The History Blazer, August 1995

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August 1995 Blazer Contents In Utah the Shamrocks Were *TheGirls-of -Summerw- -

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The-HatchetIs Buried, the Constitutional Convention Is Called Vernal's Unique Parcel Post Bank A NinoYear-Old Girl Triumphed over the Handcart Tragedy

Japanese Farmers Introduced New Cash Crops in Sanpete Miners and Mail Carriers Were among the First Skiers in Utah The Unseating of Delegate to Congress George Q. Cannon Midvale Was Home to a Vibrant South Slav Community Utah's First Large Factory Opened in Provo in 1872 Roy Musselman and the Extermination of the Wolf Siknt Films Intrigued and Occasionally Offended Utahns Hole-in-the-Rock Trek Remains an Epic Experience in Pioneering The U.S.S. Utah Was State of the Art Shipbuilding in 1909 Daredevil Georgie White Ran Utah's Great Rivers Fellow Trappers Called Etienne Provost "the Man of the Mountains" The Emperor of Brazil Visited Utah in 1876

Clint Larson Held the Collegiate High Jump Record for 17 Years Young Alice Stratton Feared and Then Made Fun of 'Kaiser Bill" Robbers' Roost in Utah's 'Outback" Was a Haven for Outlaws The English Sparrow Immigrates to Utah

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In Utah the Shamrocks Were "The Girls of Summer" W ~ ANN-WOMEN'S

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Salt Lakc City in 1935 people were unsure what would happen. Women's softball had been introduced into Utah in the past but with little success. The dedicated commitment of the team members and a growing craze for baseball, however, combined to make the Salt Lake Shamrocks one of the leading women's softball teams in Utah and the nation. For thousands of fans, both men and women, the Shamrocks became "The Girls of Summer. " At the turn of the century women's baseball was ridiculed in Utah. When the Boston Bloomer Girls played an all-male team in Salt Lake City on May 28, 1901, news writers could not resist portraying the event as humorously as possible. The Salt Lake Tribune noted that Maud Nelson, the pitcher, 'walk[ed] like a man" and had hair so unkept that it looked like it was made of 'parlor chairs." The reporter described the game more in terms of entertainment than sports: 'The Bloomers seemed to take things serious, but my goodness gracious sakes alive, how those boys did eat it up!"

It took another 30 years before Utahns would consider women's softball in a more serious light. In 1935 employees of Auerbach's department ston asked Dennis J. Murphy, personnel manager, if he would sponsor a women's softball team. He not only accepted the request but also became the team manager and coach, a position he held until his death in 1967. At first the team called itself the Auerbach Girls, but later the name was changed to the Shamrocks in honor of Murphy's Irish roots.

The Shamrocks quickly developed a reputation as one of the best softball teams in the state.

As they defeated male and female teams alike, fans began to flock to their games. In 1941 the Shamrocks beat the Franklin Lion's boys team by a score of 6 to 5. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that thousands of fans watched as pitcher Pat Baxter held 'the masculine players to a minimum of hits." As women's softball became more popular, the Shamrocks played against more female teams. Competitors such as the Magna Copperettes and the Spanish Fork Rovers challenged the Shamrocks for the state championships. Though they put up a good fight, few teams could defeat the Shamrocks. Beginning in 1937 the Shamrocks enjoyed a winning streak that made them state champs every year except 1964.

The Shamrocks also starred on a national level. A highlight year was 1953 when they took second place in the World Championships in Portland, Oregon. During the opening round, the Salt Lake team beat the Arizona Queens 5 to 3. The victory launched the team on its championship quest. After easy wins over Seattle and Vancouver, the Shamrocks faced the Lind Florists of (more) SOFTBALL TEAM WAS -ESTABLISHEDIN

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Portland for the title. During the championship game Bonnie Martin of the Shamrocks tried unsuccessfblly to steal home. Though the Shamrocks lost the game 2 to 0, they did not walk away from the tournament empty-handed. Three team members received All-American honors in Portland-Bonnie M d as Most Valuable Player and Wilma Freston and Pat Whitmore.

One reason for the team's widespread success was the dedication of its players. Members of team developed a strong sense of commitment to one another and the sport. During bus trips the teammates expressed their camaraderie in song with lyrics such as "side by side is where we belong" from the 'Shamrock Friendship Song. " Before games, team members would gather for prayer and words of inspiration. Moments such as these helped to ensure team spirit and unity.

For many of the women the driving force of the game was a love for the sport. Jean Ballings, who joined the Shamrock team in 1941, had played softball with an all-maleteam in her home town of Bird City, Kansas. After graduating from high school, she moved to Ogden where she played for the Utah General Depot. She was recruited by the Shamrocks not long afterwards.

Donna Poll became a Shamrock in 1941 *and'remiiined a member of the-taim until the late 1960s.

Sofkball was her life even before she joined the team. She had been a star player at the Ogden Arsenal while still in high school. As a Shamrock she played every position and later became the team manager and coach. She left the team for only two years, 1954-55, to serve an LDS mission.

Even as a missionary she continued to play on a local softball team in Perth, Australia. To Poll softball was not just a pastime but a way of life.

After years of success the Shamrock team disbanded in 1978. For one reason, women's softball teams in the state's high schools and colleges were drawing off potential recruits as well as fans. The "golden age" of women's softball in Utah had come to an end. But with its passing, the legacy of the Shamrocla has remained secure. Several of the teams outstanding players have been inducted into Softball Hall of Fame and the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.

Sources: Women's Softball Collection in Utah State Historical Society Library; Salt Lake Tribune, August 27, 1937, June 19, 1941, September 11-15, 1953; Deseret News, May 28, 1901.

THEHISTORY BLAZERis produced by tbe Utah State Historid Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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The Hatchet Is Buried, the Constitutional Convention Is Called

THES~JMMERAM) FALL OF-1894 WAS.A BUSY-ANDEVENTFUE T I M E - ~ Opolitical ~ develop.

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ments in the march to Utah statehood. The Enabling Act, which in effect invited Utah to become a state by drafting an appropriate constitution, was passed by Congress on July 10 and signed by President Cleveland on July 16. To celebrate that long-awaited and grand event, prominent Mormon and Gentile citizens joined together in a party at Saltair Resort. Old religious animosities were fading quickly, being replaced by a sectarian optimism for the future of the soon-to-be proclaimed state.

Further serving to soothe tender religious feelings was Cleveland's pardon and enfranchisement, in September 1894, of all Utahns who had earlier been disqualified to vote because of their practice of polygamy. This was an extension of the initial amnesty and pardon offered by President Harrison the previous year. It was also an affmation of an important ruling by the congressionally appointed Utah Commission in 1893 that 'amnestied polygamists be allowed to vote." Everyone, it seemed, was in a forgiving and accommodating mood.

In November 1894 Utahns elected delegates to the forthcoming constitutional convention.

(Men only went to the polls that fall; women had lost their right to vote under provisions of the Edmunds-Tucker Act of 1887 and would not regain it until ratification of the new state constitution in the fall of 1895.) They selected 107 delegates from around the temtory to meet the following March in Salt Lake City and frame the new constitution. In the nearly half-century since initial Momon settlement of the Salt Lake Valley, this would be the seventh and final constitutional convention.

The 107 men elected as delegates represented a reasonably accurate cross-section of Utah society, except in matters of race and gender (again, no women). The nascent popularity of Republicans in the temtory was evident in their 59-48 numerical advantage over the Democrats.

Non-Mormons were represented in numbers approximating their percentage of the total population, with 28 of them being elected, including 1 Methodist Episcopal minister.

Utah's various occupations were also represented among the delegates in predictable numbers: there were 28 farmers and ranchers, 15 lawyers, 13 merchants, 8 mining businessmen, 6 educators, 5 churchmen, 4 newspapermen, 3 bankers, 3 builders, a couple of photographers and clerks, and 1 or 2 representatives from such diverse occupations as blacksmith, mason, brewer, and druggist.

As 1894 moved into late autumn, no one knew how the newly elected delegates would treat such issues as female suffrage, separation of church and state, pluml marriage, right to work, (more)

eminent domain, or any other constitutional question. Yet, happiness was in the air as everyone realized statehood was within reach. John Henry Smith, one of four LDS General Authorities elected to the constitutional convention, and who was to preside over it, reflected Utah's general satisfaction with the politics of statehood when he confided to his diary on November 6, 1894, "The flag again floats for the American people."

See Stanley S. Ivins, "A Constitution for Utah," Utah Historical Quarter& 25 (1957)

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Vernal's Unique Parcel Post Bank

BACKIN 1916, WHEN BANKS PAID 4 PERCENT-INTEREST--On Sa~iIlgs-aCCOunts,the

of

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Vernal found a novel way of saving money in the construction of its new building. Vemd, in Uintah County, Utah, Was settled in 1879, 32 years after the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley. In 1861, yeam before settlement of the Uinta Basin, a party led by Daniel H. Wells had been sent by Brigham Young to investigate the area. They reported that the land was useless except for 'nomadic purposes, hunting grounds for Indians and to hold the world together. ."As a result, colonization efforts were delayed until the late 1870s.

When the original Bank of Vemal opened its doors on December 14, 1903, outlaws-including Butch Cassidy-roamed the area. The bank had a bulletproof screen and a steellined counter for protection. Officers of the bank in 1903 were S. M. Browne, president; W. P. Coltharp, John Reader, S. R. Bennion, and Harden Bennion, directors; and N. J. Meagher, cashier.

The town prospered. In 1916 W. H. Coltharp (a son of W. P.) decided to construct a new building to house the W. P. Coltharp Mercantile Company. He offered to let the Bank of Vernal use the front comer as its new home. But putting up a brick building in Vemal was not an easy matter. The nearest brick kilns were located in Salt Lalre City,and the closest railhead was 120 miles away. Not only was it expensive to purchase the building materials, but the problem of shipping them to Vernal appeared insurmountable. Then N. J. Meagher and W. J. Coltharp found a unique solution.

At that time, freight rates were $2.50 per hundred pounds, while parcel post was oniy $1.05. Postal regulations, however, allowed sending no more than 50 pounds per package and 500 pounds per shipment to one address. So Coltharp had the bricks mailed from Salt Lake City to Vernal in 5,000 50-pound packages addressed to different residents in the area. The curious parcels took an unlikely route. To reach Vernal, about 150 miles east of Salt Lake City, they went

by Denver & Rio Grande Railroad to Mack, Colorado, then by narrow-gauge railroad to Watson, Utah, and finally to Vernal in Star Route freight wagons, a journey of over 400 miles. For a short period of time, both the Vemal and Salt Lake post offices were flooded with tons of packaged bricks.

Not wanting to miss out on a good thing, other Uinta Basin residents began ordering goods sent by parcel post. A V e m l Ekpress headline on June 2, 1916, read, 'Government Loses $30,000 Yearly on Basin Parcel Post." The article reported that local merchants were 'ordering every pound shipped by parcel post which can be gotten in under the 50 pound limit." Where the (more)

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normal volume of parcel post handled in the Basin had run about 81,000 pounds a month, the preceding month reported 167,000 pounds. During this period 10,000 pounds of salt, 12,500 pounds of flour, and 8,800 pounds of sugar were shipped into Vernal by parcel post. Other items normally sent by high1 that began arriving in the Basin by parcel post were groceries, pitchforks, brooms, water hydrants, produce, auto tires, feather beds, and blacksmith tools.

And of course the system worked two ways; Uintah County residents started shipping their goods to other areas by parcel post. The Vernal Express reported that 'Recently outward shipments have been made, 85 sacks of copper ore, cans of honey, cured hams and pork, eggs, and many other articles." Some ranchers were even sending various crops to market in Salt W using parcel post.

It was not long, though, before two postal inspectors arrived to investigate reports in Washington, D.C.,about tons of undelivered mail. Fortunately for the Bank of Vernal, its bricb were delivered before a change in U.S.postal regulations .. . .set . ,a.limit ,., . ,-.of. 200 .. - pounds on . packages . sent from one person to another iii a given"&y: "-.

The new Bank of V e d opened for business on February 26, 1917. Because it was built almost entirely of Utah materials, the V e m l Erpress hailed it as 'an advertisement for the state. " Today, as Zion's First National Bank, the fine brick building is most remembered as a monument to the remarkable solution its original owners found to the problem of obtaining materials for its construction. a

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See Linda Thatcher, ''Vernal's

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Unique Patcel Post Bank," Beehive History 6.

niE HISTORY BLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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A Nine-Year-Old Girl Triumphed over the Handcart Tragedy

Tm HEAVY MORNING' FROST-ONTHE WYOMING-PLAZNSwest of Fort ~Iacmiemade

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walking unpleasant for those who were barefoot or in tattered shoes among the ill-fated 1856 Monnon handcart companies destined for Salt Lake City. Both the Willie and Martin cornparks replete with Mormon faithful eager to join fellow Saints in the Great Basin, had been plagued with difficulties along their overland journeys. Carts broke down, provisions ran out, cattle stampeded, and worst of all, a month before usual snowfall, the most violent winter to hit the region in many years pinned the two companies, cold and near starvation, several miles apart and hundreds of miles from their destination. Even before the onset of severe weather the Martin company, traveling eight days behind the Willie group, had been put on rations of two cups of flour per adult per day. To compensate, many stopped at Fort Laramie where they traded jewelry, utensils, and heirlooms for cornmeal, beans, and bacon; but even these staples proved insufficient once winter weather hit.

Samuel and Margaret PuceU were among the 135 to 150 members of the Martin company that died along the trail. They were converted to the Mormon faith in England and with their two daughters, Maggie, age 14, and Nellie, 9, sailed from Liverpool on May 2, 1856. They joined a handcart company in Iowa City led by Edward Martin and after some delays left late in the season for Salt Lake City. Along the difficult trek Margaret became sick; Samuel compassionately placed his feeble wife in the family cart and continued the journey. At one of several river crossings, however, Samuel stumbled and fell, immersing himself in the cold water. His clothing froze, and within a few days he died from starvation and exposure. Tragically, Margaret died five days later, leaving Nellie and Maggie orphans on the trail.

Fortunately, missionaries returning from England brought news of the destitute companies to Salt Lake City, and on October 5, 1856, Brigham Young dispatched a rescue team. Those immigrants who were still alive when help arrived were desperately cold or numb from the early winter freeze. Ephriam Hanks, one of the rescue party, recalled reaching several travelers 'whose extremities were frozen." 'Many such I washed with water and castile soap, until the frozen parts would fall off," he wrote, 'after which I would sever the shreds of flesh from the remaining portions of the limbs with my scissors. " Both Pucell girls were found in similar circumstances with badly fiozen feet and legs. Upon removal of the girls' shoes and socks, frozen flesh came off; Nellie's legs were particularly bad and had to be amputated. Rescuers performed the operation without anesthetic, using the only available instruments, a butcher knife and carpenter's saw. Due to the primitive surgical conditions the wound healed poorly, and bones protruded from the end of (more)

Nellie's stumps. She spent the rest of her life waddling on her hecs in constant pain.

At age 24 Nellie moved to Cedar City and not long thereafter became the plural wife of William Untkmk. She bore six children and lived in poverty. She was, however, accustomed to facing challenges and did all in her power to make the most of her situation. Even while living in a log cabin she kept her home immaculately clean. She regularly dampened and scraped the dirt floor, malcing it smooth as pavement. To help meet her family's needs she took in laundry, knitted stockings to sell, carded wool, and cracheted table pieces. At times, however, she could not provide all the essentials for h a children and received assistance from her Mormon bishop. As repayment for this aid and out of deeply felt gratitude, she and her children yearly scrubbed and washed the church where they worshiped each Sunday. Nellie spent most of her life in similar quiet acts of service, not only for her church but also for her family and neighbors. According to one friend, 'her winkled forehead" and 'her soft dark eyes" bore witness to the 'pain and suffering" she had endured in her life, yet her face bore 'no trace of bitterness" at her fate. In 'patience and serenity" Nellie touched the-lives of all-with whom-she associated. She died at age 69 in Cedar City.

As a fitting tribute t6 Nellie's memory a life-size bronze likeness by noted Utah sculptor Jerry Anderson was dedicated August 13, 1991, on the campus of Southern Utah University. The Utah Legislature officially set the day aside as a "day of praise" for Nellie Unthank, and a host of dignitaries paid tribute to her tenacity, sacrifice, and noble pioneering spirit. Perhaps Norman Bangerter, then governor of Utah, said it best when he praised Nellie as 'one of the true heroines of Utah history. " See Deseret Nms, August 4, 10, October 12, 1991; Rebecca Cornwall and Leonard J. Arrington, Rescue of the 1856 Handam Cornvies (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1981); Leroy R. Hafm and Ann W.Hafen, Handcarts to Zion (Glendale, Calif.: Arthur H. Clark, 1960); Kate B. Carter, amp., Treasures of Pioneer History, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 1952-57), 5:266-67.

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Japanese Farmers Introduced New Cash Crops in Sanpete

JAPANESE BEGAN s

m

G IN UTAH3WST BEFORB 190O2Although-manychose Utah's.

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cities in which to make a living, they made their major contribution to the state's development in rural areas. Box Elder,- Weber, and Salt Lake counties drew the largest number of Japanese. Many of the men worked for the railroads or in mining. But Japanese communities also sprang up in the farming areas of north and south central Utah.

In Utah, as in the nation, the acceptance of 'different" immigrant groups depended largely on the ability of the new amivals to adjust to the ways of the majority and to succeed on its turns.

The Japanese worked very hard and led lives of quiet dignity. Japanese family life was beyond reproach. Despite this, thei~acceptance by other Americans, and Utahns, was uncertain and varied widely from town to town.

One nual region of Utah that generally behaved well toward Japanese newcomers was Sanpete County during the 1920s. The first Japanese began moving to the Moroni area in 1917 under contract to the People's Sugar Company to grow sugar beets on leased land. They were followed in 1919 by other Japanese agricultural workers who moved into Clarion and the area around Gunnison. These newcomers received a cool but proper welcome from local residents.

The times were prosperous, and there was full employment in Sanpete County because of the demand for agricultural products during World War I and the immediate postwar years.

Japanese farmers did not seem to be a threat to the local economy. However, this situation was reversed during the agricultural slump of 1920 and 1921. As a result, state legislators from Sanpete County joined with others in a 1921 memorial to Congress petitioning against the immigration of Orientals and for the rights of states to bar land-holding by them.

In connection with the petition, the Ephrainr Enteprise noted that 'Japanese farmers in Utah have increased 250 per cent during the past ten years. Japanese are working 133 f m s consisting of 7,348 acres of highly cultivated land, valued at $1,950,000."

By the following year, 1923, the mood of county residents had improved. Farmers were prospering again from income based on tariff-protected wool and sugar. Attitudes toward the Japanese changed fmm fear to admiration. Local newspapers carried a number of stories that dramatically illustrated the progress of the Japanese in the county. Suye Kimura, for example, had arrived in Sanpete County in 1919 with savings earned on farms in California and Idaho. He took an option on a 96-acre fm.Within four years, to the surprise and envy of his neighbors, the farm had been virtually paid for.

One reason for Japanese success in agriculture lay in their mastery of intensive @cdtud and horticultural techniques that were part of their heritage. In a land-poor country .like Japan, farmers were forced to develop methods of getting the most from each small plot of land. It was also the good fortune of Japanese immigrant farmers to arrive in the United States at a time when the American diet was changing from a reliance on heavy, starchy foods to experimentation with a more varied and healthful diet that included a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. Cultivation of these market items on a large scale called for exactly the sort of intensive agriculture with which most immigrant Japanese were familiar.

Sanpete County furnished one of the most interesting examples of the public admiration that could be won by immigrants through their financial success. When the Ephraim Enterprise announced, 'The Japanese are experts... let us welcome them," the newspaper was paying tribute to the introduction of cauliflower and cabbage by .the Japanese as profitable new crops for Sanpete County. 'Sanpete Valley" produce was eagerly sought by buyers along the Atlantic Coast from Jacksonville, Florida, to Boston Massachusetts; Both Japanese and -Caucasian*farmersprofited from sales in distant markets.

In 1927 the ~apanekGrowers Association was organized in cooperation with the Salt M e brokerage house of Smith and Hancock. In that fvst year, eight members of the association-with 125 acres in cauliflower-received $45,000 as a group for their labor. Japanese farmers who had bought their land for $200 an acre wiped out their indebtedness with the profits from their crop.

The Japanese achieved this through their skill and long hours of work in the fields. Cauliflower and cabbage require constant care and watering and a trained and alert eye to guard against destructive pests. Local newspaper reports that Japanese farmers were making big money told only part of the story-the end result.

The good fortune of the Japanese farmers lasted only until the Great Depression sent prices tumbling and put many people out of work across the nation. This economic disaster plus a drought in Sanpete County turned the Japanese experience sour. The once-thriving Japanese community dispersed, leaving local residents with memories of 'many queer and appetizing dishes" served at summer picnics hosted by the Japanese.

Although drought and depression drove them from Sanpete County, the Japanese agriculturalist elsewhere in the state was more fortunate in keeping his farming foothold. Despite World War 11, relocation (which brought many West Coast Japanese to Utah and to work on farms as laborers), and postwar adjustments, the community of American farmers of Japanese ciemnt grew.

They introduced new and profitable horticultural techniques and developed improved varieties of vegetables and fruits for the nation's dinner tables.

See John S.

H.Smith, "Jajmese Farmers in Utah," Beehive History 2.

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Miners and Mail Carriers Were among the First Skiers in Utah

TODAY SNOW S

~ -ISENIOYED G -BY- . ~ W S A N D S .OF

UTAIINS -and-visitors..The state's - -

alpine and nordic fiicilities were famous worldwide even before Salt Lake City was selected to host the 2002 Winter Olympics. What was once a dangerous diversion enjoyed by only a few, or for some a useful means of transportation, is now a multimillion dollar industry.

Several influences have combined to make skiing and Utah synonymous in the minds of many. The foremost factors are natural, as the state has been blessed with rugged mountain peaks and a deep, reliable snow base. Some of Utah's prime skiing areas in Little Cottonwood Canyon average 450 inches of snow a year, much of it the light, dry powder most favored by western skiers.

Hardy Utah residents began skiing (sometimes by necessity) long before today's fashionable resorts were developed. The techniques for sliding down slopes on wooden planks were introduced

by Scandinavian immigrants for whom skiing was a vital part of their cultural heritage. Hard-rock miners, battling 40-foot snowpacks in the Wasatch canyons, began experimenting with skis in the late 19th century. Mailmen made their deliveries to the tiny town of Alta on skis in the 1870s. A young assayer showed off his rudimentary ski equipment to a visitor in the 1880s: 'He brought out a pair of Norwegian snow-shoes-skees-fourteen feet long and six inches wide-his winter walking boots-his only means of going abroad. Pointing to the precipitous mountain wall opposite, he astonished us by saying that he had ridden down it on his skees. He could not fasten the snowshoes to his feet, that would not be safe. It was dangerous, but exciting work, he said simply. " A number of ski organizations were founded in the early 20th century. The Wasatch Mountain Club, formed in 1912, still organizes ski trips today. In 1915 the Nowegian Young F o b Society began sponsoring ski excursions and races. The sport grew in popularity over the next few years, despite the primitive equipment and almost complete lack of facilities. A ski jumping competition on January 16, 1916, in the foothills near the University of Utah drew a reported 15,000 spectators, and ski jumping continued in popularity for years. Utah's Norwegian residents, including Alf Engen, long dominated the sport. Dubbed 'the Human Aeroplane" for his powerful ski jumping technique, Engen came to the United States in 1929 at age 19. He had been a sports hero in Norway, but he was unsure of his future in America he told a reporter in the late 1970s. He went on to become 'the only person to ever win first place in all four events of the National Four-way Skiing Championships": downhill, slalom, jumping, and cross-country. (more)

Moreover, he did it twice-in 1940 and again in 1941. A legend in his own lifetime, w e n has won hundreds of trophies; skied in Hollywood films; worked to develop winter sports areas in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, and Wyoming; coached the 1948 Olympic ski team; and taught at least 30,000 skiers. He was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 1971 and the Beehive Hall of Fame in 1986.

World War I and the Great Depression slowed skiing's progress, but the late 1930s saw the sport enter its modern phase as primitive tows were installed at Brighton, Beaver Mountain, and Snow Basin. When America's first ski lifts were built in Sun Valley, Idaho, in 1936, George H. Watson, the self-styled mayor (and sometimes only resident) of Alta, recognized Alta's potential as a ski area and began promoting the idea. His ideas quickly gained support; the Forest M c e saw a chance to develop a recreation facility, the Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps saw the potential for jobs, and a group of Salt Lake City businessmen recognized a fmancial opportunity. During the winter of 1938-39 a single chairlift, built partly from an old mining tram, took skiers (when it was working).up the face of-CollinsGulch in Alta.

By the following winter the bugs had been worked out and Alta began its long history of development. In the 56 intervening years Utah has attmcted skiers from all over the world.

See Anthony W.Bowman, "From Silver to Skis: A History of Alta, Utah,and Little Cottonwood Canyon, 1847-1966" (M.A. thesis, Utah State University, 1%7); Beehiw Hall of Fdme, 1986, program in USHS collections; Alexis Kelner, Skiing in Utah: A History (Salt Lake City, 1980).

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The Unseating of Delegate to Congress George Q. Cannon

,y -

DURING THB TERRJTORIAL PERIOD-UTAH'S INTERESTS were-represented& Congress by a - . single delegate elected by the people. Although a temtorial delegate could not vote on matters before Congress he could and did provide information about his constituents and their wants and needs, and members of Congress relied on information from the delegate about the temtory. Seven men served as congressional delegates during Utah's temtorial period: John M. Bemhisel, William H. Hooper, John F. Kinney, George Q. Cannon, John T. Caine, Joseph L. Rawlins, and Frank J. Cannon. Of these, George Q. Cannon, an LDS apostle, generated the most controversy and opposition from non-Mormons.

Utah's Mormon majority first elected Cannon to the delegate post in 1872. Nominated by the People's party (Mormon), Cannon immediately faced criticism. Even some Mormons questioned the wisdom of sending an apostle and a polygamist to Washington, fearing that so visible a target would surely draw fire.

The Liberal party (non-Mormon) nominated Gen. George R. Maxwell, a Civil War veteran, to oppose Cannon. The vote was not even close. Cannon received 20,969 votes to Maxwell's 1,942. Maxwell protested that Cannon was a polygamist and had conspired with Brigham Young to intimidate voters. When Cannon presented his certificate of election, signed by the govemor, at the opening of the 43rd Congress on December 1, 1873, Maxwell was there to protest. Cannon was seated, but a House committee considered Maxwell's allegations. Nothing came of it, and Cannon sewed out his first term, helpless nevertheless to prevent passage of the antipolygamy Poland Act. The 1874 election pitted Cannon against the Liberal nominee Robert N. Baskin. Again, Cannon secured a huge victory-24,863 votes to Baskin's 4,518. Governor George L. Woods, a Liberal sympathizer, refused to give Cannon a certificate of election. But when Samuel B. Axtell arrived to replace Woods as govemor, he quickly signed the document upon seeing the official election tally. Baskin, like Maxwell, traveled to Washington in a vain attempt to convince Congress that Cannon was not entitled to the seat on the grounds that his naturalization papers were not authentic. The committee on elections-now controlled by Democrats-never brought the matter to a vote, and Cannon continued to serve.

The 1876 election saw Cannon and Baskin again vying for the delegate seat with much the same result. With Democrats in control of Congress and Utah viewed as a future Democratic state at that time, Cannon was quietly seated. (more)

In 1878 Cannon ran unopposed, but change was in the air. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 1862 Anti-Bigamy Act in U.S. v. George Reynolds, and Rutherford 3.

Hayes's message to Congress called for even stronger legislation against polygamy.

Buoyed by these events, the Liberals again eyed the delegate seat. This time they selected Allen G. Campbell to oppose Cannon. Campbell, a Missouri native, had come to Utah in 1870 and made a fortune in the booming mines of Beaver County as a partner in the fabled Horn Silver Mine. Despite d l i e s throughout the temtory, the Liberal party was almost moribundme It had been a tactical error to let Cannon run unopposed in 1878. The efforts of Governor Eli H. Murray to rouse public opinion in Washington against the Mormons did nothing to help elect Campbell.

Cannon received 18,568 votes to 1,857 for the Liberal candidate. Campbell Wed even to carry Beaver County.

This time the familiar accusations that Cannon was not a citizen, and that Cannon lived in deflance of the 1862 Anti-Bigamy Act found a welcome reception from Governor Murray who, on January 8, 1881, issued a certificate of election to Campbell on the grounds.that Cannon was not a U.S. citizen. Cannon tried to get the outgoing clerk of the House to place his name on the delegate roll, but the new Speaker refused to recognize the roll. The struggle over the seat wntinued.

Meanwhile, however, passage of the stringent Edmunds Act in 1882 doomed Cannon's quest for a fifth term. The Edmunds Act prohibited a polygamist from holding any public office. Congressmen who had previously sided with Cannon on the grounds that no law prohibited a polygamist from saving in Congress now changed their minds. They were not about to honor the dubious claims of Campbell either. In April 1882 the House declared Utah's seat in Congress vacant.

Larry H d m , "Utah's Delegates to Congress, 1852-1896" (M.S.thesis, Utah State University, 1962)

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Midvale Was Home to a Vibrant South Slav Community As early as 1890 Serbs, ..Croats,and Slovenes.began..arriving in the.Midvale-Murzay area . seeking work in the smelters. Many of them came to stay after the turn of the century, in part because of poor agricultural conditions in the Old Country and labor strife in the industrial areas of the eastern U.S.In 1904 the three smelters in Midvale (called Bingham Junction then) were operated by U. S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Company, American Smelting and Refining Company, and Bingham Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company. Most of the South Slav immigrants found work at ASARCO's Midvale smelter. Many of them were young single men who lived in boardinghouses or with married countrymen. According to historian Joseph S t i p o vich, the typical boardinghouse in Midvale was operated by a South Slav couple who provided each worker with a place to sleep, laundry s e ~ c e and , meals-including lunch-for a monthly charge. Workers often slept and ate in shifts as space in the boardinghouse was minimal. That placed a great burden on the housewife, who often had small children to care for in addition to several dozen boarders. As one woman lamented, 'It was horrible awful. ...I had to carry all the water from a long way ....Wash and cook on coal stove and eat in two or three shifts. That was hell.. .woman was slave. " Because Midvale was a community still under construction when its immigrant population began to arrive, boardinghouses and private homes were dispersed throughout the town rather than concentrated in certain areas. One social institution that quickly followed the arrival of South Slavs was a modified version of the Old Country saloon or inn. Called biltiya in Croatia they senred in America as an information center for new arrivals as well as a place to talk politics, dance, gamble, and eat and drink. Unlike the Old Country biltiya, geared to the needs of peasant fanners, the Midvale version operated from morning to night to accommodate shift workers. It also provided a haven where a familiar language was spoken and where newcomers could find help with everything from reading and writing letters to coping with strange American customs.

Before long the South Slavs, like other immigrant groups, established organizations. In 1908, for example, Croats in Midvale started a lodge affiliated with the Croatian Fraternal Union while Serbs organized the independent Serbian Benevolent Society. A major goal of such organizations was to provide life insurance. Given the hazardous working conditions in that era, providing for one's survivors was an important consideration. Of course, the fiatemal lodges also allowed men to gather in a more respectable setting than the saloon. The Roman Catholic Croats found their religious needs taken care of by churches already established in the valley. But the Orthodox Serbs began a building fund for a Serbian Orthodox church that was completed in 1918. (more)

Easter and Christmas were occasions for community celebrations that featured barbecued lamb or roast pig. Eating, drinking, singing, and dancing continued until late in the evening. 'At Christmas, the Croats and Slovenes would celebrate on December 25 and they would invite the Serbs to join them. C h January 7 the Serbs would celebrate Orthodox Christmas... and invite the Croats and Slovenes to join in their celebrations."

South Slav immigrants settled in other parts of Utah-most notably Highland Boy in Bingham Canyon and Helper in Carbon County, but, according to Stipanovich, their 'settlement at Midvale was a remarkable one in several ways. First, it was developed in a relatively ordered fashion with much less social dislocation and cultural disorientation.. .Second, the South Slavs were able to establish organizations which eased their process of transition to American life without any major difficulties with their neighbors. Third, it sewed as a place of arrival and dispersal for many of the South Slavs who came to northern Utah.This was because it was one of the oldest, largest, and the most centrally- located of all the South . Slav . - settlements."

-"-. .-. - .

.

See Joseph Stipanovich,

Z k ~ & h Shvs in Utah: A Social History (San Francisco: R and E Reseuch Associates,

1975).

THE HISTORYBLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a g m t from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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First Large Factory Opened in Provo in 1872

THEGODEN

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SPIKE WAS BARELY:.DRNEN-WHEN PIONEER-leaders chose-a-likely site for a

large factory. With the coming of the transcontinental railroad, the massive machinery needed to start large-scale manufacturing could be shipped to the temtory, and local products could be sold from coast to coast.

LDS church leaders had a specific plan in mind: Sheep thrived on Utah's landscape, and wool had been successfully processed in several small frontier towns. In addition, a mill site on the Provo River was available that wuld provide both water and power for wool-making. Provo's residents were invited to cooperate in the enterprise by donating labor, materials, or cash in exchange for stock in the planned enterprise. With their support, Brigham Young, Abraham 0.

Smoot, and a handful of other leaders formed the Timpanogos Manufacturing Association, pa~ent company of the Provo Woolen Mills.

Skilled builders from all over the temtory helped the Provo settlers in the grand construction project. Material was mostly donated, and when resources ran short the city of hovo gave wheat for the workmen, and Utah County sold the courthouse, just east of the factory block, to the new corporation in exchange for stock. The cash for the machinery, which was ordered from Philadelphia, came from Brigham Young (then president of the company), the LDS church, and private individuals.

The resulting plant on the Provo mill run was remarkable. It occupied a block near the center of Provo city, with four buildings housing equipment that employed about 150 workers.

Many of the first workers were recent immigrants who had learned their skills in British textile mills. Later, the Provo factory hired young women to run the looms. The mill operated for ten months of the year. Power came from several turbine wheels. Beginning in 1890 surplus power was sold to the city for street lights.

The main building of blue limestone was four stories high and had a turreted stairwell and a tin mansard roof. The first floor and most of the second floor housed looms. 'Mules"--spinning mechanisms--occupied the third floor and the balance of the second. On the fourth floor were carding machines.

Two other two-story buildings of adobe were connected to the main building with covered railways. In one, the fleece was sorted, washed, and sometimes dyed before it was laid out to dry on wide platforms in the yard. The washing or scouring of the wool was an especially important process because the fleece contained natural wax and salt and foreign matter-dust, burrs, and mud-that amounted to 80 percent of the weight of the fleece. All of this had to be removed without damaging the soft wool.

The second adobe building was used for finishing. Here, cloth was checked for quality, washed again, fulled, and sheared in. In fulling, woolen cloth was moistened, heated, and pmS8d to shrink and thicken it. A final pressing in the finishing room made it smooth and glossy, or, in the case of blankets, another finishing machine raised a furry nap.

A third small adobe building, on the factory block next to the building where the we1 was sorted, was also used for dyeing.

The fortunes of the mill ebbed and flowed. At first, it produced a fuU. range of woolen fabrics that were loyally bought by Latter-day Saints. The cloth was extremely durable but not as finely finished as imported fabrics. Later, however, the factory s p e c W in heavier woolens: blankets, shawls, yarns, flannels, and doeskins. About one-third of these were exported, mostly to nearby states. Hart, Schaffnerand Manr, a well-known men's clothing firm, was an important customer. The Provo mills also made the carpet for the St. George Temple. In 1897 John C. Cutler and Brothers of Salt Lake., agents for the Provo mills, sold men's suits for $7.50. Heber J. Grant told an LDS conference audience in 1910: 'With one or-two exceptions; &Inever wore a suit of clothes that was not made of cloth manufactured at Provo."

In 1902 Reed Smoot,-who had been the factory's energetic and imaginative superintendent for several years, was elected to the U.S. Senate. This, combined with the problems of old machinery and increased competition from eastern mills, brought business to a halt. Machinery whirred into production once again in 1910 when Jesse N. Knight's mining money bought the mill as an investment. It continued to operate until 1932, though its primary role in Utah's history was long since played out, for decades earlier, major industry and commerce had become firmly established in the temtory.

See Sharon S. Arnold, "The First Large Factory in Utah," Beehiw History 6 (1980)

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Roy Musselman and the Extermination of the Wolf

IN THE EARTY 2 m CENTURY~-.FEDERAL~-STATE~. cou@ryjAND -ux=& -government

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officials teamed up with livestock raisers in an intensive campaign to rid the entire state of Utah of predatory wild animals. With poison, traps, and guns, they moved to eliminate coyotes, wolves, and mountain lions from their traditional ranges. Among the most active and successful hunters and trappers was Roy Musselman who operated in southeastern Utah near what is now Canyonlands National Park.

A letter from the state livestock board to stockmen in 1920 clearly set out the long-term goals of the campaign: "It is our intention to carry on intensive trapping campaigns on the spring and summer ranges during the spring, summer, and fall, and poison and trapping campaigns on the winter ranges during the summer and early fall.

We feel that each stockman is interested in what is being accomplished, and in assisting us in every way to curtail livestock losses through the destruction of the animals that prey on their stock.

The campaign had begun well before 1920. A1 and Jim Scorup hired Roy Musselman, an experienced trapper, in the early 1910s to help rid their cattle ranch of predators. Over the next decades Musselman worked the areas of the Elk and Blue mountains, usually in the employ of the Scorups, who eventually ran Utah's largest cattle operation, the Indian Creek Cattle Company, out of the Dugout Ranch just east of the Needles area of Canyonlands. A 1927 newspaper article reported Musselman's career haul as: 2100 lynx or bob cats, 6000 coyotes, 1500 foxes, 6000 skunks, 43 wolves and 4 lions. This does not include innumerable badgers, civet cats, crows, etc.

He has turned loose thousands of skunks caught during the summer because their furs are not valuable at that season. " Musselman eventually became acknowledged as the best trapper in the region. Usually working and living alone (he never married), Musselman collected pelts worth thousands of dollars. He was credited with destroying three particularly troublesome wolves, nicknamed Beef Basin, Black Mesa, and Big Foot. The successful hunt for Big Foot (sometimes also called Pea Vine, Slick Horn, or Outlaw) solidified Musselman's reputation. Ranchers blamed the animal for thousands of dollars' worth of slain cattle, sheep, and horses over a period of ten years. The alleged culprit's tracks were distinctive, since one foot had been maimed in a trap years before. In addition to the normal state bounty, local stockmen put up a handsome offer of $1,000 for Big Foot's pelt. The wolf finally stepped in one of Roy Musselman's traps on March 24, 1920, then dragged the trap for miles before dying. Musselman found the dead wolf, skinned him out, and (more)

... . . ."

". . .

delivered the pelt-claimed to be eight feet from tip to tip-to the San Juan County commissioners.

In March 1922 the papers reported that he had completed the job of eradicating wolves from the Indian Creek region.

Roy's nephew, Rusty Musselman, hunted wolves as well. Rusty told outdoor writer Michael Kelsey that he believed he killed the last wolf in San Juan County in 1938, although he claimed to have seen another in the 1950s. Roy Musselman died at Rusty's home in Monticello on September 5, 1948.

In the last third of the 20th century the wolfs reputation and future prospects have taken a turn for the better. Following the mandates of the Endangered Species Act, government wildlife officials and environmentalists have overseen the reintroduction of red wolves into areas of the Southeast, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park, while gray wolves have been reintroduced into wilderness areas in Idaho as well as in Yellowstone National Park. Some environmentalists have quietly suggested that the next logical site for gray wolf reintroduction would be the Colora~op~a~eaU,~nclud~ngSO -.--,.--.., U ~ ~ ~ m.,-U,~- -~--, -<

a -

- a .

~OM: &and Val@ 3Smcj, March 21, 1913; 35mes--I@&, April 15, 1920; April 22, 1920; March 30, 1922; FebruPry 17, 1927; Sun Juan Rewrd, September 9, 1948; Michoel R. Kelsey, Hiking, Biking, and Qploring National Park and Vicinity (Provo: Kelsey Publishing, 1992).

~~

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Silent Films Intrigued and Occasionally Offended Utahns -

NOTLONG r n THE ~ TURN-OFTHE CENTURY motion picturesmade-their debut in Salt

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Lake City and rapidly became popular throughout the state. Utahns were not only enthusiastic patrons of the new art but were often the subject of movies during the silent film era. In addition, during the film industry's infancy Utah businessmen even developed several motion picture companies for the production of films in local studios.

The first movie goers in Utah crowded into converted storefront showhouses that rapidly appeared along Main Street in the state capital. The situation was similar in rural Utah where in some small villages movie houses sometimes even preceded electricity. In Hurricane, Charles Petty, the manager of the local mercantile store, brought the latest entertainment craze to town in 1914, three years before the community was wired for electricity. He ran the projector from a gasoline motor that created a loud &putt,puttmsound heard all over Humcane; residents flocked to the theater in rrsponse.

Before long the crude show halls began to be replaced by opulent theaters, especially in urban areas. In 1912 the American Theater, boasting a seating capacity of 3,000, opened on Main Street in Salt lake City amid considerable fanfare. Regardless of the surroundings, however, audiences across the state delighted in the blunders of Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Cops or thrilled at the sight of Indians attacking wagon trains and shootouts in the Old West.

A surprising number of silent-film-era movies even featured stories about Utah. A Tn'p ro Sdt LaRe Cfty was the first effort to depict the state. A comedy built around the theme of polygamy, it portrayed the problems of a polygamist father and his many children. Most films about Utah had similar polygamous themes but were blatantly anti-Mormon in nature. Such titles as A Hctim of the Mormons (191l), Marnoage or Death (1912), Mameed to a M o w n (1922), and Trapped by the Mormons (1922) are illustrative. Some Utahns tried to fight back. Governor William Spry, for one, felt responsible for the film industry's ridicule of his state and began a campaign to censor films entering Utah. His first attempt at censorship came after the release of A Worn of the Monnons. On February 4, 1912, Spry insisted that the title and content of the film be altered for the Utah audience. His demand was ignored, and the film was shown without alterations in Utah theaters that year. There were also some sympathetic depictions of the Mormons; perhaps the most important was a documentary titled One Hundred Years of Momonism (1913) that even received active cooperation from Mormon authorities.

While out-of-state producers continued to shoot pictures with Utah themes, several loml entrepreneurs also decided to enter the popular industry. The Utah Theater Company began (more)

operadons within the state in 1912, and the following year the Satchwa General Amusement Enterprises Company also opened. Satchwa completed its first major film,Big Hearr, in 1914. A tale of Indian love and sacrifice, it premiered in Salt Lake City to rave reviews. Other Utah companies such as the-Arrowhead Motion Picture Company and the Ogden Pictures Corporation came and went. In the end, limited financing and remoteness from Hollywood and New York proved too great a challenge for Utah filmmakers; most failed within a few years. Even without an in-state production studio, however, Utahns continued to enjoy the entertainment of the silver screen.

See Richard Nelson, "Utah Filmmake26 of the Silent Screen,"

THE

Utah Historical Quarter& 43 (1975).

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Holein-the Rock Trek Remains an Epic Experience in Pioneering

IN 1879 WHEN A GROUP OF .MORMOWPKINEERS-BEGAN *e- now -famous-Hole-in-the-Rock of the expedition, the San Juan region of southeastern Utah was one of the most isolated United States. The migh and broken country is characterized by sheer walled cliffs, mesas, hills, washes, slickrock, cedar forests, and sand. Certainly the ruggedness of the country accounts for its colonization coming so late in the Mormon settlement effort. The Mormon hierarchy's need to improve relations with the Indians, ensure Mormon control of the area, open new farmlands for cultivation, and build a springboard for future colonies to the east, south, and north provided the impetus behind church president John Taylor's "callwfor colonizing mission to the San Juan.

Those who answered his plea demonstrated remarkable faith, courage, and devotion to the Mormon cause and persevered even when confronted with the challenges of southastsm Utah's physical environment. They cut a wagon passage through two hundred miles of that inhospitable comer of the state and ultimately succeeded in establishing permanent communities in its remote expanses.

A total of 236 individuals from sixteen different southwestern Utah villages formed the mission. The majority were from three Iron County towns: Parowan, Paragonah, and Cedar City.

Ignoring other lengthy, but well-established routes, leaders of the mission opted to try a "short cut" by way of Escalante that would take them through almost completely unexplored country. The biggest obstacle along the chosen course was the Colorado River, but according to a muting report from the summer of 1879 it was passable. The scouts had discovered the Hole-in-the Rock, a narrow slit in the west wall of Glen Canyon. They reported that a road could be built through it leading down to the river. Based upon this rewmmendation the group began to gather in late November and early December at Forty Mile Spring about forty miles southeast of Escahte. In the meantime, exploring parties returned with negative reports concerning the terrain east of the Colorado, which looked extremely difficult for wagon travel. Unfortunately, snow had already blocked any return to their former homes, and so the group determined to forge ahead.

Although challenging, the first sixty-five miles of their journey proceeded with relatively minor difficulties. They formed a base camp at Fifty Mile Spring, about six miles from the Holein-theRock. From there approximately half of the expedition spent the next month and a half blasting a road through the very narrow crack to allow for the passage of wagons. At the bottom of the steep slope leading to the river the pioneers ingeniously rigged a crib which they piled with logs, brush, fill dirt, and rocks to serve as a "tacked-onwroad bed for the outside wagon wheels.

Finally the precarious road was completed, and on January 26, 1880, about forty wagons were (more)

taken through the Hole-in-the Rock. Elizabeth Moms Decker, in a letter to her parents, wrote a vivid account of the descent to the river: 'If you ever come this way it will scare you to death to look down it. It is about a mile from the top down to the river and it is almost straight down, the cliffs on each side are five hundred ft. high and there is just room enough for a wagon to go down. It nearly scared me to death. The first wagon I saw go down they put the brake on and rough locked the hind wheels and had a big rope fastened to the wagon and about ten men holding back on it and then they went down like they would smash everything. I'fl never forget that day. When we was walking down Willie looked back and cried and asked me how we would get back home."

Even with the Hole-in-the-Rock behind them the colonizers still faced many miles of rugged terrain-primarily solid slickrock and mountains cut by deep gulches--before reaching their destination. Decker described it as '...the roughest country you or anybody else ever seen; its nothing in the world but rocks and holes, hills and hollows. The mountains are just one solid rock as smooth as an apple." Undaunted the determined pioneers*cutdugways and blasted roads through the slickrock, cut a passable trail through the dense cedar forests, and when required made more cribbing for the outside wheils to pass over. Then on the north bank of the San Juan River the weary, hungry, and discouraged travelers faced yet another grueling trial: the solid rock wall of San Juan Hill. According to Charles Redd whose father, Lemuel H. Redd, Jr., drove a horse team up the hill, the steep, slick grade took its toll on the exhausted animals and men. Many of the horses went into "spasms and near-convulsions" as they battled for fwtholds on the upward climb.

When it was all over "the worst stretches [on the hill] could be easily identified by the dried blood and matted hair from the forelegs of the struggling teams."

The San Juan pioneers reached the present site of Bluff in April 1880 and set to work planting crops, digging ditches, and establishing a new community. Many challenges remained.

The San Juan River frequently washed out their darns and ditches, and Indian hostilities posed a continual threat. Many of the original group abandoned the hard-won location, while those who stayed were often forced to seek outside employment to survive. Hardships aside, Bluff eventually spawned other colonies in the region, including Verdure, Monticello, and Blanding. These remote southeastern Utah communities owe the ultimate credit for their existence to a tenacious group of Hole-in-the Rock pioneers.

See Allan Kent P o d , 'Ibe Holein-the Rock Tnil a Century Later," in Sun Juan County, Urclh: Peopk, Rcsourcw, and History, ed. Allan Kent Powell (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1983): David E. Miller, H o b i n the-Rock An Epic in the fibnization of the Greot American West (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1966).

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The U.S.S. Utah W a s State of the Art Shipbuilding in 1909

Tm JAPANESE ATTACK ON PEARL-OR

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.ON-DECEMBER 7,194I*,-crippledthe U.s

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Pacific Fleet. AU eight of its battleships, considered the heart of the fleet, were sunk or sevemly damaged. The U.S.S. Utah, outfitted as a target and anti-aircraft training vessel, was among the hardest hit.

Battleships-large, heavily armed and armored gunships-had long been the centerpiece of every industrhlhd nation's fleet. U.S. Navy Captain Alfred T. Mahan had promoted the utility of the& vessels in his influential writings of the 1890s. While other nations built large ships, the British, the world's leading sea power, carried the battleship principle the farthest. In 1905 Britain launched the H.M.S.Dreadnought, the most powerful warship afloat, with batteries of 12-inch guns, annor plating, and powerful engines. The Dreadnought made all existing vessels obsolete, and other nations ~ s h e dto construct their own.

The United States built two 'superdreadnoughts," including the U.S.S. Utuh, launched on December 23, 1909. The Utuh boasted ten 12-inch guns in its main battery, along with 5-inch guns, anti-aircraft guns, and torpedo tubes. At the time of its launching the Utuh and its sister ship ship, the Flmiido, may have been the most powerful ships afloat.

GOV.William Spry's 18-year-old daughter Mary Alice christened the ship. Almost immediately the Utuh encountered stormy seas. The ship's launching created controversy back in Utah when an anti-Mormon faction claimed that Sen. Reed Smoot had arranged the December 23 launching date to coincide with the 104th anniversary of Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith's birth.

Governor Spry called the claim 'all bosh" and turned his attention to a naval tradition he planned to honor-providing an elegant silver service for the state' s namesake battleship.

The Gorham company of New York won the contract for the 102-piece set. Its design chronicled 'important places, people, and natural descriptions of Utah, " such as the Bingharn copper mine, Devil's Slide, and the Wasatch Mountains. When the set was displayed in public in September 1910, however, it was the coffee server tray with its depiction of the Brigham Young Monument and the Salt Lake Temple in the background that led Ema Von R. Owen, a relative newcomer to the state, to cry foul; it was all part of a Mormon plot. Owen went so far as to obtain a hearing before the House Committee on Naval Affairs in May 1911 where much of the antiMormon rhetoric of the late 19th century surfaced again. State officials defended the design and said no changes in the service could or would be made. Copper king Daniel C. Jackling, the nonMormon chair of the silver service committee, called Owen's testimony about the committee and

(m0-W

the design 'false in all essential particulars." For most people that ended the controversy. The silver service was presented to the ship at elaborate ceremonies on November 6, $911. Unwilling to accept defeat, Owen settled for anticlimax, presenting on the following day an alternate coffee tray. It ended up in ' a w e on the bulkhead of the captain's cabin."

Over the years the Utah filled a variety of assignments, including helping to land forces at Veracruz, Mexico, in 1914. During World War I the ship helped bottle up the German fleet in port, and its only real action was a single encounter with a U-Boat. After the German surrender American diplomats moved to dismantle the world's fleets in a series of disarmament treaties. The Utah was stripped of its guns and eventually recommissioned as a mobile target ship. In this capacity the battleship, overlaid with a concrete-filled patchwork that indicated 'hits," served as a remotecontrolled target for carrier- and land-based aircraft. In 1935 the U 'was additionally designated as a Fleet Machine Gun School for anti-aircraft training.

On December 7, 1941, the U 'was moored on the northwest side of Ford Island, across from Battleship Row in Pearl Harbor.The ship; equipped with sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons, was manned by a crew of 519. The fourth group of Japanese torpedo bombers appeared to concentrate on the Utah, and the vessel was hit twice by torpedoes, capsizing and sinking within 12 minutes. Fifty-two enlisted men and six officers were killed in the attack, including Chief Petty Officer Peter Tomich, who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for remaining at his engineering post until potentially explosive boilers were safely secured.

Much of the useful material was salvaged from the Utah, but its rusty hull remains on the bottom of Pearl Harbor, apparently housing some 54 crewmen. An official memorial for the Pearl Harbor dead was established upon the wreck of the U.S.S. An'zona, which suffered 1,102 crew killed. The Utoh is memorialized by a plaque on Ford Island.

Sowces: Robert Anthony Sumbot, "The Utah Fleet: A History of Ships in the United States Navy that Bore Utah Place Names and Personality Names" (M.S. thesis, Utah State University, 1966); Michael S. Eldredge, "Silver Service for the Battleship Utah: A Naval Tradition under Governor Spry," Utah Historial Quarterly 46 (1978).

THE HISTORYBUZER is prod&

by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant h m the Utab Statehood Centaria1 Commission.For more information about the Historid Society telephone 533-3500.

950813 (JN)

THE HISTORY BLAZER I ATEI1'SOF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE

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Daredevil Georgie White Ran Utah's Great Rivers Y

R

~UTAH'S ~

-RIVERS " IS AN ACTIWKTHXT DATES 'BACK at least

to John Wesley Powell's welldocumented explorations in the 19th century. The Powell parties used small wooden boats. Earlier exploreis and trappers negotiated the dangerous white water of the Green and Colorado in 'bull boats," crude wooden frames with hides stretched across them. River running became a sport accessible to the general population in the 1950s and 1960s and has gained in popularity since then. One of the pioneers of commercial river running and a noted free spirit was Georgie White.

Georgie DeRoss was hardly born to the canyon country. She was raised in a cold-water Chicago tenement after her father abandoned the family. Later, she would write that her first coldwater swimming occurred in W e Michigan, an experience that would serve her well in the years to come. Married to Harold Clark while still in high school, Georgie bore a daughter, Sommona Rose, at the age of 17. Georgie left the baby with her mother and traveled with Clark to New York City where she found office work at Radio City Music Hall.She was befriended by the members of a New York bicycle racing club who convinced her to go west. Reluctantly, Harold Clark accompanied his more adventurous wife as they bicycled across country in 1936. Along the way Georgie fell and broke her hand, but the couple could not afford a doctor. After the Clarks' marriage broke up, Sommona Rose became her mother's closest companion in daring adventures; the two climbed mountains and rock walls, ice skated, snow skied, and rode bikes until Sommona Rose was struck and killed by a car in 1944.

To ease her grief Georgie began to hike all over the Great Basin and canyon country of Utah and Arizona. Although she was married again briefly to James White, married life did not seem to suit her. 'I fell in love with the river, married it, and I don't plan no divorce, " she later stated. She explored much of the region with a kindred spirit, Harry Aleson, who would become a legendary river runner in his own right. Georgie first saw the Grand Canyon on a hike with Aleson in 1944. Aleson and White decided that since they wuld not afford a boat they would see if they could 'swim" through part of the Colorado River country. Georgie described their gear: tennis shoes, a bathing suit, a light nylon shirt and jacket, and a kapok life preserver. Both also had a malt can packed with rations: pure sugar candy, powdered coffee, and dehydrated soup. This food may have seemed luxurious; Georgie was apparently in the habit of living for days on canned tomatoes. The two entered the river in June 1945 near Diamond Peak and were soon swept along by the powerful current. The strong flow and their near-hypothermic condition kept them from (more)

getting out of the river in most spots, although they did manage to reach some food Akson had cached in Quartermaster Canyon. Eventually, they reached Lake Mead, having navigated roughly 60 miles of the lower Grand Canyon. Although the experience at the time was frightening, both found the story so entataining to tell that they completed a longer 'swim" .the next summer.

Georgie apparently wanted to do it a third time, but Aleson declined.

Instead, Aleson decided it was time for a boat. The end of World War 11 left many surplus small landing craft, and the two adventurers obtained a surplus ten-man neoprene raft. The boat proved nearly indestructible and ideal for running rapids. Georgie ran many trips alone, sometimes spending three weeks in the canyon, before she hit upon the idea of 'sharing the expense." In 1951 she began regular commercial raft trips with her River Rats company. By 1955 she was advertising trips down the San Juan, Glen, Cataract, and Grand canyons of the Colorado River, as well as trips on the Snake and Salmon. She developed what came to be known as the W-Boat," basically three rafts lashed together for safety and companionship. Georgie White's River Rats became famous; she made movies of her trips;and Life magazine-profileda- 1961-tripthat included then-Interior Secretary Stewart Udall. Life called White 'a new kind of iron-nerved mermaid"; her rituals included initiating customers into the Royal River Rat Society after a successful passage through Grand Canyon by breaking a raw egg over their heads.

The river-running lifestyle seemed to suit Georgie perfectly. Her trips continued until the late 1980s; the Los Angela Tfrnesreported in 1984 on the 'Grande Dame of the Grand Rapids" who, at age 73, navigated the G-Boat with the tiller in one hand and a beer in the other, wearing a full-length leopard-skin leotard ('to hide the engine grease stains"). Georgie was well known for supposedly consuming little but beer (and some vegetables) on trips. She would usually hire men as boatmen, apparently because she preferred their companionship, but women were sometimes hired as cooks. Although she slowed down with age, her roughhousing was legendary; once she nearly bit a boatman's ear off during a play-fight. Georgie White's last Grand Canyon trip came in the late 1980s, although she continued to run some shorter trips before her death in 1992.

See Rose Marie DeRoss, Mwnturts of Georgie W e , TVs W o m of the R i m (Palm Desert: Desert Magazine Press, 1958); "Share the Expense River Trips," River Rats Advertisement, Georgie and J.R. White, 1955; ''The Summa Spectacle: Its Lams, Thrills, Risks, " L*, August 4, 1961;Harry Aleson CoUection, Manuscript B-187,U!ah State Historid Soeieity; Dewm~NM, Janurry 11, 1962, Fsbruuy 19, 1963; Lw Angela lfw,July 8, 1984. See also displays at Green River's J o b Wesley Powell Museum.

THEHISTORYBLAZ~ER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

950814 (JN)

-I

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Fellow Trappers Called E t i e ~ Provost e "the Man of the Mountains" R. E-c o. ~-.m..o Nof Jim -.or John colter, _ . _Bridger ALTHOUGH HE DOES NOT HAVE THE . .WIDE --.....

Etienne provost was considired bi his contemporaries as one of the most knowledgeable, skillful, and s u m f u l of the mountain men. Provost gave his name (phonetically) to the Provo River and the city of prove. It seems likely that most of the early settlers of Provo were unaware of the bloody incident that gave the river its name. Provost's contemporaries, however, knew of his skills and nicknamed him 'the man of the mountains. " Of French Canadian ancestry, Provost was born in 1785 in Chambly, Quebec. Around 1814 he became involved in the St. Louis fur trade, often trapping in what was still Spanish territory.

Provost and his companions were twice captured and held prisoner by Spanish authorities. About 1822 he began operating out of Taos in present-day New Mexico. In 1824 he and his partner Francois Leclerc led a company north from Taos into the Great Basin. Some authorities claim that Provost may have been the first white man to see the Great Salt Lake-some months before Jim Bridger. In October the party was camped near Utah Lake (then generally known as Timpanogos Lake), probably along the present-named Jordan River. Provost's men encountered a party of Snake (Shoshone) Indians. In his Life in the Rocky Mountains Warren Angus Fems claims that a Shoshone chief known to the whites as 'Bad Gocha" (from mauvais gauche or 'bad left-handed one") wanted to smoke the peace pipe with the Taos trappers. Bad Gocha claimed that it was bad luck to have metallic objects nearby, so Provost had his men set their weapons aside. At a signal, the Shoshones then attacked the whites, killing all but Provost and two or three others, who barely managed to fight their way out. The survivors made their way northeast over the Wasatch range.

The following spring Provost and his party met Peter Skene Ogden and members of his Hudson's Bay Company trapping party on the Weber River, near present-day Mountain Green.

Upon hearing the story of Provost's narrow escape, Og&n wrote his superiors that he believed that the ambush may have been caused by the behavior of a Hudson's Bay party of the previous year.

Ogden reported that Alexander Ross's company had stolen horses and furs from Shoshones and had killed one Indian.

Provost nearly got caught up in another fight, partly on account of Ogden. A party of American trappers encountered Ogden's Englishmen in the Weber Valley, and an argument over trapping rights ensued-part of a much larger dispute about the ownership of the 'Oregon country." The American and English trappers each claimed the tenitory for their respective I

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rmmpanies and nations. Author Jack B. Tykal points out that, in reality, only the bystander Provost had a legal right to trap in what was still Mexican temtofy.

Provost met William Ashley's large trapping party soon afkr and helped to guide Ashley to the site of the first amual mountain man rendezvous at Henry's Fork. Provost continued to work and explore in the American West out of St. Louis, although his active trapping days ended in 1830. He developed a reputation as a tough, resourceful man who also liked to drink and carouse.

In 1839 he sewed as camp conductor for the Jean Nicollet party that mapped the country between the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. In 1843 Provost helped guide John James Audubon through the region. Although no photographs of Provost are known to exist, artist Alfkd Jacob Miller painted members of the NicoUet expedition. Provost appears short, fat, and round; Miller captioned one picture 'Monsieur Proveau, subleader, with a corpus round as a porpoise."

In 1849 Mormon pioneers built 'Fort Utah" on a Utah Valley stream that had generally been known as the Timpanogos. Mormons dubbed the river flowing between Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake the Jordan, after the Holy Land river that connected the' Sea of GaIilee with the Dead Sea. Barney Ward, a mountain man who helped to guide the Utah Valley settlers, apparently told the Mormons that the Timpanogos stream was also called the 'Provo." Why the names got switched is unclear, but the October 1849 LDS Conference directed the establishment of the city of 'Provo" on the river. The city's namesake, meanwhile, still lived in St. Louis, unaware of the honor. Etienne Provost died them on July 3, 1850.

Sources: Leroy R. Hafen, "Etienne Provost, Mountain Man and Utah Pioneer," Utah Historical Qua~erly36 (1968); Jack B. Tylrol, Etienne Prow: Man of the Mountains (Liberty, Utah: Eagle's View Publishing Company, 1989).

THE HISTORYBLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

950815 (JN)

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Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake City. LTT84101 (801) 533-3500 FAX (801) 533-3503

The Emperor of Brazil Visited Utah in 1876

ONAPRIL 22, 1876, SALT~ ~ C ~ Y - ' R E C E I V E D - ~ - V E R Y ~ B R I E. F - V I S I

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illustrious guest. The emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro 11, stopped in Salt Lake City for an evenhg and most of the day. Residents of the Utah capital were in a quandary for several days when rumors of the emperor's passage through the territory began to spread. Why was he coming to Utah? (Some whispered that he was secretly conspiring with Brigham Young to somehow gain New Mexico Territory as a Mormon/Bmzih kingdom.) Would he even stop? How should he be welcomed? What would he want to see and do?

The emperor's visit was part of a two-year world tour that he had undertaken in order to learn more of the wider world for Brazil's presumed benefit. Dom Pedro expressed a wide-ranging interest in all things around him, from physical scenery to social and religious customs. The American portion of his visit was timed to coincide with Brazil's participation in the Philadelphia Exhibition. Word of Dom Pedro's approach (from the East, via the still-new transcontinental railroad) reached Utah in mid-April. Having never entertained an emperor before, city officials were somewhat nonplussed. For one thing, they did not receive definite word about his anival in Salt b k e City until April 21. Brigham Young instructed Mayor Feramon Little and the City Council to telegraph Dom Pedro's personal secretary, offering the hospitality of the city. A copy of the Brilzilian national anthem was rustled up, and the city band began rehearsing. Salt Lake Theatre manager W. T. Harris, perhaps sensing a public relations coup, also wired the emperor's party in Omaha, offering the use of a private box. An ambiguous reply was printed in the Deseret News of April 21: 'Dom Pedro leaves here for the west at ten o'clock, this morning. He travels in a special car attached to the regular train. He does his own talking and carries his own valise."

The papers debated the meaning of this cryptic statement, marveling at the idea of an emperor who 'does his own talking and d e s his own valise."

Defintive word finally did arrive on the 2lst, including a request for two Salt Lake Theatre boxes and six rooms at the Walker House. As he had across the country, the emperor emphatically requested that no formal ceremony accompany his arrival. When a large crowd met his special Pullman car, the Metropolitan, at Salt M e ' s Utah Central station, they soon learned that Dom Pedro was serious about being treated informally. He was immediately taken to the theatre by carriage, where 'manager Harris, with hat off, bowing and scraping, proceeded to usher Dom to his box. But the Emperm would not stand much of that sort of thing, and said in a very goodnatured, pleasant manner: 'That will do, young man, that will do; put your hat on now and show me to my box.'" Harris was further embarrassed by the show and the audience; the humorist (more)

Alfred Burnett barely filled half the seats, and that small audience spent much of the performance straining to get a glimpse of the tall, slender, gray-bearded Dom Pedro. (Apparently, many in the crowd mistook one of the more impressive-looking members of the imperial retinue for the emperor, and thus spent an hour staring at the wrong man). Dom Pedro, however, seemed to enjoy himself.

On Sunday morning the imperial party rose early for sightseeing. First stop was the Hot Springs north of the city, which Dom Pedro admired, although he found the taste of the water unpalatable. The emperor then proceeded to Temple Square, touring the Tabernacle, examining the foundations of the Temple, and purchasing several Mormon publications. The party next took in Mass at St. Mary's Church, where Father Lawrence Scanlan officiated, delivering a response to Apostle Orson Pratt's recent LDS Conference discourse on the "Restoration of the Gospel of Christ," which may well have left Dom Pedro somewhat mystified.

The party then traveled to Camp Douglas, passing quickly through the post as the emperor desired to attend a Mormon service at the Fourteenth Ward, where Apostle John Taylor delivered an address. The Salt Loke Tribune wuld not resist a dig at its erstwhile Mormon foes, noting that "The Apostle poured red-hot Mormonism into the ears of his distinguished listener, who was all unconscious-and will probably ever be so--of the melancholy fact that from that hour forward his chances for an exaltation in the celestial kingdom of Brigham will be distressingly thin, for the testimony of the everlasting fiaud was borne to him and he rejected it."

From the ward house Dom Pedro was driven straight to his railroad w (having never met with President Young). On his return trip to Ogden he requested that the train stop near the Great Salt Lake, which waters he expressed an interest in examining. Salt Lake City was left to ponder its whirlwind encounter with unpretentious royalty.

Sources: Salt Lake Tribune, Salt h k Herald, Daeret Evening N w s , April 20-26, 1876; David L. Wood, "Emperor Dom Pedro's Visit to Salt Lake City," Utah Historical Quarter& 37 (1969).

THEHISTORYBLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

950816 (JN)

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Clint Larson Held the Collegiate High Jump Record for 17 Years

IT HAD BEEN A FAIRLY UNEVENTFUL DAY-AT.. THE.PENNRELAYS annual track-and field meet at Philadelphia in April 1917. The 20,000 spectators were searching for a thrill, but none expected it to wme from the high jumpers. Utahn Alma Richards, the 1912 Olympic champion, was not competing, and few anticipated any excitement in that event. Then the announcer blared that Clint Larson, another native Utahn representing Brigham Young University, would attempt the bar at six feet five and three-eighths inches. Many in the crowd searched their programs for the cumnt collegiate record; they found that Richards had set it in 1915 at six feet five inches. Larson was trying a record-breaking height.

A Philadelphia sports writer described the Utah athlete's attempt: 'Larson stepped back f i b n yards and without the usual fiddling and fussing indulged in by many high strung athletes measured the bar with his eye. The 20,000 held their breath and half raised from their seats straining to help him as Larson slipped up to his take off, shot into the air, and neatly cleared" the bar. The crowd leaped to its feet and cheered with excitement. Larson broke the only record of the day and in doing so became the intercollegiate high jump champion of the world. His record would last for 17 years.

Larson was born December 16, 1892, to John and Henrietta Larson of St. George, Utah.

He began his athletic career at Dixie High School, and after establishing the state record rep~senting Dixie advanced to college competitions. Larson wntinued to excel following his success at the Pem Relays. In 1918 he took first place in the United States Championships at Madison Square Garden. At another meet later that year Larson took first in the high jump, running broad jump, low hurdles, high hurdles, and pole vault, and seoond place in the 100-yard dash. All of which won him the all-around championship.

In 1919 Larson participated in the Inter-Allied Games in Paris. Again, he walked off with the top honors. Five years later, in his tlurty-second yea., he was still topping the charts. In Magna, Utah, at an exhibition he jumped to a world record six feet nine and a half inches. Perhaps the feat was to be expected from a man who emphasized physical conditioning. In his mid-40s he could still jumped to a respectable height on special occasions like the Fourth of July Larson remained involved in athletics throughout his life. He became a wach and teacher of physical education in Salt Lake County's Granite School District for many years. He organized the first Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) track and field meet in Utah and worked in the Intermountain AAU h m 1927 to 1950. He served as National AAU vice-chairman in track and field

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and was also an officialduring the 1932 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Larson's illustrious athletic career ended on January 22, 1952,when he died at his home in Salt M e City. In 1974 he was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame.

C

Sowas: Salt Lake Herald Republiaan, May 4, 1917; Wmhington County Nnus, January 31, 1952; William T. Black, Mormon Athletes (Salt Lake City: Desemt Book Company, 1980).

THEHJSTORYBUZER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and h d e d in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission.For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

950817 (PR)

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THE HISTORY BLAZER A'EIVS OF UTAH'S PAST FROM THE

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Young Alice Stratton Feared and Then Made Fun of "Kaiser Bill"

IN THE SUMMEROF 1914 THE FLAMING PISTOL OF A* SERBPATRIOT triggeredsa series of events that held far-reaching implications-even for Utah. The well-aimed bullet killed the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne and almost overnight exploded most of Europe into war. Across Utah citizens turned a womed eye toward international events.

In the southern part of the state Alice Stratton's grandma digested these tumultuous world happenings in the Deseret News each evening and reported her findings the following day at meal time. Stratton recalls hearing about 'Old Kaiser Bill" and the Germans-they were 'the bad guysm-as well as England and its team of "good guys." For young Alice her grandma's reports were awful. They told of trenches, machine guns, poison gas, liquid fires, and death. These images notwithstanding, Stratton's youthful mind managed to translate the war into something enjoyable. The two mounds of dried manure that had been pitched out the windows of the family stable became France and Germany. Stratton, with her friends, ran back and forth between them chanting, 'Kaiser Bill went up the hill to kill the King of France, Kaiser BilI came down the hill with bullets in his pants."

Unfortunately, despite President Woodrow Wilson's pledge otherwise, the war did not remain strictly a European affair. Several threatening events fmally culminated in a Congressional declaration of war on April 6, 1917. Utah was affected almost immediately. Parts of Brigham Young University became a training center for infantrymen bound for France, Fort Douglas served as an officers' training camp and internment center for ~ e r m nationals, k and all across the state Utahns began enlisting in the military.

The small town of Humcane in southern Utah held a celebration in honor of its newly registered servicemen. At sunrise cannons announced the event with loud booms followed by a flag ceremony. At 4.o'clock that afternoon the registrants paraded through the streets and then marched into the town hall where they were pinned with a badge and served delicious cake and ice cream.

In all, nearly 25,000 men and women from the Beehive state entered military units during the war.

Some 665 Utahns died in the service; most of them (446) died from disease and accidents, while the rest were killed in action.

Those who stayed home also did their part for the war effort. Women knitted socks, mittens, and sweaters and made wool scraps into made into quilts to send overseas. Different civic and religious groups gave dances and bazaars for the Red Cross, and the state actively promoted planting liberty gardens and subscribing to Liberty Bonds. In fact, under the leadership of I

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Governor Simon Bamberger and Heber J. Grant the state's Liberty Bond drive raised subscriptions far exceeding Utah's quota.

Eventually, on November 11, 1918, Germany surrendered and the whole world celebrated.

Jubilant Utahns rushed-into the streets to rejoice. Flag-waving residents overcome with excitement jammed into downtown Salt Lake City.In smaller Utah towns church bells rang for hours, car owners honked their horns, and fireworks announced the good news: Kaiser Bill had had enough.

Soucss: Dean L. May, Ulah:A Pmplc's History (Sdt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987); Alice Isom Gubler Stnrron, 'Look to the Stars," typedpt in posse~sionof Alice Stcatton, L Verkin, U W , Wmhington Cbunty Novs, June 14, October 4, 1917, November 21, 1918.

I%E HISTORYBWW is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and .funded in part.by a grant f b m the Utah Statehood Centamid Commission. For more idonnation about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

950818 (PR)

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PAST FROM THE

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Robbers' Roost in Utah's "Outback" Was a Haven for Outlaws

ABETWEEN THE COLORADO, GREEN,AND D m DEVIL

lies-a wild stretch of land c r i s ~ o with s ~ s q w a l l e d canyons and hidden draws. For over 30 years this inhospitable terrain served as a hideout for outlaws of every description. Robbers' Roost was a stronghold of the Wad Bunch, Butch Cassidy's motley band of bank robbers, train stickup men, and horse and cattle rustlers.

The region probably gained its colorful name and reputation in the 1870s when Cap Brown ran stolen horses through the area. The Roost afforded hundreds of hiding spots and was difficult to penetrate, as the only easy access is via the mouth of the Dirty Devil River. A CircleviUe, Utah, native and grandson of a Mormon handcart pioneer named Robert Leroy Parker began using the Roost in the 1880s to hide cattle that he rustled with Mike Cassidy. Legend has it that Parker became a full-time outlaw in 1884, adopting the name Butch Cassidy in honor of his mentor.

Robberss'Roost was one of several hideouts along what became known as the Outlaw Trail.

Brown's Hole, a rugged canyon region near the junction of Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming on the Green River, was another such hideout, along with the Hole-in-the-wall in south-central Wyoming. The three hideouts, strung out in a roughly north-south line about 200 miles apart as the crow flies, served as temporary refuges or semi-permanent Wild Bunch headquarters in the 1880s, 90s, and early 1900s.

Another frequent resident of the Roost was Matt Warner, supposedly born Willard E. Christiansen to the fifth wife of a Mormon bishop in Ephraim, Utah. Warner served a cattlerustling apprenticeship before joining the McCarthy gang along with Cassidy. The future Wild Bunch used Robbers' Roost after a Colorado bank robbery in 1889. Cassidy used it again in April 1897 when he and another man (probably Elzy Lay) held up the Pleasant Valley Coal Company payroll. Daring robberies such as these made the Bunch notorious (and folk heroes to some), while their hard rides between their refuges were equally impressive. Cassidy was an excellent rider and always stressed the importance of strong, well-trained horses, often changing mounts at Robbers' Roost during a long ride.

The Roost was never successfully penetrated by the authorities, despite some sporadic attempts and many boastful claims by various officials. Over the years the refuge gained a reputation as being impregnable, and stories about its defenses contributed to its legend. C. L. 'Gunplay" Maxwell, a small-time bandit who reportedly yearned to join the Wild Bunch, wrote Governor Heber M. Wells from prison that the Roost was defended by a well-armed, 200-man gang with an intricate system of fortifications, tunnels, land mines, and a vast storehouse of (more)

THE HISTORY BLAZER ATEI1'S OF UTAH'S

PAST FROM THE

Utah State ~istoricalSociety 300 Rio ~ r a n d e Salt Lake City. LTT88101 (801) 533-3500 FAX (801) 333-3503

Robbers' Roost in Utah's "Outback" Was a Haven for Outlaws

ABETWEEN THE COLORADO, GREEN,AND D m DEVIL

lies-a wild stretch of land c r i s ~ o with s ~ s q w a l l e d canyons and hidden draws. For over 30 years this inhospitable terrain served as a hideout for outlaws of every description. Robbers' Roost was a stronghold of the Wad Bunch, Butch Cassidy's motley band of bank robbers, train stickup men, and horse and cattle rustlers.

The region probably gained its colorful name and reputation in the 1870s when Cap Brown ran stolen horses through the area. The Roost afforded hundreds of hiding spots and was difficult to penetrate, as the only easy access is via the mouth of the Dirty Devil River. A CircleviUe, Utah, native and grandson of a Mormon handcart pioneer named Robert Leroy Parker began using the Roost in the 1880s to hide cattle that he rustled with Mike Cassidy. Legend has it that Parker became a full-time outlaw in 1884, adopting the name Butch Cassidy in honor of his mentor.

Robberss'Roost was one of several hideouts along what became known as the Outlaw Trail.

Brown's Hole, a rugged canyon region near the junction of Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming on the Green River, was another such hideout, along with the Hole-in-the-wall in south-central Wyoming. The three hideouts, strung out in a roughly north-south line about 200 miles apart as the crow flies, served as temporary refuges or semi-permanent Wild Bunch headquarters in the 1880s, 90s, and early 1900s.

Another frequent resident of the Roost was Matt Warner, supposedly born Willard E. Christiansen to the fifth wife of a Mormon bishop in Ephraim, Utah. Warner served a cattlerustling apprenticeship before joining the McCarthy gang along with Cassidy. The future Wild Bunch used Robbers' Roost after a Colorado bank robbery in 1889. Cassidy used it again in April 1897 when he and another man (probably Elzy Lay) held up the Pleasant Valley Coal Company payroll. Daring robberies such as these made the Bunch notorious (and folk heroes to some), while their hard rides between their refuges were equally impressive. Cassidy was an excellent rider and always stressed the importance of strong, well-trained horses, often changing mounts at Robbers' Roost during a long ride.

The Roost was never successfully penetrated by the authorities, despite some sporadic attempts and many boastful claims by various officials. Over the years the refuge gained a reputation as being impregnable, and stories about its defenses contributed to its legend. C. L. 'Gunplay" Maxwell, a small-time bandit who reportedly yearned to join the Wild Bunch, wrote Governor Heber M. Wells from prison that the Roost was defended by a well-armed, 200-man gang with an intricate system of fortifications, tunnels, land mines, and a vast storehouse of (more)

supplies and ammunition. Few law officers cared to entet such (supposedly) dangerous ground.

The Roost was largely abandoned as an outlaw hangout after 1902 when Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid reportedly departed on their fateful South American trip.

See Charles Kelly, Ihe O u t h Trail: A History of But& Carsidy and His Wid Bunch (Salt Lake City, 1938), Richard pattcrson, Historical A t h of the Outlaw West (Boulder, Colo., 1985).

Tw HETORY BLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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The English Sparrow Immigrates to Utah

Tm ENGLISHSPARROW FIRST ARR~VEDIN UTAHin the spring of 18'77 when the Walker brothers, successful local merchants, imported a hundred pairs and released them into the Salt Lake City sky. One newsman reported that British-born settlers were pleased at seeing familiar birds that reminded them "of old times in the motherland."

As the birds were freed, people were warned not to harm these feathered immigrants. The Walker brothers asked the city council to pass an ordinance protecting the newcomers. Some people predicted that the sparrows would do more good than harm and would help control 'the insects that swarm upon the h i t trees in summer."

A hundred years ago few people understood ecology or knew why the delicate balance of plant and animal life in Utah wuld be upset by the new arrivals. More important from the farmers' point of view, those who had imported the sparrow seemed ignorant of its feeding habits.

Within ten years of the arrival of the first sparrows in Utah, residents of Salt Lake Valley began to doubt seriously the value of the feathered immigrants from England. By the spring of 1886 boys were turned loose with snares and flippers to eliminate the birds. This deed was encouraged by a small bounty, or cash reward, offered for each sparrow head. The boy who killed the largest number of sparrows was publicly recognimi with a medal. But the birds were liked by some. These 'friends of the nuisance" stopped the destruction of the English sparrow in Salt Lake City for a time.

By the fall of 1886 newspaper headlines were announcing that 'the sparrow must go." The U.S. Department of Agriculture had studied the English sparrow and found that all of its habits were bad. The little birds had not eaten worms and insect pests as the importers had expected.

Instead, "the sparrow has increased and multiplied amazingly, and has waxed fat and saucy, but not on a diet of worms. He has-lived on grain and b i t to the great disgust and cost of the fanners and orchardists. More than this, the sparrows have proved the friends and protectors of the insects, by driving away the birds which live on worms. As a consequence the insect pests have increased as rapidly as the sparrows in the districts where the latter have located." The government proposed to train hawks to kill the marauders.

Problems with the English sparrow were not unique to the Wasatch Front. This sparrow, Parser dornesticw, had been first introduced into the United States in 1850 in New York and, later, in a number of other cities. The sparrow had flourished. By 1880 it was declared a nuisance in most areas of the country for wasting grain, driving away song birds, and for the way it ravaged (more)

green peas. The Indiana State Horticulture Society, for example, passed a resolution at its annual meeting declaring the English sparrow a nuisance and urging its extermination.

By 1880 the English sparrow had become the subject of legislation in Salt Lake City. This was not an ordinance for their protection as the Walker brothers had originally requested. Insbead, Territorial Governor Caleb B. West signed into law an act providing bounties for the destruction of certain animals and birds. The new law provided a reward of onequarter of a cent for each gparrow head presented to the country clerk.

Frustrated in the effort to eliminate the English sparrow, one anonymous writer to the editor of the Deseret News jokingly suggested a way to turn this pest, along with the jack rabbit, into a sourcc of profit for c i h s of the temtory: kill the pests, can them, and ship them to the eastern market for sale.

On a more serious level, a number of scientists and the commissioner of agriculture had become convinced of the significant damage that the birds were doing to the American agricultural industry. To prevent this happening again; they suggested national'legislation to restrict the importation of foreign birds and mammals.

Yet, the English sparrow continued to flourish in Salt W e Valley despite flipper-shooting boys, legislation offering bounties for its elimination, national hawk-training programs, and other schemes. In fact, by the end of the 19th century Utah residents seemed to be somewhat reluctantly accepting the birds. The Deseret News in 1895 noted a report that the spamow population in New York had been reduced to such a low level that caterpillars, lightning bugs, and beetles were raising havoc. This moved one Salt Laker to respond that while Utah was not suffering from a lack of sparrows it nevertheless had a surplus of the same devastating insects that were plaguing New York. Fed by Utah grain and fruit, the English sparrow had as much interest in the insect pests 'as a tramp does for a saw and woodpile-he doesn't disturb them except it be by accident."

See Beverly Beeton, "The English Sparrow Immigrates to Utah," Beehive Histoly 2.

THE HISTORYBLAZERis produd by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant h m the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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