The need for expansion into Castle Valley came from Utah’s population rise in the late 19th century. Every inch of habitable land needed to be used to ease the rapidly increasing population. Brigham Young called settlers in Sanpete County to move to Castle Valley.  This area was explored as early as 1776 when Domingues and Escalante traveled into Utah; they passed through modern day Castle Dale, ten miles north of Ferron on the Old Spanish Trail. Today I-70 follows parts of the Old Spanish Trail that cuts through the San Rafael Swell. As Edward Geary has written, “Few places on earth could have looked less promising for settlement than Castle Valley in 1877.” Three years after Brigham Young’s letter to the residents of Sanpete Valley, Ferron’s population had grown to 90 in 1880. On coming to the Castle Valley, Mary Ann Rowbury Brown said, “We endured willingly many hardships and cheerfully made sacrifices in order to carry on what we sincerely believed to be God’s works in subduing a desert and advancing civilization.” The state and federal governments created incentives to help cultivate land across the nation and encourage westward expansion. In 1862, the Homestead Act gave settlers 160 acres for a small registration fee if they developed the land and improved it. In 1878, the amended Timber Culture Act also gave a way to get more land if one would plant 10 acres of trees on their given acreage. The Timber Culture Act was the way one Ferron settler, John Lemon, obtained his land. Homesteading and farming was the norm in the beginnings of Ferron. Lowry Nelson, an early resident of Ferron, said, “Precipitation was so scant that plant life was limited, except along the creek bottoms.”  In the late 1870’s mining began to boom in Emery County and Carbon County. This boom created jobs for people in the area, not just in the coal mines, but created a market that was not there before for farming, creating a demand for produce. Coal mining also boosted the erection of the Hunter and Huntington Power Plants in the 1970s and 1980s. Aside from farming, livestock was a fruitful business. The unique geography of Castle Valley made raising livestock a minimal expense. In the summers one could free range cattle, horses, or sheep up in the mountains and in the winter bring them down from the mountain and leave them on the desert range. Fruit farming in Ferron also began early. The growing season was tough in Emery County for fruit trees, but Ferron’s southern exposure, and deep, well-drained soil made it the best place to grow fruit in Castle Valley.” The tradition of raising livestock and planting peach orchards has continued today and is a big part of the culture in the area today. Each summer Ferron holds The Southeastern Utah Junior Livestock Show and has an annual Peach Days celebration held at the beginning of September during prime peach season.

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The Bonneville Salt Flats, 12 miles long and 5 miles wide, packed in salt and located in Northwestern Utah, stands as one of the most famous natural landmarks in the United States of America. This special geological formation has attracted the attention of scientists, filmmakers, racers, and adventurers. The flats have also become a center for land speed records (racing and strip driving), ecological studies on the salt and cinematic landscapes.  The salt flats are the remains of Lake Bonneville, a massive prehistoric lake that covered much of the Great Basin during the Pleistocene Epoch, which was approximately 32,000 to 14,000 years ago. Over time, climate changes caused the lake to evaporate, Which left behind a very thick layer of raw material, predominantly salt, which ultimately formed the salt flats.  The Bonneville Salt Flats are named after a French-born U.S army officer who explored and mapped most of the American West in the early 19th century, Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville. During the modern era, the Bonneville Salt Flats have become identical with speed records and innovation. In the beginning of the 1910s, the flats were used for some automobile speed trials due to the endless, flat surface and the hard salt crust. This was turned into the Bonneville Speedway that was officially established in the 1930s. There are still many races that happen at the speedway today.  Beyond the racetrack and the race cars, the flats have found their way into nowadays popular culture. Their appealing and otherworldly appearance have made them a big location for filmmakers and photographers. Iconic scenes from films like Independence Day and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End were shot in flats that set this as a cinematic symbol of the extraordinary beauty of the salt flats.  Efforts to preserve and restore the Bonneville Salt Flats have gained popularity in recent years. The Save the Salt Coalition is a group of racing organizations, scientists and local stakeholders that have been advocating for increased awareness and action to help the flats. Some collaborative projects with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have been focused on the brine pumping programs. This aims to return salt to the flats by reintroducing the brine that was removed during mining operations.  The Bonneville Salt Flats are way more than just a geological formation: they are a witness to the connection between nature and history. From their founding as a prehistoric lake to their status as a global symbol of speed and beauty, the flats embody the spirit of human explorations and innovations. The survival of the salt flats is not guaranteed. As the pressures from human activity and climate changes continue to go up, the responsibility to preserve the beautiful landscape lies with all who value the flats. Through future collaborative efforts and the commitment to sustaining the salt flats, we can ensure they continue to inspire and amaze generations to come.

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The first settlement attempt of Cache Valley occurred in 1856. Having endured the brutal winter, more Latter-day Saints migrated north, and Cache Valley became an established community. But even before the area was well established, prophecies were given by church leaders on the future construction of a temple. In an 1863 meeting, Wilford Woodruff of the church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said that the day would come when great cities would fall but that Logan and its temple would outlast them. Ground was finally broken on the temple in 1877, beginning a seven-year construction process. Financing the temple was a challenge for these pioneers, but they rose to the occasion. The total expenses for the temple amounted to just over $600,000, with half consisting of labor costs. Through various programs and 100% volunteer labor, the Saints were able to complete the temple and have it ready for dedication exactly seven years after breaking ground. The dedication services were held from May 17th to 19th, 1884. Church president John Taylor presided and offered the dedicatory prayer. As part of that prayer, he said, “We feel, O Lord God, our weakness and unworthiness before Thee, and our inability to do anything without Thy guidance and assistance; but as Thou hast given us a commandment…we have built this house, and present it to Thee, and pray that Thou wilt accept it in the name of Thy Son Jesus Christ.” This prayer reflects the attitudes of those that built the temple, who believed their total reliance was on God and saw the majestic building as a humble offering.

As part of the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Logan Temple in 1934, poet Harrison R. Merrill wrote of the temple:

“Against the turquoise Utah skiesTwo solemn temple towers rise,Twin beacons marking well the placeWhere children of a mighty raceOf Pioneers assemble. They came from farThe temple gleams – A guiding star.”

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In 1847, Brigham Young and his party of Mormon settlers arrived in what would eventually become Utah. Mormons were escaping persecution in the East by the United States. No one had a clear idea of where their destination, and new home, would be, but many agreed that it would have to reside beyond the United States’ political border. Many initially thought that the territories of California or Oregon would be their last stop since it was as far west as one could get from the U.S. without crossing an ocean. However, John C. Fremont’s expeditions into Utah made the territory an attractive place to settle and it was eventually decided that the Utah area would be where the Mormons settled. Utah was home to the Utes, Paiutes, Dine’, Goshutes, and Shoshone. At the time, some mountain men also lived in the area. These men largely served as road guides for wagoneers heading west and their numbers were generally scarce. Utah was certainly more of a desert than the Mormons envisioned their new home to be and had what many diligent journal writers described as a “dead sea” to accompany it. However, there was one tree, the "Lone Cedar Tree," in the Salt Lake Valley which provided coveted shade. Seemingly everyone used this iconic tree to rendezvous under—children, church officials, lovers, weary travelers. The tree’s significance to these early Mormons was commemorated with a monument in 1933 by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. The monument initially encompassed the dying tree, but in 1958, the tree was cut down and stolen. A bounty for it was placed by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers. When the missing lumber never turned up, a modified monument was erected in 1960 to preserve what remained of the leveled stump. A bronze replica soon stood in place of the section of tree that was stolen. Unfortunately, the remaining stump of the original tree was later stolen. The monument today contains no traces of the original tree. However, historians argue whether the tree ever existed in the sense that it is now remembered. Some claim that stories exaggerate the tree’s existence because journals at the time mention other trees in the valley. Some dispute whether the tree was a cedar at all. Moreover, some accounts mention a “Lone Cedar Post” in the proximity of where the tree was believed to have stood, leading a few to believe that it was the post rather than a tree which provided such needed shade. Nevetheless, the memorialization of the lone cedar tree still stands in downtown Salt Lake City to commemorate the pioneer memory that permeates much of early Utah history. 

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Tarlton Lewis was the fourth of twelve children born to Neriah Lewis and Mary Moss on May 18, 1805 in South Carolina. Tarlton married Malinda Gimlin on March 27, 1828; over the course of their marriage, they had eight children together. While living in Illinois, Tarlton and Malinda joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (sometimes nicknamed “Mormons”) and were baptized July 25, 1836 by Tarlton’s older brother Benjamin Lewis. The brothers joined moved to Missouri to live among other Latter-day Saints, and on October 30, 1838, while living near Hawn's Mill, they were attacked by a violent mob agitating for the expulsion of all Mormons from Missouri. The mob murdered Tarlton’s older brother Benjamin, and Tarlton suffered an injury to his shoulder; their younger brother David, however, was uninjured. After surviving this tragedy, the brothers moved with other Latter-day Saints to Nauvoo, Illinois. There, Joseph Smith, president of the Church, and his brother Hyrum set apart Tarlton as bishop of the Nauvoo Fourth Ward. Also in Tarlton and Malinda received the endowment and sealing ordinances—the Church’s highest sacraments—before joining the mass exodus of Latter-day Saints from Nauvoo, leaving behind the temple they had spent years helping build. The Lewis family left as part of the second wave of Saints, fleeing westward across the Mississippi Rive, but Tarlton himself stayed behind to continue his service as a bishop and help the Church members under his care prepare to go West. After many weeks crossing Iowa, they settled temporarily at Council Bluffs in Pottawattamie, Iowa, 1846. After the Latter-day Saints regrouped in Iowa, Tarlton joined the first company of pioneers departing in 1847. As part of the Vanguard Company led by Brigham Young—Smith’s successor to the Church presidency—Tarlton was captain of 50 wagons and entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 21, 1847. There, Young called Tarlton as the first bishop in Salt Lake Valley, and Tarlton remained in the valley to build cabins and plant crops for the Saints who would arrive next. After an almost two-year separation, Tarlton reunited with his family when they arrived at the Salt Lake Valley on September 21, 1848. Two years later, in December 1850, the Church called Tarlton to travel with apostle George A. Smith and one hundred others to explore southern Utah. Tarlton again captained 50 wagons, and on January 17, 1851, the explorers officially organized Iron County. In their first election, the young county elected Tarlton Lewis as a magistrate. George Smith organized the settlement into four wards, and Tarlton became bishop of the Second Ward in Parowan. The Lewis family helped build roads, log cabins, and furniture. After Tarlton’s brother David died in September 1855, Tarlton married two of his brother’s widows as polygamous wives. Tarlton explored the mountains of Beaver Valley for lead ore, finding a mine and becoming a director of it. They also helped found Minersville, and Tarlton was active in the community and donated a portion of his lot to finance a Relief Society building. Life in Minersville was a struggle as farming was difficult with little water from Beaver Creek. The family managed a humble living for fourteen years until the Church assigned Tarlton to establish a United Order in Joseph, Sevier County. The most pressing issue that settlers faced was the difficulty of irrigating water for farmlands; their hard work was paid off with “diverse crops as apples, apricots, peaches, pears, grapes, and black walnuts,” but there was not enough to make Joseph prosper. The Lewises lived there a few years before moving northeast to the larger town of Richfield, and the United Order in Sevier County dissolved in November 1877. Apostle Erastus Snow then set Tarlton apart as bishop of the Richfield Second Ward on July 16, 1877. As an active citizen of Richfield, Tarlton and a hundred other citizens petitioned the Utah Territorial House to incorporate the town, and the provision passed. Tarlton’s time as a bishop in Richfield was brief, as health complications warranted his resignation a year later, but he recovered his strength enough to serve as a stake patriarch, as listed in the Sevier Stake Conference for August 27, 1887. Tarlton Lewis died on November 22, 1890 at Teasdale, Utah Territory, at the home of his son, Beason Lewis. He was buried in the Teasdale Cemetery. In 1987, Mount View Camp, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, and the Lewis Family sponsored and built a marker and plaque at his burial site in 1987.

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In 1893, historian Frederick Jackson Turner famously claimed the year 1890, three years prior, marked the closing of the American Frontier. It seemed in the 1890s that America’s expansionist spirit was shifting from the continental Wild West to locations abroad such as Cuba and the Philippines, pivoting away from consolidating a land empire and toward questing for a sea empire. Pioneers in Fruita, Utah, however, were still preoccupied in the 1890s with frontier processes. Although they had secured their isolated, red rock land, even in 1890 their community lacked important infrastructure such as education, a postal service, and a building for worship. As they settled in and secured the land, the pioneers were able to gather sufficient time and organization to put together more of a society, beginning with an education system. Nettie Behunin, a young girl 12 years of age, became one of the first teachers.  Nettie might not have been a truly qualified teacher by twenty-first-century standards—or perhaps even by her own—but her endeavors marked the beginning of the first community project in the area: the schoolhouse. In a collection of childhood memories of Fruita, Clay M. Robinson reflects on his experience as a young boy in the newly built Fruita schoolhouse as his mother was the teacher at the school during his childhood. He writes, “Most vivid of all in those memories, are Mama and the little one-room sawed-log Fruita school where she taught all eight grades in the years 1925–1927.” He also mentioned that the schoolhouse was used for Sunday church services and Sunday School—most of Fruita were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Mormons—because there was no dedicated chapel in Fruita. Since residents could rearrange the in the schoolhouse, the small building served as a community center that could host different events like dances, box socials, knitting group meetings, and gatherings for men and young boys who enjoyed baseball. The Fruita schoolhouse evidently served as a center of the community, where the small number of settlers could gather to enjoy each other’s company. The Fruita schoolhouse still stands today. Tourists can easily see it as they drive through the park since it is located just to the side of the highway. At times the Park Service offers tours in the old schoolhouse that allow small children to briefly roleplay pioneer school life. This schoolhouse represents the first community building of the Fruita settlement, as well as a reminder of what life was like for the small community of Latter-day Saint settlers.

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Throughout the second half of the 18th century, detribalized Native Americans known as Genízaros (pronounced heh-NEE-sah-ros) relocated to land bordering colonial New Mexico and Indigenous territory through a series of land grants from imperial Spain. These settlements played an important role in facilitating trade between New Mexico and Indigenous tribes while also providing a form of colonial defense from other indigenous raiding parties by acting as a buffer zone for the villages of the Rio Chama Valley. The Genízaro settlement of Santo Tomas de Abiquiu was formed in 1754 when Governor Tomas Cachupín issued a land grant to a group of thirty-four Genízaro families. The settlement was about 60 miles north of Santa Fe. The Genízaros were both Indigenous former slaves and the descendents of former slaves. It was often the case that Indigenous slaves who reached an age of maturity, who married, or whose enslavers released them from their rescate (“ransom and redemption”) debt, received their freedom. These former slaves experienced minimal economic and social mobility. Most had to work menial tasks to survive and were often the poorest members of their communities. Some found success in working as scouts and interpreters, or in Spanish auxiliary military forces. Land grants, like the one that established Abiquiu, were one of the few ways Genízaros could obtain their own property and experience greater economic mobility. As the Spanish imperials had hoped, Abiquiu throughout its existence served as a buffer against Ute, Navajo, and Comanche raids. And like other Genízaro settlements Abiquiu also became an important waypoint for trade with other indigenous peoples, and Abiquiu became an important frontier trading post. Thanks to a treaty of friendship negotiated between Governor Cachupín and the Ute people, Abiquiu became the site of Ute trading fairs, especially in the late autumn months. In 1786, Spain the the Comanche signed a treaty to further trade between the people of Abiquiu and other Indigenous groups. Despite the important role Genízaro settlements played as a link between Colonial Spain and Indigenous groups, Genízaros and Spanish settlers had a fraught relationship. A series of witch trials, originating in Abiquiu and spreading throughout the region, revealed the tensions that existed both between Spaniards and Genízaros, as well as the tensions that existed between Genízaros of differing beliefs and cultural/tribal backgrounds. Genízaros made up both accused and accusers, and Spanish inquisitorial courts condemned many Genízaros’ traditional spiritual beliefs as satanic. In the end, the Inquisition never executed any accused Genízaro, but inquisitors did torture many and sentence others to perpetual servitude in Spanish Catholic homes, revealing the fragility of Genízaro freedom. More recently, Abiquiu has been the site of important Indigenous land right battles. While the United States’ Court of Private Land Claims validated the Genízaros’ 16,000 acre land grant in 1894, some disputes over dispossessed Genízaro land remained unresolved for nearly a century. In 1969, the United States returned National Forest lands to Genízaro families, in part thanks to help from the Presbyterian Church. Later, in 2008, New Mexico expanded the land they recognized as part of the historical grant and returned another 32.5 acres to the Genízaro community.

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Before daybreak on June 26, 1866, a party of Timpanogos and Utes—led by Mountain, a Colorado Ute chief—seized around fifty animals, a mix of cattle and horses, from Mapleton, Utah. It was in the middle of Black Hawk’s War, and the Native American party hoped they had achieved a meaningful victory. After driving the animals through a canyon to Little Diamond Creek and feeling they had made a clean getaway, the Native American group took a break in a clear, open field near the convergence of the Little Diamond and Diamond Fork rivers to graze their horses. However, while the horses were grazing, militiamen roused from Springville surprised the indigenous group and cut off their escape route. Knowing they had no other way to escape, the Timpanogos retaliated, and the militiamen took cover in a grove of trees and fired on the Timpanogos. Both sides fired on each other to little avail for a few hours, and Mountain taunted the militiamen, calling out Albert Dimmick specifically as a “coward and a squaw.” Dimmick furiously stood up, out of his cover, and a Native American immediately got a hit on him. Injured, Dimmick died a few hours later. Reinforcements from Spanish Fork came to support the Springville militiamen, further pinning the Timpanogos raiders in the brush. Both the Native Americans and the militiamen tried to spread out and surround the other, but only the settlers succeeded. Pinned between two groups of enemies, the Native Americans stopped fighting—until a leader, most likely Mountain, raised a crest above them and urged them to fight on. At his appearance, the militiamen fired until he slumped in his horse and rode away. As their leader retreated, so did the rest of the Timpanogos and Utes, heading up the steep sides of the canyon and abandoning the captured animals to save their lives. Later, the militiamen found out from Native American contacts that they had killed five or six Utes in the battle. A second militiaman, this one from Spanish Fork, a hotheaded youth of eighteen years, Jonathan Edmiston, had also been killed when he rushed into the middle of the Timpanogos to try to reach the Springville militia’s captain. His fellow soldiers had lost track of him in the brush, and after the raiding party retreated with their wounded and dead, they searched unsuccessfully for his body. The following day, a search party returned to the battleground and found Edmiston’s scalped corpse. This exchange is demonstrative of the scattered battles of the Black Hawk War in Utah.

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Somewhat overshadowed by the more well-known Danger Cave, Hogup Cave provides some of the same enigmas presented by Danger Cave, such as the struggle for life in the harsh environment. Excavated by Dr. C. Melvin Aikens of the University of Utah in 1967 and 1968, the archeological evidence recovered from the cave—dating back as far as 6,000 BCE—shows a desert culture in line with Native peoples of the time. Starch granules found on artifacts show the use of small scale gathering, and a prevalence of projectile points show the importance of hunting, with bighorn sheep and pronghorns acting as the prey. Both findings suggest a nomadic people who used the cave periodically while hunting on the surrounding land. The cave came to be used cross-culturally, as is seen in the evidence for the replacement (rather than assimilation) of Fremont peoples by Numic speaking groups. Fremont artifacts do not continue past Unit III (400–1350 CE), and Numic artifacts start to appear in Unit IV (1350–1850 CE). Because the history of the cave extends back to 6000 BCE, it was an important find for understanding the ancient desert cultures put forth by Jesse Jennings in his excavation of Danger Cave, an archaeological dig site about 65 miles away from Hogup Cave. Hogup Cave provides more evidence supporting Jennings’s challenge to Ernest Antevs’ theory of widespread drought during the time of its occupation, showing how discoveries such as the one at Hogup also inspire questions relating to cultural ecology, asking to what extent environment impacts these cultures. Not much information is available about the caves aside from the excavation done by the University of Utah and the writeups done by project supervisor C. Melvin Aikens. Such writings make up the bulk of the scholarly work, and artifacts from the excavation can be found at the university’s Museum of Natural History. But the discovery of the cave itself remains somewhat a mystery. Local folklore and oral histories point to Orval Evans discovering the cave in the 1930s, while the University of Utah eventually learned about Hogup Cave by hearing about subsequent expeditions. This story reflects the accidentalism and amateur archeological enthusiasm that sometimes surrounds archeological discovery in Utah.

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Dixie State University’s history is intertwined with the history of the Latter-day Saints in the St. George area. In October of 1861, some 300 families were called to the cotton mission and were to join the 28 families that had already established the settlement of St. George to grow cotton. This is when St. George started its growth and the need arose for schools in the area. One of the first orders of business at a camp meeting among the recently arrived settlers in December of 1861 was to establish a school for the children. The Saints had run into several difficulties, including a flood, but were able to maintain small schools until 1864, when the first large schoolhouse was built for the First Ward. Even with these newly erected schools, some children were taught privately in homes and still others took classes in the basement of the Tabernacle and in the social hall for many years.

Dixie State University can trace its beginnings to the 1880s. It was first opened as St. George Stake Academy, which housed elementary and immediate grade levels. Classes were held in the basement of the St. George Tabernacle. The academy was opened along with about 20 other academies by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which experienced varying rates of success. The St. George Stake Academy opened its doors in 1888 and closed its doors just a few years later as public schools grew in popularity and didn’t require tuition.

Two decades later, in 1911, the St. George Stake Academy reopened as a secondary school, the first of its kind in the St. George area. Enrollment grew steadily for the first years and the school added different classes. In 1916, the academy was approved to add a teacher preparation program and the school had its name officially changed to Dixie Normal College in 1918. The name was changed again in 1922, this time to Dixie Junior College, when the church decided to drop the high school and keep only the college courses. The phasing out of the high school progressed slowly, but the school donned Junior College status.

Around 10 years later, the Church decided to relinquish control of their Junior Colleges as the Great Depression took its toll. Dixie Junior College was in crisis as the legislature did not assure that it would get funds. Nevertheless, the community of St. George helped keep Dixie from going under until it was able to get funding again. Dixie has since grown and gained the title of State College in 2000, followed by that of Dixie State University in 2013.

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In the early 1900s, a common Latter-day Saint legend described how settlers in Provo were told by Native Americans that they had seen angels who declared that the people in this town would be blessed. Some of those blessings came about through Provo’s Y Mountain. In 1906, the Junior Class of BYU wanted to paint "‘07" on the mountain, upsetting members of the senior class. The President of Brigham Young University at the time, George H. Brimhall, and Brigham Young High School Principal Edwin S. Hinckley settled the argument by deciding that the letters “BYU” would be painted on the mountain. After 6 hours of painting, only the “Y” was completed, so the two other letters “B” and “U” were forgotten, the full plan discontinued. After the completion of the “Y,” students hiked up the mountain annually to re-paint the Y, creating a BYU Y Day tradition. More traditions and plans for the Y mountain would follow for the city of Provo, Utah and its residents.

The mountain plays an important role in BYU culture and the culture in Provo, Utah. It is the site of many traditions, such as lighting the Y for the holidays, BYU Homecoming, or the success of a school sports team. The tradition of lighting up the Y began in 1924. Another tradition for the incoming Freshman class at BYU involves dedicating a day for a Y mountain hike to celebrate their becoming a BYU Cougar. This tradition has carried through the years. Y mountain has been a symbol for Brigham Young University and the city of Provo, serving as one of the areas main tourist attractions. The traditions that revolve around the Y are important to BYU and Provo culture.

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The community of Union Bench was an extension of Springville, but the growing community that would soon become Mapleton hit a turning point when they built their first dedicated public meetinghouse for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints. Settlement began in 1856 and the small church branch met in a public schoolhouse located near the center of town. The schoolhouse, even with an addition made to provide more space, did not last forever. The branch was officially organized into a ward in 1888. Around this time, a larger meetinghouse was needed for both the school and the church.

As a new school was finished in 1890 and the church meetings moved there the members of the Church recognized they needed a dedicated meetinghouse. A committee was formed to find a building site and local member Matilda Streeper offered to donate one acre of land if construction of the new church began immediately. Construction on the church began in 1889, the church was dedicated in 1892, and in 1893 it was completed and meetings started. The meetinghouse was a stepping-stone into Union Bench becoming a town. As the new school and church were completed, the community pulled together to petition for township. As the Mapleton ward, named after a grove of trees near the canyon, made up a majority of the community’s population, the town came to be known as Mapleton, Utah.

The meetinghouse stood and satisfied the needs of the ward for many years. The building was sturdy and any hazards to it were swiftly taken care of, but as Mapleton continued to grow after gaining town status the need for a bigger meetinghouse arose. In the 1930s, the Great Depression hit the town and the population struggled. The church and town leaders worked closely together to combat poverty and support the struggling families by finding different work projects to provide work receipts that could be exchanged for food. One of these projects was the demolition of the old meetinghouse and the construction of a new one, which is still standing. The new chapel cost $35,000, half of which was donated by the local community. The chapel was completed in 1938 and dedicated for use in 1941 and is still in use today. You can find a plaque with a brief history outside the chapel, as well as historical photos on the walls inside which convey some of the heritage of the early Mapleton residents.

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Scofield is a small mining town located in Carbon County, located next to the Winter Quarters mine. On May 1, 1900, there was an accidental explosion in the Winter Quarters mine. While many men rushed to rescue miners caught in the blast, many were killed in the initial explosion, struck by falling debris, or killed by afterdamp, a toxic gas. Miners from other mines in the area, such as Castle Gate, Clear Creek, and Sunnyside, helped retrieve bodies the next day. A total of 200 - 246 men were killed in the accident. There were not enough coffins to bury all of the miners, so some coffins had to be ordered from Denver, Colorado and taken to Scofield on a train.

The Winter Quarters mine explosion had devastating effects on the town of Scofield. Nearly every family lost someone in the accident, with some families losing several family members. In a tragic example, the Louma family lost six sons and three grandsons, all in the same day. However, some incredible stories came from the disaster as well. One such story is that of John Wilson, who was blown 820 feet from the entrance of the mine into the surrounding canyon and miraculously survived. Another well-known story is that of Thomas Pugh, a 15-year-old boy who put his cap in his teeth, used it to plug his nose, and ran a mile and a half through toxic gas back to the mine entrance in the dark.

Although the exact cause of the explosion was never discovered, many believe that the accident could have been prevented if the Pleasant Valley Coal Company had implemented safety procedures and taken better precautions. Unsurprisingly, many families blamed the company for the accident. Labor unrest from this event no doubt contributed to later strikes in the region, such as the 1901 Pleasant Valley strike. The Winter Quarters mine puts into perspective how dangerous an occupation mining was, and how much miners were asked to sacrifice for their livelihood. Today, many remember the Scofield mining disaster as a horrible event that showcases the brutal treatment of working-class individuals in the 20th century.

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“Gathering” was an important concept in early Mormon theology. Converts to the church were encouraged to make their way to Utah so they could gather with the saints and participate in ordinances that were only available in the temples in Utah. Though missionaries had first arrived in Hawai'i in 1850, Hawaiian converts were barred by strict emigration laws from emigrating to America until the 1880s. Once Hawaii relaxed their emigration laws, Hawaiian converts began to migrate to Salt Lake City. However, because of a lack of employment opportunities for the Hawaiians, cultural differences, and a growing fear in Salt Lake City of leprosy being brought over from Hawaii, it soon became apparent that the Hawaiians would need a separate settlement. In 1889 the church bought the ranch of John T. Rich in Tooele County’s Skull Valley to use as the site for the Hawaiian settlement. On August 28, fifty-two Hawaiians arrived at their new home in Skull Valley. The settlement was named Iosepa after Joseph F. Smith, a member of the church’s first presidency who had been a missionary in Hawaii.

To get around the provision in the Edmunds-Tucker Act that prohibited the Church from owning property valued over $50,000, Iosepa operated as a joint-stock company known as the Iosepa Agricultural and Stock Company, with several white Mormon men as shareholders. Hawaiian settlers began raising livestock and planting crops such as corn and wheat in Iosepa. While living in Iosepa, the residents faced the trials that naturally accompanied settling and farming in the Great Basin such as unexpected weather, crop failure, illness, and having enough water for their crops and daily needs. Despite these difficulties, the Hawaiian settlers managed to create a little Hawai'i in the Utah desert. They raised carp and grew algae as a substitute for seaweed in a nearby reservoir. They used corn husks as a replacement for Hawaiian ti leaves to wrap pork. They spoke Hawaiian and sang Hawaiian hymns in their church meetings. Each year they celebrated their own Pioneer Day on the anniversary of the settlement’s founding with a traditional Hawaiian feast. The Hawaiian converts also helped build the Salt Lake temple and consistently made the journey to Salt Lake City to attend the temple once it was dedicated. While the Tooele desert could not be more different from the tropical island environment of Hawaii, the settlers of Iosepa found ways to adapt to their new surroundings and participate in the religion that was so important to them.

In 1915 the church announced their plans to build a temple in Hawai'i. Joseph F. Smith encouraged the Hawaiian saints in Utah to return to Hawai'i to help with the temple and promised that the church would help pay the settlers’ traveling expenses. This essentially dissolved the community at Iosepa as almost all the settlers between 1915 and 1917 sold their property and possessions back to the Iosepa Agricultural and Stock Company and returned to the island. Though Iosepa only lasted a little over twenty-five years, it stands out in Utah’s history as being the first place in the state to be settled by non-European emigrants. Iosepa continues to be an important place for Pacific Islanders today, who gather in Iosepa each Memorial Day to commemorate Utah’s first Polynesian community.

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The Lehi Pioneer Cemetery was the first settler cemetery in the Lehi area. When the citizens first started using this land as a cemetery in 1851, it was public land. Thomas R. Jones acquired the property through the Homestead Act of 1862, but quickly deeded it to the city for its continued use as a cemetery. Although most of the records for the cemetery prior to 1895 have been lost, evidence exists proving that a pioneer who died at the age of seventy-five was the first man to be buried in this land. It is also evident that along with the many early settlers that died of natural causes there were a few murder victims buried in the Lehi Pioneer Cemetery, such as the Lehi schoolteacher, George William Thurmond, who was killed by one of his students while trying to decorate a city Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.

In 1872, Lehi's population was growing and the city decided they needed to widen the State Road that the Lehi Pioneer Cemetery was located on and build a railroad through the middle of the cemetery. Subsequently, many bodies that were buried in the cemetery were dug up and reburied in a new cemetery. Many families who had family members buried in the cemetery had moved and were indifferent to the relocation, but a few families asked for the bodies to not be moved. In the process of building, most of the bodies in the area were removed but some were not found and remain there today, including John Griggs White.

Following the removal of the bodies from the cemetery and the addition of a railroad, the land was no longer recognized as a cemetery and people could buy the land for their own property. Den Turner bought some of the land and built a tire shop called “Den’s Tire Shop” during the 1950s. Bud Nielson also bought a portion of the land to build his home around the 1970s. Den Turner eventually sold his tire shop to Don Harris during the 1970s. All three men found skeletons of the pioneers on their land while doing construction. In response to the bodies that were found, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers decided to build a monument near Den’s Tire Shop on the centennial anniversary (1951) of the cemetery’s establishment. However, in the five years that followed it became evident that the monument needed to be moved because the customers of Den’s Tire Shop were repeatedly hitting the monument while entering and exiting the shop. The Daughters of Utah Pioneers pleaded with the city for the monument to be moved and in 1958, the city gave a small piece of land to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers a block east of the actual historical cemetery for the monument and small roadside park. Currently, one can visit the monument of this historical cemetery on this roadside park located from 190-200 West State Street, Lehi Utah.

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The Isaac Chase Mill is the oldest commercial building still standing in Utah. The mill was built beginning in 1847 when the second group of Latter-day Saints arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and was finished in 1852. The mill was made by Isaac Chase who had been a successful miller in his home state of New York as well as in Nauvoo after he had been baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Isaac took the trek west in 1847 with his family, including his 13-year-old daughter who drove the wagon that had the gristmill equipment. It was with this equipment that he was able to create his mill which became one of the first in Utah. In 1854, after two years of the mill’s operation, Brigham Young joined Isaac Chase and became his partner in the mill’s production. Chase continued as a miller for the next six years before selling his share of the mill to Brigham Young in exchange for a cabin in Centerville, Utah in 1859. The mill then became known to most as Brigham Young’s lower mill as he already owned a mill further north in Salt Lake City.

The mill became well known due to the famine of 1856-1857. During the famine, Isaac Chase’s mill provided free flour to the people of the valley, helping them survive and saving numerous families. Before Brigham Young’s death, he said he wished the land on which the mill stood to be sold to the city for the lowest possible price. On April 20, 1881 Salt Lake City purchased 100 acres of land from the Brigham Young estate which included the Chase Mill. Today the mill stands as a historic monument at Liberty Park, which was once known as Mill Farm in honor of the Isaac Chase Mill.

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