Back When A Switzerland-like Tram Thrill Ride Permeated Provo Canyon .

By Lynn Arave

THE younger generation may never know the thrill that was the exotic taste of Switzerland in Provo Canyon.

For nearly 50 years, a tram line rose sharply to the top of Provo Canyon, passing Bridal Veil Falls and offering incredible views of the area.

Yes, there are other tram lines, like the one at Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon, but this old tramway, "The Sky Ride," was unique.

It boasted 4 superlatives:

1. It was the steepest tram line in the world, rising 1,228 vertical feet in just 1,753 feet of cable. (Some people would not ride it, as it looked so unrealistically steep. Others would crawl out of the tram on top, scared out of their wits ...)

2. It was the only tram that sat right next to a major U.S. highway.

3. It was the only U.S. tram that passed by a major waterfall.

4. It was the only U.S. tram that had a river running directly below it and feet from it starting point. 

The Provo Canyon Tram had become a resort and last operated on New Year's Day of 1996.

The tram line had opened in 1961 and climbed as sharply as 66 degrees. During its seasonal operation (May-October), it would carry almost 30,000 riders a season to the top.

The demise of the tram line was this:

An avalanche greatly damaged the tram's equipment on that fateful New Year's Day in 1996. 

Then, just over two years later, as the owners -- the Grow Family -- were working to restore the tram, a man-made fire, likely arson, damaged the cable line and other equipment.

There used to be a restaurant on top of the tram, later a special event venue for weddings, reunions, etc. ("Eagle's Nest Lodge).

The Grows were stopped re-opening after the Jan, 1, 1996 avalanche, by a $100,000 environmental study required by the Forest Service.

Then, the fire struck the next year.

Not long after the fire, the Grows had to have the cable lines taken down for safety reasons ... so it appears the flavor of Switzerland in Provo Canyon is over.

Even a 2007-2008 plan to re-open it failed.

The Grows, of Orem, had owned the tram resort since 1971. Rue L. Clegg bought the land in 1936 and opened it with the Tram in 1961. He died of a heart attack in 1963 and his wife took over the business before selling it 8 years later to the Grows.

-I rode the tram at least three times, all in the 1980s.

I had hoped to finally take all 4 of my children on the tram too in the late 1990s, but the avalanche and fire halted that plan.

The tram had weathered avalanches before. In the summer of 1983, for example, I wanted to hike from the top of the tram to a viewpoint at the top of Provo Canyon. However, that record snowfall winter prior had wiped out that path.

The accompanying photos are all pictures I took of the Tramway, likely in 1983.

Since that Tramway, I've ridden the Hell's Gate Tram in British Columbia and the Banff National Park Tram in Canada too.

Plus, Snowbird's Tram and other U.S. Trams. However, none were as thrillingly steep at the Provo Tram was.

It was also so easily accessible and reasonable in price too, as I recall.
Also, more frightening than the tram ride to me was an equipment worker who died after driving a bulldozer over the cliff above the tram during its mid-1960s construction process.

-UPDATE, spring 2017: All leftover tram ride materials and mountain top building are being torn out, to return the area to its original state. Soon, all traces of it will be gone.

A 'Bear' of a Misspelling in Davis County: Baer, not Bair

                        Runners in a past Bair-Gutsman race at the top of Bair Canyon.


DAVIS COUNTY has one bear of a spelling problem in one of its larger canyons. Signs, histories, newspaper articles - just about everything - still spell the canyon's name incorrectly. It isn't BAER, it's BAIR. Pioneer records prove that.

 Some have even misspelled the name as Bear.

Georgia W. Memmott of Bountiful, a descendant of the original namesake - John Bair - said years ago that she's been concerned over the many such misspellings in recent years. over her family name.

Her biggest gripe, though, is the major sign located at the mouth of Bair Canyon in Fruit Heights that reads: "Baer Creek Trail."

Bair Canyon is a five-mile-long deep canyon that ends at a jeep road just north of Francis Peak. It is the canyon just north of Shepherd Canyon and directly above the historic "Rock Loft" in Fruit Heights.

The newest United States Geological Survey Maps are finally using the correct family spelling of Bair. However, lots of older maps with the wrong spelling are still in use.

Maps began misspelling the name "Baer" because Davis County records had apparently spelled the name that way.

The "Bear" misspelling likely came because bears were once a prominent resident in the canyon, which is two narrow valleys north of Farmington Canyon. Bears ate corn left out for oxen at the canyon's original sawmill. When people heard "Bair," they likely thought of the animal.

The family's original German spelling was "Bahr," making things perhaps even more confusing.

The water flowing out of Bair Canyon is also the Bair stream.
(The Bair-Gutsman footrace, which I ran 7 times in the 1970s-1980s, always got the spelling of the canyon correct, though.)

John Bair was born in 1810 in Somerset, Pa. He was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1834, possibly by the Prophet Joseph Smith. He was also later bodyguard for Smith and then for Brigham Young. Bair came to Utah in 1850 with an ox team company.

Bair settled in the Kays Creek area of Davis County in 1853. He built the first sawmill in Davis County, near the mouth of the Fruit Heights Canyon in 1855 that's named in his honor. He made his cabin on the canyon mouth's south side and the sawmill on the north.

Indians were said to have greatly respected Bair because he knew their language well. Many Indians called him "Chief Bear John." Like Joseph Smith, Bair liked to wrestle and apparently won some Indian respect through that sport.

By 1859 he had sold the sawmill and moved to Richmond, Cache County.

Bair was also known for operating the first ferry boat in Utah, during 1852, on the Bear River.

During his lifetime, Bair worked as a shoemaker, lawyer (the first in Davis County), farmer, soldier, land management agent, marshal, grist mill operator, interpreter, stock raiser, frontiersman, colonizer and pioneer.

He died at age 74 on Oct. 11, 1884, in Richmond, Cache County. He didn't accumulate wealth, but he had numerous descendants and most live in Cache County today, though there are some scattered about in Davis County - Sunset, Layton and Bountiful.

(-Expanded from a Dec. 29, 1995 Deseret News article by Lynn Arave.)

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net  

Hooper, Utah: Pioneer Settlement, from Muskrat Springs to Incorporation

                        Welcome sign from the Davis County side of Hooper.

HOOPER, Weber County, Utah, has been the brunt of many a joke over the years.

Hooper, correctly pronounced: "Hup-er," NOT "Hoop-er," was one of the key settlements in early Northern Utah.

For decades after the Mormon Pioneers settled in Utah, you went from Ogden west to Hooper and there was nothing in between.

All the other cities in between came later.

Fur trappers probably visited the Hooper area as early as 1826, but the first verifiable visit was by explorers John C. Fremont, Kit Carson and others on their way to the Great Salt Lake. 

In September 1843, Fremont and company passed down the Weber River in a boat, through what is now the Ogden Bay Bird Refuge and into the lake, en route to Fremont Island.

In pioneer days the area was known as Muskrat Springs, for an artesian well where the critters were plentiful. It was also used by Capt. William H. Hooper and others as part of the "Weber Herd Ground." Hooper had cattle there, and his herdsmen built Hooper's first house, a two-story abode, in 1854.

Today's community is named after Hooper, Utah's first delegate to Congress, though he probably only visited the area occasionally. Hooper was also the original director of ZCMI and later its second president, succeeding Brigham Young. 

(Many places around the Soda Springs, Idaho, area were also named after Mr. Hooper because he used that area for his summer home site.)

James Hale started Hooper's first business in 1863 when he built two dugouts on the shores of the Great Salt Lake and gathered salt to sell in evaporated sloughs (except when rising lake water forced him to temporarily move out).

By 1876 several settlers had moved in, most of whom have descendants who still live in Hooper - Belnap, Hull, Read, Parker and Cox. These new settlers petitioned to have many of the cattle moved out, so Hooper moved his cattle to the Skull Valley, west of Grantsville.

The area was subsequently known briefly as "Hooperville," until that name was shortened to Hooper.

Sugar cane and corn were Hooper's first crops. Alfalfa and fruit trees also soon became important crops.

By 1877, Hooper ranked second only to Ogden in land area and population (about 100 families) in the Weber-North Davis area.

Hooper became an incorporated city in Weber County on Nov. 30, 2000. Its boundaries technically go west across the Great Salt Lake and include Fremont Island.

Some of "Hooper" (as defined by tradition) includes a section in Davis County towards West Point City. However, all of that land will surely one day end up as part of West Point City, since no one else can annex it.

-(Expanded from a Deseret News article by Lynn Arave on May 3, 1989.)

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net  

Utah's Old 'Seaside' Roller Coaster -- Gone But Not Forgotten

                             Saltair in 2013.                                 Photo by Taylor Arave.

By Lynn Arave

UTAH used to have its own "Seaside" roller coaster, more than 55 years ago -- and it was taller than any coaster in the Intermountain West today.

And, when most Utahns think of roller coasters, they think of Lagoon.

But this thrill and chill making wooden coaster was right by the south shore of the Great Salt Lake, at the original Saltair.

 This former king of Utah roller coasters was the late "Giant Racer" of Saltair, which reigned supreme for 64 years. Unfortunately, you'd likely have to be nearly 70 years old or more (in 2013)  to have ridden the Racer, since a freak wind gust destroyed it in 1957.

Details on the Giant Racer are sketchy, but during the 1920s it was reputed to be "the world's longest wooden roller coaster." Its height is definitely known to have been 110 feet.

To put that into proper perspective, Lagoon's current wooden roller coaster (opened in 1921) is only 45 feet high. Even Lagoon's metal coaster, the Fire Dragon, tops out at 85 feet.

There were apparently three versions of the Giant Racer. The first may have opened as early as 1893, when Saltair itself premiered. Then, by either 1916 or 1919, the coaster was improved significantly.

A large fire at Saltair in 1931 destroyed the Giant Racer. It was rebuilt within a year for $70,000. This third version had two peaks, both 110 feet high, as well as eight other hills to climb.

Historical accounts say the Racer went so fast after that first drop that brakes were always applied going up the second hill to slow it down.

How fast was it? There's no official account, but it probably rolled at about 55 mph. (Compare that to 45 mph for Lagoon's wooden coaster; 55 mph for its Fire Dragon and 62 mph for the Colossus.)

Wooden roller coasters, although not as fast as modern steel ones, have an added thrill - the wood gives just enough to create a shaking sort of thrill.

"That was one wild ride,"  former Kaysville City Councilman Stephen Whitesides, said, recalling one of his rides on the Giant Racer.

Former Deseret News business writer Roger Pusey agreed, and said it took the company of a beautiful girl as a date to persuade him to ride it.

"It was enough to make my heart come up to my tonsils," said Joe Liddell of Tooele. "It was a great thing to take your date on."

He also said it was a nice way to get away from the mosquitoes that were an annoyance around the rest of Saltair.

One old advertisement for the Giant Racer called it "The ride through the clouds." Another said it was "one of the dizziest in the world."

Because the coaster had parallel tracks, coaster trains would often race each other through the almost milelong ride.

The Giant Racer met an untimely demise on Aug. 30, 1957, when an estimated 75-mph wind gust toppled 60 percent of the coaster's framework - including its two high points.

It is described as toppling like broken matchsticks, but no one was hurt. Fortunately, because of heavy rain, the Giant Racer had been closed at 3 p.m. that fateful day - two hours before the wind gust struck.

The wind damage was $100,000, and Saltair could never afford to rebuilt it. Saltair itself closed in 1959 and the entire complex burned to the ground in 1970, destroying anything that may have remained of the Giant Racer.

However, most of the remains of the coaster were dismantled in the early 1960s.

Unfortunately, the third and current version of Saltair didn't include a roller coaster.

(-Distilled from the Deseret News, a March 29, 1998 article by Lynn Arave).

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net  

)

Utah Railroad Wreck Shattered New Year's Eve in '44

  The view of Promontory Point from the north tip of Fremont Island. The horrific New Year's 1944     railroad crash happened below and near Promontory.


THE new year traditionally brings new expectations and new beginnings. About 70 years ago, 1945 brought a hope for the end of World War II, but it also arrived with the worst train wreck the West had ever seen.

It happened near Utah's Promontory Point on the Lucin Cutoff shortly after 6 a.m. on Dec. 31, 1944. Two westbound trains crashed, about 18 miles west of Ogden, between Little Mountain and Promontory Point, killing 48 people - including 29 U.S. Army and Navy personnel and nine railroad employees - and injuring another 83 persons, including 44 military personnel. 

"Train wreck toll set at 48" and "Camera highlights of the worst train wreck in the West" were the Deseret News headlines for Jan. 1, 1945. The wreck ironically produced a bloody carnage at home only rivaled by World War II overseas.

Even today, the tragedy ranks as Utah's all-time worst train wreck. In transportation disasters in Utah, it's second only to the United Airlines DC-6 crash in Bryce Canyon National Park on Oct. 24, 1947, which killed 52 people.

George W. Ford was the Deseret News reporter who traveled to the scene of the disaster. Ford, who retired as the newspaper's managing editor in 1976, is 83 now and still lives in Salt Lake City.

His recollections of that calamity are still very vivid. "It was a cold day. It was a terrible thing," Ford said.

The train engineer of an express mail train traveling about 60 mph had a heart attack, dying a few seconds before his train slammed into the rear of a passenger and freight train going about 18 mph.

Ford said the train wreck was one of the worst disasters he saw during his long newspaper career. Only a Bryce Canyon plane crash and another in the Grand Canyon rival that disaster.

Jack E. Jarrard, a reporter at the time for the Salt Lake Telegram, covered the wreck for the city's competing afternoon paper. He and Ford are likely the only two newsmen still alive who covered the train disaster.

       Another view of the Great Salt Lake, east of PromontoryPoint and west of Little Mountain.


Jarrard was eventually hired by the Deseret News and retired in 1981. He said the train wreck was the worst disaster he ever covered in his long newspaper career, which spanned more than four decades.

He went along with "Scoop Williams," another reporter, and Junius Nielson, a photographer, to the scene, driving as fast as they could to get there.

Jarrard said he remembers seeing stacks of bodies. He also saw one soldier who had died sitting upright while looking out the window.

Ford's Deseret News story described a massive wreckage strewn for more than a half mile along the tracks. Seven train cars were tossed off the tracks onto the bank dropping into the Great Salt Lake.

Four other cars were telescoped together at the section station of Bagley on the railroad's main line to San Francisco. Rescue workers had to use torches in recovering the bodies from those crushed cars.

Fortunately, some of the intact railroad cars were Army hospital cars. Three trains were also dispatched from Ogden to carry the dead and wounded out.

An Ogden physician, Dr. L.S. Sycamore, was one of the first on the scene, and he described it as a bloody carnage.

"Heads, legs and arms of dozens of victims were scattered about," he told the Deseret News 50 years ago. "The wooden cars were smashed to pulp - or reduced to matches, so to speak."

David H. Mann, Deseret News photographer, also described his observations in a separate story. He spoke of heaps of bloody clothing, torn Army and Navy uniforms, scattered mail, Christmas cards and smashed suitcases and travel bags.

"Blood dripping from the side of a Pullman onto a rail where a body smashed beyond recognition was crushed into a bloody pulp the moment of the wreck," Mann wrote.

Veteran railroad men described the wreck as the worst in the history of their profession. Some of the dead and injured were veterans of the continuing world war in Europe and had been returning to their homes on the West Coast.

Several thousand people crowded the Ogden Union Station, awaiting news of the dead and injured.

Thick fog also blanketed the edge of the lake, making it difficult to see in the area. All of the wreckage and bodies were cleared away by Jan. 2. Identification of mangled bodies took longer.

One Salt Lake teen, Robert Errickson Seaman, 15, was among the local dead in the train crash. His mother, Elizabeth, was seriously injured.

(-Distilled from a Deseret News Article by Lynn Arave on Jan. 1, 1995.)

Trapper's Loop -- The Old, the New and The Original

                          A lofty view looking south along U-167.

WHERE'S the original Trapper's Loop in Weber and Morgan counties, used by pre-1847 trappers and Native Americans?

It is not the lofty paved highway, U-167, that opened in September of 1989.

Neither is it the much lower elevation dirt road to the east that some hunters and area land owners still use.

According to William H. Terry, a late historian from Ogden, the original trail is now non-existent. 

The first loop was a Shoshone Indian trail that followed Hawkins Creek from the Ogden Valley side, went over the ridge and down into the Mountain Green area in Morgan Canyon. The trail followed water and food sources.

Terry told this to the Deseret News at age 84, in the spring of 1990. (It is Terry who wrote the words that are blazed on many area historical markers, such as the one at the top of North Ogden Divide, or at the Mountain Green rest stop along I-84.)

Terry said the "loop" description came about because travelers would loop back and forth the same way. He said Hawkins Creek is between the new paved Trapper's road and the old dirt road, so while neither of these two roads follows the original trail, the dirt road at least comes closest to the original path and is within a few hundred yards of Hawkins Creek at its summit outside Ogden Valley.

Soon after 1860, when the Ogden Valley was settled (it was called Ogden's Hole then), coal was hauled across the route, so at one time it was called the "Old Coal Road."

               A 1989 view of the dirt road along "Trapper's Loop," at the midway point.


Trapper's Loop was just a trail until the 1920s, when the first wagons were taken across it between the Ogden Valley to Mountain Green. Terry said he was part of a Works Progress Administration government survey for a new road in that area during the summer of 1934. However, the road he surveyed was never built, but the current dirt road was constructed years later, probably during the 1940s, in a somewhat different place.

The name Trapper's Loop, according to Terry, wasn't coined until 1968, probably as a result of some editorials in the Ogden Standard Examiner newspaper. Until that time, the route had usually been referred to as the Mountain Green-Huntsville trail or road.

                          The newest "Trapper's Loop road is curvy.

A timeline of Trapper's Loop travel:

Pre-1800s: Before the white man, Shoshone Indians started at Hawkins Creek, passed over the mountains and into Mountain Green to the Weber River.

1824: Trappers enter the region, and Peter Skene Ogden is believed to be the first to lead trappers over the trail a year later.

"Our coarse this day south over a hilly country for 10 miles when we again reached a new river but had nothing but some stone and gravel without any appearance of beaver . . . ," Ogden wrote in his diary.

1920s: The first wagons, as well as the Weber and Morgan county commissioners, travel the loop, referred to as the Mountain Green-Huntsville Road. It is envisioned as a major route between Weber and Morgan counties.

1934-1935: The first actual proposal to build a good Trapper's Loop road is presented to the Legislature. The government surveys the route.

1940s: The Trapper's Loop dirt road is built.

1968: An editorial in the Ogden Standand-Examiner is credited with coining the name "Trapper's Loop."

1989: On Sept. 23, the new Trapper's Loop (U-167) opens after $14 million, three years of actual construction and 54 years of proposals. The dirt Trapper's Loop road is turned over to Weber and Morgan counties for maintenance.

(Later, a direct access road to Snow Basin was added as a spur road off Trapper's Loop, in time for the 2002 Olympic Games.)

Why the new road?

--Ever wonder why it took about three years to pave and open the new Trapper's Loop Road, or why the existing dirt road wasn't used?

That's because it was built from scratch. The original dirt road, also named Trapper's Loop, was untouched.

Why wasn't the old Trapper's Loop road just paved over for the new road?

Lynn Zollinger, an engineer for the Utah Department of Transportation, said initial considerations included using the original Trapper's Loop road for a modern paved highway. However, several geologic factors changed that decision.

Zollinger said the dirt road travels over unstable soil and crosses several potential landslide areas. The original road also has far too steep a grade in the first two miles from the Huntsville side.

The new paved road, just west of the earlier road, is about 1.5 miles longer but has a more gentle grade, making it easier and safer for vehicles. 

The two Trapper's Loop roads are different in many ways, though they are perhaps within 600 yards of each other at their closest points and within a mile or so at their most distant. Consider these differences between the two:

Road conditions:

- The old road is made of extremely hard dirt and clay. It's barely wide enough for one vehicle and is also so rugged that it is only suitable for trucks, motorcycles or mountain bicycles.

- The new road is a modern, paved, three-lane highway, with a passing lane on each climbing side.

Elevation changes:

- Leaving the Ogden Valley, the old road starts out extremely steep and climbs 900 feet in the first four miles, but from there it drops dramatically and passes through numerous small unnamed hollows and canyons, far below the newer highway. This road offers only a few bird's-eye views of the area.

- The new road is only slightly higher at its apex as it climbs much more gradually to an approximately 6,000-foot-plus summit before dropping over the Mountain Green side. Thus, there's almost a never-ending view of the surrounding area and the Wasatch Mountain backdrop behind Mount Ogden.

Length:

- The old road is roughly eight miles long.

- The new road is 9.5 miles long.

Usage:

- The old road is rarely used, except by an occasional truck or horse, and offers solitude.

- The new road is used almost continually by sightseers and by Ogden Valley residents heading to Salt Lake City.

Age:

- The old dirt road has probably been around for almost 75 years.

- The new road was built from scratch, starting in 1986.

The Old roadway evokes pioneer spirit:

I found it next to impossible in the spring of 1990 to locate exactly where the original Trapper's Loop trail went. Also, since fences, livestock and private land are prevalent in the area, I chose to settle for traveling the Trapper's Loop dirt road on a mountain bike in order to get a feel for what the trappers and Indians might have felt and saw as they went through the same area. Here are my observations and thoughts:

On the Ogden Valley side, the original Trapper's Loop begins just east of the Jackson Fork Inn, about 600 yards east of the new highway. The beginning elevation is about 4,900 feet. Approximately 500 yards up the road, a metal gate makes it possible to close the road for bad weather.

The road is rough and the climb taxing for the first two miles, as it rises to 5,800 feet above sea level. Surprisingly, the old road is higher at this point than the new one, and there are some contrasting scenic views available here.

Heading on, it's almost all downhill through various hollows. The road crosses the Weber-Morgan county line just after the summit, though there are no signs.

The road crosses over four streams, and since there are no bridges, you have to ford your way across. One stream bed was dry, but high runoff could easily block this road. That at least shows this road hasn't lost all of its frontier flavor. . . .

Sometimes the road passes through desert sage, while at others it is lined by aspen and oak brush. The road has spectacular views, only exceeded by the new Trapper's Loop road, with its higher elevation and better lookout points. The new road can be seen in the distance several times along the way.

The old road travels through an area of mostly privately owned land. In fact, about a mile from the Mountain Green side it is posted with "No Trespassing" signs, so legally cannot be traversed completely.

Numerous side roads head off the main dirt road. Some probably cross private grazing land, but most appear to eventually intersect the new highway to the west.

Overall, the old road is probably more like the original trail used by Indians and trappers than the new highway, since the unpaved route travels through more canyon areas that likely offered water and better opportunities to hunt wildlife. Indians and trappers probably weren't concerned as much about the view or long-term safety from landslides as they were with simply getting across the area by the easiest way possible on foot or horse.

I crossed the original loop, too, knowing that much of what I saw was very much like what trappers and Indians would have seen. Also, I was no longer upset at the notion that a new Trapper's Loop road had to built. After all, the new highway does offer better scenic views of the area and the route is a much safer location for a modern highway.

But more importantly, the new route allowed the old dirt road to remain a rough, frontier-type trail more evocative of the pioneer spirit.

(-Expanded from a Deseret News article by Lynn Arave on May 17, 1990. He mountain biked all the dirt "Trapper's Loop" that was publicly accessible at the time.)

-NOTE: The author, Lynn Arave, is available to speak to groups, clubs, classes or other organizations about Utah history at no charge. He can be contacted by email at: lynnarave@comcast.net  

Duchesne Tunnel: Often overlooked treasure on Mirror Lake Highway drive

   View of the west end of the Duchesne Tunnel. in July, with low water levels. (Photo by Roger Arave.)


By Lynn Arave


WHEN driving along the Mirror Lake Highway (U-150), it is hard not to look upward at the majestic Uinta Mountain Range. However, BELOW ground is a feature just off the highway that most travelers miss ---

 The Duchesne Tunnel is a six-mile long engineering marvel that is a key to providing water to Utah County.
  This tunnel can be viewed at a stop along the Mirror Lake Highway in summer (U-150).
  The stop is signed on both the east and west ends of the highway. However, the west sign is so close to the paved turnout, that motorists may easily pass by and have to turn around and return.
  Watch for it 0.7 of a mile after milepost No. 17, right after the Shady Dell Campground, on the right (south) side of the road for eastbound travelers.
  Although some overgrown trees obscure a good view of it, a 100-foot-long path leads about 40 feet downward to a fenced viewpoint.
  There are also several historical plaques there.
  This concrete-lined tunnel is 9.2-feet in diameter and goes right through a core of the Uinta Mountains, taking water from the north fork of the Duchesne River (a tributary of the Colorado River) to deliver it on the other side of the mountain, to the Provo River watershed.
  Much of the water from this tunnel is stored in Deer Creek Reservoir, for whenever it is needed by the populous southern Wasatch Front.
  It is a horseshoe-shaped rock tunnel.
  Construction on this historic tunnel began in 1948. Work was halted in 1951, when the Korean War began. Work resumed in 1953 and was completed in 1954, meaning it will be 60 years old in 2014.
 Engineers used slide rules and non-electronic equipment to design it. One crew started on the west end and another on the east side -- to meet in the middle.
  When they met, they were only a few inches off each other, -- an amazing feat of accuracy.
  Some claim the tunnel is so straight, you can look through it and see the other end!
  The Provo River Water Users Association manages the tunnel and its construction was part of the Provo River project.
  The tunnel carries the most water in the spring, the least in late summer and early fall.
A special dam, built in 1952, about 21 miles east of Kamas, supplies water for the tunnel. This tunnel slows or stops flows of the north fork of the Duchesne River at a special control gate.

For more information, go to:

http://www.prwua.org/provo-river-project-features/duchesne-tunnel-system/duchesne-tunnel.php