TEMPLE SQUARE, main entrance W. South Temple St. between Main and West Temple Sts., the heart of Mormonism and the most-visited point of interest in Utah, is a tenacre city block enclosed by a fifteen-foot wall. The grounds are landscaped with trees, shrubs, winding walks, flower beds in geometric patterns, and a velvety green lawn. Two greenhouses in the northwest corner and one north of the Temple provide flowers for the numerous beds and borders. The square is dominated by the six-spired Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on the east side, but the turtle-backed Tabernacle, just west, attracts scarcely less attention because of its strange design.
The GREAT SALT LAKE BASE AND MERIDIAN STONE, without the wall at the southeast corner of the square, was fixed on the spot designated by Orson Pratt in 1847, when he began the original survey of Great Salt Lake City. Inside the wall, about fifty feet northwest, is a sandstone marker indicating the U. S. meridian line established by the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1869.
he BUST OF CHARLES R. SAVAGE at the curb just south of the meridian marker, is a combined monument to Old Folks Day, June 21, and to its founder, Charles R. Savage, noted early-day photographer. A bronze bust of Savage, by Gilbert Riswold, stands atop a six-foot pink granite base with drinking fountains on each side.
The BUREAU OF INFORMATION AND MUSEUM, just inside the south entrance, is a long two-story white brick building with a Doric entrance. On each side of the entrance steps are stones bearing Indian petroglyphs.
Centering the first floor hall is Torlief Knaphus' Hand-cart Family, a bronze group portraying a man pulling a hand-cart, a woman pushing on one side, and a little boy pushing from behind. On the cart are a baby girl and the family's possessions. This group memorializes the Mormon hand-cart migration from the Missouri Valley to Utah between 1856 and 1861, when nearly 4,000 persons crossed the plains by this primitive method.
Visitors are assigned to missionary-guides in this building, which has a lounge for tourists. Books on Mormon theology can be purchased here, and post cards can be written on Brigham Young's octagonal wooden desk. Relics having importance in the history of the Church include a brick from the temple at Nauvoo and the "milliondollar bell" that once tolled from the Nauvoo temple. Personal relics of Church leaders include locks of Joseph Smith's and Brigham Young's hair, and various articles of their clothing. Oil paintings portray miraculous scenes from Mormon theology and history, and there are portraits of Church Presidents.
Relics of the migration and of earl), pioneer life are plentiful. The wooden-cogged "roadometer" used to measure mileages on the trek across the Great Plains, is shown in a glass case. A battered plowshare is inscribed as having plowed the first half-acre in Salt Lake Valley, in July, 1847. A dog-hair cloak recalls a time when clothing materials were so scarce in the valley that dogs had to be shorn. Pioneer furniture, much of it crude and simple, makes up a goodly portion of the first-floor display. There are spinning wheels, pioneer cradles, musical instruments brought across the plains, Brigham Young's safe bearing the inscription "Holiness to the Lord," early presses upon which the Deseret News was first printed, pioneer tools, and a great variety of other memorabilia.
The second floor, west room, is the Indian room. Some of the early Mormon homes were built on old Indian sites, and a portion of this collection came from excavations for pioneer homes. There are, however, accessions presented by present-day archeologists. Many of the best-preserved artifacts are from the San Juan country, including mummies, effigy jars, dippers, ollas, baskets, bags of dogskin and woven cotton, and a great variety of pipes. Displays in the eastern portion of the second floor were mostly collected by missionaries from nearly every part of the world.
The OLDEST HOUSE IN SALT LAKE CITY, a log cabin protected by an iron fence and wooden canopy, is in the southeast corner of the square. Built by Osmyn Deuel in 1847 near present-day Pioneer Park, it is placarded as the house occupied as winter quarters by Captain Howard Stansbury, U. S. Army engineer, during his survey of Great Salt Lake in 1849-50. Stansbury, however, describes his "weary and monotonous quarters" as "a small unfurnished house of unburnt brick or adobe, unplastered, and roofed with boards loosely nailed over, which, every time it stormed, admitted so much water as called into requisition all the pans and buckets in the establishment." The door of the cabin stands open, and visitors can see the oddly angled adobe brick fireplace inside.
The THREE WITNESSES MONUMENT, northwest of the cabin, is a rectangular gray granite block with bronze bas-relief likenesses of the three men, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris, who testified that an angel showed them the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated. The monument, sculptured in 1926, is the work of Avard Fairbanks.
The STATUES OF JOSEPH AND HYRUM SMITH, lifesize bronze likenesses of the Mormon prophet and his brother, mounted on square pedestals of Utah granite, are west of the Three Witnesses Monument, on opposite sides of the walk. Both statues were executed by Mahonri Young, grandson of Brigham Young. The prophet and his brother were martyred at Carthage, Illinois, in 1844.
The TEMPLE, facing cast from the east-central section of the square, is a monumental six-spired gray granite edifice, representing more the inspiration and theologic functionalism of its founders than any one architectural style. The building is 186 ½ feet long and 99 feet wide, with walls 167 ½ feet high. The east center tower rises 210 feet, capped by the shining, trumpet-bearing statue of the angel Moroni. The statue, of hammered copper covered with gold leaf, is the work of Cyrus E. Dallin, Utah-born sculptor. It is anchored by a pendulous iron rod, extending into the spire beneath, where it is heavily weighted, allowing free movement of the figure in high winds. The six spires, three on the east and three on the West, with their varying heights, represent the two high priesthoods of the Church. Those on the east signify the higher Melchizedek Priesthood, and those on the west, the highest rising 204 feet, symbolize the Aaronic Priesthood, each with its presidency and two counselors.
At the feet of the buttresses are the "Earth Stones," each bearing bas-relief carvings of the globe. "Moon Stones," depicting the moon in various phases, are on the face of buttresses about midway up the main wall. "Sun Stones," each with its halo of rays, are similarly placed near the top of the main wall. Other symbolic decorations include starred keystones over the round-arched stained-glass windows along the side; the clasped hands, the "all-seeing eye," and carven scrolls with the
inscription, "I am the Alpha and Omega," as decorations on end windows. High on the east facade is a tall arched niche with a gilded inscription, giving the inclusive dates, 1853-93, of the Temple's construction. The corresponding space on the west facade is occupied by seven stars in the form of the Great Dipper. Far up, flanking the central eastern tower, are cloud-and-rain symbols, fitting emblems for a temple in the desert. A battlemented parapet surmounts the walls, and the three major towers at each end rise from a mass of spires, turrets, pinnacles and finials, where pigeons nest and fly about, casting quick dark shadows on the clean gray granite. The six spires, softly lighted at night, are a landmark of the city.
Utah War of 1857-58 Great Salt Lake City
During the so-called Utah War of 1857-58, when the United States Government declared "a state of substantial rebellion" in Utah, the people of Great Salt Lake City joined a general movement southward. When the troops came through the city that summer day in 1858, as recorded by an army correspondent, "the utter silence of the streets was broken only by the music of the military bands, the monotonous tramp of the regiments, and the rattle of the baggage wagons." George "Beefsteak" Harrison, a cook with Johnston's army, "said that Salt Lake was still as a cemetery when they marched in. He saw only two people, a man riding a sorrel mule and an old lady who peeped out of a window blind at the troops."
Following the "Utah War," there ensued a period of lawlessness when the army's camp followers settled in the city. T. B. H. Stenhouse recorded that during a part of 185 there was a murder every week. Mormon people kept away from "Whisky Street" and attended to their own business, but Brigham Young's house was strictly guarded, day and night. Gradually a lucrative trade grew up between the city and Camp Floyd, but the soldiery was always resented.
Great Salt Lake City became a Pony Express post in 1860, when the first riders came in from Sacramento and St. Joseph. Upon completion of the Pacific Telegraph line to Great Salt Lake City in 1861 Brigham Young sent the first eastbound message to Cleveland. The Nevada-California Volunteers, under the leadership of Colonel P. E. Connor, marched through the city in 1862, surprised to find women and children out to greet them; they had heard rumors of rebellion in Utah. In 1863, following the passage of Federal anti-polygamy laws, there were persistent rumors that Colonel Connor's soldiers would take Brigham Young prisoner. A telescope was mounted on the Beehive House to watch the movements at Camp Douglas, and more than once the militia assembled around the Young residence to protect the Church President. When a cannon boomed from Fort Douglas one midnight there was a hurried Mormon mobilization, but no armed conflict followed. It was later learned that the cannon shot was to salute the news that Colonel Connor had been brevetted a brigadiergeneral.
Meantime, work was begun on the Tabernacle in 1864, and relations continued poor between townspeople and soldiers. The following Fourth of July, however, they united in a joint celebration of the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln and of Union successes in the Civil War. Two months later city and camp joined in mourning the assassination of President Lincoln.
The 1870's and early 1880's were railroad years, in the course of which Salt Lake City (the "Great" was dropped in 1868) was connected by rail to cities in each of the four cardinal directions. Following completion of the transcontinental railway through Ogden and north of Great Salt Lake in 1869, Young began construction of the Utah Central Railroad, connecting Salt Lake City with Ogden. Early in 1870, in Salt Lake City, Young drove the "last spike," bearing a beehive emblem, the inscription "Holiness to the Lord," and the initials U.C.R.R., with a hammer similarly decorated. The Utah-organized Utah Southern was completed from Salt Lake City to Provo in 1873, and the Utah Southern Extension reached Milford and Frisco in 1880. The city acquired connections with Logan upon completion of the Utah Northern to Logan and Pocatello, Idaho, in 1874, and to Montana points in later years. Connections were made with Denver and other eastern points over the Denver & Rio Grande Western by 1886. In subsequent years other rail connections have been completed.
Meantime, the Salt Lake Theater was opened in 1862, and took its place as the leading theatrical center of the intermountain West. The Tabernacle was sufficiently completed to house the annual conference of the Mormon Church in 1867. Musical history was made in 1875, when Handel's Messiah was presented in the Salt Lake Theater. Building progressed meantime on the Temple, its granite walls gradually rising tier after tier, and Temple Square was a scene of constant industry. Consternation was created in 1870 when two boys, practicing with a rifle, blew up the arsenal on the present site of the State Capitol, breaking nearly every window in the city; long queues of people formed outside establishments selling window glass, and there were gruesome descriptions of finding parts of the bogs' bodies.
The death of Brigham Young in 1877 was a shocking event that drew 25,000 people to view the body of the great Church leader as it lay in state in the flower-decked Tabernacle. Music played on the Tabernacle organ included Brigham Young's Funeral March, composed for the occasion by Joseph J. Daynes. The funeral address, by Daniel H. Wells, occupied probably less than a minute. "I have no desire or wish to multiply words," he said, "feeling that it is rather a time to mourn. Goodbye, Brother Brigham, until the morning of the resurrection day. . . ."
Following the "Utah War," there ensued a period of lawlessness when the army's camp followers settled in the city. T. B. H. Stenhouse recorded that during a part of 185 there was a murder every week. Mormon people kept away from "Whisky Street" and attended to their own business, but Brigham Young's house was strictly guarded, day and night. Gradually a lucrative trade grew up between the city and Camp Floyd, but the soldiery was always resented.
Great Salt Lake City became a Pony Express post in 1860, when the first riders came in from Sacramento and St. Joseph. Upon completion of the Pacific Telegraph line to Great Salt Lake City in 1861 Brigham Young sent the first eastbound message to Cleveland. The Nevada-California Volunteers, under the leadership of Colonel P. E. Connor, marched through the city in 1862, surprised to find women and children out to greet them; they had heard rumors of rebellion in Utah. In 1863, following the passage of Federal anti-polygamy laws, there were persistent rumors that Colonel Connor's soldiers would take Brigham Young prisoner. A telescope was mounted on the Beehive House to watch the movements at Camp Douglas, and more than once the militia assembled around the Young residence to protect the Church President. When a cannon boomed from Fort Douglas one midnight there was a hurried Mormon mobilization, but no armed conflict followed. It was later learned that the cannon shot was to salute the news that Colonel Connor had been brevetted a brigadiergeneral.
Meantime, work was begun on the Tabernacle in 1864, and relations continued poor between townspeople and soldiers. The following Fourth of July, however, they united in a joint celebration of the second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln and of Union successes in the Civil War. Two months later city and camp joined in mourning the assassination of President Lincoln.
The 1870's and early 1880's were railroad years, in the course of which Salt Lake City (the "Great" was dropped in 1868) was connected by rail to cities in each of the four cardinal directions. Following completion of the transcontinental railway through Ogden and north of Great Salt Lake in 1869, Young began construction of the Utah Central Railroad, connecting Salt Lake City with Ogden. Early in 1870, in Salt Lake City, Young drove the "last spike," bearing a beehive emblem, the inscription "Holiness to the Lord," and the initials U.C.R.R., with a hammer similarly decorated. The Utah-organized Utah Southern was completed from Salt Lake City to Provo in 1873, and the Utah Southern Extension reached Milford and Frisco in 1880. The city acquired connections with Logan upon completion of the Utah Northern to Logan and Pocatello, Idaho, in 1874, and to Montana points in later years. Connections were made with Denver and other eastern points over the Denver & Rio Grande Western by 1886. In subsequent years other rail connections have been completed.
Meantime, the Salt Lake Theater was opened in 1862, and took its place as the leading theatrical center of the intermountain West. The Tabernacle was sufficiently completed to house the annual conference of the Mormon Church in 1867. Musical history was made in 1875, when Handel's Messiah was presented in the Salt Lake Theater. Building progressed meantime on the Temple, its granite walls gradually rising tier after tier, and Temple Square was a scene of constant industry. Consternation was created in 1870 when two boys, practicing with a rifle, blew up the arsenal on the present site of the State Capitol, breaking nearly every window in the city; long queues of people formed outside establishments selling window glass, and there were gruesome descriptions of finding parts of the bogs' bodies.
The death of Brigham Young in 1877 was a shocking event that drew 25,000 people to view the body of the great Church leader as it lay in state in the flower-decked Tabernacle. Music played on the Tabernacle organ included Brigham Young's Funeral March, composed for the occasion by Joseph J. Daynes. The funeral address, by Daniel H. Wells, occupied probably less than a minute. "I have no desire or wish to multiply words," he said, "feeling that it is rather a time to mourn. Goodbye, Brother Brigham, until the morning of the resurrection day. . . ."
Salt Lake City as a center of municipal, county, State
Architecturally, Salt Lake City traces the periods of its growth. The transitions are not obvious, but the southward and eastward expansion of the city is marked by changing architectural thought. Log houses are preserved in Temple Square and in Liberty Park. Adobe houses exist in many an odd corner of the city, but principally in the first-settled north and west sections. Placed farther back than many of newer houses, they come suddenly upon the observer, with their simple lines and diminutive but pleasing proportions. Mining money put up extravagant Victorian castles, of which there are many in the city, particularly on the hill between Temple Square and the Capitol. An astonishing number of these houses have been made over into mortuaries--a fitting destiny--but most of them are rooming houses. The city spread southward in the midst of another architectural evolution, and beyond Ninth South Street many an avenue might aptly be named "Bungalow Boulevard." Norman, English Colonial, Spanish Mission, New England Colonial, and other types occur in various additions, especially on the fashionable East Bench. Restricted areas opened during the 1930's reflect the trend toward modern architecture. The old adobes, meantime, are coming into renovated popularity. The style in public buildings, excepting those of the Church, follows that of most American cities.
Salt Lake City, as a center of municipal, county, State, and Federal governmental activities, and as Utah's chief religious and educational center, has probably more brief cases per capita than any other city in the State. In spite of these habiliments of importance, however, the tempo is relatively unhurried, with time enough to chat beside the parking meters about crops and precipitation, Church news and the price of copper, and to read the news bulletins in front of newspaper offices. Men's headgear runs more to the stetson than in the East, and a cowboy in a ten-gallon hat, copper-riveted "Levi's," and high-heeled boots arouses no comment. The population of Salt Lake City is predominantly Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian, with occasional Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos. Negroes are rare, probably less than one per cent of the total, and Indians seldom get into the city.
Temple Square is the center of tourist activities--and the streets around it are reserved during the tourist season for automobiles with foreign licenses. Bus tour barkers congregate on near-by corners, in front of souvenir shops, trading and handicraft houses, and camera equipment stores. Temple Square is also the hub of Salt Lake City's principal gatherings, the spring and fall conferences of the L. D. S. Church, when the city is so crowded that private homes are brought into requisition to supply the need for lodgings. During the State Fair in autumn there is a succession of traffic jams between the downtown area and the fair grounds. Covered Wagon Day, July 24, attracts thousands of people for the annual parade, pageant, and rodeo. The percentage of hotel guests checking out in the evening to make the westward desert crossing at night, or checking in during the morning hours following an all-night drive is probably higher than in most other cities.
The history of Salt Lake City is almost inseparable from that of Utah, the city having been the capital in turn of the State of Deseret, Territory of Utah, and State of Utah, except between 1851 and 1856, when Fillmore was a theoretical capital, and 1858, when Parowan was likewise honored. The major part of the city's story, consequently, is that of the State.
Regardless of whether Jim Bridger ever said he would give $1,000 for the first grain, or ear, or bushel, of corn produced in Great Salt Lake Valley, the story exemplifies the attitude of the mountain men toward this area. They entered it from the north in 1824 and for some years General Ashley's beaver hunters overran the region. Their thinking, however, did not run to agriculture, irrigation, or city sites. Not all early travelers were so single-minded. Rufus B. Sage, who passed this way in 1842, felt that, "taken as a whole, the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake holds out strong inducements to settlers, and is capable of sustaining . . . a dense population."
Brigham Young, however, was not looking for a land flowing with milk and honey. When Sam Brannan urged him to go on to California, the Church leader said, according to John R. Young, in the Utah Historical Quarterly for July, 1930, " Brannan, if there is a place on this earth that nobody else wants, that's the place I am hunting for." In the eyes of some of his followers, he had found it. To George Washington Brimhall and to Gilbert Belnap, both of whom came in 1850, the valley seemed "as nude of a wardrobe as the Indians themselves," and "a vast desert whose dry and parched soil seemed to bid defiance to the husbandman."
Soon after entering this "extensive scenery," the vanguard of the pioneers, on July 23, 1847, began to plow, "and the same afternoon built a dam to irrigate the soil." The following day Brigham Young came behind the main body of the pioneers: 143 men, 3 women, 2 children, 70 wagons, 1 boat, 1 cannon, 93 horses, 52 mules, 66 oxen, and 19 cows. Among the men were Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, "colored servants." Three days later, on the Sabbath, Orson Pratt preached a sermon; his text was, "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountains!"
Four days after their arrival, according to Wilford Woodruff's journal, Young called a council of the Quorum of the Twelve, and they "walked from the north camp to about the centre between the
two creeks, when President Young waved his hand and said: 'Here is the fort), acres for the Temple. The city can be laid out perfectly square. . . .'" The quorum then decided that the blocks would contain ten acres each, that the streets would be 132 feet wide, and the sidewalks twenty feet wide. The following Sunday the first Bowery was built in Temple Square, and the next day Orson Pratt"commenced laying out the city, beginning with the Temple block."
The winter of 1847-48 was mild, but attended with sufficient inconveniences. "Conditions within the fort," relates Charles Coulson Rich, "were especially bad when it rained. For, the roofs having been made with too little slant, small streams of thin mud trickled down upon those underneath, and it so happened that, on such occasions, the only protection was the hoisted umbrella. . . . And there were the bugs and mice. . . ." Provisions were scanty, and some of the settlers, such as Priddy Meeks, went up into the high mountains for game (see High Uintas Primitive Area). Amenzo Baker dug thistle roots to feed the family, and his father made molasses from cornstalks. The growing season of 1848 gave promise of sufficient crops, and more emigrants came, but frost, drought, and the cricket plague nearly destroyed growing things. The coming of the gulls, since regarded as providential, saved enough of the crops for the settlers to eke out the hard winter of 1848-49.
Salt Lake City, as a center of municipal, county, State, and Federal governmental activities, and as Utah's chief religious and educational center, has probably more brief cases per capita than any other city in the State. In spite of these habiliments of importance, however, the tempo is relatively unhurried, with time enough to chat beside the parking meters about crops and precipitation, Church news and the price of copper, and to read the news bulletins in front of newspaper offices. Men's headgear runs more to the stetson than in the East, and a cowboy in a ten-gallon hat, copper-riveted "Levi's," and high-heeled boots arouses no comment. The population of Salt Lake City is predominantly Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian, with occasional Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos. Negroes are rare, probably less than one per cent of the total, and Indians seldom get into the city.
Temple Square is the center of tourist activities--and the streets around it are reserved during the tourist season for automobiles with foreign licenses. Bus tour barkers congregate on near-by corners, in front of souvenir shops, trading and handicraft houses, and camera equipment stores. Temple Square is also the hub of Salt Lake City's principal gatherings, the spring and fall conferences of the L. D. S. Church, when the city is so crowded that private homes are brought into requisition to supply the need for lodgings. During the State Fair in autumn there is a succession of traffic jams between the downtown area and the fair grounds. Covered Wagon Day, July 24, attracts thousands of people for the annual parade, pageant, and rodeo. The percentage of hotel guests checking out in the evening to make the westward desert crossing at night, or checking in during the morning hours following an all-night drive is probably higher than in most other cities.
The history of Salt Lake City is almost inseparable from that of Utah, the city having been the capital in turn of the State of Deseret, Territory of Utah, and State of Utah, except between 1851 and 1856, when Fillmore was a theoretical capital, and 1858, when Parowan was likewise honored. The major part of the city's story, consequently, is that of the State.
Regardless of whether Jim Bridger ever said he would give $1,000 for the first grain, or ear, or bushel, of corn produced in Great Salt Lake Valley, the story exemplifies the attitude of the mountain men toward this area. They entered it from the north in 1824 and for some years General Ashley's beaver hunters overran the region. Their thinking, however, did not run to agriculture, irrigation, or city sites. Not all early travelers were so single-minded. Rufus B. Sage, who passed this way in 1842, felt that, "taken as a whole, the vicinity of the Great Salt Lake holds out strong inducements to settlers, and is capable of sustaining . . . a dense population."
Brigham Young, however, was not looking for a land flowing with milk and honey. When Sam Brannan urged him to go on to California, the Church leader said, according to John R. Young, in the Utah Historical Quarterly for July, 1930, " Brannan, if there is a place on this earth that nobody else wants, that's the place I am hunting for." In the eyes of some of his followers, he had found it. To George Washington Brimhall and to Gilbert Belnap, both of whom came in 1850, the valley seemed "as nude of a wardrobe as the Indians themselves," and "a vast desert whose dry and parched soil seemed to bid defiance to the husbandman."
Soon after entering this "extensive scenery," the vanguard of the pioneers, on July 23, 1847, began to plow, "and the same afternoon built a dam to irrigate the soil." The following day Brigham Young came behind the main body of the pioneers: 143 men, 3 women, 2 children, 70 wagons, 1 boat, 1 cannon, 93 horses, 52 mules, 66 oxen, and 19 cows. Among the men were Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, "colored servants." Three days later, on the Sabbath, Orson Pratt preached a sermon; his text was, "O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountains!"
Four days after their arrival, according to Wilford Woodruff's journal, Young called a council of the Quorum of the Twelve, and they "walked from the north camp to about the centre between the
two creeks, when President Young waved his hand and said: 'Here is the fort), acres for the Temple. The city can be laid out perfectly square. . . .'" The quorum then decided that the blocks would contain ten acres each, that the streets would be 132 feet wide, and the sidewalks twenty feet wide. The following Sunday the first Bowery was built in Temple Square, and the next day Orson Pratt"commenced laying out the city, beginning with the Temple block."
The winter of 1847-48 was mild, but attended with sufficient inconveniences. "Conditions within the fort," relates Charles Coulson Rich, "were especially bad when it rained. For, the roofs having been made with too little slant, small streams of thin mud trickled down upon those underneath, and it so happened that, on such occasions, the only protection was the hoisted umbrella. . . . And there were the bugs and mice. . . ." Provisions were scanty, and some of the settlers, such as Priddy Meeks, went up into the high mountains for game (see High Uintas Primitive Area). Amenzo Baker dug thistle roots to feed the family, and his father made molasses from cornstalks. The growing season of 1848 gave promise of sufficient crops, and more emigrants came, but frost, drought, and the cricket plague nearly destroyed growing things. The coming of the gulls, since regarded as providential, saved enough of the crops for the settlers to eke out the hard winter of 1848-49.
Salt Lake City capital of Utah
SALT LAKE CITY, capital of Utah, is a city of broad tree-lined streets--the first of many Utah towns laid out by the Mormons foursquare with the compass--built on the benches of ancient Lake Bonneville in a sheltered angle of the Wasatch Mountains on the east and on a spur extending from them on the north. Mountains can be seen in every direction-the rugged Wasatch Range to the east and southeast, the more rounded hills of the spur on the north, capped by Ensign Peak, the angular masses of the Oquirrh and Stansbury ranges to the southwest, and the lesser range of Antelope Island, in Great Salt Lake, on the west. The white glare of salt beds and the reflected light from Great Salt Lake rise in the west and southwest, though neither can be seen except from more elevated portions of the city. The Jordan River, a small and tortuous but economically important stream, winds through the western part of the city. A number of canyons open from mountains to the north and east, providing the city with water and offering access to skiing grounds in winter and to fishing, hunting, hiking, riding, camping, and picnicking areas in other seasons.
From most approaches the copper-domed State Capitol, rising from the elevated North Bench, is the most conspicuous building in Salt Lake City. South of it, and lower down, is the six-spired Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, within the seclusion of high-walled Temple Square. From the southeast corner of this square pivots the numbering and nomenclature of the city's streets. Southward from this corner extends South Main Street, through the principal business center of the Great Basin. Blocklike business buildings rise on either side. The shop-fronts are modern, with abundant plate glass, and the exceptionally wide sidewalks are none too roomy for Saturday shopping crowds. Automatic police whistles, mounted on poles at downtown corners, signal for changes in traffic. West of Temple Square is the warehouse, railroad, and industrial area.
East of Main Street the city is primarily residential, its skyline accented by the tall tower of the Romanesque City and County Building and by the twin towers of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Madeleine. Wide streets extend eastward from the downtown area to the white and yellow buildings of the University of Utah, and beyond, on East Bench, to the military reservation of Fort Douglas. A few miles south of the city limits is the suburb of Murray. Pretentious residential areas climb the benches to the east and northeast, limited only by the height to which municipal water can be piped. North of South Temple Street the long city blocks are broken up into the smaller squares of the "Avenues" and lettered cross-streets, which cling to the hill-flanks; the more fashionable residential area however, is East Bench.
The capital of an arid State, Salt Lake City presents the paradox of an exceptionally well-watered municipality. Water runs in its gutters, and an ordinance keeps parked cars the width of a streetsweeper's broom from the curb. Drinking fountains bubble day and night. Salt Lake lawns are exceptionally well-flowered and wellturfed, and it is often necessary to detour exuberant sprinkler systems. Another paradox for a town 800 miles inland is the sight of gulls flying over the city.
At night, electric lights give the city a different garb. The capitol dome is sometimes floodlighted, and the Temple spires are illuminated with golden glows. Southward on Main Street from the huge orange beehive atop the Hotel Utah, there is a display of neon in every color of the spectrum. Eastward, on top of a mountain, an airway beacon flashes. From Wasatch Boulevard, on North Bench, there is a view of the city at night that reveals its huge light-sprinkled area, some eight miles square, and the double line of yellow sodium lights on South State Street.
Visitors are usually taken up City Creek Canyon and around Wasatch Boulevard for the best view of the valley. Sloping southward, the city spreads fanwise on the benches and valley floor. In the foreground is the Capitol and the Temple, the business district, and State Street cleaving the city in a straight line from the Capitol for twelve miles. Beyond, the residential areas spread outward, accented by occasional factories, until, thinning at the outskirts, homes give way to valley bottom and lifting brown hills, patterned with scores of farms. On the east stretches the Wasatch Range, its rugged heights in an upward crescendo to the 11,491 feet of Twin Peaks, blocking the horizon twenty miles to the south. Westward, in a northsouth tangent twenty to thirty miles away, the Oquirrh Range stabs the sky. In the foothills and canyons of this range mushrooms of smoke ascend from the smelters at Magna and Garfield. To the west, in the valley, are the burnished stripes of irrigation canals, the crossed runways of the airport, and the waters of Great Salt Lake, obstructed from full view by the mountainous slopes of Antelope Island.
From most approaches the copper-domed State Capitol, rising from the elevated North Bench, is the most conspicuous building in Salt Lake City. South of it, and lower down, is the six-spired Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, within the seclusion of high-walled Temple Square. From the southeast corner of this square pivots the numbering and nomenclature of the city's streets. Southward from this corner extends South Main Street, through the principal business center of the Great Basin. Blocklike business buildings rise on either side. The shop-fronts are modern, with abundant plate glass, and the exceptionally wide sidewalks are none too roomy for Saturday shopping crowds. Automatic police whistles, mounted on poles at downtown corners, signal for changes in traffic. West of Temple Square is the warehouse, railroad, and industrial area.
East of Main Street the city is primarily residential, its skyline accented by the tall tower of the Romanesque City and County Building and by the twin towers of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of the Madeleine. Wide streets extend eastward from the downtown area to the white and yellow buildings of the University of Utah, and beyond, on East Bench, to the military reservation of Fort Douglas. A few miles south of the city limits is the suburb of Murray. Pretentious residential areas climb the benches to the east and northeast, limited only by the height to which municipal water can be piped. North of South Temple Street the long city blocks are broken up into the smaller squares of the "Avenues" and lettered cross-streets, which cling to the hill-flanks; the more fashionable residential area however, is East Bench.
The capital of an arid State, Salt Lake City presents the paradox of an exceptionally well-watered municipality. Water runs in its gutters, and an ordinance keeps parked cars the width of a streetsweeper's broom from the curb. Drinking fountains bubble day and night. Salt Lake lawns are exceptionally well-flowered and wellturfed, and it is often necessary to detour exuberant sprinkler systems. Another paradox for a town 800 miles inland is the sight of gulls flying over the city.
At night, electric lights give the city a different garb. The capitol dome is sometimes floodlighted, and the Temple spires are illuminated with golden glows. Southward on Main Street from the huge orange beehive atop the Hotel Utah, there is a display of neon in every color of the spectrum. Eastward, on top of a mountain, an airway beacon flashes. From Wasatch Boulevard, on North Bench, there is a view of the city at night that reveals its huge light-sprinkled area, some eight miles square, and the double line of yellow sodium lights on South State Street.
Visitors are usually taken up City Creek Canyon and around Wasatch Boulevard for the best view of the valley. Sloping southward, the city spreads fanwise on the benches and valley floor. In the foreground is the Capitol and the Temple, the business district, and State Street cleaving the city in a straight line from the Capitol for twelve miles. Beyond, the residential areas spread outward, accented by occasional factories, until, thinning at the outskirts, homes give way to valley bottom and lifting brown hills, patterned with scores of farms. On the east stretches the Wasatch Range, its rugged heights in an upward crescendo to the 11,491 feet of Twin Peaks, blocking the horizon twenty miles to the south. Westward, in a northsouth tangent twenty to thirty miles away, the Oquirrh Range stabs the sky. In the foothills and canyons of this range mushrooms of smoke ascend from the smelters at Magna and Garfield. To the west, in the valley, are the burnished stripes of irrigation canals, the crossed runways of the airport, and the waters of Great Salt Lake, obstructed from full view by the mountainous slopes of Antelope Island.
Provo, Utah Points of Interest
SOWIETTE PARK, 5th West and 5th North Sts., on the site of the second fort built at Provo, was named for the principal war chief of the Utes, who tried to protect the settlers from the warlike followers of Chief Walker. The latter, in the 1850's, camped near the fort, planning to attack the small group of pioneers. Chief Sowiette moved his warriors into the fort and prepared to defend his white friends. Walker and his braves whooped around the stockade all night, but finally withdrew. The walls and clearing of the old fort have been replaced by trees, tennis courts, a swimming pool, a baseball field, and tourist grounds open for camping.
The PIONEER MEMORIAL BUILDING, completed in 1938, was erected by the Sons and Daughters of Utah Pioneers. It contains a collection of pioneer relics and Indian artifacts, including an American flag woven of silk produced in Utah during the State's silk-raising experiment in the early 1890's. The flag won a first prize at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The PIONEER CABIN, north of the Memorial Building, is a replica of an early Utah cabin, furnished with authentic pioneer furniture.
PIONEER PARK, 5th West and Center Sts., is a favorite resort of children and checker players. Occupying a city block in the business district, the park contains a playground, a wading stream, and an open bandstand, where the municipality presents Sunday evening concerts during summer months. Tables and chairs are placed under the shade trees for the use of checker players.
The CITY AND COUNTY BUILDING, Center St. and University Ave., a classic structure of white oolite stone on a base of Utah granite, designed by Joseph Nelson, houses the government offices of Provo and Utah County.
UTAH LAKE, W. end of Center St., a body of fresh water covering nearly 150 square miles, is fed by the streams of Utah Valley and drained by Jordan River, which flows northward into Great Salt Lake. Father Escalante, who first visited the lake in 1776, reported in his journal: "This lake of the Timpanogotzis abounds in many kinds of good fish, and in geese, and other water-fowl that we had not time to see. The Indians . . . subsist upon the abundant fish of the lake, for which reason the Yutas and Sabueganas called them the Fish-eaters." As late as 1864 commercial catches of nearly two tons of trout in a single haul were not impossible. With years of commercial fishing, trout disappeared almost entirely from the lake. Suckers survived somewhat longer, but they too are scarce. Carp, catfish, yellow perch and bass were planted in later years, but experienced difficulties with the unstable lake levels.
The Jordan River, principal source of irrigation water for the farms of a large portion of Salt Lake County, originates at Utah Lake, and the concept that it would serve as a reservoir led to an inter-county legal controversy that lasted for more than twenty-five years. In 1872 Salt Lake County built a dam in the river eight miles north of the lake, to facilitate the diversion of water for irrigation, and for the storage of winter inflow. The year following, because of heavy snows melting in the mountains, the lake level became so high that landowners on the border of the lake, in Utah County, objected seriously to flooding of their property. During the wet winter of 1873-74 "the head gates washed out being helped by persons unknown," and it was not till the spring of 1875 that the dam was rebuilt. Trouble was more or less continuous until 1884, when Utah County filed suit for damages against Salt Lake City and four canal companies, then owners of the dam. Before the case came to trial, officials of the Mormon Church persuaded the litigants to arbitrate. John Taylor, President of the L.D.S. Church, and his first councilor, George Quayle Cannon, presided.
The PIONEER MEMORIAL BUILDING, completed in 1938, was erected by the Sons and Daughters of Utah Pioneers. It contains a collection of pioneer relics and Indian artifacts, including an American flag woven of silk produced in Utah during the State's silk-raising experiment in the early 1890's. The flag won a first prize at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. The PIONEER CABIN, north of the Memorial Building, is a replica of an early Utah cabin, furnished with authentic pioneer furniture.
PIONEER PARK, 5th West and Center Sts., is a favorite resort of children and checker players. Occupying a city block in the business district, the park contains a playground, a wading stream, and an open bandstand, where the municipality presents Sunday evening concerts during summer months. Tables and chairs are placed under the shade trees for the use of checker players.
The CITY AND COUNTY BUILDING, Center St. and University Ave., a classic structure of white oolite stone on a base of Utah granite, designed by Joseph Nelson, houses the government offices of Provo and Utah County.
UTAH LAKE, W. end of Center St., a body of fresh water covering nearly 150 square miles, is fed by the streams of Utah Valley and drained by Jordan River, which flows northward into Great Salt Lake. Father Escalante, who first visited the lake in 1776, reported in his journal: "This lake of the Timpanogotzis abounds in many kinds of good fish, and in geese, and other water-fowl that we had not time to see. The Indians . . . subsist upon the abundant fish of the lake, for which reason the Yutas and Sabueganas called them the Fish-eaters." As late as 1864 commercial catches of nearly two tons of trout in a single haul were not impossible. With years of commercial fishing, trout disappeared almost entirely from the lake. Suckers survived somewhat longer, but they too are scarce. Carp, catfish, yellow perch and bass were planted in later years, but experienced difficulties with the unstable lake levels.
The Jordan River, principal source of irrigation water for the farms of a large portion of Salt Lake County, originates at Utah Lake, and the concept that it would serve as a reservoir led to an inter-county legal controversy that lasted for more than twenty-five years. In 1872 Salt Lake County built a dam in the river eight miles north of the lake, to facilitate the diversion of water for irrigation, and for the storage of winter inflow. The year following, because of heavy snows melting in the mountains, the lake level became so high that landowners on the border of the lake, in Utah County, objected seriously to flooding of their property. During the wet winter of 1873-74 "the head gates washed out being helped by persons unknown," and it was not till the spring of 1875 that the dam was rebuilt. Trouble was more or less continuous until 1884, when Utah County filed suit for damages against Salt Lake City and four canal companies, then owners of the dam. Before the case came to trial, officials of the Mormon Church persuaded the litigants to arbitrate. John Taylor, President of the L.D.S. Church, and his first councilor, George Quayle Cannon, presided.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)