RC Willey returns to its roots in Layton with new store: A brief history of RC Willey

                      The new RC Willey store in Layton opened in late July of 2020.

This ad in the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Sept. 22, 1949, lists Layton as the original RC Willey home.

RC Willey was technically originally located in Layton from 1949-1950.
The business' first 15 months of advertisements (see example above) listed Layton as its address, NOT Syracuse.

Since a new RC Willey store is now open in Layton, the business has returned to its roots. (The Syracuse RC Willey store is now closed permanently.)

The first-ever RC Willey advertisement appeared on Sept. 1, 1949 and listed Layton as the business address.
The first ad to list Syracuse as the RC Willey address was some 15 months later, on Nov. 30, 1950 and then again on Dec. 14, 1950 (see ad below).

                           One of the first two RC Willey ads to list Syracuse for an address.

(The new RC Willey in Layton is just northeast of the Antelope interchange at I-15.)

Why did RC Willey list its early address as Layton?
The actual physical store in Syracuse did not open there until 1950. And, since Syracuse lacked its own post office, the Layton address was likely tied to delivery through the Layton Post Office.
Still another possible factor was that Syracuse was NOT an incorporated city until Sept. 13, 1950, or about two months before RC Willey began listing its address as Syracuse.
-Rufus Willey worked out of a garage in Syracuse for the business' earliest years and he used a red truck to deliver items to customers.

  It was probably a red truck like this that delivered the first RC Willey products in the 1950s. This antique truck resides inside the RC Willey Layton store today.

The RC Willey advertisements changed significantly again on June 19, 1954, when they made a reference to "RC Willey and Son" as its owners/managers.

 

                                      Rufus Call Willey in an undated picture .

-Harris Adams, a Layton historian, said he recalls purchasing a Hotpoint stove from RC Willey in about 1950. Adams said he had just $15 to spend on a stove and resigned himself to only being able to afford a used stove from Mr. Willey. However, Mr. Willey kept lowering the price of a new stove the longer Adams held firm. First the price was $250, then $200 and finally $170. When Adams still said he only had $15 to spend, Willey said to give him the $15 for a new stove and pay the remaining $155 when he was able. Adams said that was how Willey usually operated. No written contract, just a handshake.

                                    An inside view of the new Layton RC Willey store.

(However, that unofficial way of giving customers credit was probably also the reason why the RC Willey business was insolvent when Bill Child, son-in-law, took over its operations in late 1954. He had to make it profitable -- and he did over the decades.)

 A 1966 advertisement in the Ogden Standard-Examiner for Layton's other "Willey' store.

-BUT RC Willey also had a second connection to Layton City.
A nephew of Mr. Willey, Jay Willey, operated a similar home furnishings store, the “Satisfaction Center” in Layton, from 1955 until 1983. This store was originally located at 48 East Gentile Street and later moved to 144 East Gentile (when the installation of I-15 in the early 1960s forced it to move) and finally to 250 East Gentile Street. Jay Willey was an appliance salesman for RC Willey prior to starting his own store. By 1983, the store changed owners and became the Brent Allen Satisfaction Center. It closed about 1984.

-Some key dates in RC Willey’s early history:

1932: Rufus Call Willey starts selling appliances door-to-door in Davis County. He specializes in Hotpoint appliances. He works out of his garage and used a little red truck.

                             The former Syracuse RC Willey Store.

1949-1950: RC Willey lists Layton as its address in its first 13 months of newspaper ads.
1950: RC Willey opens its first store in Syracuse, a 600-square-foot cinder block building, next door to his home.

1954: William H. Child takes over the business, after his father-in-law, Rufus Call Willey, dies on Sept. 3, 1954, at age 54.

1969: A second RC Willey store opens in Murray.

1995: Billionarie Warren Buffett purchases RC Willey.

                    An RC Willey delivery truck in Layton on Feb. 12, 2020.

Late July 2020: A new store in Layton opened and the original Syracuse store closed.

                    The Layton RC Willey Store under construction in the summer of 2019.

When Hollywood disliked Southern Utah’s brightly colored terrain – And even got stranded in a slot canyon

             Some of the colored rocks, located northeast of Kanab, near Cottonwood Canyon.

                                                                                                            Photo by Ravell Call

SOUTHERN Utah is world famous for its brightly colored rocks. However, there was a time when Hollywood disliked the Kanab area's landscape.“Colored rocks of Utah plague film company” was an Oct. 6, 1940 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune.

The hues of Kanab area rock were simply too bright for the Technicolor filming process Hollywood was using at that time.

“Thousands of tourists visit Utah every year to gaze with wonder and delight at the brilliantly colored rocks dotting the landscape,” the story stated. “But these same rocks are a source of annoyance and expense to Twentieth Century-Fox now on location here for the filming of Zane Grey’s ‘Western Union.’”

https://www.newspapers.com/image/598868492/?terms=Colored%2Brocks%2Bof%2BUtah%2Bplague%2Bfilm%2Bcompany

What did Hollywood do?

“A crew of men had to be hired to ‘redecorate’ the rocks along Paris Creek, which cameramen said are too bright for technicolor filming,” the story reported.

The extra cost of the painting before filming was not reported, but was believed to be only a small part of the $100,000 (more than $1.8 million in today’s dollar value) that the film studio was expected to spend in the Kanab area for the movie.

And, that wasn’t the only problem Hollywood encountered in the area.

“While scouting for the Paria (Creek) location, Director (Fritz) Lang and his technicolor staff were marooned when a sudden rain filled the arroyos between Paria and Kanab, blocking their return. They spent the night waiting for the waters to recede while a rescue party tried in vain to reach them,” the Tribune story stated.

(This may have been the first public notice that Utah’s slot canyons can be dangerous during storms.)

The studio had 470 employees in town for the movie, as well as using about 300 Kanab residents for extras, cowpunchers and wranglers, etc.

Robert Young, Randolph Scott and Dean Jagger were among the stars in the “Western Union” movie. The Gap and Johnson Canyon were among the other filming locations.

-A similar scenario happened about 10 years later in 1950, when a headline in the Aug. 12 Ogden Standard-Examiner was, “Mountain ‘Flash Flood’ Maroons Hollywood Unit.”

A Hollywood crew of 64 members were stranded after a torrent seven feet deep filled Buckskin Creek, about 40 miles east of Kanab. A heavy rain and hail produced the flood and the crew was delayed about eight hours, until after midnight.

The crew, which included actors Robert Ryan and Walter Brennan, plus actress Claire Trevor, were hungry, but there were no injuries. The RKO movie “Best of the Bad Men” was being filmed.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/598787810/?terms=hollywood%2Band%2Bkanab

 -MORE HISTORY: The Kolob Canyon Road is a scenic drive at the far western edge of Zion National Park. The first mention of a possible paved highway into this area was back in 1955.

The Parowan Times newspaper of May 26, 1955 carried the headline, “Highway into Zion Monument ‘possible.’”

https://www.newspapers.com/image/544506765/?terms=Highway%2Binto%2BZion%2BMonument

The story stated that Zion Park Superintendent Paul R. Franke had visited the Kolob Terrace area and said a road would open up an area even more beautiful than Zion Canyon itself.

In pre-I-15 days, the prospective road was mentioned as leaving U-91 and entering the “finger” canyons of the Kolob Terrace through Taylor/Dry Creek. The road was built in the early to mid-1960s and opened on Sept. 30, 1967.

-There was a “ghost ship” on the Great Salt Lake in the late summer of 1887. The Salt Lake Herald of Sept. 4 that year published the headline, “A strange affair. Mysterious appearance of a Fisher Boat near Lake Park.”

A 12-foot-long rowboat was found unmanned, between “Church Island” (today’s Antelope Island) and Lake Park (forerunner to Lagoon on the shores of the GSL, west of Farmington). The boat was found drifting south, several miles from shore, full of provisions for an extended trip.

https://www.newspapers.com/image/80027409/?terms=fisher%2Bboat%2Band%2Blake%2Bpark

With some difficulty it was towed to shore at Farmington and included clothes, utensils and fishing supplies, but no food.

Where the ship came from was never determined and whether its owner met with an accident, or the boat just slipped out of reach was never publicly recorded.

                                                                           Goblin Valley.

-Goblin Valley is a well-known Utah State Park, established in 1964. However, the area was known by earlier titles. “Mushroom Valley” was its first name, given to it by its discoverer, Arthur Chaffin in 1949. (He had first spotted it in the 1920s, but didn’t return for decades.) According to the Richfield Reaper newspaper of Oct. 1, 1953, the area was also known by a different name – “Little Gnomeland.”

https://www.newspapers.com/search/#query=%22little+gnomeland%22

The article also referred to the formations as goblins, but expressed concern over how easily the shapes could be vandalized, with nearby U-24 being completed, though there was not yet a direct road to the valley itself.

(-Originally published in the Deseret News on July 14, 2020.)

A pair of never built roads in Bryce Canyon National Park: One in the bottom and the other a loop road

BRYCE Canyon National Park had somewhat of a lackluster beginning, being in the shadows of the more highly esteemed sister park, Zion. From almost changing Bryce's name away from "Canyon" (since geologically it is NOT a canyon); to it almost became only a Utah State Park; to being administratively under Zion Park until 1956; Bryce has had some major "what ifs?"
And, here are two others to add to that list -- 1. In 1931 there was a failed proposal to create a loop road from Highway 89 through Red Canyon to Bryce and then back to Highway 89 at Long Valley Junction; 2. In 1951 there was a strong move to build a road on the floor of Bryce Canyon itself.
"Government plans new road to Bryce Canyon" was a March 28, 1931 headline in the Iron County Record newspaper of Cedar City.
This tentative road reached Rainbow Point (where the Bryce park highway ends southward today) and then would head due west to Highway 89 at the Long Valley Junction of U-14.
"The entire road would be about 27 miles long, with five miles being private lands and most of the balance in the Powell and Dixie national forests," the story stated.

                      Today's end of the road southward in Bryce Canyon.

The story also stated, "The new road would make it possible to visit Bryce via the present route through Red Canyon and then return over an entirely different route, eliminating all retracing. Most of the route would be at 8,000 ft. elevation and would add much to the pleasantness of the trip in hot summer months."

                   The parking lot turnaround at the end of 18 miles of road in Bryce Canyon.

Why didn't this road ever get built? Constructing the loop highway was contingent upon the State of Utah being able to cooperate and create five miles of road through the private lands. This apparently didn't happen, likely because of property acquisition issues. 
Yes, the more recent proposal in 1951 was to build a paved road below the rim.

The rugged terrain looking west from today's south end of the road in Bryce Canyon. But if a 1930s proposal had happened, Bryce Canyon National Park would have had a loop road and a highway would have descended below in this picture and connected with Long Valley Junction.

"Civic clubs will support move for road on floor of Bryce Canyon": was an August 30, 1951 headline in the Richfield Reaper newspaper of Utah.
Bryce Canyon put Panguitch, Utah on the national map, as the entrance, the last town before the now popular national park. So, the Associated Civics Clubs of Southern and Eastern Utah, along with the Panguitch Lions Club, held a meeting in town to discuss the idea of a road at the bottom of Bryce.
"The Club agreed to support a suggestion by State Representative John Johnson of Tropic to the effect that a road can be built on the floor of Bryce Canyon so that visitors can view the real scenic attractions of the area," the Richfield newspaper story stated.
It continued, "The main beauty of Bryce Canyon cannot be seen from the rim of the canyon."

                                                 Hikers on the Navajo Trail in Bryce.

                                    Imagine a paved road through the middle of this?

So, there you have it. Of course, the road was never built, but it leaves little to the imagination to envision a road going through the bottom of Bryce. Many, many natural features would have had to have been demolished to make room for such a road. Hiking would also not be a big activity as it is today in Bryce with such a road. Why hike, when you can drive down?

-In 1920, Bryce was just picking up steam with tourists. "Volunteers repair Bryce Canyon road" was a May 6 headline that year in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper. A "road day club" had just been formed in Panguitch, with up to 47 men volunteering their time to smooth out the dirt road from Panguitch through Red Canyon and onto Bryce so that automobiles had better access.

                                                        The iconic tunnel in Red Rock Canyon.

-Initially, for more than a decade, the road to Bryce Canyon ended at the northwest rim of the amphitheater, probably near today's Sunrise Point. Walking or horse travel was the only way further south.
However, the Salt Lake Tribune of Dec. 6, 1929, reported that the National Park Service had allocated $13,700 to survey and begin to construct a road eight or more miles long southward along the rim of Bryce in the summer of 1930.
This road was "to afford visitors opportunity to view the canyon from many vantage points, instead of the one point now reached by the main highway," the Tribune story stated.
(At the time time, the Park Service allocated $280,000 to improve roads along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, particularly from the Bright Angel Camp to Point Imperial and Cape Royal.)

                       There are some small cliffs along the Navajo Trail in Bryce.

-Finally, while Zion has been host to a lot more accidents than Zion, given its sheer cliffs and towering rocks, Bryce Canyon has also not been immune to accident from falls.
Some examples:
1. "Fall from Bryce Canyon cliff seriously injures Cedar girl" was a June 23, 1932 headline in the Beaver County News. The girl slipped off a cliff near Point Supreme and suffered three breaks in her pelvis bone and a broken arm. It took rescuers several hours to reach her.
2. "Girl has close call in Utah park accident" was a July 13, 1946 headline in the Logan Herald-Journal. The 14-year-old-girl from Buffalo, N.Y. slipped off a sandstone cliff in Bryce and went down 100 feet "before she clutched the edge of a projecting chunk of sandstone -- one of the many spires which have made the canyon famous," the story reported. She was rescued with ropes by a park ranger. The girl's physician father treated her many cuts and bruises, but nothing was broken.
3. The Ogden Standard-Examiner of April 22, 1954, reported that a 61-year-old woman tourist from Illinois died in a fall at the park on April 21 that year. She stepped over a log barrier at the Far View Scenic Point, lost her balance and plunged 90 feet to her death down a cliff. She died instantly.
4. A man died in cliff fall in Bryce in September of 2003.

  -Another milestone in Bryce National Park happened in November of 1936 when it began staying open in winter, to Inspiration Point. Years later, that led to snowmobiling and cross country skiing there.

-Originally published in the Deseret News on June 24, 2020.

When dynamite could have destroyed Lone Peak ...

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

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

The story stated, “Lone Peak, lofty outcropping of the Wasatch range upon which a great airliner crashed last winter, is to be blasted at its tip into a tomb for the tragedy that claimed seven lives.”

On December 15, 1936, a Western Air Express Boeing 247 crashed just below Hardy Ridge on Lone Peak. Most of the aircraft was hurled over the ridge and dropped over a thousand feet into the basin below.

Lone Peak is an 11,253-foot above sea level summit in the Wasatch Mountains, located east of Draper. (However, strictly speaking, Hardy Ridge is located hundreds of yards south of Lone Peak, above Hardy Lake.)

The A.P. story stated that Western Air Express had secured permission from the U.S. Forest Service to dynamite the mountain top. This was in order to “bury the crash area which now attracts sight-seers and which, because of frequent rock slides, is considered a menace.”

The story stated that the seven bodies, luggage, mail and plane parts were all recovered after six months of searching, followed by two months of digging and removal work.

It does NOT appear that Lone Peak itself was ever dynamited. No reports of such a blast could be found in old newspapers or through Google searches.
However, at least one person who read this report said a book on the history of the plane crash does mention that dynamite was indeed used to cover up the crash site.
(The Lone Peak area includes a lot of unstable looking rock and so an explosion could have likely altered the appearance of the area somewhat.)

In any event, according to www.lostflights.com, Amelia Earhart herself participated in the search for the plane early on, but it wasn’t located until July of 1937 (the month Earhart disappeared).

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

-Notwithstanding the Lone Peak area’s disastrous plane crash, it has always been a popular hiking destination. “Teachers climb peak” was a Sept. 6, 1915 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper. The story said 15 principals and teachers from the Jordan School District climbed the peak on Labor Day weekend. They faced a heavy wind and snowstorm half-way up the mountain.

-The American Fork Citizen newspaper of Sept. 8, 1923 stated that six men climbed Lone Peak, also on Labor Day weekend. They camped overnight and had a large fire that could be seen from all over the area.

-“Wasatch Mountain Club hikers ascend Lone Peak” was an Aug. 4, 1925 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram. A party of 14 took three days to complete the hike.

-“Hikers climb peak to set new record” was a Telegram headline on Oct. 3, 1938. Wasatch Mountain Club members, Odell Pedersen, W.C. Kamp, Orson Spencer and Keith Anderson all climbed the peak in 3 hours and 58 minutes, one of the speediest times ever.

-Three members of the Wasatch Mountain Club scaled Lone Peak from the east side, that includes a 700-foot-high wall of granite. They did it in July of 1958, according to The Midvale Sentinel newspaper.

                                         Malan's Peak is east of Mount Ogden Park.

-ANOTHER HISTORICAL TIDBIT: This probably wouldn’t be safe in today’s drought conditions, but in the late 1930s, Weber State College students would hike to Malan’s Peak and Malan’s Basin each September and have a block “W” fire.

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

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

In 1938, approximately 150students made the hike. They left the college campus at 6:30 p.m., drove to Taylor Canyon and reached the Basin about 9 p.m. and returned about 1 a.m.

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

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

                                                   Taylor Arave poses on Malan's Peak.

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

A look at early ship wrecks on the briny and unpredictable Great Salt Lake

                                   The Great Salt Lake southwest of Antelope Island. 

THERE seems to have been plenty of boaters on the Great Salt Lake in Utah’s earliest decades who shipwrecked, or nearly so – and a significant number of them ended up stranded temporarily on Fremont or Antelope islands.

Perhaps the lack of weather forecasting, sparse communication and underestimating the punch of the GSL’s briny-laden waves all contributed to the disasters.

The first of these involves two near-wrecks by the Lake’s first-known white explorers, the John C. Fremont party, which included mountain man Kit Carson, who conducted a U.S. Government survey there. On Sept. 9, 1843, Fremont and his four of his men paddled a poorly made inflatable rubber boat to Fremont Island. However, half-way there a strong wind began to blow and white caps appeared on the lake’s surface. They had great difficulty in reaching the Isle, especially as air in the boat leaked out.

After their survey, they returned to the mainland, but faced a big incoming storm.

Carson’s diary stated they had not gone more than a league, when an incoming storm threatened them and the boat was leaking air. Fremont urged them to "pull for their lives," Carson noted, that "if we did not reach shore before the storm, we would surely all perish." Pulling at the oars with all their might, they barely made it. "Within an hour, the waters had risen eight or ten feet," Carson wrote.

                                                 Christopher Layton.

-Christopher Layton, a prominent early Layton pioneer, is the namesake for today’s Layton City. One of Mr. Layton’s lesser-known experiences was a shipwreck in the Great Salt Lake. In April of 1872, a small steamship, the Kate Connor, owned by Layton, ran ashore off Antelope Island (then known as “Church Island”) and became stranded.

The Salt Lake Tribune had reported on May 2, 1872, that the accident happened during a big storm. There were about 10 people on board the craft and it was carrying cedar posts at the time.

The fierce spring storm almost swamped the boat and the passengers scurried to safety on Antelope Island. Eventually, a sailboat was used to transport them back to the mainland.

                                                A section of the map at Hooper City Hall.

Next the wrecks get personal for myself. A large pioneer map of the Hooper area, on the wall at the Hooper, Utah City Offices (drawn and produced by the late Hooper historian, John M. Belnap), lists Nelson Arave (one of my great grandfathers) as having wrecked a boat on Fremont Island in the Great Salt Lake in 1874. Three years later, in 1877, there’s a reference in The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Volume 39, p. 223) that states Nelson Arave had built two large boats to transport cedar posts and wood from Promontory (Point) to Hooper. Presumably, it was one of those two boats that wrecked on the isle.

                                      Nelson Arave

-Four years after Nelson Arave’s wreck on Fremont Island, one of his friends, Charles Smaltz, wrecked his large boat too on Fremont Island, in 1878.

-The Salt Lake Tribune of May 18, 1875 reported that the City of Corrine Steamboat (150 feet long and three decks high) had carried 80 passengers on a recent GSL excursion. However, a big storm struck and at one point the fear was the boat would capsize or sink. It didn’t, but the boat was eventually anchored about 200 yards off shore of Antelope Island to ride out the storm.

This was “one of the roughest voyages ever experienced on the Salt Lake,” according to the Tribune story.

The Salt Lake Herald in an April 21, 1882 story stated of the dismal history of boating in the GSL: “The fate of these steamers makes it clear that the people of Salt Lake City are not of a sea-going turn …” The story also described the lake as “capacious.”

-Blanch Wenner, who lived on Fremont Island with her parents from 1886-1891, told the Salt Lake Telegram on June 17, 1939, that it sometime took several days on a sailboat to reach the Island in bad weather – and sometimes required a stay on Antelope Island first.

-The Salt Lake Tribune of Sept. 21, 1913 mentions a lawsuit over the wreck of the boat “Argo,” that was used to transport sheep to Fremont Island and yet was destroyed in a storm in 1912.

-Finally, 15 Hooper boys took a 35-foot boat to Fremont Island in 1924 and were stranded overnight when the boat’s motor wouldn’t start. They used signal fires to alert relatives, but eventually got the motor running and returned to the mainland (-From the Ogden Standard-Examiner of Feb. 25, 1924.)
And, even the 1930s weren't always safe on the lake. Hazel Cunningham of Salt Lake City had a quest for GSL marathon swimming and this effort also highlighted the finicky lake's dangerous side. "Four rescued as boat sinks in lake storm" was a June 12, 1936 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram.

Her first attempt at a record swim was met with disaster as a sudden lake storm overturned the boat following along. A Salt Lake Tribune sportswriter and three of Cunningham's friends spent 4 hours in rough water with her before being rescued. The boat tipped over about three miles from Saltair beach. (It was just over a month later when Cunningham successfully made her record swim from Saltair to Antelope Island in fair weather.)
-There were, of course, a number of boat wrecks on the GSL after these. Bottom line is, the Great Salt Lake is not to be underestimated – even today.

             The Arave family on a tour boat near Fremont Island in the early 1990s.

-This story was originally published in the Deseret News on April 8, 2020.

A pair of antique advertisements: One from Ogden in 1959; And one from Parowan in 1933

HERE are 2 classic ads from past decades in Utah:

A KLO radio ad from the Ogden Standard-Examiner of Oct. 2, 1959.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An ad in the Parowan, Utah Times newspaper of July 21, 1933.

Confrontations with ‘monster’ rattlesnakes in early Utah

                           A snake warning sign, just off the road, north of Boise, Id.

RATTLESNAKES are a critical part of Utah’s natural environment and killing such a snake is illegal today. However, it wasn’t always so.
In Layton's first century, the action was almost always to kill any rattlesnakes spotted.
For example, the Weekly Reflex newspaper of Aug. 3, 1922 stated, "Last week Claude Coleman killed a monster rattlesnake on his father's farm on the mountain road (today's Highway 89). The reptile was six feet long and had sixteen rattles and button. This is the largest rattlesnake killed in this region for years," the story stated.

-“Salt Lake kills giant rattlesnake near city” was an Aug. 28, 1903 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper.

The story stated that S.C. Reed of Salt Lake was driving a horse and buggy up Mill Creek Canyon when he noticed a snake stretched across the road. It was a rattler, 3.5 feet long and as big around as the forearm of a large man. It “made a number of vicious attempts to strike him,” after he stopped to look at it.

So, Reed took a stick and kept hitting it until it was dead.

”The ‘rattler’ was evidently an ancient member of its tribe , for it had nine rattles and a button. These Reed secured and will keep as a trophy of the most desperate encounter he ever had with a snake,” the Telegram story concluded.

-“Gun more harmful than rattlesnake” was a May 30, 1910 headline in the Telegram. While a companion was attempting to shoot a rattlesnake in Big Cottonwood Canyon, Dennis Ausherman was accidentally shot below his knee.

-“A rattler attacks a cyclist” was a Sept. 7, 1895 headline in the Deseret Weekly newspaper. Si Murdaugh was riding his “wheel” (bicycle) somewhere in Salt Lake when he saw a “monster rattler” in front of him. He tried to run over it, but the snake caught in his rear tire spokes. The rattle was then able to strike the man, who fainted and tumbled off his bike. A companion came to  Murdaugh’s aid and found the snake had caught his fangs in a leather belt and not actually bitten his friend. The snake was killed and found to be six feet in length, with 16 rattles.

- The Herald on June 24, 1900 had the headline, “Little boy’s narrow escape from a big rattlesnake.” Lawrence Swan, a little boy, was stepping out the back door of a home on Fourth Street, above Eagle Gate, when he fell backward to avoid stepping on a large coiled rattlesnake on the doorstep. The 3-foot snake was killed.

-“The Champion rattlesnake story” was an Aug. 29, 1890 headline in the Salt Lake Times newspaper. A Union Pacific Railroad employee killed a monster rattlesnake, near Milford, with nothing more than clods of earth. The man claimed the snake was 10 feet long and had an incredible 96 rattles.

-A June 27, 1902 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram was “Fights big rattler.” While walking toward Fort Douglas, Mrs. R.H. McKaig and her maid almost stepped on a coiled rattlesnake in the middle of the road. “The maid, Louise Westover, was paralyzed with fear, but her mistress picked up several large stones and gave battle to the rattler, which was making for a sagebrush. One of the missiles broke the snake’s back. Mrs. McKaig will have the snake’s skin tanned,” the story stated.

“Brigham hunter bitten by rattler” was an Aug. 28, 1920 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram. Lorenza Bott of Brigham City was bitten on the leg by a rattlesnake while hunting in Blacksmith Fork Canyon. He sucked out most of the poison and is out of danger.

                            A water snake, not a rattlesnake, by the Ogden River.

-“He killed the snake,” was a July 19, 1900 headline in the Ogden Herald newspaper. Seymour Clark and Will Swan were bicycling up Ogden Canyon, when Clark had to stop to fix flat tire. While repairing it, he saw a rattlesnake and “stoned the creature to death.”

The Ogden Standard of June 20, 1927 carried the headline, “Kill rattler at Cache roadside.” Glen Putnam, a railway employee killed a large rattler in Blacksmith Fork Canyon, when a wheel of their automobile crushed the reptile.

-JUMP forward to more modern times and there were at least 2 times during Northern Utah construction projects where rattlesnakes became a major problem:
-First, during the late 1950s construction of the Francis Peak radar station, above Farmington, where workers ran into nests to rattlers -- despite the nearly 9,500-foot elevation.
-Second, during the mid-1960s construction of the Interstate through Weber Canyon (today's I-84), where construction truck drivers had to be on alert and could not open their windows, lest a rattlesnake in their debris being hauled would crawl over their cab and slide into an open window. Rattlers would get caught up in rock and dirt being hauled away, or moved. Weird, but old-time truckers swear by such tales.