In 1911-12 Emery and Ellsworth Kolb rafted the Grand, Green, and Colorado Rivers from Wyoming to California. They owned a photography studio at Bright Angel in the Grand Canyon and the expedition used…
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The Colorado River can be a challenge to cross, especially in regions of rugged desert, deep canyon walls, and swift waters. These four stories highlight historical and contemporary crossing points.
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A series of stories detailing projects of the New Deal Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in western National Monuments and National Park.
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An exploration of sites of environmental controversy across the Colorado Plateau.
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During the 1940s, thousands of Utahans left to fight in the largest war the United States had ever been involved in. While those back home didn’t see combat directly, they did what they could to…
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Driving through Eastern Idaho, you pass what seems like an endless stretch of large green farms, often with massive sprinklers spreading thousands of gallons of water over dozens of different types of…
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Chinese immigrants came to Idaho in the mid to late 19th century. At its peak, the Chinese people made up 30% of Idaho’s population. Working as railroad workers, miners, farmers, merchants, and more,…
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Prohibition existed on the federal level from 1920 to 1933 with the 18th Amendment prohibiting the manufacturing, selling, and transporting alcohol. Prohibition movements had existed since the early…
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Considered the largest privately-owned university in the United States, Brigham Young University offers a unique experience and a rich history. Founded in 1875 as an academy for students of all ages,…
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Utah is primarily known as the headquarters and cultural hearth of Mormonism, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. However, some of Utah’s earliest roots center around its established…
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The historic Greek Orthodox Church located in Salt Lake City, the Holy Trinity, was filled with Greek adults and youth on Friday night for a social dance. The minister of the church greeted couples as…
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Yellowstone National Park became America’s first national park in 1852 when it was signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. The park stretches through the Western states of Wyoming, Montana, and…
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From 1945 to 1993, over one thousand atomic weapons were detonated as part of the United States Nuclear Testing Program. In the years between 1951 and 1962, these tests were performed above ground at…
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Congress passed the first Homestead Act in 1862. It opened millions of acres for Americans to settle outside of cities. The plots were generally 160 acres, and the opportunities west of the…
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Perhaps the first two characteristics that come to mind when someone mentions Utah are “Mormons” and “the great outdoors.” Although Alaska and California are tied for the most national parks (with…
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Beneath the serene landscape of southern Colorado’s arid foothill country are the remnants of two forgotten worlds. Far beneath it all are the remains of prehistoric plants and animals, decayed and…
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In September 1963, President John F. Kennedy made his historical Conservation Tour across the United States. The tour was organized by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson and Secretary of the Interior…
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The Intermountain West region has long had a connection with cinema, especially that of science fiction. From alien planets to mysterious military bases to the stomping grounds of radioactive…
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A historic house museum is exactly what its title says – a house that has been turned into a museum. They often contain the inhabitants’ belongings displayed in a way that reflects their original…
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Explore the history of Fort Bridger, one of the main stops on the Overland Trail. Beginning as a trade post for the fur trade, and later an important stop for migrants heading west, Fort Bridger has…
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Virginia City put Nevada on the map for one of the greatest silver deposits found in American history. The silver mines brought men and women from all walks of life. This tour highlights the variety…
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In the decades-long fight for women’s suffrage, the territories and states in the Intermountain West were some of the first places in the United States where women won the right to vote. Women in the…
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A collection of stories about the history of the World War II Japanese Internment Camp at Topaz, Utah.
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Biological field stations and experimental forests conduct significant long-term ecological research, provide important unbiased scientific research, and evaluate key environmental issues, such as…
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The first Spanish period in New Mexico, starting with the Acoma Massacre by Juan de Oñate in 1599 and ending with Governor Otermin’s expulsion from Santa Fe during the Pueblo Revolt of 1680,…
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Healthcare can take many forms. It can be a county hospital, a live-in care facility, a specialized clinic, or even a natural feature. The intermountain west has attracted people for centuries, many…
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National Parks were created, in part, to protect land and resources from development and business interests. In the process of creating them, however, American Indians who lived in park areas were…
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In early 1900’s Nevada maintained a wild west reputation through its liberal divorce laws. Reno served as America’s center for divorce for more than half of the 20th century. Many accounts of those…
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Brigadier General George R. Crook (September 8, 1830-March 21, 1890) is popularly recognized as the quintessential 'Indian Fighter' of the late nineteenth century. He frequented the entire…
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At the tail end of a groundbreaking wave of environmental legislation, Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act in 1980. It was designed to investigate…
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Salt Lake City’s Temple Square is more than just a place of worship, it is the administrative center of a major world religion. What began as an open-air gathering place has become an architectural…
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Utah is home to people from all over the world. From those who came as refugees to those who came willfully, Utah is a melting pot of cultures that from time to time established themselves in…
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Beginning in 1862, the Homestead Act gave any head of household over the age of 21 the right to homestead federal land. After proving up (colloquial phrase for the legal process of securing title to…
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The iconic Rocky Mountains stretch a total of around 3,000 miles from New Mexico to the south to the Canadian provinces Alberta and British Columbia to the North. Some of the country’s most iconic…
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One might not expect to find commemorations of the Confederacy north of the Mason–Dixon Line, let alone west of the Rocky Mountains, yet the Intermountain West boasts several: a city named after…
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In the late-nineteenth-century Intermountain West, crisis befell members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Family members went into hiding, separated from one another by hundreds,…
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The capitol buildings of the intermountain states each speak to the unique histories of their respective states and the period of their creation. This tour encourages visitors to engage with these…
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In the second half of the twentieth century, after World War II, American tourism to national parks surged. With the National Park Service’s hundredth anniversary fast-approaching in 1966, the U.S.…
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The disappearance of Glen and Bessie Hyde is one of the enduring mysteries of the Grand Canyon. This young couple, desiring an exciting lifestyle that existence on the farm could never yield, sought…
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This tour explores the significance and history of fossil sites in the Intermountain West. It includes sites such as Fossil Cabin, Petrified Forest National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, Dinosaur…
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After evolutionarily originating in the Americas, camels returned to the American West as pack animals in a U.S. military experiment as well as a series of transportation enterprises. These exotic…
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Town boosters were citizens with visions for improving their cities and increasing commerce. With regular travelers and increased rail traffic, pioneers of rail towns saw opportunities to profit off…
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Since the nineteenth century, mining has provided significant economic support to the Intermountain West and to the United States overall. Copper supported wars, coal fueled power plants, and silver…
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Although often romanticized as a land of rugged wilderness, the Intermountain West today has its fair share of city lights and bright urban landscapes. Such artificial light around the world has…
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The United States federal government claims public ownership of vast amounts of land in the Intermountain West. As Americans became interested in preserving natural environments in the twentieth…
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As films and movie theaters became increasingly popular modes of entertainment in the twentieth-century United States, the Intermountain West followed suit as families, migrants, and entrepreneurs…
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Second Empire architecture is unusual to encounter in the western United States, especially the Intermountain region. Named after the reign of Emperor Napoleon III, who ruled France from 1852–1870,…
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From the early- to mid-1900s, the Arts and Crafts movement inspired the National Park Service’s (NPS) signature rustic style. The early style blended several architectural approaches together, but…
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Western mining towns in the late-nineteenth century were generally lonely places to live, especially for women. The many men and few women from diverse backgrounds that traveled to remote mining towns…
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The Rocky Mountain Rendezvous were annual meetings organized by fur trade companies between 1825–1840. Fur trappers gathered at these summertime rendezvous to sell their furs, purchase supplies from…
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Women fought long and hard for their right to suffrage, or legal voting, in the United States. For centuries, men in America and in Europe before had tied women’s value to being submissive, raising…
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The land of Utah was home to multiple Indigenous bands and tribes, such as the Paiute, Shoshone, and Ute tribes for thousands of years before Europeans came to the Americas. Historians believe that a…
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Intentional communities have long been part of the American experience; perhaps inspired by the large expanses of unspoiled and inexpensive land, people wishing to live outside of mainstream culture…
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In the summer of 1910, the largest fire in American history raged across the Idaho-Montana border, destroying roughly three million acres. What would become known as the “Big Burn” informed the public…
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The 1930s saw an enormous economic downturn in the United States with the Great Depression. Unemployment numbers ran high and artists were among the many who found difficulty seeking employment. To…
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One of the focal points of a Jewish community is its synagogue. Here, Jewish people hold religious and other community services. Other buildings do not immediately signify Jewish presence in a…
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Since the mid-nineteenth century, immigrants from all over the world have flocked to the Intermountain West looking for economic opportunity and the chance of a better life. Unfortunately for many of…
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In 1943, what had once been a quiet Ranch School for young boys underwent a transformation, evolving into a top-secret national laboratory with a singular mission: developing a weapon of mass…
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Though best-known for its Latter-day Saint population, Utah is home to diverse religious communities. Locations explored in this tour are centered in Salt Lake City and Ogden, former railroad hubs and…
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National banks are little-known organizations that significantly contributed to the development of the United States, including the Intermountain West. National banks are specific financial…
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Following factors such as the failure of reconstruction and the release of the film, Birth of a Nation, the Ku Klux Klan, which had been dormant since the Grant administration, resurged with…
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Over a century ago, streetcars dominated American cities. They were the primary means of transportation urban Americans utilized, and their expansion was instrumental in shaping the development of…
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This tour explores five university-led herbariums within the Intermountain West. The sites within the collection will provide a narrative story of each herbarium, describing their unique beginnings, a…
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Everett Ruess was a vagabond at heart, in search of community, livelihood, and freedom within the Intermountain West. Born on March 28th, 1914, Everett spent the early parts of his life moving around…
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The American West has long been romanticized for its diverse natural beauty. Environmentalists sought to protect the natural spaces of the West from the threat of capitalist development and ecological…
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Starting in the late nineteenth century, railroads provided one of the most efficient forms of transportation to visit national parks in the Intermountain West. While many parks had the potential to…
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