Shortly after marrying Sytha Brown in 1906, Eugene L. Roberts and his newlywed bride decided to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Swiss Alps. One evening, near Einsiedeln, Switzerland, Roberts watched as…

At Camp Steiner, the highest-elevation Boy Scout camp in the United States, “hundreds of boys have earned thousands of merit badges” since its opening in 1930. Many of the camp’s activities are held at Scout Lake, where boys can sail small boats,…

According to a contested Native American legend of dubious origin (see Farmer, 360, 375-77), a girl named Norita fell in love with Grey Eagle, a young man from a rival tribe near Provo Canyon’s Bridal Veil Falls. The couple planned to elope, but…

On March 9, 1955, a World War II-era B-25 bomber took off in Great Falls, Montana, refueled at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, and attempted to cross the Wasatch Mountains as it made its way towards a base in Riverside, California. In snowy conditions…

When Senator Weldon Heyburn begain dreaming of a new national park in Idaho, the General Allotment Act of 1877 had recently opened up a large swatch of land. After this Act, members of the Coeur d’ Alene Indian Tribe people each received 160 acres…

Potlatch, Idaho, a small North Idaho town, was the location of the world’s largest lumber mill from its construction in 1906 to its closure in 1981. Potlatch Lumber Company employed hundreds of people in the mill as well as in the various…

In September 1905, Charles Magee built a homestead on the Trail Creek-Tepee Creek confluence - the first recorded non-Indian settlement of the area, . He constructed a small cabin and a couple outbuildings which may have been a woodshed, stable, and…

Before there was a ski resort, homes, and a fire station at the head of Big Cottonwood Canyon, there was a tract of wild land open for use. William Stuart Brighton established Brighton Camp, and then Brighton Village. William Brighton, his wife…

Rim Rock Drive is commonly regarded as one of the most beautiful roads in America. Three different New Deal agencies began construction of Rim Rock Drive: the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Public Works Administration (PWA), and the Works…

The area which is now Arches National Park first came to the attention of the government in the early part of the 20th century. In 1929, President Herbert Hoover designated 4,500 acres of the region a National Monument and in 1938 President Franklin…