When the Canyon Winds spooked cattle and drove them into the Great Salt Lake

     The view from Fremont Island, looking north to Little Mountain and the Great Salt Lake.

THE gusting canyon winds that sometimes blow east out of the Wasatch Mountains do more than plague men. They can also drive cattle crazy.
The Davis County Clipper newspaper of April 20, 1900 reported on a cattle stampede into the Great Salt Lake, driven by horriffic winds.
On April 8 that year, the Chadwick Brothers were herding cattle in the area of Little Mountain, west of Ogden's 12th Street and Slaterville. A severe winds and hail storm arose and cause the cattle bunch up ner a spring of water.
"All at once they made a rush in the direction of the lake traveling with the wind ..." the story stated. All the efforts of the herders could not stop the animals and the assistance of others in the area could also not halt them. The cattle went into deep lake water and had to swim.
The ranchers lost 49 head of cattle in the lake.
"Old timers say that in early days the east wind drove cattle from Farmington over the lake to Antelope Island but of late years no such storms have been experienced," The Clipper reported.

Back when the Great Salt Lake was its own ‘county’ and more history

                      The Great Salt Lake and Causeway to Antelope Island.

UTAH'S boundaries by county have evolved considerably over the decades.

For example, according to the Deseret News of July 27, 1989, it wasn't until 1880 that the waters of the Great Salt Lake were divided and proportioned out to five different counties – Tooele, Salt Lake, Davis, Weber and Box Elder counties.

Before that, and despite what early county maps show, the lake didn't specifically belong to any particular county or counties, and the dividing lines of counties ended at the lake's shores.

Essentially, before 1880, the GSL was sort of its own ‘county’.

However, according to the Davis County Clipper of Feb. 12, 1909, a key problem before 1880 was that Salt Lake County acted like the entire Great Salt Lake was within its boundaries.

The Clipper article stated that during an interview with a Bishop Barton of Kaysville revealed that he was a member of the territorial legislature in 1880 and that he drafted the bill to divide the GSL among the five counties.

“Prior to that,” Barton said, “The whole lake belonged to Salt Lake County. That division gave us (Davis County) Church Island (today’s Antelope Island.”

Barton also indicated that the lake division extended Salt Lake City’s limits more than 1,000 yards northward to include the hot springs.

MORE HISTORY:

-“Keep away from Ogden. Lake wrecked surveyors afraid of the newspaper reporters” was a Feb. 19, 1900 headline in the Deseret Evening News (and reprinted from the Davis County Clipper).

A crew of 23 from California were surveying the Great Salt Lake for the future Lucin railroad cutoff. One day their small steam powered boat approached Fremont Island (then often called “Millers Island) and they ran into an ice flow about ½ mile off shore, which disabled their boat.

They packed into row boats and tried to tow the main boat to shore, but evening darkness came and so they tied the larger boat off shore. During the night the ice cut the ropes and the boat drifted 10 miles away into shallow water.

The story stated, “The men were afraid to go to Ogden for fear the newspaper reporters would get a hold of their experience and make fun of them.”

                     The natural sandbar to Fremont Island.

-Not just boats traversed the Great Salt Lake. “Utahns claim first trip by team across lake to Fremont Island” was an Aug. 22, 1934 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram.

With the lake lowering in elevation, L.P. Rose, an airways mechanic and Frank Stoddard of Hooper drove a team of horses 14 miles over salt flats and briny water from the Davis County mainland to Fremont Island.

                                 Fremont Island.

The wagon’s wheels sunk up to eight inches in the first three miles of salt flats and then were underwater up to 22 inches in the brine.

The men noticed huge clusters of salt crystal during their ride. They made the trip to Fremont Island to replace the acetylene gas in a blinker light system there.

-“Calendars prove nothing in Utah” Was a June 17, 1939 headline in the Salt Lake Telegram.

The story stated how for only the fifth time in the 20^th Century, snow fell in Salt Lake City during June.

“Citizens shivered as the mercury took a nosedive at 39 degrees, only seven above freezing, following abnormally high temperatures early in the week,” the story stated. Four days prior, the S.L. temperature had climbed to 96 degrees.

The foothills were white with snow. Snow had only fallen in June to date previously in the Century in the years of 1902, 1906, 1914 and 1937. And, it had only fallen once in June in the 19^th Century, since weather records were kept, starting in 1885.

                            Pineview Dam today.           Photo by Whitney Arave

-Pineview Reservoir was completed in June of 1937 and not one month later, the new dam had claimed its first fatality. “Ogden woman drowns in car dive,” was a July 15, 1937 Salt Lake Telegram headline. Edith Lightfoot, 28, drowned, when she sunk while another of the three passengers tried to tow her to shore. (The other three occupants of the vehicle could all swim and they all survived the accident.)

The vehicle had mistakenly followed the old, abandoned road, that led directly into the reservoir and without any barriers.

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

 

                                       Looking west along the Ideal Beach shoreline.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                  A huge open space of green lawn.

                   The condos as they appear looking south from the beach.

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

                           The extreme northeast condo unit.

 

 

 

 

Clearing up Utah Pioneer History: "Old Emigrant Road" vs. "Pioneer Trail" in Hooper, Weber County

 

                                  Emigrant Road monument sign on 3700 S. Bluff Street, Syracuse.

UTAH HISTORY can be confusing, especially when there are many different names for the same things – and when historic names are modernized – then contemporary  history searchers are bewildered as to what is being referenced.

As an example, take the so-called “Pioneer Trail,” in Hooper, Weber County.

In essence, this “Pioneer” trail is more properly named in most history books by one of these 4 titles: The Old Emigrant Trail, Bluff Road, Old Traveled Road, or the Salt Lake Cutoff.

It was only in the lone history of Hooper book, “History of Hooper, Utah Land of Beautiful Sunsets,” by John M. Belnap (published in 1976 and available free in an on-line version on Family Search, by using an LDS Church log-in) as the so-called “Pioneer Road.”

That pioneer title has apparently caught on in Hooper City, itself over the decades, and although Belnap’s book is certainly unique and very accurate otherwise, the “Pioneer Trail” title is not. It may sound simpler, more fitting and conform well to the general “Mormon Pioneer” term, it has obviously led to much confusion and bewilderment.

(Obviously, LDS Church leaders in Hooper ran with the confusing title and hence the “Pioneer Trail Stake” name in Hooper  for one of its stake's titles – and LDS Church headquarters also must have approved the name, probably since the path was indeed a “Pioneer” trail. There is also a Pioneer Trail Ward in Hooper as well.)

By accessing Belnap’s Hooper history, he accurately states in page 18 of his book, that the trail (with some of my extra historical information added) started in Salt Lake City. It headed northward, through Bountiful, Woods Cross and Centerville, likely following near today’s I-15 corridor. When Farmington was reached, the trail veered northwest into Kaysville and Layton – then going straight west on what is today’s “Gentile Street."

There is even evidence of a way station at the far west end of Gentile Street, in today’s Syracuse City. (That also likely ties into how the "Gentile" name became attached to the road, since mostly non-LDS Church members used it early on.) The trail went west, because that avoided hills and very sandy areas around Roy and Hill AFB, plus there were more water sources and grasses for animals to eat.

 

                  The Syracuse Emigrant Road marker/monument.

There is a large historical marker, by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, in northwest Syracuse, commemorating the “Old Emigrant”/”Pioneer Trail,” next to an LDS Chapel on Bluff Road, at 3700 South. From Syracuse on, the trail followed what is known today as the Bluff,” in northwest Davis County. 

It passed by today’s Jensen Nature Park, the Syracuse Arts Academy and Schneiter’s Bluff Golf Course, to name a few modern waypoints. (In fact, there is a 6-mile, paved trail, named the Old Emigration Trail, that goes below the Bluff in Syracuse and West Point.

When the trail reached today’s Hooper, it was often just east of main Hooper Canal, or the eastern side of Hooper. There is firm evidence that “Muskrat Springs,” the actual water source, was also a resting spot along the trail too,

The trail then continued into West Weber and Plain City, before veering northeast and reaching the old Utah Hot Springs, at the border of Box Eler County. At the City Rocks in southern Idaho, some 125 miles distant, the trail met the California Trail. The trail was more than 200 miles long, because unlike today’s I-84 route, it avoided the steep mountains northeast of Tremonton and veered more toward today’s Grouse Creek area and specifically went by the future town of Yost.

This trail was used by thousands of travelers from the late 1840s, until 1869, for about two decades, when the transcontinental railroad made it mostly obsolete. Better roads also being built over the decades also called for most of the trail to be abandoned, except in urban areas.

(In defense of the “Pioneer Trail” LDS Stake name, it does sound better than being called say, the “Emigrant Trail Stake,” which would also be confusing as it would appear  to relate to Emigration Canyon in the Salt Lake area, rather than in Weber County … but the “Pioneer Trail Stake” name does come with its own confusing historical accent – though perhaps there was no better title than “Pioneer Trail Stake” in this specific case.)

References:

“History of Hooper, Utah Land of Beautiful Sunsets,” self-published by John M. Belnap, 1976, p.18.

Daughters of Utah Pioneers historical marker, at 3700 South Bluff Road, in Syracuse.

“Images of America Layton Utah,” by Lynn Arave, Arcadia Publishing, 2020.

https://walkrideusa.com/states/utah/individual-trails/old-emigration-trail-utah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sixteen Vintage Photographs of Lagoon Park

 What follows are 16 vintage/old photographs of Lagoon Amusement Park, Farmington, Utah.

All pictures are from the Deseret News Archives and most are from the 1960s, or earlier....

This picture shows Lagoon's 3 main buildings, probably from the late 1880s, when it was located by the Great Salt Lake, 3 1/2 miles west of where it is today....

This photo shows visitors to Lagoon in the summer of 1898... Only a few years after the park moved eastward.

The Deseret News story in November of 1953, after the fire that caused significant damage to Lagoon and its owners' pledge to rebuild.

The east end of the roller coaster was destroyed by the fire in November of 1953.

This is the Lagoon "Showboat," that cruised the park's lake in 1959.

This is Lagoon's Patio Gardens, in 1959, where many famous bands performed over the decades.

The Wishing Well at Lagoon was a centerpiece of Mother Gooseland at Lagoon in the late 1950s and into the 1960s.

These slides were probably the most popular fixture inside the last Fun House at Lagoon. Riders slid down on a gunny sack...

This rotating tunnel was worth a crawl inside the Fun House, at Lagoon Park of old.

This high speed, spinning wheel was also inside Lagoon's Fun House. Unlike its nearly flat counterpart wheel, where riders got kicked off and the last person left on won, this wheel just pinned riders to the side of the bowl-like wheel by centrifugal force.

Lagoon's former "Million Gallon Pool, with water fit to drink," was the predecessor to today's Lagoon-A-Beach. Note the tall metal slippery slide, that the pool also featured.

Lagoon's old swimming pool boasted a variety of diving boards in its deep end.

This "Flying Swings" ride lasted just a single season in 1964, before it was replaced.

These "Paddle Boats" at Lagoon were foot and pedal powered only. They were gone by the early 1980s.

The Space Scrambler ride is shown running in the mid-1960s.

An actor/stuntman falls in a wild west show at Lagoon's Pioneer Village, during the summer of 1976, its inaugural season.

The 'Fruit Heights Dinosaur' appears on the mountainside

 

Look at the dinosaur-like shape, south of the Francis Peak Radar domes, Picture taken from Layton's Main Street at 1000 North.                                                         Photo by LeAnn Arave.

  A new animal-like shape in the snow appeared on the Wasatch Mountains, above Layton on June 30, 2023.

 Located south of the famous “snow horse,” this snow shape is south of and just below the Francis Peak radar domes and resembles a dinosaur with a long tail in this view. In other views, it looks more like a horse and some on social media say it looks like a dog, dragon, or even a kangaroo.

 Perhaps the shape could be titled the Fruit Heights Dinosaur, since that's the closest town to it?

  The author has never seen this shape appear in at least the last 32 years, so it may relate to all the extra snow the Wasatch Front received in the winter of 2022-2023. If so, the shape may not reappear for decades. It may also mean that subtle changes in the Wasatch Mountains occur more often than commonly believed.

  On July 1, 2023, the actual snow horse shape hit a  rare milestone, with half of it still being visible. In pioneer legends, that meant water would flow from all the Wasatch Mountains creeks all summer long, if any part of the snow horse was still visible on July 1.

 
                                                 Another view of the new animal shape.

1917: When the Logan Temple was "destroyed by fire"

 

                                                           The Logan Temple.

 IT is intriguing how different newspapers reports of the same event can be.

Example: Here are three Utah newspaper headlines for December of 1917:

-"Logan Temple is damaged by fire," Salt Lake Tribune, December 6, 1917.

-"Fire destroys Logan Temple," Logan Republican newspaper,   December 6, 1917.

-"Logan Temple destroyed by fire," Box Elder Journal, December 7, 1917.

  The Salt Lake Tribune story stated that a fire on December 4, 1917 caused $75,000 in damages. The fire had started in a closet under the main stairway, on the east end of the building. Nearby residents spotted the fire and called the Logan Fire Department.

 The Tribune report continued:  Firemen responded and the blaze was quickly extinguished with just one hose. However, then minutes later, a second fire broke out, this on the third floor and threatened to engulf the entire Temple. That fire required the firemen's largest hose and lots of water to put the blaze out. It was later discovered that the closet where the first blaze began contained a main electrical switchboard and that is likely how another fire began, by electrical wires two floors up. The initial blaze was sparked by an extremely flammable mixture of polish that the temple's janitor had left in the small closet. Then, some electrical wires melted on the switchboard and sparks hit the polish and ignited the large fire.

  The Logan Republican newspaper story reported that the Church had no insurance on the temple.

  The Box Elder newspaper stated, "The beautiful Logan Temple was entirely destroyed by fire Tuesday evening. Of course, the walls remain, for they are of stone. Almost the entire interior of the structure was burned to ruins." The fire started at 7:45 p.m., when no one was inside the temple. Damage was estimated at $100,000.

  The Logan Temple opened in 1884 and cost $500,000 then to construct.

 Just over three months later, Logan Temple reopened on March 11, 1918. The Salt Lake Telegram reported on that day that $30,000 were spent on materials, to replace those destroyed or damaged in the fire. Countless thousands of dollars were saved in free labor donated by Church members in Cache County.

-There was also an earthquake that caused significant damage to the Logan Temple. On March 27, 1975, 7:31 p.m., a magnitude 6.0 quake occurred 15 miles southwest of Malad City, Idaho. This quake was felt all over the Intermountain area. Several years later, a close inspection of the Logan Temple during a renovation, revealed that the main wooden support beam on the roof of the temple had cracked in the quake.

  According to the late Fred Baker, chairman of the Church's Physical Facilities, from 1965-1991 (interviewed about this in early 2012 by the Church History Department), this is why the Logan Temple renovation, from 1977-1979, was so extensive. Most of the inside of the temple had to be gutted and rebuilt. Sadly, some spectacular paintings were also removed and never replaced. 

  Brother Baker stated:

  "When they took it (the inside of the Logan Temple) down, we found that the main structural beam had cracked right in two from an earlier earthquake. If you had redone the temple and put the First Presidency and all the people up there on that (upper) floor, it may have totally collapsed. After all that, the Presidency told Emil (Fetzer, Building Committee member), 'Thank goodness you were wise enough to completely remodel the Logan Temple.' But local people hated us for touching their temple, and I could understand that. We never received that kind of response from the local members when we did the other temples. We did all thirteen existing temples, but the Logan Temple was the only one that we got such a negative response on."