Frontier . . . . . . . . . . . . Gary Topping 2 Growing Up on an Experimental Farm . . . . . . . . . . . Virgirria C. Parker 6 The Bird Life of Great Salt Lake . . . . . . . . . .Brigham D. Madsen 10 The Many Resources of Logan Canyon . . . . . . . . . ..Linda Thatcher 74 The Great "Smoke Nuisance". ..... .Miriam B. Murphy 18 Protecting the Springville Watershed. .. Mark Anderson 23 Much Ado about Here's Looking at U(tah) ............ .31 Cover photograph by Gary B. Peterson, Photwgraphlcs, of a horse grazing near Bear Lake on the Utah-Idaho border.
I
This publication has been funded with the assistance of a matching granthaid from the Department of the Interlor. National Park Service, under provisions af the National Hlstwic Presewatlon Act of 1% as amended. This program receives tinanclal assistance for identification and presemtlm of historic properties under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 5(14 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The US. Depkment of the Interim prohibits discrlrnlraatlon on the basis of race, colw, national origin, or handicap in its federally assisted programs. If yo11 believe you have been discriminated against in any p m gram, activity, or facility as described almve, or If you desire further information please write to:.Office of Equal
-
A fisherman tries hls luck In Clty Creek north of Eagle Gate and fh BY GARY TOPPING
Life on the western frontier was often a s h g g l e for survival, but recreation was important in frontier life as well. So it was that many Utah pioneers turned to trout fishing: it was fun, and it put food on the table. Trout to Utah pioneers meant the cutthroat bout, the native h u t of the Rocky Mountains and Great Basin, which they called "speckled or "spotted bout. All of those names describe this bautiful fish well. The spots noted by the pioneers cover the olive-greenback and become more concentrated toward the tail, while the "cut throat" refers to two scarlet stripes under the gills. Colors along the sides vary according
I
Beehive
se In an 1868 painting by Dan Weggeland. Utah Arts Council collections.
to the many subspecies: the gill plates are hues of pink,orange, or Iavender, and the sides silver to golden brown. Utah even had its own subspecies not found anywhere else. It lived in great numbers in Utah Lake and its feeder streams but is probably extinct today. Trout fishing in Utah preceded white settle ment by a thousand years or more, for archaologists have found evidence of fish use by the Sevier-Fremont Culture (A.D. 8001300). All of the Indians encountered by the early white explorers and settlers depended heavily upon b u t for food whenever they were in the vicinity of trout-bearing streams or lakes. Trout fishing
by the Indians was not, by the white man's standards, a sporting proposition. The fish were plentiful enough that they could be speared or netted from boats along Iake shores or trapped in willow baskets called weirs, which were placed across streams. A more sporting approach to trout fishing came to Utah with the very first party of Mormon settlers. Wilford Woodruff was a Connecticut Yankee who joined the Mormon church and was sent on a mission to England. During his leisure hours he found himself being converted - to the English technique of fishing with artificial flies. When he returned, he
A beautiful cutthroat trout lunges for a mayfly in this painting by Clark Bmnson for Utah Wlldllfe Resources.
brought with him an English-style cane rod and an assortment of trout flies. Before reaching Utah, the Mormon advance party under Brigham Young, of which Woodruff was a part, stopped over for a rest at Fort Bridger, Wyoming. After some of the men had attempted unsuccessfully to catch trout, Woodruff got out his fly rod and proceeded to catch all the trout he could carry. That evening he triumphantly recorded in his diary that he had dearly demonstrated the superiority of the artificial fly. Most of the other pioneers, though, were more concerned with putting food on the table than with the ethics of their fishing techniques. In other words, they caught their fish any way
they could. Parley P. Pratt, who explored much of cenhal and southern Utah in 1849, reported catching trout in their shallow spawning beds by simply flipping them out on the ground. Others borrowed their fishing techniques from the Indians. In 1854 George A. Smith wrote of a hip where three of his friends "amused themselves by fishing in the Provo, and caught some splendid bout, Brother Porter kindly furnishing the net." Trout were plentiful enough in Utah, even late in the nineteenth century, that almost anyone could catch them. Some, like George A. Bird, who wrote the following humorous a 0 count, felt uneasy about the lack of sportsman-
7
!
2 . ' '
-
John Leroy Carison carrying alfalfa at the entrance to Fort h h e s n e , 1936. All photographs furnished by author.
Growing Up on an Experimental Farm THE UINTA BASIN PROVIDEDAN IDEAL ENVIRONMENT FOR GROWING ALFALFA SEED AND CHASING BUlTERFLIES. BY VIRGINIA C. PARKER
My father drove to the farm in a small Chevrolet truck furnished by the Utah State Agricultural Experiment Station. My brother and I always rode in back where the wind blew our hair. Red sand billowed out in small dust storms from the singing tires. The Uintah Basin Alfalfa Seed Experimental Farm was located on U.S. 40 about a mile north of Fort Duchesne and east of the bridge across the Uinta River. Compared to other farms it was impressive. It was neatly fenced. There were two rnetd granaries and a long, low building called "the lab." The fields were divided
into small, square plots by narrow roadways and straight, well-groomed irrigation ditches.
Uinta or Uhilirh? Nowadays most of the natural features of the area are spelled without the h: Uinta Mountains, Uinta Basin, Uinta River. The places created by humans are often spelled with the h: Uintah County, Uintah and Ouray Indian Reservation, Uintah Basin Alfalfa Seed Experimental Farm.
A variety of weed-free crops flourished i n lhe checkerboard fie&. When we arrived I jumped
down to open the gate with a sense of pride and adventure, for this was no ordinary fam: it was a laboratory. As children my brother, JohnLemy Carlson, and I were often at the farm to weed or h a r v ~ t garden produce. Vegetables grew in rotation among the experimental plots of alfalfa. This produce was sold to local raiden& to help defray the cost of the farm, which was sup ported jointly by the Farm Bureaus of Duchesne and Uintah counties and the Experiment Station at Logan. After weeding or harvesting we were free to wander about while waiting for ouf ride home. We had favorite places to play, such as the granary filled with sweet smelling and beautiful seeds. We were forbidden to ciimb into the bins or scatter the seed, hut it was very inviting just to look at. Clean alfalfa seed is pretty. Gold in color, it is very small and @anular, and it shines. My brother and I were permitted to sit on various pieces of farm equipment, pretending that we were driving great dray horses such as the ones Bob Hall used at the farm during plowing and harvest time. Eventually his horses
Cale Johnson mowing wlth a tractor ca. 1932.
were replaced by a mechanical tractor. The first to be used in the Basin, it became an object of awe and admiration. After I had learned to read and write I spent some days inside the lab building.which also served as a warehouse and an office. At the south end was the leboratory with a wooden floor raised above the dirt floor of the mt of the buiIdhg where farm d r y , b h , and other supplies were stored. Below the windows in the lab were long benches. One wall was filled with f h g and storage cabin&. I felt espe cially privileged when J was allowed to help t h researeh mistants who came in the summer from the college (Utah State Agriculturd College at Logan, now Utah State University). I cut and pasted tiny strip of paper to hold the deliate alfalfa blossoms in place. They were put into a plant press and then mounted on black paper. I helped fold k y paper boxes to plant individual seeds in. Every process was done with great care, and each task seemed an irnportant part of the whole.
Visitors to the experimental farm inspect the lab ca 1932.
CatchingBu~es Charles Sorensen, the entomologist, kept many trays of insects and butterflies in a large cabinet. He lent me a butteffly net and a cyanide bottle and taught me how to sweep the net to catch my own butterflies. Then he showed me how to place them in bottles without spoiling their wings. When I was ready to mount the specimens he gave me a glass-lidded box and pins for my very own collection. He gave me a book to identify them and taught me to label the neat rows of insects. They were incredibly beautiful. Their colorful and distinctive markings were iridescent against the white-paperlined box. A weather station at the farm recorded the temperature and humidity. Readings were taken each day. Sometimes my brother and I were allowed to read the thermometer and weather gauge, but our readings were always checked for accuracy before the data was entered into the record. W e Earn a Bicycle In the summer of 1932 alternate crops were planted to determine their commercial value. My brother and I took care of a plot of flax. Any profit from the seed was to be divided between us. I don't recall planting the seed, but we did the weeding and irrigation. An entry in my father's journal noted that the flax b g a n to bloom on June17, my brother's birthday. When the field came into full bloom, I was ecstatic. I had never seen before, nor have I since, such a beautiful sea of waving blue. As the seed pods began to form we prepared for our harvest. Like the milkmaid in the fable, we counted our golden reward too soon. We had spent many hot hours in that pretty blue field, but that was child's play next to our prirnitive harvesting methods. We were provided with an old-fashioned tin washtub and a scrubbing board. Our scrubbers were blocks of wood
to which pieces of rubber tire tread had been nailed. We cut a small handful of flax, laid it on the board, and proceeded to rub the seeds out of the pods by scrubbing. We lost much valuable seed on the ground. The harvest was slow and tedious, to say nothing of its being dusty and dirty. It was nearly disastrous for my pollen-sensitive brother. We stacked the flax stalks in piles to be salvaged for straw. What seed collected in the tub was rubbed twice more through screens and then sent to the J. G. Peppard Seed Company in Roosevelt for final cleaning and sale. I do not remember hay much seed we harvested, but when the check came to us the following spring we had enough to buy the blue balloontired bicycle we had coveted. That ended our experiment at seed growing.
When the children flnlshed weeding they could relax by whittling. Lett to right: Leroy Carlson and Grant and Garth Seelev ca 1934.
Alfalfa, whch remained the primary crop, is an amazing plant. A native of Persia [now Iran), its name means "the father of all foods." Uniquely suited to desert soils and dimate, it
was taken to Spain by the Moors as forage for their fine horses. Spanish padres brought it to the New World. Returning soldiers of the Mormon Battalion brought it from California to Utah where it thrived in the alkaline soil and provided better food for cattle than the native gasses. Growing alfalfa for seed rather than hay developed in the Unita Basin in about 1921 when the area was discovered to be one of the few places in the United States peculiarly adapted by climate for growing this mop. Alfalfa seed as a crop soon became the chief source of income for farmers in the Basin. They produced a crop so light, compact, and valuable that it could be profitably bucked through mountain ous country to the railroad nearly 100 miles away.
Accurate information on the proper methods of producing alfalfa seed was very limited. After the first Unita Basin Industrial Convention in 1923 pressure grew to establish an alfalfa seed experimental farrn. In 1925 the Utah State Legislature appropriated funds for the project. The site was selected and a lease and contract signed on June 1, 1925. My f a h was appointed superintendent. The experimental farm was the first to be established in Utah. The farrn was laid out in an orderly way and the experimental goals defined. The problem of lygus bug injury to the alfalfa blossom was identified by my father's experiments in the Unita Basin but not solved. It would require another thirty years of patient research and the development of adequate insecticides and horticultural practices before success could be claimed.
We Lmve the Farm A severe winter in 1932 resulted in too much soil moisture. Alfalfa an the farm was harvested for hay that year. In the next three seasons efforts were made to develop small grain and corn varieties suitable for the Unita Basin climate. During the depression years sheep raising for wool became the primary cash income for Basin farmers. It replaced the golden years of alfalfa seed production. In 1935 the experimental farm was reluctantly abandoned. I remember the farm with almost as much pride as my father felt for it. To this day I relish the noticeable drop in temperature when driving past a green field of alfalfa. I was taught to recognize a good field in blossom and even more important a "good stand of seed."
I admit to a preference for those regular little square plots on the experimental farm where some of the complicated alfalfa flowers were tripped by hand and then tied in brown paper bags so the seed setting could be meas ured. Other plants were left for the wild bees to manage and the results compared. I remember coiled seed pods hanging heavy enough to bend the stems to the ground. I also remember those cleaned seeds heaped into piles of pure gold. The seed was weighed and sewn into small white muslin bags, stenciled with code numbers, and Iransported with great care to the Experiment Station in Logan. There it was increased by careful propagation in greenhouses. Each resulting plant transplanted to the open field and sunshine testified to the miracle of propagation. I suppose that exposure to careful planning and execution is something I came to recognize and value in later life. But I learned on the farm at Fort Duchesne to observe carefully and to delay judgment to the very end. I also learmd that hard work undertaken with a purpose is often its own reward.
Mrs. Parker, who received her M.A. degrm in American studi~sfrom Utah State University in June 1983, dmcribed her father's research in an article published in Utah Historiml Quarterly in fall 1978: "Diamonds in the Dust: lohn W. Carlson's Alfalfa Seed Research."
The Bird Life of Great Salt Lake PELICANS, GULLS, AND OTHER BIRDS MADE A VIVID IMPRESSION ON MEMBERS OF THE 1850 STANSBURY EXPEDITION.
When Capt. Howard Stansbury was ordered,
on April 11, 1849, to explore and survey the valley of the Great Salt Lake, his was the first "scientific expedition" to describe in detail the physical feamres and flora and fauna of the great salt sea of the West. Stansbury was aided in his work by Lt. JohnW. Gunnison, an experienced military surveyor; by Albert Carrington, a well-educated Mormon who had had some experience as a miner and practical geologist; and by John Hudson, a young Englishman whose talents as an artist won for him the position of "draughtsman" for the party. Hudson was also appointed caretaker of the botanical, zoological, and geological specimens gathered. From the beginning of the exploration, which started in early April 1850, both Captain Siansbury and John Hudson demonstrated a keen interest in the bird life of the lake and often made diary entries describing the lifestyle and habits of some of the prominent
species of birds. Albert Carrington was of a more practical turn and more concerned with dnecting the survey crew, but he too occasionally added a comment. Hudson noted the numerous flocks of geese, swans, sand hill cranes, and lapwings but was particularly interested, along with Stansbury, in the blue herons, gulls, and pelicans observed. While at Fremont Island on April 26, Hudson wrote in his journal: Our a m p was situated on a spot well denom inated Egg point. The grease bushes lining the shore for about 300 yards were filled with the nests of the blue heron, a number of these birds 1 started from their homes & with a loud cry 8r folded necks they rose from the ground & flew in circles high above me. The nests are prettily constructed of interland [?I twigs & are very shallow, somewhat resembling a plate % rendered soft by a number of small feathers...nests
were placed very conspicuously upon the tops of the brush & each containedfrom 3 to 6 eggs of a sky blue color. In one of them was the egg of a crow which would intimate that these birds so far as a community of houses &C are followers of the Fourier. [Charles Fourier 17721837, French Utopian Socialist.] We gathered eggs sufficient for both supper & breakfast % should have had many more had we been here a week earlier, the greater part having been sat upon until almost hatched. I could have wished that we had chosen our encampment some little distance from this spot, as the Parent birds alarmed at the unusual sign of ruthlem man die [did] not uppmch their nests but kept flying within a short space hooting their distress & displeasure at being thus outed.
About a month later, on June16, Stansbury noted of the herons, "the young herons had grown, since our last visit, to nearly their full size, although they were not sufficiently feathered to fly. They, too, fled as fast as they could, and 'cached' themselves in the recesses of the rocks. When closely pursued, however, they would turn and fight mcwt fiercely." By May 8 the expedition was camped on Pelican Island, and, here, Stansbury and Hudson recorded their impressions of ihe bird life. Stansbury reported, "The whole of this neck [of land] was covered by innumerable gulls and pelicans whose nests were found s m i n g the ground in every direction." The members of the survey crew were captivated by the sight,
Pelican behavlor fascinated members of the Stansbury expedition in 1850. USHS collections.
one declaring that he would not have missed the trip to the island for five dollars, a sum equal to four days' labor. The men captured a pelican and collected a quantity of e m . The next day Hudson wrote in his journal: The Pelican afforded us immense amusement;] his indignation was excessive 8r expressed in the most ludicrous manner, by snap ping in a very spiteful but impotent way at the group that surrounded him. We had the unusual luxury of eggs for breakfast 8r found them both of the pelican st
A gathering of shore birds on Bird Island in the Great Salt Lake. USHS collections.
gull excellent. About 3 p.m. the Capt. ordered the boat to be prepared & shortly after we went on board, carrying the Pelican with us who appeared more resigned to his novel position. The men had a hmvy pulI the waves running high for the depth of the lake. We ran into a pretty little cove commanding a view of the chain of mountains on the north of the Iake. "
*Here the pelican rapidly falling away & rejecting such food as we gave him, the Capt unfettered the sulky captive 8r gave him his liberty. He was not however fated to return again to the bosom of his family, for after sailing for some time against wind & waves he was washed ashore near our 7th Encampment recap t u r d & d i i n & boiled to a skeleton. Down-to-earth Albert Carrington merely noted, "Pelican and gull eggs for breakfast with sweet butter, they are very fine." Except for a few nesting places on Fremont Island, t h ~ colonial birds of Great Salt Lake populated Gunnison and Egg islands which were always islands even during low water and thus provided sancharies from the raids of any predatory animals. The birds, then as now, were forced to fly to Utah Lake or to f bmarshes near the mouth of Bear River to find fish and other foods in these fresh waters. Pelicans can be seen at the Great Salt Lake from March through Septernber while the California G d l s are summer residents, although some gulls winter on the lake. Apparently, blue herons are no longer residents of Pelican Island. The white pelicans still create more interest than the other birds of Great Salt Lake. There were thousands when Stansbury and his expedition toured the lake in 1850,but by 1875 the flocks had been nearly destroyed by hunters who considered them competition for freshwater fish Today,the pelicans are back on GUIInison Island, which now supports "one of the last great breeding colonies of White Pelican in the counby." On May 31 the explorers were again at Pehcan Island w h they recorded further descrip tians of t h gulls ~ and pelicans. Hudson noted:
The shore was litemlly covered with Pelicans & gulls. Upon our approach with Ioud screams they rose from the ground darkening the air & we had a canopy of fluttering wing.
The peiicans gmve & stateIy marched in battalions to the shore ready for flight should we approach nearer, than they deemed consistent with their safety. We were at o loss to determine upon what the birds lived, but seeing fish about concluded that they make trips to Bear 8s Weber rivers, & from thence return with a full pouch to feed the helpless young I& aged. One old fellow we came across, who was quite blind % hoary, but although unable to assist himself, he was in excellent condition gr gave evidence of the care with which the younger branches of his family attended to his wants. A most amusing sight is a group of unfledged pelicans, huddled together of all sizes from the red wee thing that had just entered upon life to the size of a goose; these last are covered with a short curly down which makes them somewhat resemble Iambs in their external covering, but here of course the resemblance ends. The toddling gait with which they shuffled from us, their impotent anger, excessive fright 8t their attitudes as they crowded, hustIed, gr hid under each other, to get out of our way, mode a laughable picture. Gull 8r pelican eggs were met at every step & I gathered a small pail full to test their quality. I boiled them gr Mr. C. & myself having a weakness for eggs anticipated a treat at supper. Out of about twenty only one was fit for eating, 8, the rest after having passed the ordeal were pronounced "miher too far gone Br thrown away."
Califomla gulls, the Utah state bird, with young in lower left mrner. USHS collections.
Young pelicans on Bird Island. USHS collections.
Carrington merely observed, "in this bay are myriads of gulls & pelicans, quite tame on acc of their eggs & young - the gulls screaming, the pelicans looking very grave." Captain Gunnison wrote: Our friends the gulls ond pelicons, had by no merrns decmsed in numbers; the former
filling the air with their interminable chattering, which continued the whole night, and formed a most striking contrast to the chilling -and deathlike silence of the surrounding shores. The li ttie bay is covered with their forms floating Iigh tly and gracefully upon the undulating waters, and unceasingly engaged in earnest conversation; while flocks of the more dignified pelicqns drew off in separute groups,as if in silent contempt of their more garrulous neighbors.. ..Immense numbers of the young birds [pelicrrns] are huddled together in groups about the islands, under the charge of a gravelooking nurse or keeper, who, all the time that we were there, was relieved from guard at intervals, as regularly as a sentinel. The ~ O S lings are an awkward, ungainIy moss of fat, covered with a fine and exceeding thick down of a light colour.
In a final look at these birds, Stansbury recorded on June16,
Rounding the north point of Antelope Island, we called at the little islet to which we had given the name of Egg Island, to look offer our old friends, the gulls and pelicans. The former had hatched out their eggs; and the island was fulI of Iittle, half-fledged younglings, who fled at our approach, and hid themselves under the first stone they could find.
The journals kept by Stansbury, Gunnison, Carrington, and Hudson of the survey of Great Salt Lake constitute one of the great adventure stori~sin western American history. Especially interesting and significant are the descriptions of the flora and fauna of the lake, with the accounts of bird life on this inland sea being particularly appealing. The time is right for some able scholar to edit and publish all four journals. Let us hope that we won't have to wait too long. Dr. Madsen is professor of history at the University of Utah. The above narrative is based on Brlgham D.Madsen, ed.. A Forty-niner in Utoh: Letters and Journal of John Hudson (Salt Lake City: Tanner Trust Fund. University of Utah Library. 1 9 B l j .
The Hercules Power Company built this plant at the mouth of Logan Canyon during 1894-95. Special Collections, Utah State University.
The Many Resources of Logan Canyon CANYONS PROVIDE TIMBER AND ELECTRIC POWER AS WELL AS A PLACE TO ENJOY YOUR FAVORITE OUTDOOR ACTIVITtES. BY LINDA THATCHER
Today when we visit a local canyon it is usually to participate in some sort of recreationabactivity such as hunting, fishmg, camping, hiking, or skiing. We do not usually think about the other important resources of the canyons that contribute to our everyday existence. We forget that the canyons provide drinking water, lumber, livestock feed, minerals, and elecbic power. One such multiple-use canyon is Logan Canyon in the northern part of the state. It mns east from Logan, Utah, approximately forty miles to the shore of Bear Lake in Rich County. As part of a broad settlement plan, Ekiiam Young sent people out from Salt Lake Valley to settle other portions of the state. Pioneer explorers reported Cache Valley to be a good grazing area, and in 1855 the Utah Territorial Assembly granted grazing rights in Cache Valley to Brigham Young. A company under the
direction of Bryant Stringham entered Cache Valley on July 20, 1855,driving a herd of cattle. They established the first settlement in the valley and called it Elkhorn Ranch. The first winter in the valley was severe, and many cattle died from starvation or died on the trail when they were driven from the valley to escape the harsh winter. More settlers came in 1856,led by Peter Maughan. The valley was evacuated in 1857 due to the Utah War and resettled in 1859. By 1860 Cache Valley was becoming more populated, and the settlers realized that in order to survive they had to deal with the Indians in the area and attempt to maintain peace. They abo had to find building materials to make shelters. There was very little timber in the valley, so they turned to the canyons. But first they had to build roads into the canyons in
order to bring the timber out. Other canyons were utilized before Logan Canyon because it was so rugged. In February 1 862, "Br Benson [Ezra T. Benson]," according to Henry Ballard's journal, "proposed that we open Logan Canyon and A Committee was appointed to go and explore it." In March 1862 this group started to build a road up Logan Canyon only to have it wash out in July. The canyon contained only one sawmill, called "X's Mill" after Thomas X. Smith, until 1867 when the Logan Canyon Road Company was organized to complete the road through the canyon. As the road moved through the canyon other sawmills were built. One of the largest sawmills, located in Temple Fork, supplied lumber for the building of the Logan LDS Temple. Water was another important need for the new settlers. Cache Valley was an attractive place to settle because of its excellent water supply. In 1860 settlers built the Logan and Hyde Park Canal and diverted water from the Logan River to irrigate their crops. By using other rivers and canals almost all of the valley was placed under irrigation by 1870. Springs in Logan Canyon supplied the citizens of the area with drinking water in later years. Water from the Logan River also generated elecMc power for valley residents. By 1890 two power plants were operating. In 1897 the Hercules Electric Power Company constructed a power plant at the mouth of Logan Canyon. Between 1897 and 1899 they built a canal, dam, and flume above the Logan and Smithfield Canal which doubled the output of the power plant. In 1900, after two years of keen competition, the Logan Power, Light 8r Heating Company and Hercules consolidated. By 1910 Logan City was also operating a power plant on the Logan River. As the population of Cache Valley grew, the amount of land available for grazing diminished, and livestock owners began using the canyons to graze cattle and sheep. Logan Canyon was used for grazing later than other cam yons in the area because of its rugged terrain. The first recorded grazing in Logan Canyon occured in 1873 when the Cowley brothers built a road to an area of Logan Cariyon called Cowley Canyon. Soon others were driving livestock into the canyon to graze during the summer. By the late 1800s overgrazing and the harvesting of most of the timber in the canyon had created problems. In 1905 the Cache National
Forest obtained conk01 of the area and began to supentise the cutting of t i m h and the gazing of animals. Grazing permits were issued to pre vent overgrazing, and reseeding projects were started for new forests. These changes were not always popular with those who had been using the canyon any way they pleased. Although Cache Valley is not known as an important mining area, it does contain many mines. The Logan Mining District was organized in 1870 and the Cache Valley Mining Di5 t r i c t in 1871. But mining efforts during the 1870s were short-lived and not intensive. Small amounts of galena (lead ore), micaceous iron ore. and coal were found in Logan Canyon. Some ore was even shipped to Salt Lake for smelting. The 1880s saw a revival of mining in the area when small amounts of silver, lead, and gold were discovered. In the 1890s prospectors were to locate new claims and rework old ones. A large lime kiln was operated in Logan Canyon for many years, providing another important resource for the area. During the late 1800s mining activity shot up and down and was often looked upon as a frivolous activity. The editor of the Logan news paper reported, after a kip from Logan to Bear Lake, that he had passed a large pile of rocks arad dirt ''which some foolish p l i e s had thrown out, anticipating, no doubt, to find beneath it a fortune;some persons probably put their money into this hole instead of paying their honest debts." The most well known mine in Logan Canyon is the Amazon Mine discovered in 1892 by
Amazon Mine ca. 1W4.Special Collectlons, Utah State University.
H.C. Hansen when he and some other men found a boulder containing galena. To begin with, hopes were high that large bodies of ore might be found. The Logan Journal boasted that the Amazon was "thought to be the richest
The deer herds were not completely wiped out, but regulations enacted in 1907 by h Utah Fish and Game Department required the purchase of hunting licenses. Between 1908 and 1918 hunting was prohibited in Logan Canyon so the herds could grow once more. As better conservation measures were taken, both the elk and deer herds began to recover. Since Logan Canyon was fairly inaccessible in the early years of settlement, most likely little fishing took place except in the lower areas. At one time large numbers of native fish were reported in the Logan River. Then, in 1894 the Sportsman's Club was organized to help conserve the fishing resources of the area. Club members tried to persuade people to limit the
ore producer in the entire county." Its ores were "sparkling cubes and prisms, composed of galena and inlaid with the richest kind of silver and copper." The mine produced silver, gold, and lead. By August 20, 1892, a ton of ore had been extracted, netting $5,000 which the owners reinvested in the &ne. Even though the mine was worked for many years, it nwer pr* duced a lot of ore,and the Logan Canyon area was never found to contain large amounts of mineral resources.
The deer hunt is an annual event for many Utahns. Laws have changed over the years to preserve the herd. Bucks, rather than the does pictured here, are the usual hunters quarry. USHS mlleetions.
Logan Canyon has proved to be an excellent place for hunting, fishing, hiking, skiing - to mention only a few recreational activities. By the early 1900s all of the native elk and most of the native deer had been killed by Indians and local residents looking for food. Twenty-five elk were purchased and transported to Logan from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, by the Boosters Club in 1916 to restock the area.They were first kept in a pen on the Logan Tabernacle grounds but were eventually driven into the canyon.
numbr of fish they caught. The first limit the state put on the number of fish that could be caught in one day was 20. By 1917 the declining number of fish in the canyon sbeams was causing concern. The Fish and Game Committee of Logan Canyon closed certain areas to fishing so that the streams could be replenished. In 1919 a program was begun to stock fish in the streams. Dams were built at DeWitt Springs to hold small fish, known as fry, until they became larger. Later, a fish hatchery was 16
Second Logan Canyon dam c a 1915. Photograph by Peter Larsen, Special Collections, Utah State University.
built in Logan,as the water in the Logan River was too cold for the small fish. Other conservation measures were taken by the Civilian Cow servation Corps in the 1930s and '40s. Skiing is a popular sport in Logan Canyon. The earliest reported skiers were trappers. The first recreational skiing in the area was started by students at the Utah State Agricultural College. They skied down College Hill in front of Old Main or on Smarb flats swth of ihe college. Skiers who made trips into Logan Canyon had to hike to the tops of the hills in order to ski down. In 1930 local skiers asked the Utah State Highway Department to keep Logan Canyon open as far as Spring Hollow for their use. Other areas were investigated and used for skiing for short periods of time, including Ricks Springs and Tony Grove. During the 1930s a ski race was held on Mount Logan with competitors hiking to the top in order to ski down. In 1937 the Mount Logan Ski Club was formed, and a serious effort was made to find a permanent area for skiing. In 1939 a cable lift was built on the lower slopes of Beaver Mountain. The skiers had to walk about a mile from the highway to get to the area. as there was not enuugh money to build a mad. Skim looked for a spot closer to the highway so they would not have to walk so far. They chose the Sinks
near the summit of Highway 89. But they found this area unsatisfactory. Money was raised to build a road and a modern ski facility at Beaver Mountain. Skiers still use this area today. As can be seen, Logan Canyon has provided iddents with a remarkable variety of resources, and probably more will be found in the future. But even the early pioneers learned that the resources of the canyon are limited and need to be protected. Ms. Thatcher is a librarian at the Utah State Historical %cietv.
Crew with team of horses and slip scraperworked on Logan Canyon road in the late 1930s. Special Collections, Utah State University.
T LAKE CITY CREATED
"v:+
$ ' ~ b 7
,
"
"
-
can Smelting & Refining tors, lawyers, and
prosper by creating jobs and stimulating busi threat to their livelihood.
Although farmers may have followed these suggestions, they ware far fmm satisfied, Even the brilliant Widtsoe could not forecast what the long-term effects of smelter smob would Ise on m p s , animals, land, a d water. Ekding from today's viewpoint is the emphasis on crops and the seeming unconcern over the effect of severe air pollution on human health,
A common m p m to pr0blem9 is to call i~ experts. Eighty years ago,agridtural sdenJahn of the State mmlturd College was asked to investigate the smelter smoke issue. He recognized at once the high economic stakes: Utah farms produced $1 7 million in agricultural p d ~ ~ t and q , the state's mining output was valued at $34 millim. In additlam, mines, mills, and smelters employed thorpsands of people who consumed many of tbe products farmers raised.
*.
T b F5ghfingFarmem At a public meeting an October 20, 1904,,;;p~&y; George Gardener rallied support among 200 farmers by saying, "If we do not fight ters, they will impoverish us and kill us off. This valley will be desolated if the smoke is not stopped. I believe we should go into Caurt and fight them to the last ditch." The farmers assessed themselves 10 cents an ame to fight the smelters. h February 1905 the Salt Lake County Board of Health call& the smelters a public nuisance and ordered them to abate the discharge of smoke. Nothing much was done,however, so the farmers took their cam to coupt, :;;i;vL JudgeJohn A. haigna11 of the U.S. D i s m Court in Salt Lake City ruled in favor of the Earmess. The smelters appealmi to the U.S. Circuit Court in St. Paul, Minnesata. In N o m ber 1907 the appeals court sustained Judge Marshall's ruling and issued a permanent injunction against smelting ores cantainillg more than 10 percent sulfur ar releasing arsenic and '.":-. I , ,. . leadin thesmoke.
John A. Wldtsoe, 1m. LCSHS collections.
Smoke studies had k n made In Germany, g l a d , arid the eastern United States, but Widtsoe believed i%at his investigation was the first in an area where irrigation agriculture was practiced. Both the farmers and the smelter interests cooperated with hrs study. Farms lying in t kpath of prevailing winds suffered the most darnage, Widtsoe reported. fur dioxide (SOJ, arsenic, and copper were main pollutants identified in the smelter oke at that time. Many shade trees had been damaged by smelter smoke. Certain fruit
'>>,
the community if the smelters closed wanted a conference with farmers, smelter representatives, and concerned citizens. ] a h C. Mackey, chairman of the farmer's committee, rejected that idea, saying "We haw been carrying on this figfit for three years, and the smelters have had sufficient time to put up works to prevent the escape of solid materials in heir smoke. 19
$&F%c$fl"<MM:,.B
:x~>I>*2?2y~"~
.'i~.;~ dgnrz:$ 3 & ::2:::2+,: <A";
6% dF*:$ji-*$ps~$r$z~;ye~~f$ jy&&2j&$$$$F32~Fyw&$&$T$$$$~g*$$:~:&%5h;k~*j2j@ $Jg~?~$~$yg$;;&pE7~yy:F~yg<&$ ii"rllear & $ ~ + ~ gx=t@2 ? ; ~ . $ d i g ~ ~ c~i l@ %G%&"~C.Z$$~ K $ " 5 ~ @ L & t~ bt w .i+. ,x&,~~$~iii~"H~f$$~~B'@AiK&~k;i Y ~ R & & ~ # & &q% ~~$~"'"'"'"'
A"Ae$:$&wsi wi???i?<>&$jGk& th xg>$
>ax<
*
&*<<
*-
$@f :@$;;-~~"~?z @~&@gh &JI kkn~~~;~&&>~~
t T%&k;+*&@% ;:K"+
+ % za g ~h~awoke hope they would win and be P@$tir: Just when the farmers and smelters :+$g$$;%"" tiiu;g;j . wil! die end of seemed have reached the question." 2 9 truce, citizens in Salt Lake were becornSome smelters dosed. Some modified their aware "smoke nuisance." On A"
Ff$$;;;
5<*3+~
They kept postponisand fighting the case in
that expense.. .We
saved that not arbihate nor even
at the
south a
cuss
the valley
to City
ing more of the plants to decrease pollution. Utah Consolidated $28'February 26, 1919,Commissioner Herman H. built a new smelter near Tooele where, sup- %$Green called for "a vigorous effort to be made posedly, there was nothing that the smoke -?@; to eradicate the smoke nuisarrce in Salt Lake could affect. Meanwhile, individual farmers $$ECity." His fellow commissioners unanimously had filed some 160 lawsuits for damage against $f$ agreed. City engineer Sylvester Q. Cannon the smelters in hope of recovering s o m e ~ f ~ m i r began an intensive smoke study in cooperation crop and animal lossesphp& with the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the Uni,t^~;d:-~%$ ;x+::, p.hz For a time the American Smelting & Refinversity of Utah. ing plant in Murray ran by-arranging to make Bituminous coal used by industry and for payments to farmers in the area. But some home heating was the apparent villain. This farmers were dissatisfied, and mare lawsuits soft coal produces more smoke as it bums were filed. than hard, anthracite coal which burns with $@& a clean flame. x .,. More Smoke R d The smoke investigatorswanted to find out Ten Yam after WidQoe's skdy, AS R m how much coal or other fuel was being used decided to conduct its awn sesearch into the by business, industy, and home owners. me harmful effects of sulfur dioxide. First, scienFederation af Women's Clubs helped &s e X P e m a t d on fama ploh purchasd survey by conducting a hous8-tehouse canvass. fie company ta disc ow^ the toxic level of SOz. To determine the mount of soot falling each Then found ways to dilute the mncentramonth, special c011ecting j a r s were placed at tion of S*z so that would not be dam20 different locations. The level of sulfur dimaged. m h h& s f n o k ~ on ~ at b~ smelter ide in the air was measured at various spots was one solution accepted by the courts. within the city. Although Utah's bituminous As careful at h e experiments were, the coal contains low to moderate amounts of study was limited to farm mops in Murray. s u h , heavy levels of SOzin the air would in&Scientists today believe that SO%, especially in cate that smelter smoke was drifting into the the form of acid rain, is slowly destroying city and adding to the air pollution. forests miles away from h e smoke mfseand In cooperation with the U.S. Weather Bueroding buildings in, some citim. reau, the smoke committee studied 20 years of
/&"%I
.*.A.
weather records to see how wind velocity, tempmature, and humidity might contribute to the moke problem. When all this information had hepn analyzed, the city made several remmrnead&om. Buildings with large heating piants needed better bofiw and furnace equipment and be& maintenance of equipment. Railroads & n to install standard antismoke equipmeriton lot* motives. The committee also suggested that fuels such as coke, anthracite coal, oil, be used wherever possible. An educational campaign taught h owners the "'smokeless' method of starting and stfm...by putting kin* on top of the coal when hghting the Ere" ,d adding coal first on om side and then on the other sideof the fire Mto avoid smothering the live coals and creatingex-
smoke.
A!3mallVictorJr The campaign enjoyed same successSmoke densities from office buildings and large cenrnl plan@in 1%02i were 65 percent less than in 191819. Smoke from homes and railroad locomotives decreased, too, but the smoke committee felt that much more needed to be done.
A.
Denver & Rio Gwnde traln with "helper" engines at Soldiers Summit In 1910, The railroads were reluctant to install antismoke devices on thelr engines. In Salt M e City thesa smoky ernissiwrs added to the pollution problem. USHS odlections.
thousands of home mers burning soft coal from Odober through March kept the valley bladeted for half of the year, except when sbo% winds carried the somewhere else. The smoke story began to take a new turn when natural gas was discovered in southwestern Wyoming in 1922. The Ohio Oil Company was disappuinted at f i i gas there instead of oil. Sr,were the other oil drillers. In fact, so much natural gas was found in the Baxter Basin that to recover from the finmud loss of drilling so many "empty" wells, the oil companies looked around for a market for the gas.
Coabburning stoves and furnaces gave women a milliondollar cleaning problem amording to the Smokeless Fwl Federation. Drawing from SFF brochure In USHS collections.
As coal smoke continued to cast a shadow over the city, it gave housewives the endless job of scrubbing blackened walls, deaning wallpaper, washing and ironing curtains, and taking care not to hang laundry to dry outdoors w h soot was flying through the air. No wonder women became active in the fight against
smoke. Despite some pmgress made in the early nuisance" lingered for several decades. No matter how many irnp~ovements were ma& to furnaces and locomotives, 1920s, the "smoke
Clgden and Salt Lake City, some 200 mgpd nearest large cities. 3y miles away, were 1928 Ohio Oil and other oil interests had pooled their resources and made plans to pipe natural gas to Utah. Natural Gas Threat Limited amounts of gas manufacturecl from coal and oil had been used in Salt Lake City as early as 1872, but natural gas was seen as a threat to Utah's coal industry. A fight was inevitable. The Utah Public Service Cammission held hearings on the gas company's franchise application from August 9 to October 24,1928. The coal, side of the argument was well presented, but on December 31 the commission granted the gas franchise.The commissionersexplained:
be used as a fuel for all purposes, and the... displacement of Utah coal as a universal fuel, will...result for a time at least in financial Iosses to the private interests engaged in the
saying, "mankindc o m e s four tianes as many p o d of sit. per day as.. .fmd."He abo stood .,,, ; : , forthe use of Utah cod. What Utah needed, he ?A& YYVA> ~ ~ J ; L Bsaid, ;-heayqrn ; ~ was a central coal-treating plant. Such a
,.
plant would heat coal to between 360" and 750" C. In the absence of air, the coal would not burn. Instead, gas and oil would be driven Out of Ule The gas be piped homes and businesses and used like natural gas. The that be The carbonized "smokelesshel''' remainsd be a This idea was in the lg3" by groups like the Federation.Art patron Alice Merrill Horne headed the grwp's executive committee of 16 women and 1 man. Those working with Horne included such prominent women as Mrs. David 0.McKay, John Rep* Revs Beck Basone, a n d opera singer Emma Lucy Gates Bowen. Another gmup, the Salt Lake City Women's Chamber of Commerce, was organized in ""*p -.gppz : y;2:i:s'x$ about 1937 to rid the city of "deathdealing <"<@ ;&< smoke." Besides promoting healthier air to breathe, this organization advocated "a solid 4. :11q%3 L.xkq,i; ax:al. . smokeless fuel'' lcmbonized coal) and called 3 j ~ f f ~ g for an "investigation of flagrant and unyielding oppmition to solid srnokeIess fuel." It is not known if the "unyielding crppasition" to carbonized coal came from those promoting natural gas. Although the gas line had reached Salt Lake City in 1929, coal users did not convert to this smokeiess fuel at once. First of dl,1929 is best reawnbered as the year of. the stock market mash, followed by the Great Depression
-
.*>x<
*'
*'
A
cprAIF
:>>?;wq
gZ@$
-:;$A~.y--~cA
photograph-
News
P. @
t:
,:rr
<lZ
:-
is:g!;g:nz '9 Mr. ' ,: ;<< $>&, 2:
the 19305. Many
>wr
lost their jobs, and those with Jobs pften took pay cuts. R was no time to be selling a new product that cost more than other fuels. Not until the ecanomic boom triggered by World War I1 did natural of
,,,-,,,cvA
>&&;yd$
prices become competitive with Despite the boom, the War Product Board ruled that no new hook-ups could be made for heatiy w& natural gas. Stee] to build the gas pipenecessa was needed for the war oil and coal prices rose, more of an economy fue
could not meet demand. W sign-up day was scheduled people camped out overni Avenue in hope of getting one of the number of permits e piped to their homes, By the early 1960s City were heated by n
d h g "smoke nuisance" finally that is not to say that it will that other kinds of air to be just as troublesame and just as difficult to get rid of. m.~ u r p h yis the edito tion on the smake problem i the Snlf Lake Tribune. the N,s, W.T, Njsbtingalebs Growth of a Natural Gas
~temwd,s U~i$~~"OfS~l
Smslte
city, uiah.
~>~$$&& 3FFa3$ge-k;ar 'pwqac,~ ,bTl~@@b@wa ., -m m&%m ~ ~ ~ ; ~ A ~ T : ; ; ~ ; z y z G ~ + G : 2 ~ @ 4 : ? ~ ~ s ~ L ~ ~p$A.,:@%~~3:&+$pm ~~A$~~~ .E,'o.
.:I%; 3P"i
end for gas permits In March 1933. Mountain Fuel
>.%
L-!
g
Protecting the Springville Watershed THIS 1933 REPORT TELLS HOW RECRUITS FROM NEW YORK AND UTAH COUNTY WORKED ON A FLOOD AND EROSION CONTROL PROJECT. BY MARK ANDERSON photographs from
Mr. Anderson's "Report of
Fleld Work."
Many damaging floods have originated in the canyons near Provo and Springville. Knowledge of this resulted in the establishment of a State Emergency Conservation Camp in Pole Heaven Canyon. The primary work of this camp was flood and erosion control. An advance party of 25 men from New York City arrived in Provo on June14,1933, followed by 160 men from New York on June 19. These, with 25 Utah County men, made a f d company of 210. It was clear from field observation on the watershed that damaging floods that carry so much mud and rock to the valley originate in nearly every instance on steep slopes above the brush where grazing by domastic animals has greatly reduced the vegetative cover. The best method of correction would be to remove
the cause, allowing the overgrazed areas to revegetate. In our opinion nature could, if given an opportunity, accomplish more in five years than any amount of engineering work on overgrazed areas. Spring Creek Canyon, whlch parallels Little Rock Canyon, is proof of this theory. A disae trous flood originated at the head of Spring Crwk Canyon in 1923. Tha upper watershed was then seriously overgrazed by sheep, which were later removed to another area. The watershed revegetated and the gullies healed. In 1930 when a serious flood came from Little Rock Canyon,as well as many other canyons along the west face of the Wasatch, there was no flood from Spring Creek Canyon. The location of the base camp for the Springville erosion conbol project was selected
an imp&&
water wigon.'
June 11. The small spring at this camp proved to be the only water on an eight-mile route from Holley's ranch on the north fork of Hobble Creek to the head of Little Rock Canyon. Ferris Holley of Springville, who owned the ground on which the base camp was located, signed a lease with the War Deparbent for the 80acre tract. Water from the spring diminished considerably during the summer. The flow was nearly 5,000 gallons per day at the beginning but fell to a fourth of that by July 28 when we had to start hauling water. Far a permanent camp where showers for bathing are necessary, the natural water supply was inadequate. The season was abnormally dry, the third successive year of a dry cycle. Perhaps in normal years the flow would have been ample. There was na flow whatever from the spring into our storage tank on October 10. A 200-man camp may be well adapted to some projects, but in the case of erosion areas at high elevation where there are no roads and only poor triils, the most economical plan would be to establish small camps as early in the spring as possible and supply such camps by pack train. The season is short at best at high altitudes. Work should start from small camps of 25 to 50 men as soon as the snow is off the areas to be worked. It is our experience also that the work accomplished per man is
much greater in a small group than in a large one. Even after we had pulled the outfit up to the camp site over a very poor wagon road, five miles of brush and skep slopes lay between us and the first erosion area. As soon as equip ment could be obtained we placed a side camp on the erosion area and used a pack outfit. This camp was established on July 25 with 8 men. The number was gradually increased until there were 50 men in the side camp on working days. The difficulty of reaching t h ~ erosion area from the base camp was eased by four miles of new road to Camel Pass and a two-mile trail from that point onto the erosion area. The first road machinery reached Camel Pass on August 31. We then added some 50 men to the workng crew in Kolob Basin, making a total of about 100 men on erosion control sbuctures in Kolob Basin through September. Those who walked into the job from Camel Pass, however, accomplished no more than half the work done in the same time by men camped on the job. The primary purpose in building a road on this project was to make the erosion areas at the top of the range east of Springville .and Provo more accessible. The new road did that, but it also made a great amount of timber, mainly firewood, accessible to wagons and trucks. The road also protects the upper part
of the Springville watershed from fires that might originate below the road. We found time to make a good trail down Spring Canyon to a point near SpringviUe. This trail, three and one-half miles in length, paralleled our tele phone line from the base camp to Cherrington's farm. The trail will serve stockmen and be of considerable use in case of fire. We strung a single telephone line from our base camp to Springville by way of Spring Canyon. It was very noisy and of little general use, although it served for a few important emergency calls. Apparently no one type of erosion conlrol structure or h a b e n t can be generally recommended as superior to all others. It depends on the situation or combination of conditions on each small erosion unit to be ireated. However, we believe partitioned terraces superior to any other method of erosion control b a h n e n t on such areas as the Kolob Basin. The terraces will hold water which in turn will irrigate and stimulate plant growth where it is most needed. This is also the most effective and least expensive method of stopping erosion in gullies. If the flood water is kept out of the gullies there will be no need to build expensive check dams.
It will take three years or more before we will know the relative value of the different structures built on the upper part of the Little Rock Canyon watershed in 1933. Undoubtedly, if sheep are run over the terraces before the embankments have time to settle and harden, the damage done may make the terraces almost useless. The effectiveness of terraces depends upon their frequency and capacity. A few terraces placed low on a slope would naturally prove ineffective if not actually detrimental. In other words, a terracing job must be thoroughly done if results are to be expected. The work of terracing moves rapidly once the equipment and organization are right. First, the terrace is marked out with a light plow. A team, or one big horse, is used to make two more furrows. Third, a small ditcher or "g* devil" is run through twice. Then comes the hand work of sloping, cleaning, and partitioning. Diversion canals are recommended only where they can be emptied into a talus slope or dense brush. In all cases such canals should be built on a very gentle grade. The only difference between a diversion canal and a terrace
is that a canal is slightly tipped to empty the contents slowly away from the natural drainage or gulley. If a canal does not function as expected, it is relatively easy to put in partitions and make a regular terrace of the ditch. In my opinion, check dams in exhmely steep gullies will either wash out or prove ineffective. The horizontal distance back of the dam is too short to check the speed of a flood to any great extent. Most of o u r check dams were placed where the grade is gentle. Of the various types of darns used, the Wirp
rock structures seemed the best. They can be built in much less time than a rock dam. Each rock in an ordinary rock dam must be carefully laid if the structure is to stand. No such care need be exercised in constructing rockwire dams. Large barriers will give those living near the canyon mouth a greater feeling of security. Flood history in Utah, beginning with 1923, has been such that property near the mouth of any canyon at the west base of the Wasatch, from Box Elder County to central Utah, has greatly depreciated in value due to flood hazard
Left: Small wire-rock structure will check flow of water durlng spring runoffs or summer thunderstoms and help prevent emsim. Below: Hauling rocks for dam mnstructlon.
L
A
' I -
...
.
-
Aspen log check dam under cbnstructbn by Mark Jones, left, and Les Stewart, center with axe, abd two other men.
Basin may be reached by going up the Spring Large barriers serve ta stop the rnovemmt Creek Canyon bail or by road up Hobble Creek of gravel In the spring and the mud and rock flaws that usually come in July and August. A to the base camp, eleven miles from Springsubstantial barrier, eight or ten feet in height, vine. It will, of course, be necessary to do conwill probably stop any- ordinary mud flow. siderable maiptenance work each year on the erosion conml sfructures in K o l ~ b~ a s i n a However, such barriers will not check erosion at the top of the watershed, and a flood might Mr. Anderson was superintendent of State Camp eventually occur that could not be stopped by $208 of ih Civilian Consawation Corps [CCC) in 1933. A copy of his "Rqort of Field Work" is on file in the en eight QF ten foot dike- The least expensive Utah State H i d Sodety Library. Only an edited p m method, after dl, wwld be to stop the lrouble don of the report is p u b W here. Mr. Andemon, who at the source if erosion has not progressed too died in 1948, wmi a fmmterm mayor of F'rovo, a busimsman, and an active conservationist far, Febmay prove effective and &oddat least be tried in some critical swQwhere overgrazing is the principal wuse-of s6nrble. It will prove easier to stop damage from i l b than from cattle. We may move a band d sheep to some other ran&, but the cattle b 10to a number of owners. as in the case of cattle using ~ o l o bk i n , very m y ccmhue to congregak at the h a d of the c m yon and prevent range recovery where it is d e d mat. The ermion area at the head of springviU& Rock Canyon was d s d on Omber 2.1933. The sowing was confined to the banks a n d p bottoms of the tern-. T h e rn 200 Pounds +$ af smooth or Hungarian broms, 100pa&ds of Kentucky bluegrass, and 100 paunds of slender ~2:: wheatgrass seed used. Half of tbe seed was Y thormgldy mixed before sewing. Tbe rest was "?: f way of skowlng sol1 emion with a Nature has Rs, ----sown on separate areas. for comparison. s raad ex& svatmrn of rnnnkr netwqrlc of roc~ f New and oak roots. The erusion dams and terraces in Koiob - 1 . . P
i
--
AI
:"b:
photograph by Philippe Halsman Nabokov: criticism, ~eminiscences,Translations, h d ~ r i b u t e sed. , Alfred Appel, Jr., and Charles Newrnan, Northwestern University Press, 1970.
Much Ado about Mothing A WORLD-FAMOUSNOVELIST CAME TO ALTA, UTAH, IN SEARCH OF BUlTERFLlES AND MOTHS. BY THOMAS J. ZEfDLER
The tall, thin gentleman who visited Salt Lake City and Alta in the summer of 1943 both looked and sounded like an English don. Although he had gone to the university in Cambridge, England, he was born and raised in Saint Petersburg (now Leningrad), Russia. Forced to leave his homeland after the Russian Revolution in 1917,he spent the next quartercentury in Germany and France.While teaching tennis, boxing, English, and French to earn
a living, he became well known and admired as a Russian writer under the pen-nameV. Sirin. Early in World War I1 he and his wife and child managed to escape Europe and emigrate to the United States. Because his wife was Jewish,it is likely that the entire family would have perished in a German concentration camp. Had that happened, the English language would have lost one of its greatest prase writers. But is was neither literature nor international
politics that brought Vladimir Nabokov to Alta that summer. No, he came in search of
moths there will always be one known as Eupithecia nabokovi or Nabokov's pug. Like the butterflies and moths he so avidly hunted, Vladimir Nabokov the writer was also undergoing a metamorphosis at the time of his entomological discovery. He had decided in
butterflies and moths. Lepidoptem in all their vast variety and hues had held a fascination for Nabokov since he was a small boy living by the River Omdezh in northern Russia. He was particularly fascinated by the tiny moths known as pugs "delicate creatures," he wrote, "that cling in the daytime to speckled surfaces, with which their flat wings, and turned-up abdomens blend." While other Russian schoolboys were dreaming of becoming admirals or adventurers, the young Nabokov yearned to be the discoverer of same new specimen of pug (scientifically known as Eupithecia), perhaps even to have his own name forever affixed to it! But the revolution that forced him into exile left the young Nabokov with only the memory of this fantasy. Then, on a magical Alta, Utah, night some 30 years later and 7,000 miles from his birthplace, Nabokov's boyhood dream came true. While staying at the lodge owned by his pub. lisher, JamesLaughlin, Nabokov succeeded in capturing a pug never before described. For as long as lepidopterists study butterflies and
F
Some western moths are as colorful as butterflies. From top: the day-flying clown moth or sheep moth of the western ranges, the ranchman's tiger moth, and the beautiful Glover's silk moth of the Rocky Mountains. Drawings by Darrell Thomas.
I
the Russian language as his artistic medium. He was now becoming Vladmir Nabokov American novelist. In 1949 Nabokov returned to Salt Lake City, where he stayed at the now defunct Alpha Delta Phi house on Wolcott Skeet, but not for reasons entomological. He had been invited to participate in an American writers' conference along with novelist Wallace Stegner, poet John Crowe Ransom, and children's writer Dr. Seuss. His fiction, reminiscences, and p o e e in magazines like New Yorker and Harper's had already won him acclaim as an accomplished literarv stylist. By the time of his death in 1977, w novels as Pnin, Pale Fire, and Ada had revealed Nabokov's achievement as one of the p a t masters of the English language. His most famous novel has been described as "an &mican book, which can fully exist only in Englisf and could have been written d y by a Russian" Without a doubt, the writer Vladimir Nabokov was om of the finest gifts that the Swiet Unior could have given to the American people. Although Nabokov is most widely rememered as a novelist, for several years in the 1940s he was a professional lepidopterist at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoolog. one letter to a friend, the literary critic Edmund Wilson, Nabokov described his method for collecting moths, which he considered to he "the noblest sport in the world":
In one of his essays Nabokov lamented as his "private tragedy" that he had to give up writing in his native Russian for what he called his "second-rate brand of English." Despite this perhaps tongue-in-cheek description, Vladimir Nabokov wrote English prose that glistened and enchanted like the butterflies and moths he pursued around the wodd.
Moth or Butterfly?
The antennae of butterflies, left, have a sllqht swelling at the tip. Moth antennae, right, display more variety.
Both butterflies and moths are scaly winged called Lepidoptera. Contrary to what most people think, they are not easy to tell apart. True,most butterflies are diurnal (dayfliers), but some are crepuscular [dusk-fliers). Mwt moths are nocturnal (night-fliers), but some are crepuscular and some diurnal. Many moths are dull-colored, but some display a wealth of color that rivals their butteffly cousins. The easiest way for a non-lepidopterist to tell them apart is by their antennae. All butterflies have a small swelling at the tip of their antenme, whiIe moth antennae have more variety. Another difference is that some moths, but no butterflies, are able to make silk. When the eggs of certain moth species hatch, they yield what are commoniy k n m as silkwoms. After moulting, these silkworms spin a cocoon and live inside until they metamorphose into a moth. However, if the cocoon is steamed or baked, metamorphosis does not take place and the larva dies. The cocoons are then dried and cleaned and reeled into thread. This thread is then woven into silk,one of the most beautiful and expensive kinds of cloth. insects
...open the window wide on a muggy night and watch them come. Each has its own lamp-side will settle quietly on the wall to be boxed in comfort, another will dash and bang against the Impshade before falling with quivering wings and burning eyes upon the table, a third will wander all over the ceiling, The system is to have several tumblers with rr piece of "carbons" soaked cottonwool stuck to the bottom, and you overturn the tumbler upon the bug. When stunned it is transferred to another jar to be pinned later. Tonight I shall sugar for them: you mix: a bottle of staie beer, two pounds of brown sugar [or treacle) and a little rum [added just before applying); then just before dusk you smear {witha clean paint brush] a score of tree trunks breferobly old Iichened ones] with the concoction and wait. They will come from nowhere, settling on the glistening bark and showing their crimson underwings (especial1y brilliant in the flashlight) and you cover them with a tumbler hwinning with the lower ones. manner: one
Mr.Zeidler is a writer living in Salt Lake City. a0
Colorado Plateau
CANYON COUNTRY? MAYBE IT'S ALL THREE'
ains. The Colorado Plateau Province
Alpine Tundra Life Zone. So, each of us can ba