In This Issue

Excerpt from midwife Jody Wood's " San Juan County 1886 Record of Babys Born, " courtesy of Frances H. Hoopes.

The pioneer sesquicentennial has provided good reason to celebrate durin g this memorabl e year, and Utahns have made the most of it. New books, new videos, festivals, an d reenactment s have allowed peopl e of all ages and interests a variety of ways to touch the historical experience Yet, lest we forget, the first article in this issue will serve as a reminder that pioneers continued to immigrat e to Utah long after 1847, that they came not just across the plains bu t across oceans, an d that they too sought comfort in religious worship These were the "new pioneers"—the ethnic groups who clung to familiar languages, customs, an d rituals in their quest for new economi c beginnings in Utah's settled communities In this analysis, the focus is on Greek women an d their adaptation of the home altar tradition Kandilia, themiato, eikones, Stephana, and prayers were essential in easing the pangs of homesickness, in promoting cultural identity, and especially in promoting religious piety within the home They also provided these women an extraordinary opportunity for creative expression. The discerning reader will find food for thought in the author's assessment of how and why that creativity has been circumscribed in recent years.

The next article returns us to the Utah frontier—San Juan County in the 1890s—and pioneers of a different sort These were the midwives—practitioners of obstetrics, folk medicine, home care, and good cheer who carried the entire burden of health care for the people of that time and place In Hanna h Sorensen's peripatetic clinic and in Jody Wood's devoted practice, we see the early outlines of modern theories striving to emerge from the magic and mystery of nineteenth-century medicine. It is an interesting and inspiring story well told.

Pioneers in land speed have also left their mark on Utah as detailed in the third article At periodical intervals since the 1920s, me n and machines have roared across the Bonneville Salt Flats in hopes of finding that elusive combination of luck, fortitude, and engineering that will earn a niche in the record books As the venue has shifted to northwestern Nevada where new land speed records are being set even as this issue heads for press, it is appropriate to look at Bonneville's great heyday and analyze the apparent cause of its decline.

The final selection is a biography of one of Utah's most colorful jurists, Justice William McCarty Largely self-taught, he rose to judicial eminence just as Utah was making its final sprint from polygamous territory to modern state. Thanks to support from the Utah Bar Foundation, the story of McCarty's role as a transitional figure has been researched and readied for publication It is a fitting conclusion to our 1997 volume which caps a two-year emphasis on the statehood and pioneer eras.