Davis County Boasts at Least 10 Utah Superlatives

                              Davis County Conference Center in Layton.

By Lynn Arave

DAVIS County is one of Utah’s oldest and most populated counties.  It was named after a pioneer leader, Daniel C. Davis and the county was first established as a territory in 1850. The territorial legislature officially created Davis County in 1852 and designated Farmington as its county seat, sitting midway between boundaries at the Weber River on the north end and the mouth of the Jordan River on the south.

Today, more than 250,000 residents in 15 cities, plus various unincorporated areas, call the county their home.

Davis County also boasts a number of superlatives and firsts for the State of Utah – and even some of national prominence.

  Here are 10 such important facts and accomplishments:

-Smallest county of the 29 counties in Utah: Davis County comprises a narrow strip of land only 223 square miles in size, but has the third largest county in population. (Davis County also comprises about 329 square miles of the Great Salt Lake.)

                             A portion of the Fielding Garr Ranch today.

-First permanent house in Utah: The adobe ranch house Fielding Garr built on the southwest end of Antelope Island was the very first permanent residence ever to be built in Utah. It is also the longest continuously-occupied house in the state, seamlessly sheltering a variety of owners of the ranch from 1848, until it was purchased by the State of Utah in 1981.

-The first reservoir in Utah: Elias Adams started backing up the waters of the north fork of Holmes Creek, in today’s Layton City, in 1852, to lengthen the irrigation season. The earthen dam was enlarged in 1863, but washed out in 1864. Adams then reinforced his dam and others imitated his work on other streams.

-Oldest operating amusement park west of the Mississippi: Any way you figure it, Lagoon was the first amusement park west of the Mississippi River. Having started up in 1886, it also be ranked as America’s second-oldest amusement Park (behind Dorey Park, Penn.), if you discount Lagoon having moved inland in 1896.

-Boasts the only surviving pioneer era “lake park”: Lagoon, established in 1886, is the only remaining operational park of eight total resorts established along the shores of the Great Salt Lake in the 19th Century. Although Lagoon moved inland in 1896, it is the only such historic resort left open today.

-Oldest summer “group parties” in Utah: Lagoon was hosting “Stake Lagoon Days,” as well as Catholic Day and many other special annual group visit days, starting by or before the year 1905.

-Utah’s single largest teenage employer: Lagoon Park annually hires about 2,500 seasonal employees, most of them teenagers.

                                  Lagoon's old swimming pool.                                         -From Lagoon's archives.

-Utah’s largest civil rights crusader: It was in the late 1950s and into the early 1960s that Lagoon’s Management excelled at civil rights. “Liberty and Justice for All. How Lagoon came to be at the cutting edge of Civil Rights in Utah” was the title of a 2005 research article, by Kristen Rogers, in “Currents," a quarterly publication of the Utah Division of State History. It was Bob Freed, part-Lagoon owner, in particular, who crusaded for civil rights - especially for Black families. Prior to the 1960s, Blacks were not permitted to swim in the Lagoon pool, like most of that day in America. Blacks could not dance either at Lagoon, or most other public places. Lagoon just started letting blacks swim, dance or do everything other races could. No one complained and Lagoon’s bold example lessened race barriers at other places in Utah.

-One of the nation’s highest hanggliding takeoff points you can drive to: In the Francis Peak area, there’s a 5,000-foot vertical drop for gliders, from about a 9,500-foot elevation. Hanggliding enthusiasts can drive the “Scenic Backway” dirt road, some 12 miles to various launch points. Very popular from the 1970s to 1990s, the restricted airspace in the area then prohibited hanggliding for more than a decade. Now airspace changes from the Salt Lake International Airport have opened it up again.

-Two of the state’s oldest roads: Highway 89 through Davis County and the Bluff Road on the county’s west side were among the earliest paths in Utah, also used by Native Americans. Highway 89 (also known as “Mountain Road”) was also a popular Indian trail from north of Farmington to Weber Canyon and used by emigrants and settlers. The Bluff Road, also known as “Emigrant Road,” was used by California-bound Emigrants as early as the fall of 1848 and later Forty-niners.

SOURCES: "A History of Davis County," By Glen m. Leonard and digitalnewspapers.org

-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  

The Mystery of Navajo Mountain

    Navajo Mountain from the Utah  side.                                        Photos by Ravell Call.

By Lynn Arave

In remote southeastern Utah — where red rock, a wrinkled landscape and open air rule is perhaps the state's most mysterious mountain. Located between Forbidding Canyon on the west; No Man Mesa on the east; Glen Canyon and the San Juan River on the north; and the Arizona border on the south side, Navajo Mountain is the dominant feature on the landscape here.

Many likely don't know the mountain's name, and others are unaware that most of the mountain (except its southern flank) lies in Utah. Indeed, its summit is a solid three miles inside Utah's borders.

A mammoth mound of rock and sand as big as Mount Nebo, Navajo Mountain is a high-elevation (10,388 feet above sea level), rounded dome resembling a whale's back.

 It's also the area's most prominent landmark, rising almost 7,000 feet above Lake Powell in the Navajo Indian Reservation.

It is also perhaps the most sacred mountain in southern Utah.

To access the area, it requires more than a hundred miles of driving into Arizona first.

Leo Manheimer, chapter president of the Navajo Mountain Chapter House that sits on the southeast side of the mountain, said it is one of four sacred mountains in the region.

"It's the highest point in the Navajo Nation boundaries," he said.

Sacred to most Navajos — including some who believe it shouldn't be climbed — this mountain in San Juan County is less than 3 miles from Rainbow Bridge, another sacred Indian site. For more than a 50-mile radius, this mountain is the dominant natural feature.

According to "Navajo Places: History, Legend and Landscape," by Laurane D. Linford, in Navajo the mountain is "Naatsis'.00n" — Head of the Earth. It refers to the head of the sacred female and pollen range of Navajo belief.

Indeed, some traditional Navajos believe that other geological features scattered over the region represent some of her other body parts. Black Mesa is her body, the Balakai Mesa her feet, Comb Ridge an arm, and another ridge the other arm. Agathia Peak and Tuba Butte are her breasts.

Navajo Mountain also figures into several other tales, and "Place of Rising" and "Flint Hogan" are individual sacred places atop its summits.

A laccolithic dome (an irregular formation of igneous rock), Navajo Mountain has a volcanic origin, though laymen would never think so by looking at it. Some of the only volcanic rock visible is on the mountaintop's north end.

Linford reports that traditional Navajos are reluctant to climb the peak and may fear underground rumblings on its west slope. It wasn't until the 1940s that Navajos would go north of the mountain into what is now the canyon country of Lake Powell. However, Paiute Indians would always travel the region with no hesitation.

                                   The author atop Navajo Mountain, on the north end.

The mountain's original non-Native American title, given it by Mormon missionaries in the area, was "Mount Spaneshanks," after a Navajo who lived south of the peak in the 1850s and 1860s. The Utah Historical Quarterly of February 2015 stated that Major John Wesley Powell wanted to name the peak after one his expedition members in 1869, -- "Mount Seneca Howland." But his topographer convinced Powell to name it after the local Native Americans, because it was such a conspicuous landmark in the area. In the 1930s, the peak was known briefly as "Paiute Mountains," before the Navajo name stuck universally.
(The earliest of Spanish explorers in the 1700s had called the mountain "Blue Mountain.")

Navajo Mountain is ignored by most peak-climbing "high pointers" and hikers, since you can travel a rugged nine-mile, four-wheel-drive road to its forested summit and also because it sits inside the Navajo Reservation.

This humpy mountain also isn't as spectacular-looking as others, with its lack of pointy summits. Nor is it a county high point, or a peak to "bag" on the standard outdoor lists. Navajo is also not featured in any Utah or regional hiking guides or books.

              

Much more popular today is the Rainbow Bridge trail, which skirts the north side of Navajo Mountain and travels to this famed natural formation near Lake Powell.

But a trip up Navajo Mountain isn't about conquest or peak bagging, it's about eye-candy views of the territory and of also feeling a connection with mountain and land, as some Navajos may do.

You don't get where you want to go in this territory without knowing exactly where you're going. The region holds a maze of sandstone and slot canyons.

The entire area is saturated in legends too, including that a legendary native America silver mine is located somewhere just south of Navajo Mountain.

Accessing the mountain requires a route coming from Arizona, between Monument Valley and Page. And not just anyone can traverse this remote area at will. A backcountry permit (with a fee) is required by the Navajo Nation to leave the main roads.

Obtaining a verbal OK to access the mountain from the Navajo Chapter House is also a wise idea.

However, obtaining the actual permits to visit Navajo Mountain can be difficult.
(Ironically, when the tourist industry began in the area in the early 1960s, trips to both Rainbow Bridge and the Navajo Mountain summit were advertised. However, in the 1962 season, there were only four people interested in the mountain trip. Its popularity never caught on.)

Despite myself  having verbal permission from Mr. Manheimer to visit there, once I arrived at the local Navajo Tribal office, those in charge there were very reluctant to issue permits for myself and two friends.

“Why do you want to go up there?” I was firmly asked several times.

   “Because it is such a remote, inviting mountain peak,” I             responded.

Despite a flurry  of similar such answers for me, it was apparent more and more that I was in serious jeopardy of not receiving any permits that day.

Then, I decided to try a different approach, almost bargaining to visit the sacred mountain.

“Well, here’s the bottom line,” I firmly told the Navajo office worker. “I bet my two friends here that you wouldn't be able to clearly see Rainbow Bridge from the top of Navajo Mountain, cause they don’t agree.”

That was all it took. The permits were quickly issued and we were on our way.

We were the only people on the mountain that afternoon and it was serenity times ten.

The rough road to Navajo's top, which is is adorned with many loose boulders, passes near War God Springs, on a 9,000-foot-elevation plateau. Some visitors may choose to park their vehicles there and hike the rest of the way.

(However, my friends were convinced we would drive all the way to the top, despite my desire for open air views.)

While some off-road vehicles may have the clearance to miss most loose rocks on the road going up the mountain, coming back down is a different situation. Because portions of the road are so steep — probably a 16 percent grade — braking will lower that clearance slightly.

So, someone had to get out of the vehicle and throw some rocks off the narrow, jeep “trail” on the way down. I readily volunteered and loved it, with the desert vista stretching in all directions. And, we left the road in better shape than it had been in before ...

Some of the switchbacks up the mountain are also so sharp that you have to do two passes to make the turns.

Snow graces the upper elevations in winter and even into spring. A drive up Navajo should never be attempted in wet or threatening weather, as the road becomes impassible when wet.

"Welcom (sic) white man" is painted on a rock about one-third of the way up the mountain.

                       Welcome white man sign along the Navajo Mountain roadside.

A hike of about three-fourths of a mile is required on the summit to go north past the transmission towers and some trailers to a viewpoint where the trees clear and reveal Rainbow Bridge (Yes, I won the contrived bet easily), plus also Lake Powell and Henry and Abajo mountains.
Ironically, Rainbow Bridge only exists thanks to Navajo Mountain. Water runoff from Navajo Mountain over the ages is what carved Rainbow Bridge.

 (Mountains to the south, like Navajo, are forested at higher elevations than their northern counterparts. Indeed, there was forest here at the 10,000-plus foot level.)

The mountain has a pristine, serene and peaceful atmosphere, and the commanding view of the area its summits offer were unequaled outside of an airplane.

I’m sure some Navajos didn’t like it when the transmission towers and road were built up the mountain, but I’m sure it provides good steady revenue for the tribe.

 Also, on the south end of Lake Powell, if you can see Navajo Mountain, then you have a cell signal. Otherwise, probably not.

I also found the local Navajo community very intriguing. While physically I was dozens of miles inside Utah’s borders, Arizona license plates graced almost all the local vehicles, telephone numbers had Arizona area codes and even the local post office was Arizona oriented. So, this is a remote place where you are in Utah, but not ....

·  Lynn Arave, Ray Boren and Ravell Call went to the top of Navajo Mountain on Sept. 15, 2003. They obtained permission from the Navajo Mountain Chapter House president to do so, as well as purchasing backcountry permits.

(Modified from a story by Lynn Arave, published in the Deseret News, March 2, 2004.)

--Photos by Ravell Call and 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  

Davis County's Lonely Outpost: Francis Peak

The north radar dome. You can't get this close anymore, because of a fence.

 Francis Peak as viewed from part of the Skyline Drive road.

By Lynn Arave

FRANCIS Peak is undoubtedly the most changed Wasatch mountain peak in the Top of Utah since pioneer times.

Located east of Fruit Heights in Davis County, Francis Peak was once one of the craggiest peaks in the area. It was also among the first Davis and Morgan County peaks to be identified.

The peak, which straddles Davis and Morgan counties, was named Francis, at the suggestion of Brigham Young, in honor of Esther C.E. Francis (1836-1913), an early pioneer woman who helped settle and survey Morgan in 1860s.

“Our Heritage: Samuel and Esther Francis,” describes it this way:

“Rising majestically above Morgan Valley to the west of the Wasatch Mountains, one of its highest peaks bears the name ‘Francis Peak.’ Snow capped and glittering in the sun in the day and lit by two artificial lights by night it stands as a lighthouse in the sky to be seen for many miles.”

With two manmade radar domes sitting atop Francis Peak today, it looks far different than it did before the late 1950s.

The domes, operated by the Federation Aviation Administration and the Air National Guard, provide long-range radar and identification for area aircraft. Its radar range is 250 miles outward and up to 100,000 feet straight up.

                       The FAA radar domes on Francis Peak, as seen from old downtown Layton..

At first, the FAA wanted to install such a radar site near Alta or Snowbird. However, because the National Guard was already using a temporary facility at Francis Peak, that became the logical, joint location.
Otherwise, according to the Salt Lake Tribune of Sept. 26, 1958, Francis Peak was only initially planned to have a National Guard Installation. That story states that Francis Peak's original elevation was 9,547. After the facility was completed, counting the artificial structure, it dropped by 32 feet to 9,515.

Workers atop Francis Peak had to wear thick, long boots and carry weapons. Rattlesnakes are not supposed to live that high, yet someone forgot to tell the rattlers that. Numerous rattlesnake nests were uncovered during construction, despite the almost 2-mile-high elevation.
In fact, according to the Standard-Examiner of Sept. 26, 1958, almost 100 rattlesnakes had to be killed by workers during the construction. Two workers were bitten and both survived.
Some workers also claimed that Copperhead rattlesnakes were killed at the work site.

A Standard-Examiner story from Sept. 21, 1958 stated that rattlesnakes were killed at the rate of two or three a day during the construction process.
"Morgan County sees new stars (Radar Unit Lights) atop peak" was the headline of this story. It also reported that sand and gravel trucks came from the Bountiful end of the mountaintop "Skyline Drive" (not through Farmington Canyon) and that it took six hours for such trucks to make the trip.

Approximately 22,000 cubic yards of material and nearly a dozen yards of the peak's height were removed to level the summit. This $2 million construction project, in 1958-59, also included helicopters flying in 33 gigantic metal poles, weighing 800-1,000 pounds each, to shore up a foundation.

I’ve been inside the Francis Peak facility twice over the years on media tours and it is a high tech, lofty outpost, complete with a kitchen, bedrooms and its own water supply.

(Its “twin,” of sorts is the TV/radio transmitter facility atop Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains.)

How tall is Francis Peak? That is a loaded query.

U.S. Geological Survey lists Francis Peak as 9,547 feet above sea level. However, that was BEFORE the 1950s construction.

The natural height there now is 9,515 feet. The base of the facility's base adds 55 feet and the domes chip in 60 feet more for a total extra artificial height of 115 feet and a grand total of 9,630 feet above sea level.

(Thus, only Thurston Peak, located about four miles north, is “taller” in Davis County than that - at 9,706 feet.)

The FAA uses special rotary snow blowers to keep the dirt road to the radio domes accessible year-round, since it is manned continually. However a 17,000-foot-long tramway access was proposed to be constructed up Shepard Canyon in 1977. Environmental red tape delayed and eventually doomed this project.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built the Farmington Canyon-Bountiful Peak road, from 1935-1939. This 26-mile loop road first opened to the public in July of 1939. Some 50 years of overgrazing had produced disastrous flash floods on the mountainside in both 1923 and 1930.

 The dirt road was built to aid access for the approximately 80 men of Bountiful CCC Camp No. 910 to construct flood control terraces and seeding projects from Parrish Canyon on the south to Farmington Canyon on the north.

Perpetually, the road was designed to help the U.S. forest Service keep erosion and wildfires under control. The bonus was opening up the scenic beauty to public access.

Workers and sheepherders also reported rattlesnakes at unusually high elevations there in the late 1930s.

The Sunset Campground at 6,200-foot elevation in Farmington Canyon opened in 1939, while the Bountiful Peak Campground, at 7,500 feet, was dedicated in 1941.

Steep grades, narrow curves and sheer drops still test the nerves of timid drivers along this road, officially called, the “Skyline Drive Scenic Backway,” today.

 When construction on the radar domes took place in the late 1950s, the FAA built the additional 5-mile dirt road northward, from the top of Farmington Canyon, to Francis Peak.

A jeep trail continues north from the radar domes and eventually swings to the backside of the Wasatch Mountain to access the three Smith Creek Lakes on the Morgan side.

Francis Peak is a popular summertime scenic backway destination in Davis County, offering access to the Sunset and Bountiful Peak campgrounds as well as the most spectacular bird's-eye views possible of the Great Salt Lake.     

The road to the lofty radar domes that top the peak is officially known as Skyline Drive. It begins on Farmington's 100 East. It is paved for the first mile and then follows a winding, narrow dirt road for another 12 miles. Most cars can make this bumpy journey, though it is a back-country road.

                                  A rare view inside the Francis Peak radar station, circa 1980s.

There's a fork in the road at the top of the canyon, about eight miles up. The right (south road) leads to Bountiful Peak and eventually Bountiful's east bench, some 19 miles later.

The left road (north) heads to the radar domes operated by . A gate on the left fork is closed during snow season because of dangerous snow removal equipment. 

Snow banks along the upper reaches of the road - 9,000-foot plus elevation - continue until mid- to late July. On a clear day, even the High Uintas are visible to the east.

A popular hike goes along a jeep trail northeast of the radar towers to the Smith Creek Lakes.

Prior to 2002, you could drive, or walk right up to the radar domes. Now there is some fencing and enhanced security to better protect the facilities there.
-The Farmington Canyon road leading to the Radar Domes has a ahistory of its own. According to the Ogden Standard-Examiner of Sept. 1, 1937, the origin of the road dates back of 1936. In its first two years of construction, 64 tons of dynamite; 33,000 gallons of gasoline and 26,069 man hours were required for the road's initial development -- and that was used for just the first 7.5 miles of the road up the mountain.
The road was lengthened and improved many times, eventually going the 26 miles to Bountiful. A spur road, five miles to the north was created in the late 1950s when the Radar Domes were constructed.

Sources: Personal visits to Francis Peak, digitalnewspapers.org, National Geographic maps, and "Kaysville, Our Town: A History," by Carol Ivins Collett.

Note: Lynn Arave has actually had a tour inside the radar domes twice. Once in 1980 and again in 1998.
(Published in the Ogden Standard-Examiner on Aug. 1, 2014.)

-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  

The Most Important Mountain Peak in Utah?

    Farnsworth Peak, center, is the most important summit in the Oquirrh Range.

The most lonely outpost in Salt Lake County is Farnsworth Peak.
Situated in the Oquirrh Mountains, west of Salt Lake City, this 9,054-foot peak is perhaps the most important peak in Utah and yet also perhaps the hardest to reach, because of locked gates and private land issues.
Farnsworth Peak houses the transmitters for several TV stations and a fleet of FM radio stations. 
It is manned year-round, 24/7 to ensure all equipment operates properly.
Indeed, it is entertainment/news central for the Wasatch Front.
A steep, windy, 12-mile dirt road provides access to the peak and it crosses private land, owned by Kennecott.
The public at large is not permitted there. Authorized visitors are allowed, but otherwise there's no hunting, driving, hiking or biking. Two locked gates regulate access.
"Oquirrh" is a Goshute Indian word, and one of its meanings is said to be "shining mountain" - a definition that has come to be quite appropriate in modern times: Several of the peaks bristle with shiny metal towers. All of Utah's major television station transmitters and many of its FM radio broadcast antennas sit atop the Oquirrh peaks, high above the valley floors in locations just about ideal for beaming signals along the populous Wasatch Front.

The view from Farnsworth is simply spectacular. Not only is most of the Salt Lake Valley visible, but so are Grantsville and Tooele to the west, the Great Salt Lake and Ogden to the north, and Utah Lake and Timpanogos to the southeast.

That line-of-sight perspective is precisely why the Oquirrhs offer the best broadcast transmitter sites for the Wasatch Front. The Wasatch summits wouldn't serve the purpose nearly as well. Peaks and ridges and the lay of the range in general would likely block reception north and south, to the Ogden and Provo areas.

Signals from Farnsworth reach to the Idaho border on the north and to Nephi on the south. Translator stations relay the signals even farther.

Farnsworth Peak was originally known as Coon Peak, in honor of Abraham Coon, a Mormon pioneer who arrived in Utah in 1850. He was a farmer, stock raiser and cooper who also served as the Salt Lake County road supervisor for eight years. Coon died in Salt Lake City in 1886.

Today the peak is named in honor of Philo T. Farnsworth, a Utah native born at Indian Creek, near Beaver, and the inventor of television. On Sept. 7, 1927, he slipped a glass slide into place inside a transmitting set and television was born.Shortly after Farnsworth died in 1971 at age 64, Arch L. Madsen, then the president of Bonneville International, the parent company of KSL-TV, began a campaign to rename the peak in the inventor's honor.

However, the renamed mountain peak - with its numerous TV and radio transmitters - provides an eternal monument to the father of TV. Coon Canyon, the main road access to Farnsworth, continues to bear the name of Abraham Coon.

KSL-TV began its broadcast operations on the peak in November 1952. During the first four winters, engineers had to snowshoe in. Noel Clark, an early engineer, once took eight hours to snowshoe to the mountaintop.

Alternate modes of transportation to the peak were examined. After a mine shaft through the mountain was ruled out, KSL decided to construct a long tramway up the mountain in 1953, going from Lake Point on the northwest side. 
The 6-mile tram traversed some deep canyons and was said to make for an extremely thrilling 45-minute ride.

Wind gusts, however, sometimes made it more than thrilling - even dangerous. Some passengers suffered broken bones and ribs when sudden gusts struck while the tram was suspended, 1,300 feet in the air, along the unsupported 5,000-foot-long stretch over Big Canyon. The force tossed people like rag dolls against the side of the aluminum cable car, causing injuries.

In 1962, the cable broke over Thanksgiving weekend. No one was hurt and the cable was soon spliced. However, regulations for trams soon became quite strict and such things as splices were no longer allowed. KSL stopped using the tram in 1983, and much of it has now been disassembled. Some support pillars are visible on the mountain's west side, but the tram's summit warehouse is to be removed in the near future.

The first radio station to arrive on Farnsworth Peak was KSL-FM (now KSFI), in November 1957. A Secret Service transmitter was put into operation there in 1972. 

--Note that Farnsworth Peak  isn't the only mountaintop with broadcast facilities in the Oquirrhs. There are many two-way radio towers on Kessler Peak, just to the north. A jeep trail leads from Farnsworth to that 8,820-foot summit. (Farnsworth is the third peak from the north in the Oquirrhs. The northernmost is 7,758 feet above sea level.)

South of Little Farnsworth (only slightly below Farnsworth), is Nelson Peak - the highest point in the Oquirrhs at 9,359 feet, with its own transmitter equipment.

Curving around to the southeast is Mount Vision. At 8,466 feet above sea level, this peak sports another transmitter.

Where are the AM radio station transmitters, you might ask? AM transmitters do not need the height and line of sight so conducive to the FM band. AM radio waves follow the ground and do especially well when broadcast near sources of water.

UPDATE for 2018: There are a dozen TV transmitters atop Farnsworth Peak now (counting low power stations) -- and about 75 percent of all Salt Lake FM radio stations have transmitters on Farnsworth Peak too.

-Note that authors Lynn Arave and Ray Boren got permission to visit Farnsworth Peak.

-Distilled/revised from a story originally published in the Deseret News, Oct. 7, 1994, by Lynn Arave and Ray Boren.

-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  

The Oldest Living Thing in Utah: Jardine Juniper

By Lynn Arave

It was the Bronze Age. Humans had learned to weave wool into garments . . . an erupting volcano had destroyed the island Thera in the Mediterranean . . . China was in the midst of the Shang Dynasty, but the Great Wall of China would not be started for more than 1,000 years. . . .

The Prophet Moses led the children of Israel . . . the Olmec people had just settled down in rain forests near Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico . . . old Lake Bonneville was well on its way to shrinking into today's Great Salt Lake.

The time was about 1500 B.C., and somehow a little juniper seed started growing in a niche in a limestone rock on a steep slope in a canyon to be known 3,100 years later by the name of Logan.

It may have taken 300 years just for the seed to become a 1-inch sapling because of a scarce water supply.

By the time of Elijah and Jezebel, this juniper tree was about a foot in diameter . . . about the time of Greece's Pericles, it was 2 feet thick . . . during the days of Julius Caesar, the tree was 3 feet across . . . by the time of the fall of the Roman Empire, it was about 4 feet thick . . . and finally, in about 1860, the tree reached maturity at 8 feet across.

This is Utah's oldest known tree - the Jardine Juniper in Cache County, estimated to be between 3,200 and 3,500 years old.

The world's oldest living thing is believed to be King Clone, a California creosote plant estimated to be 11,700 years old. The world's oldest living tree is a 4,600-year-old bristlecone pine, named Methuselah, located on Wheeler Ridge in California's Sierras.
 

 A 4,900-year-old pine was accidentally cut down in 1964 in that same area. By contrast, the world's largest living thing, General Sherman, a tree in California's Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park, is between 2,200 and 2,600 years old.

Like these other ancients, Utah's Jardine Juniper has been through a lot. The Jardine has survived droughts, heat waves, high winds, countless winters and probably even a lightning strike in the 1870s that may have burned out part of the tree's core. The lightning, or something else, also made a large crack that runs into the hollow of the tree.

Located on a northern slope in Logan Canyon, the 44.5-foot-high tree overlooks U.S. 89 from 1,700 feet up. It is situated almost exactly above Logan Cave. Travelers through Logan Canyon can see the sign marking the best of the two trails to Jardine Juniper.
 

This great tree, with a circumference of 26 feet 8 inches, was discovered on July 23, 1923, by Maurice Linford, a young botany student, during a hike with his brothers. They took a picture of the tree and exhibited it at the botany department of Utah State Agricultural College (later to become Utah State University). It was soon realized that this was no ordinary tree.

The next spring, USAG botany students hiked to the tree for further study. Karl Arendtsen, L.F. Nufer and George R. Hill made one of the early visits to the tree and were able to measure its size.

The Jardine's age was gauged by a core of wood and small shavings examined under a microscope. In fact, researchers even discovered some evidence that it may have started out as two different trees.
 

The tree is named for William J. Jardine, a former USAC student who served as secretary of Agriculture in U.S. President Herbert Hoover's cabinet.

This variety of tree is properly called Juniperus scopules, but is popularly known as the Rocky Mountain juniper or the red cedar.

How long the tree will live on, no one knows. It is slowly dying, and the only real sign of life in it now are a few leaves at the top of the Jardine. Photographs from decades ago show more leaf growth then than lately.

Unless you can be airlifted up there, the only ways to visit the Jardine Juniper are on foot or horse. The area is closed to motorized vehicles.

The most-used trailhead starts about 10.3 miles up Logan Canyon from the Lady Bird rest stop.

Take the Wood Camp turnoff on the north side of the road and stay on the left fork that indicates a dead end 100 yards away. (The other part of the road travels into the Wood Camp campground.)
 

The short dirt road is of the washboard type, but it's only 300 feet long and leads to the trailhead. There's plenty of parking here and also a bench and an unloading ramp for horses, but no rest rooms. There's also no drinking water along the route.

Starting elevation is 5,332 feet above sea level. The trail is approximately 5 miles long and provides no indication of the trail length until 1 mile out, when a sign states 4 miles to Jardine Juniper. Total elevation climb during the hike is about 1,700 feet. Strong hikers can plan 1 1/2 to 2 hours to reach the tree. Others should plan on 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

The trail heads up Wood Camp Hollow for the first mile, during which it's a very wide trail, though rocky. A newly made wooden bridge crosses a small stream about 100 yards up the trail. After 1 mile, the trail veers right up a side canyon, but becomes less rocky and very smooth.

The climb is extremely gradual and there are few switchbacks, since the trail follows much of the terrain (although this stretched-out climb also stretches out the miles you have to walk.)

The trail crosses over one rocky stream that's dry in the summer, but provides plenty of shade until mid-morning. Fall colors in September will make this an especially scenic hike.

The trail winds through groves of aspens and even meadows. It has considerable shade.

A half-mile from Jardine Juniper, the trail splits and offers a choice of two routes - A "scenic" route to the tree or a "shady route." The two routes circle in opposite directions around a 7,427-foot unnamed peak that overlooks the tree. The shady route, which follows the east side of the ridge, is about 500 yards shorter than the other and truly does offer more shade.

Nearing the famed tree, the trail becomes very sandy and descends about 200 feet. There is an observation platform next to the tree and several benches and signs.

The Jardine is not a pretty tree, but then it has existed longer than the combined life spans of 50 modern men. Some visitors will probably wonder: If they had been the first to see it, would they have realized its significance? No, most probably wouldn't have. They would have just hiked past this rather drab, knotty old tree.

From the tree, three portions of the Logan Canyon highway can be seen. Thus, with patience and strong binoculars or a telescope, the ancient juniper could actually be seen from portions of the Logan Canyon road!
              

A shorter, much steeper trail to the Jardine Juniper starts about two miles up the canyon from Wood Camp. This trailhead is near Logan Cave and the Cottonwood Picnic Area. This route may be only several miles long, but it climbs 1,700 feet, is a lot more rugged, less maintained and offers little shade.
Realize too that ticks can be a hazard on the trails in this area in the mid- to late summer season.

Note: Logan Canyon has one other extremely old tree--dubbed the Old Limber Pine, a 200-year-old pine that can be reached by a short loop trail by the same name located just east of the Bear Lake Summit sign. There's also a 200-year-old Spruce tree west of Bloomington, Idaho, in the Bear Lake Valley.

-Adapted from the Deseret News article by Lynn Arave, published Sept, 7, 1989.

Photos 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