Utah Hot Springs.

 

Hot spring water sometimes overflows by the railroad tracks on the old hot springs property.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Layton's Gentile Street is not Unique -- There's a Gentile Valley Road in Southeast Idaho

 

                                                     Gentile Street sign in Layton, Utah.

For those familiar with Layton, Utah, the City’s most unusual road name is Gentile Street. Like most people -- even most historians-- they believe it was so named because some non-Mormons (“Gentiles”) lived on that street when it was only a west Layton road. 

However, I’ve come to believe it was the waystation for travelers on the connecting Bluff Road emigration trail, where its name came from, because that is where the only non-Mormons in the early community were, as they operated the station. (The early residents who lived on west Gentile Street were actually LDS Church members, but simply inactive, or called “Jack Mormons” back in the day.)

                         Gentile Valley Road sign in Thatcher, Idaho, near the Bear River.

Notwithstanding the name’s origin, it is not a unique feature, as over the weekend I found another “Gentile” street, this one in southeast Idaho. This road is near the Bear River, in Thatcher, Idaho (west of Niter and southwest of Grace.) Where did this “Gentile Valley” road name come from? Grace, Idaho, and today’s Gem Valley, was settled by non-Mormons in 1865 and after Brigham Young sent church members to settle there in the 1870s, tensions grew. The Bear River became a boundary of sorts then. If you were Mormon, you were supposed to live on the east side of the Bear River; and non-Mormons the west side. In those days, the Grace valley was called the "Gentile Valley." It was not renamed Gem Valley until the early 20^th Century, when religious tensions finally eased.

And, then there’s nearby Soda Springs, about 11 miles away and northeast of Grace. But, where is the actual Soda Spring? I mean, the Soda water springs? There's a Hooper Springs, north of town, but no Soda. Is it the geyser in town? No. Soda Springs, a spring, is now located under Alexander reservoir, which backs up the Bear River. Also, "Soda Springs" was not that water source's original name either. "Beer Springs" was what trappers first called it. Mormon settlers obviously changed the name later.

 

 

1898: When 75 percent of Park City was destroyed by a 'Fiery furnace'

                                Park City's Main Street.

IT was likely the largest city fire ever in Utah.

"Destroyed!; (Park) City practically wiped out; a raging conflagration; scene of ruin and despair," was a Deseret News headline on June 20, 1898.

A fire on Sunday, June 19, 1898, just after 4 a.m., all but destroyed the prosperous mining town. There were no lives lost, but many narrow escapes and many animals killed.

"Park City, Utah's proud and prosperous mining camp, has practically been wiped out of existence, being visited yesterday by the most disastrous conflagration in the history of Utah," the Deseret News reported. "It may be that the city will be rebuilt and rise again from the ruins that now cover the canyon where it once stood, but it will be years before it can fully recover - if recovery is at all possible under the circumstances - from the terrible visitation. The loss, it is conservatively estimated, will aggregate more than a million dollars. The actual insurance will not reach much more than a tenth of that amount."

The cause of the fire, also described as a “fiery furnace,” was never determined.

The speculation was that it began in the kitchen of the American Hotel. However, the proprietor, Harry Freeman believed that an oil lamp had been dropped in a room or simply that a candle had been left unattended.

“Park City laid in ashes yesterday. Great cap suffers a loss of over half a million dollars. Insurance will not be much over one hundred thousand …” was a June 20, 1898 headline in the Salt Lake Herald.

This newspaper story cited the historic town’s bad luck – first the economic downturn in 1893; then the main Park city bank failed; next a reduction in the wages of miner’s and millmen; and now the giant fire.

The story referred to the fire as “demon flame” and stated that “the hope for the future is small.”

The four existing fire hoses had little effect on the blaze. Buildings were soon dynamited, but all this did was slow the fire, not stop it.

                         Walking Park City's Main Street.

Firemen came from Coalville, Salt Lake and Ogden – mostly by train. But they did not arrive until midmorning when it was too late to do much but watch. It was not until noon that the fire was contained.

In the end, at least 120 businesses and 140 homes were wiped out – or some 75 percent of the town. At least 500 people were homeless.

A January 7, 1996 story in the Deseret News by Twila Van Leer stated that the disastrous fire made national headlines and even superseded the Spanish-American war as the top story in some U.S. newspapers.

What happened after the fire? The majority of the residents remained and rebuilt. (There had been a much smaller downtown Park City Fire in 1890.)

Salt Lake City gave $2,500 to Park City’s rebuilding. The City of Mount Pleasant gave $102.40 and many Utahns donated or helped in the rebuilding effort.

 Thirty-four miners were killed in a 1902 explosion at a Park City mine as another tragedy unfolded there.

Ultimately, Park City’s mining prospects diminished greatly and the town suffered a big downturn. However, thanks to skiing (2 area resorts) and the annual Sundance Film Festival, the town reinvented itself as a tourist mecca by the 1980s and 1990s.

Park City was also famed world-wide during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

-Although Park City, like Moab, is often pegged as a “Gentile” or largely a non-Mormon town, its name originated from an LDS Church Apostle, Parley P. Pratt. Elder Pratt built a toll road through Parley’s Canyon. Settlers at the top of the road called it “Parley’s Park City.” However, by the early 20^th Century the name was shortened to simply “Park City.”

Historical facts and trivia for Lagoon Amusement Park

LAGOON is one of Utah’s most popular seasonal attractions. Here is some historical trivia and facts about the Amusement Park:

-Lagoon was originally located about 1.7 miles west of its current site, just to the west of Clark Lane.

-The Park was originally built as a way to attract more passenger traffic to the Bamberger Railroad.

-Lagoon wasn’t “Lagoon” at first. When it was located westward, by the Great Salt Lake, from 1886-1896, it was known as “Lake Park.” The Lagoon name came after it moved eastward, near a lake.

-Approximately 53,000 guests visited the park in its first season in 1886. Admission in those days was 50 cents. Swimming, dancing, boating, a merry-go-round pulled by a horse, target shooting, roller skating and bowling were all included for that price.

-Lagoon moved eastward because the Great Salt Lake was receding. Bathers had to walk about a half-mile to swim in the lake during the 1895 season.

-Lagoon is the world’s 27th oldest operating amusement park in the same location, according to the National Amusement Park Historical Association (napha.org). It was the first amusement park west of the Mississippi River and is also the nation's largest family-owned amusement park.

-Lagoon’s first thrill ride was “Shoot the Chutes,” a forerunner of today’s log flume rides.

-The first known fatality at Lagoon was Henry John Barnes, 50, of Farmington, who drowned in about 3 feet of water at Lagoon's Lake on August 3, 1907.

-“The Lagoon Road” mentioned in the Park’s early history was not a highway at all. It was the nickname of the Bamberger rail line to Lagoon.

-The first LDS Stake Lagoon Day was probably held on held June 8, 1905, for the Salt Lake Stake.

-An “Old Folk’s Day” was a popular annual event at the park. One such event was held there on June 25, 1907. Any resident of Davis County over age 70 was invited for free to be Lagoon’s guests at the event. Pot roast beef, boiled ham, mutton, all kinds of cake and lemonade comprised the menu at the Old Folks’ Day.

-Horse racing, complete with legal betting, operated at Lagoon for two seasons, until the Utah State Legislature outlawed such horse racing in 1913.

 -Lagoon also operated its own saloon from opening day in 1886, until the end of the 1915 season, when it went alcohol free.

-Lagoon’s “water fit to drink” swimming pool arrived in 1921, complete with a cement bottom. This million-gallon pool would remain for five and a half decades, until it closed for good at the end of the 1987 season.

- Lagoon also had a "criminal" aspect during the 1920s, when the nation's alcohol prohibition was in force. During the off-season at Lagoon, some youths would stash kegs of booze in various portions of the park. For example, in the late fall of 1925, 31 kegs of liquor were found stashed behind the picture gallery.

-In 1932, Lagoon offered free swimming lessons to all comers in a special "Learn to Swim" campaign that July.

-Lagoon was closed for the 1943, 1944 and 1945 seasons because of World War II and gasoline rationing.

-In the 1950s, Lagoon championed civil rights and was one of the first Utah businesses to break the color barrier and allow Blacks to swim and dance at the Park.

-A fire of unknown origin damaged Lagoon on November 14, 1953. The front (east end) of the wooden roller coaster was wiped out. The Fun House and the Dancing Pavillion were reduced to rubble. Also destroyed were the Tunnel of Horrors, the Shooting Gallery, cafe, taproom, several storehouses and small concession booths. The historic Merry-Go-Round was saved by a constant flow of water sprayed on it. Volunteer firemen from the city battled the blaze for more than six hours.

-Lagoon’s Pioneer Village opened in 1976. Much of it had been a part of a Sons of Utah Pioneers’ museum in Salt Lake City.

-In the 1986 season, Lagoon hired 750 teenagers that year and the pay was $3.25 an hour, plus a bonus at the end of the season for employees who remained.

-Lagoon hosted its last concert in 1989, with the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

-Lagoon-A-Beach premiered in 1989.

-The “Fun House” at Lagoon closed for good after the 1990 season, because of liability concerns.

-“Frightmares at Lagoon first began in the fall of 1995.

-The park sold 41,000 season passports in 2006, up dramatically from the 300 it sold 26 years earlier in 1980, when the park began offering them.

-Lagoon’s three oldest existing rides are: 1. Carousel ("Merry-go-Round), 1906); 2. Wooden Roller Coaster; 3. Tilt-A-Whirl, 1954.

Ideal Beach at Bear Lake - 110 years of "Rich" (County) History

 

                                       Looking west along the Ideal Beach shoreline.

ALMOST 57 years before Sweetwater development company came to Bear Lake Valley, Ideal Beach at Bear Lake began and prospered. As it turns out, Ideal Beach has about 110 years of "rich" (in Rich County) history. Who knew that the resort is so long-standing!

“The Ideal Beach at Garden City attracts visitors from all points of the compass,” The Logan Journal newspaper of June 29, 1915 declared, in what is the first media reference to the resort.

Getting to the resort – and even Bear Lake—in 1915 was no easy task. In fact, Boy Scouts in the summer of 1915 took a train from Ogden to Logan and then hiked more than 40 miles over the mountains, so they could camp at Ideal Beach, one of the biggest recreational developments on the lake at the time. (Ogden Standard-Examiner, August 10, 1915.)

“Ideal Beach on Bear Lake destined to become leading resort,” a headline in the Logan Republican newspaper of August 19, 1915, boasted. The resort had 21 tents and featured dancing each evening. The resort then, an always, was pretty much in the same location, the southwest corner of Bear Lake.  That’s where there was a sandy beach and wind and weather was as good as it gets along the lakeshore. However, again, getting to Bear Lake was a trial in 1915, as it required 3 ½ hours of auto travel, just from Logan.

“Ideal Beach is the place for summer outings,” the Logan Republican stated on June 26, 1917. The resort back then had 42 cottages and tents, a café, 21 rowboats, two canoes and several motor boats. It even had a shooting galley, tennis court and an ice cream parlor. The Ole Reeves Jazz Orchestra provided the music for evening dancing and entertainment.

In 1925, the Bluebird Orchestra from Logan, was the music provider. That year, the resort offered free use of their campgrounds.

By 1951, Ideal Beach even had roller skating in the summer and ice skating in the winter. Rates were $15 a week for a cabin rental then.

Big changes began at Ideal Beach in 1972, when Sweetwater development purchased the resort. This was the beginning of the timeshare era and the 2-by-4 cabins were razed and the circular skating rink was remodeled into condominiums (and even now still has a circular shape). By 1977, Sweetwater offered four weeks of use for a timeshare with a price tag of $50,000.

By 1982, Sweetwater/Ideal Beach had 4,700 timeshare owners and 106 condos, 90 of which were public.

Five years later, in 1987, the timeshare owners, who had not been satisfied with the management of Ideal Beach, brokered a deal and began ORE company to management their timeshares at not just Bear Lake, but other recreational properties in the Intermountain West., that totaled some 13,000 owners.

                                                  A huge open space of green lawn.

                   The condos as they appear looking south from the beach.

Today it is Bear Lake Timeshare that is one company that offers investments at Ideal Beach, while IdealBeachResort.com manages rentals and also the sale of individual condos. The resort itself is governed by a homeowner association and a board of directors.

 With a huge lawn space, great for all kinds of games, the resort is very family friendly and has a large playground too. It offers mini golf, has two swimming pools and tennis courts. The resort has a general store too, complete with ice cream and some clothing. Seasonally, jet skis and other aquatic rentals are available at the beach, maybe 150 yards from most condo units.

 The Ideal Beach Resort is located at 2176 S. Bear Lake Boulevard, in Garden City, Utah. Rentals ae available year-round.

  The resort’s email is: info@idealbeachresort.net and the telephone number is (435) 946-3364.

  NOTE: The author has been vacationing at Ideal Beach most summers for the past 20 years, as a guest renter. He has no other connection or financial ties to Ideal Beach.

 

 

 

                           The extreme northeast condo unit.

 

 

 

 

Alta was a synonym for avalanche in late 19th Century Utah; Plus, humor from many decades ago

                    The lower end of Little Cottonwood Canyon. 

THE most dangerous place to live in Utah during the late 19^th Century was undoubtedly Alta.

“Unhappy Alta,” “The Awful Avalanche,” “Terrible tragedy,” “Latest Alta horror,” “Alta is Swept away,” “More snowslides – Six persons killed at Alta,” “Terrible snow-slide in Cottonwood” and “Another horror.” These were all newspaper headlines from avalanche disasters in the historic mining town of Alta.

Indeed, one newspaper story called Alta “home of the avalanche.”

From 1872 to 1927, at least 87 people were killed in 14 different avalanches at Alta, according to research on digitalnewspapers.org.
(The primary reason that avalanche deaths in Alta dropped after 1927 was that the price of silver plummeted in 1927 and then this silver mining town was all but abandoned until the skiing era arrived.)

Yes, avalanches occurred in other Wasatch Mountain locations during that era. For example, the most deadly single avalanche on Feb. 27, 1926 in Bingham Canyon killed 40 people. And, other slides at Bingham had killed at least 3 others in earlier years. However, Alta had the most slides and several times the entire town was swept away.

Many animals also perished in these slides, usually mules or horses.

Here’s one example from the Deseret News of March 12, 1884: “Avalanche at Alta. Twelve people killed at New Emma Mine. The awful news reached this city yesterday of a fatal snow-slide near Alta, Little Cottonwood Canyon, in which twelve persons, nine men, two women and a boy perished.”

Here’s another from the Deseret News of Feb. 18, 1885 of a snowslide that killed 16 people: “The Alta avalanche. Further particulars of the sad catastrophe … The avalanche covered more ground that any before known in that vicinity, and its effects were far more disastrous … Of the many buildings in the main part of town, only seven were left standing.”

Why did people keep living and working the mines in Alta despite one disaster after another?

A Salt Lake Herald newspaper story from Feb. 15, 1885 (and right after the slide that killed 16) may have the best answers. It referred to the avalanche as “the same old story” and eventually states:

“The poor men and women who have been ruthlessly stricken down were not in Alta because they preferred the isolation, the discomforts and dangers of the snow-bound camp to the pleasure and safety of city homes; they were there for the same reason which induces the Swiss peasant to brave the terrors of winters in the Alps … they were there for the bread that they must have … We can honor them, for they were heroes and heroines, for they had the courage to fight nature’s battle against nature’s threatenings.”

Avalanches have historically been one of the biggest natural killers in Utah. However, the Utah Avalanche Center didn’t begin recording accidents until the post-mining decades, beginning with 1940. (The first avalanche death by a skier at Alta was in January of 1941.)
-Even today avalanches are a hallmark of Little Cottonwood Canyon, the home of Alta and Snowbird ski resorts.
Highway 210 heads up Little Cottonwood Canyon and is one of the most avalanche-prone roads in the world. That's because the 13.6-mile-long highway in the canyon crosses through 64 different avalanche paths.
Artillery is regularly used in the canyon to keep it avalanche free today. In fact, using such explosives to control avalanches had their first world-wide usage as such in Little Cottonwood Canyon during the 1940s.

-Given that heavy dose of early Alta’s grisly history, here are examples of so-called humor, as published in the Ogden Herald on Aug. 24, 1882 and on Nov. 9, 1882:

“Man proposes and the girl weighs his pocketbook and decides,” “Turf reform: mowing your lawn,” “A lady said that it takes many men a lifetime to carry a 10-dollar bill home without breaking it,” “Yellow fever: Man’s thirst for gold,” “Ingersoll says that no such man as Noah existed. He probably bases his belief on the assumption that no man would invite a pair of mosquitoes into the ark” and “The only human being that can step on a heavenward pointed tack and not say something that would cause the recording angel to weep is a mute.”

-Finally, here’s a weird occurrence that happened in Ogden on April 8, 1918 – and a full week after April Fool’s Day that year: “Eat horse meat at luncheon given at noon yesterday to local and visiting guests” was an April 9, 1918 headline in the Ogden Standard newspaper.

The Ogden Horse Sale and Commission Company hosted a luncheon for those attending a big horse sale at the Union Stock Yards. The problem was that it wasn’t announced the bologna and dried meat consumed was horse until after the luncheon. Surprisingly, the story stated that “they all agreed it was a good joke.”

-Portions of this blog were originally published in the Deseret News on Feb. 18, 2019.

The first automobile ever spotted in Salt Lake City: 1899

                    Illustration from the Salt Lake Herald newspaper of April 13, 1899.


THE very first automobile was spotted in Salt Lake City on April 12, 1899.
"First horseless carriage seen on Salt Lake Streets" was an April 13, 1899 headline in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper.
That first machine of its kind in Salt Lake was a Winton Motor Carriage and sold for $1,500. (That equals more than $37,000 in 2018 dollar values.)
The newspaper report stated that the auto attracted "much attention" as it traveled along Main Street, State Street and West Temple Street. It seemed to especially delight young boys in town, who lined up along the road to watch it.
The Salt Lake Hardware Company bought the horseless carriage and brought it to Salt Lake from Cleveland, Ohio, with the help of George E. Aris, son of a well-known Utah miner.
By 1906, autos were much more common along Salt Lake City streets. However, traffic control was an increasing concerns, as well as "fast driving," the earliest term for speeding.

(-Originally published in the Deseret News on Dec. 15, 2018.)

Lagoon's wooden roller coaster was the largest in the U.S. when it opened in 1921

LAGOON'S wooden roller coaster is its second-oldest ride, behind the Carousel. The coaster, originally known as the "Dipper," opened in 1921.
However, the Davis County Clipper newspaper of May 8, 1905, reported that the "dipper coaster" was to have arrived that spring. It was being promoted as "the only attraction of the kind west of Chicago."

The wooden roller coaster didn't arrive for another 16 years, though. It was both costly and hard to obtain.
The Clipper newspaper of May 27, 1921 stated that the "Lagoon Dipper" was now open. Its cost was $75,000 (almost $1 million in 2017 dollar value) and it was built by a Colorado Company. Also, it was similar to the wooden roller coaster at a rival resort, Saltair.
(For the same 1921 season, Lagoon had also moved the "Shoot-The Chutes" ride slightly as the pond had been enlarged.
An advertisement in the Utah Daily Chronicle of May 27, 1921, called Lagoon "Utah's greatest pleasure resort" and the "Coney Island of the West." The ad also referred to the Lagoon Dipper "as the wildest ride you ever took."

The Bamberger Railroad offered rides to Lagoon every hour for just 35 cents a roundtrip. Also, a paved highway to Lagoon was now in place and auto parking at Lagoon was 50 cents (so a charge for parking at Lagoon goes back almost a century.) There was room to park up to 1,000 autos.

The Salt Lake Telegram of May 27, 1921 said of the new roller coaster and Lagoon:
"Among the important new features that will be found is the 'Lagoon Dipper,' a giant roller coaster that is said to be the largest in the United States, and while full of thrills from start to finish, is as safe as a rocking chair."
Lagoon also boasted of an artificial white sand beach in that era, titled "Walkiki Beach," as well as "Witzell's Jazz Band." Fresh water is what Lagoon also stressed (as compared to the briny waters at its competitor, Saltair.)
Sadly, Lagoon's claim of its roller coaster being as "safe as a rocking chair" didn't last but just over three years. On July 26, 1924, George Burt of Ogden was riding in the coaster's front car, obviously leaning forward (if not standing up), when he lost his balance and fell forward in front of the coaster. He was dragged for 50 feet and then fell 20 feet down to his death.

-Note that Saltair's "Giant Racer" wooden roller coaster had opened much earlier than Lagoon's, way back in 1893. The coaster was improved in 1916-1919 and was 110 feet high. The ride blew down in 1957 during a wind storm and was never rebuilt.

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

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

But when was the “Layton” name first used?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-How did the Layton name come about?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

was – the Layton Ward.

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

community, separate from Kaysville.

"We do not live in Kaysville City, nor

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

understand," the newspaper report stated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beehive Peak: Utah's 'Red Pyramid'

                    Beehive Peak from the valley below.

                                             All photographs by Ravell Call

AS seen from the valley below, a prominent summit on the edge of central Utah's Pahvant Plateau looks like the state symbol — a beehive.

But while Beehive Peak, west of Aurora, could conceivably be a candidate for the state's official mountain, from another angle it summons up a different locale: Egypt.

From vantages 3,000 feet higher, on the plateau's rugged roads, Beehive Peak looks like a mysterious — possibly even man-made — red pyramid.

               Beehive Peak from the mountain ridge.

The peak, in Fishlake National Forest, is a prominent landmark for much of Sevier County, especially the communities of Aurora, Salina and Redmond. Its two faces make it one of Utah's most unusual mountains, though it isn't listed on the state highway map.

"It just stands out," says Bill Wright, a ranger with the forest's Fillmore District. "It's a nice red in color."

Max Reed, a ranger in the Fishlake National Forest, would agree. "It's really quite pretty when the sun hits it," he said.

"For me it's security," said Richard Wasden, a rancher who has cattle each summer in the Beehive Peak area. "You wake up and there it is." He uses it as a landmark to know where he is on the mountainous plateau.

The "distinctive pyramid of Beehive Peak" is how Peter Massey and Jeanne Wilson describe it in their new book, "4WD Adventures Utah."

Although the Willow Creek Road/Piute ATV Trail, usually open late June through October, comes within about three miles of the mountain, there is no developed trail to the peak itself. Those interested in getting to it have to bushwack and maneuver through a maze of cow trails, ridgelines and scree to its base.

Once there, layers of a sheer "China wall" circle the summit. The rugged formation is also composed of a brittle sandstone material that makes it extremely difficult — as well as dangerous — to climb. Trees growing on the peak's sides make it appear climbable from a distance, but close-up the spot has a rugged Bryce-Canyon look.

                 Closeup view of Beehive Peak.

Still, daring hikers have conquered not only the protective walls but Beehive Peak itself.

Steve Camp, 42, of Salina is one them.

"I was surprised at how difficult it was," because of the steepness and the loose, brittle rock, he said. Camp found a crack in the natural walls around the summit's southwest side and reached the pyramid's base. He made his final approach up the peak on the northwest side. "There were some cliffs to shimmy up."

Camp has since met a few others who have reached the top, and they agree Camp's route is the best approach.

It's such a magnificent landmark that — having grown up in the area — he said he had to try to climb it. And he would like to so again.

The red rock that composes Beehive Peak is believed to be material shed from an ancient mountain range that preceded the Pahvant Range. Camp said nearby Red Canyon also contains interesting rock formations.

Beehive is overshadowed in height by four other peaks nearby — Jack's Peak (10,072 feet); White Pine Peak (10,215); Coffee Peak (10,005) and Willow Creek (9,765).

However, like some Egyptian monoliths, it is Beehive's shape that startles and attracts.

Also, "It's further east than the rest of the higher peaks," Wright said, and therefore more prominent to those in the valley below.

Surrounded by three deep canyons — Sweetwater, Red and North Cedar Ridge — Beehive Peak can also be spotted along the eastern end of U.S. 50, between Scipio and Salina, and along portions of U.S. 89 and I-70.

Closest access to the peak is the Willow Creek Road, a truck, four-wheel-drive or ATV dirt highway also known as U.S. Forest Road No. 102. Access is also possible from Richfield on a dirt road past the Redview Guard Station on Forest Road No. 96 that connects with the Willow Creek Road.

Mount Nebo is visible to the north from near and atop the Pahvant Plateau. Mary's Nipple is the most prominent peak to the east across the Sevier Valley. The Tushar Mountains can be spotted to the south. Fall leaves also make the Willow Canyon area a spectacular drive in autumn.

-By Lynn Arave and originally published the Deseret News, Oct. 18, 2002.

Contributing: Ray Boren, with photos by Ravell Call.