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.

Misspellings are a 'bear' for Davis County's 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 she's been concerned over the many such misspellings in recent years. The last major misspelling took place in a Davis County hiking overview article, published in the Deseret News on Oct. 12.Her biggest gripe, though, is the major sign located at the mouth of Bair Canyon in Fruit Heights that reads: "Baer Creek Trail."

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.

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.

-There also used to be a dam at the bottom of Bair Canyon. This pioneer era reservoir existed until July of 1926.
According to the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper of July 8, 1926, a series of summer storms wiped out the dam. The story stated that the north wing of the dam at the mouth of Bair's Canyon went out during the first storm. By the third rain storm, the reservoir was completely destroyed "and lodged a large amount of debris along the highways and electric lines along the foothills of the Wasatch."
Note that the story did have the canyon's correct spelling as Bair. 

(-Portions of this were originally published in the Deseret News on Dec. 29, 1995.)

                              Looking down at Bair Canyon from the mountain skyline.

Before Lagoon there was 'Eden Park' in Bountiful

                                       Lagoon's first swimming pool.

BEFORE Lagoon Park moved east to its current location in 1896, there was a sister park, "Eden Park."

This was another attempt Simon Bamberger had at creating an amusement park. According to the Salt Lake Herald of June 15, 1894, the short-lived park was located along the railroad line,  the Great Salt Lake & Hot Springs Railway, partially owned by Bamberger -- and the goal of the park was to increase passenger traffic on those rails.
The Herald story states that Fred W. Milverton and A.H. Stewart suggested the Eden Park name to a committee and their title won out.
Eden Park opened on June 16, 1894, with music, dancing, a spacious bowery and illumination at night.
"Numerous attractions will be constantly added," the Herald reported.
Eden Park was a 30 minute trip by train from downtown Salt Lake. Roundtrip fare was 35 cents for adults and 20 cents for children -- and that included admission to Eden Park.
The resort only lasted two seasons, 1894 and 1895, because Bamberger's railroad expanded north and when "Lake Park" (Lagoon's original title) moved away from the shrinking Great Salt Lake and relocated east, he closed Eden Park, to concentrate on the renamed Lagoon Park.

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.)

Game sanctuaries dominated Utah in the 1920s

      The Wasatch Mountains, east of Ogden, were once a game sanctuary.

THE Roaring ’20s had more prohibition in place than just with alcohol — there were many game sanctuaries designated across the nation, including in Utah, prohibiting hunting and firearms.

Weber County was the first in Utah with its Mount Ogden Game Sanctuary in 1920. This 180-square-mile wildlife preserve stretched from Willard Peak to Weber Canyon and from the foothills east to Ogden Valley. It featured no hunting or gun-toting allowed. Signs were posted and penalties were up to $200 for violations, according to various reports in the Ogden Standard-Examiner.

“Bird Sanctuary is created in East Mill Creek” was a June 5, 1920, headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper. Although just 16 city blocks in size, no hunting or firearms were allowed there.

The city of Murray followed with its own game sanctuary between 900 East and 1300 East and between 45th South and 49th South. This sanctuary not only protected birds, but small animals and even fish, according to the Telegram of July 13, 1920.

The Telegram of June 30, 1921, reported plans for a 49,000-acre game preserve in Big Cottonwood and Mill Creek canyons. Deer and elk herds were to be added to the area. This preserve still allowed an annual deer hunt and continued as a reserve into the early 1940s.

By August of 1922, Salt Lake County declared a huge bird sanctuary, stretching from Ensign Peak on the north, across the foothills to 7500 South.

A year later, in July of 1923, Mount Timpanogos was designated as a game preserve too, with no firearms allowed. In 1931, the St. George area also considered a preserve for the Pine Valley Mountains.

Cache County established a 10,000-acre preserve for deer and elk in the summer of 1933, according to the Telegram of June 8 that year. The mountain boundaries stretched from the Logan River south to the Blacksmith Fork, as a precursor to the much smaller Hardware Ranch of today.

Some of these sanctuaries, like Weber County’s, were gone by the late 1920s. Others faded away by the late 1930s. Not only were the vast areas hard to patrol, but they let the populations of some of the more undesirable animals spike out of control. For example, in the Mount Ogden Game Sanctuary, coyotes prospered and they not only attacked henhouses more in the valley below, but rabies fears worsened too.

Mountain lions were also on the rise and attacked more cattle and sheep, even though dogs were used to keep chasing them further eastward in Weber County. Deer populations were also rising and more deer were causing problems along the foothills of Weber County each winter.

Davis, Box Elder and Morgan counties likely had a huge increase in hunters during the 1920s, since much of Weber County was off limits. Deer hunting still happened each year in most of Utah, despite the fact it was outlawed in the Mount Ogden Sanctuary. For example, in 1926, Utah deer hunting season was from Oct. 20-30.

This same time period — the mid-1920s — was also when the grizzly bear was pretty much wiped out along the Wasatch Front. The legendary "Old Ephraim" in Logan Canyon was killed by a sheepherder in 1923 and the last grizzly in the Mount Nebo area was taken out in the 1920s.

In the end, regular annual hunting seasons for deer and other animals were established as the rule of the land, instead of having vast game preserves.

The exceptions were the establishment of bird refuges along the shores of the Great Salt Lake and other water sources, with limited annual hunting seasons for ducks and other waterfowl. For example, the Bear River Bay was declared a bird sanctuary in June 1925.

-NOTE: This was previously published in the Deseret News on Oct. 29, 2018.

When Sir Edmund Hillary of Mount Everest fame hiked the High Uintas -- twice

               South Kings Peak, with Kings Peak rising in the center background.

 THERE'S a legend about Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to conquer Mt. Everest in 1953, that he also climbed Kings Peak.

This is actually a true story, but it happened in the summer of 1978 when Sears and Kellwood (an outdoor equipment manufacturer), was testing camping gear in the Yellowstone drainage of the High Uintas.

Hillary, age 59 then, was said to have had little trouble hiking Kings Peak and the Uintas.

No stranger to Utah, Hillary had also floated the Green River during 1969, as part of the centennial commemoration of John Wesley Powell's 1869 original exploration of the area. (Source: http://www.hupc.org)

                                   Kings Peak on its southern side.

And, Sir Hillary had first visited the High Uintas in July of 1962, when he and his family enjoyed a 4-day camping trip in the Granddaddy Basin area.

"New Zealand mountain climber and family thrilled with pack trip into High Uintas areas" was a July 19, 1962 headline in the Uinta Basin Standard newspaper.

Duchesne District Ranger Larry Colton served as a guide for the Hillarys, as the family hiked and fished.

According to the newspaper, Hillary's wife, Lady Louise, and their three children -- Peter, 7, Sarah, 5, and Belinda, 3. -- ventured into the primitive area of the High Uintas.

Sir Hillary was under contract with the U.S. Forest Service to make a report on campgrounds in the western U.S. that year.

            Mirror Lake, with Bald Mountain rising in the background.

The family began at Mirror Lake, backpacked into the Granddaddy Basin area and then returned to Mirror Lake. They did a lot of hiking, but not any serious peaks. Sir Hillary said this trip was for finding "smiling" and not "fierce" peaks, according to the newspaper account.

The only negative to the trip were all the mosquitoes that they encountered, but that they got used to them.

Another Utah newspaper, the Vernal Express, reported that on that 1962 trip, Sir Hillary declared it "absolutely wonderful."

                      The High Uintas, northwest of Mirror Lake.

-A version of this story was also published in the Deseret News on Sept. 22, 2018.

Logan LDS Temple: Is a Historical Restoration in the works?

THE Logan Temple was the second temple in Utah built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was dedicated on May 17, 1884. (The St. George Temple had been dedicated just seven years earlier, in 1877.)
The Ogden and Provo temples were opened in 1972-1973, in hopes of postponing remodeling and expansion of both the Logan and Manti temples. That worked for a few years, but usage of the Logan Temple had surged by the mid-1970s.
Initially, Church leaders considered building a new temple in Preston, Idaho. However, at about 27 miles distant from Logan, a temple there was considered too far away from the Cache County base of temple patrons. A remodel was the only option.

According to information from Fred Baker, head of the LDS Church's building program, from 1965-1991, the Logan Temple remodel presented a special challenge -- temple patrons doing endowment work had to travel from room-to-room to complete the process and each room was a step or two higher than the previous room. In fact, endowment patrons started on level one in the temple and ended up on the third level to complete the endowment. That equaled great symbolism in ascending, but complicated any interior remodeling.
The Logan Temple was a historic pioneer temple and like the Salt Lake Temple, had many, many unique paintings and hand-crafted work throughout the building.
Church leaders decided to gut the Logan Temple and redo it to accommodate the video presentation of the endowment. That proved to be an inspired decision.

Baker said the Logan Temple's main structural beam was found to be cracked in two when extensive remodeling work began in 1976. It was surmised that a past earthquake (possibly from the March 27, 1975 Pocatello Valley Idaho quake that was near the Utah-Idaho border and equaled 6.3 in strength).
Thus, if the temple had simply been renovated, the roof could have eventually collapsed ...
Brother Baker said the Church had remodeled all 13 existing temples during his tenure and only the Logan Temple patrons were upset -- they felt their historic temple was being wrecked. (And, when the remodel ended up removing the entire inside and the roof, with the sky showing above, it was indeed an extensive process.)
(Church Architect Emil Fetzer had looked at saving the solemn assembly room in  particular, but decided just propping that section up would make a mishmash of the rest of the temple -- totally redoing the inside was the only way to go.)
Baker said he felt he needed bodyguards when he went to Logan as Church members there were so upset at gutting the temple. He said there were notes placed on his car and also posters about Logan against the remodel process.
The Logan Temple was rededicated on March 13, 1979. All the pioneer era paintings were gone and the Temple inside looked more like the Ogden Temple than the Salt Lake Temple.
The Church did save two of the large paintings and put them in storage. Others were painting on walls and could not be salvaged.
The good news was that using the endowment film meant the temple could handle significantly more patrons and complete much more vicarious work for the dead than before.
-There is a strong rumor in Logan that a complete or partial restoration of the pioneer aspects of the Logan Temple are being considered now, though there is nothing definite and no timeline yet.
That would likely please many Church members in the Cache Valley. Although the outside of the Logan Temple is historic, the inside of the Temple is far too modern to match its pioneer legacy.
Would the Logan Temple's legendary original "Gold" sealing room -- and more -- return during a possible restoration? Time will tell.

-Note 1: Why the Manti Temple was NOT remodeled with a complete tear out process, like the Logan Temple had. This was because the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers and the Relief Society visited the First Presidency and asked that the Manti Temple only be renovated. Their request was granted and the pioneer aspects of the Manti Temple still remain today as it still lacks a temple endowment film. Obviously too, the Manti Temple's main supports were in better shape than Logan's and had NOT been damaged by an earthquake.

-Note 2: The Author co-wrote the official Ogden Temple history for the Church in 2014 and much of the above information on the Logan Temple was also obtained during that process.