We all live downstream of history and upstream of the future.
Spring 2006
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Features | News | ||
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The Split Frog Cure and other curiosities of pioneer medicine...(more) Hooked, How Historic Preservation Became My Passion by Wilson Martin |
Find Your Ancestors at the Utah History Research Center
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Nominate a history hero
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The Split Frog Cure
& other curiosities of pioneer medicine
by Kristen Rogers
A fascinating part of history is the way different people have figured out how to live off the land. It’s an ability we have all but lost today. If a 21st-century American family moved to a wilderness area with just a few simple tools, how would they get food or stay warm?
And how would they stay well? Maybe nothing shows the wide range of human adaptability, ingenuity, and imagination as well as folk remedies for sickness do. In the following account by Rachael Woolley Dalley, note the creative (if not always scientific) use of items at hand to cure various maladies:
I remember as a child we always had to wear a little red flannel bag of asafetida around our necks in the spring to keep away smallpox. [Asafetida is a plant that smells awful; in some languages it’s called “devil’s dung.”]
Many a night my peaceful slumbers have been disturbed by that dreadful, croupy bark my brother used to give in the dark hours of the night. Mother would grab the kerosene lamp and try to pour out a few spoonfuls on some sugar to force down him as he struggled for breath.
Our hired men, eight to twelve in number, always let their hair grow during the winter to protect their heads from the icy blasts while out cutting logs, etc. When spring came they could always find one among them to wield the comb and shear, and what a clipping and shearing took place.... A few handfuls of the hair were gathered up, snipped very fine with the scissors, then mixed with honey and tame sage and choked down our unwilling throats as a cure for worms. A symptom of worms was gritting our teeth and moaning in our sleep. After such symptoms we were sure to get a dose of the worm medicine. Many a night I’ve lain awake to avoid giving any sign or symptoms of worms.
Here is a remedy Mother insisted on. She always saved the inner lining of the chicken’s gizzard, put it up to dry; then if I ever complained of indigestion, she would pulverize this dry skin, mix it with sugar and try to persuade me to swallow it. I endured many sharp pains without complaining. Bless their dear hearts they did the best they could in this desert land. . . .
Oh! I mustn’t forget the onion poultices on the soles of the feet to draw the fever down from the head; nor the cabbage leaf poultice for caked breast, also bees-wax and mutton tallow for the same malady. Then there was the live frog split down the belly and placed on the throat of a child dying with diphtheria. There was the woolen string tied around the neck to keep the mumps from “going down.”
The early settlers of Utah indeed “did the best they could in this desert land”—in an era without health insurance, hospitals, advanced medical technology, drug research, or weblogs. Doctors were rare—and besides, the conventional doctors who practiced in Utah might treat their patients by bleeding them, blistering their skin, making them vomit, or giving them doses of mercury. Understandably, their patients did not always do too well.
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So the pioneers often used their own remedies, using whatever they had at hand. For instance, for bronchitis they might lay a poultice of onions on the chest and cover it with a sack of hot ashes to keep it warm. For baby powder, they might use browned flour. And when a baby got thrush (a fungal mouth infection), the mother might wipe out its mouth with a diaper the baby had wet. Good thing the baby was too young to understand.
Utah Territory did have many self-proclaimed folk medicine doctors—with their own unique treatments. For instance, one doctor called in for an apparent case of appendicitis split a chicken open and laid it, still squawking, on the patient’s abdomen. When that chicken grew cold, he split another and replaced it, continuing to sacrifice chickens all night long. The patient recovered. But the bedding, smeared with blood and gore, may not have.
Many self-taught doctors believed in the herbal remedies made popular by Samuel Thompson. Thompson, a New Englander, believed that heat is life and cold is death. He would cleanse a patient’s system with lobelia and enemas, then use cayenne and hot baths to restore heat, then give additional herbs to “carry off” the illness. He preached against the mercury and bloodletting of his day, and he sold books describing his methods so anyone could use them.
In 1849, a group of Thompson-style doctors in Salt Lake City started the “Council of Health” to study the medicinal herbs of the region. The editor of the Deseret News, Willard Richards, was one of these doctors, and the newspaper reported on the Council. It stated that the members of the Council believed “in the goodness of the Creator that He has placed in most lands medicinal plants for the cure of all diseases incident to that climate.” So the doctors explored the Wasatch canyons and Antelope Island looking for native plants to evaluate.
In their meetings, the doctors of the Council taught the general public about herbs. They also urged their listeners to avoid the methods of conventional doctors, whom they called Poison Doctors.
Priddy Meeks was one of the herbalists who founded the Council of Health. Fortunately for us, he left a lengthy autobiography/journal that not only tells a fascinating life story but also describes the folk beliefs of the time and tells about several patients he cured. (Strangely enough, Meeks did not mention any patients he failed to cure....)
Dr. Meeks especially swore by lobelia and cayenne pepper as miracle herbs. He wrote:
There was a teamster [with Colonel Johnston’s army] by the name of James McCann, a young man, started to go back to the states by way of California. He reached Parowan with both feet frozen above his ankles. He was left with me to have both feet amputated as it was thought there was no possible chance to save his life without amputation. I was at my wits end to know what to do. I saw no possible chance for amputation. An impulse seemed to strike my mind as tho by inspiration that I would give him cayenne pepper inwardly and see what effect that would have on the frozen feet.
I commenced by giving him rather small doses at first, about three times a day. It increased the warmth and power of action in the blood to such a degree that it gave him such pain and misery in his legs that he could not bear it. He lay down on his back and elevated his feet up against the wall for three or four days and then he could sit up in a chair. The frozen flesh would rot and rope down from his foot when it would be on his knee, clear down to the floor, just like a buck-wheat batter, and the new flesh would form as fast as the dead flesh would get out of the way. In fact the new flesh would seem to crowd the dead flesh out of the way to make room for the new flesh.
That was all the medical treatment he had and to my astonishment and to every one else that knew of the circumstances, the sixteenth day after I gave him the first dose of pepper he walked nine miles, or from Parowan to Red Creek and back, and said that he could have walked as far again. He lost but five toe nails all told. Now the healing power of nature is in the blood and to accelerate the blood is to accelerate the healing power of nature and I am convinced that there is nothing will do this like cayenne pepper; you will find it applicable in all cases of sickness.
This article can’t begin to tell everything about folk remedies and early doctors, but it gives a sense of how settlers coped with sickness without the benefits of modern medicine. A health problem that can be easily treated now could become a life-or-death matter then. As you smile incredulously at these strange remedies, think of the desperation of a mother caring for a child with diptheria— a disease that killed countless children in the 19th century. And don’t blame her for trying anything and everything she knew—even if it meant covering the child’s neck with a split frog.
NOTE: The Division of State History/Utah State Historical Society does NOT endorse any of the remedies in this article. We highly recommend that you consult your physician before you start splitting frogs or swallowing hair clippings.
Hooked
How historic preservation became my passion
by Wilson Martin
It all started when I was a student at Oxford in 1973. I was sitting in St. Mary’s Church on High Street in Oxford reading the history of the church. I came across some detailed passages referring to a trial that had taken place in the church in the mid-1600s. While I was reading, the church curate came up and asked me if I would like to read the original transcript of the trial.
I said, “Please!” He said, “Wait here, and I’ll get it for you.” He then retrieved a very serious-looking, thick, leather-bound volume. I opened it and began reading an account of the trial, hand-written with a quill pen in a nice script.
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St. Mary's Church, Oxford, U.K |
To my surprise, the transcript included pen drawings of the room where the trial took place. As I read, glancing at the pen drawings, I knew why the curate had brought the record to me—for I was apparently sitting in nearly the same location as the author had sat. I was looking at the actual room from the same perspective that the drawing showed. As I looked at the drawings more closely and then looked up, I was surprised over and over again to note that the building’s fabric had changed little over the centuries.
When I finished the transcript, the curate came back and said, “Would you like to see some of the other sites related to that trial and the execution that took place immediately following the trial?” Yes, I would! We left the church from the opposite side, went through a small courtyard, and found ourselves on a narrow side street of Oxford. The traffic stopped, and he took me to the center of that street. In the center was a spot marked with a stone. He said it marked the spot where the stake was placed and the three convicted persons, soon to become martyrs, were burned at the stake for defending their religion.
Then we walked a very few paces to the door of one of the oldest colleges at Oxford, and the curate pointed to the charring on the door and said it had resulted from the same fire that burned the three martyrs hundreds of years ago. That blackened wood moved me to think about what the execution must have been like. From the transcripts, I knew there was a crowd, but it didn’t say whether they were silent or yelling. I stood there for a long time trying to take in that scene and understand what it must have been like to see such a barbarous public execution.
And I was profoundly struck by how that remembrance was embedded in the surrounding buildings. At that moment, I became hooked on preservation and how it connects the past with place.
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LDS Co-op Building , Ephraim, Utah |
Ever since then, I have always sought out the places where the past and its physical evidence interact to make history live in a more real way.
In Utah I encounter that profound connection in many places. I’m always struck by Spring City, where you can have whole vistas of original settlement history, including ditches, poplars, streets, homes, and outbuildings. You can stand in Spring City and understand more deeply Spring City’s history as an isolated farming community. Other places are 25th Street in Ogden. Fort Douglas. Temple Square. Cave Towers, Alkali Ridge, and Hovenweep in San Juan County. Golden Spike National Historic Site. Old neighborhoods like the Salt Lake Avenues and Sugarhouse. Liberty Park. And Big Mountain, where the pioneers’ wagon ruts are still visible. That’s just a few.
It should be important to all of us to find our own special locations, our own special sense of place—where our family history, personal history, or the history of a nation can be understood in a setting that reminds us of the commitment, sacrifice, and struggle of those who went before us. I want to preserve our sense of place.
And I want to preserve the places.
"Ladies and Gentlemen"
Observations on a changing world
by Thora Watson
Editor’s note: This article was written in about 1980, so the article itself is somewhat historical. There is no longer a ZCMI Department Store, and the ranks of the women who dress up for tea (and who have ridden in a horse-drawn carriage) have shrunk. The author, Thora Watson, is approaching age 97. She still dresses up to go downtown.
When I was a young woman, ladies dressed up to go downtown, and though spiked heels were a killing menace and hats were uncomfortable and hair-flattening, no female with self esteemed would allow herself to be seen on the street without matching hat, high heels, gloves, and handbag—nor, I might add, without distinct makeup. Accessories were all-important, so one would never leave home without them. No need for all this trouble today; after all, what fine accessories go with jeans?
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The ZCMI hosiery counter, in the basement of the store, 1945 |
Most women have given way to the jean age, but there are a few older women who have resisted the change. I view with pleasure those sophisticated ladies who meet to have lunch at the ZCMI department store. Inevitably, their dresses are stylish and of high quality, their dressy shoes match their handbags and gloves, and they are always wearing hats. I’ll wager that every one is carrying a beautiful linen handkerchief with a hand-crocheted or Venetian lace edge, and has at some time in her youth been transported in a horse-drawn carriage. I pause to watch these ladies and admire them. Even today they display a rare graciousness that I cannot equate with the blue-jean world.
The male species has also changed. But just this morning, dressed in my comfortable jogging suit and jogging my usual mile, I met a gentleman wearing a tweed jacket and tweedy hat, carrying a cane and looking like Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. As we met, he tipped his hat and said, “Good morning.” I answered, “Good morning to you” in my most genteel voice. He seemed to complement the ladies who graciously dine at ZCMI.
My husband was a gentleman of this same school: He also always wore a hat that he always tipped as he greeted people. I can never remember him greeting people with “Hi” or “Howdy” or other slang expressions, and he reserved his “Hello there” for intimacy. “Good morning,” “Good afternoon,” and “Good evening” came as easily to him as did his aristocratic bearing.
During our courting days and after our marriage, our favorite evening out was at the Roof Garden or the Empire Room at the Hotel Utah, where we had a candlelight dinner and an evening of dancing. It was at the Hotel Utah that he proposed to me. He looked so handsome in his tuxedo, and my several formal long dresses improved my everyday mundane appearance. At that time, formal wear was required for admission to those special places. It was not until World War II, when men in the service were required to wear their uniforms at all times, that the hotel relaxed and let uniformed men in. In a short time, couples were coming in most any kind of casual wear.
Inevitably, we must move on—changes are part of progress—but sometimes I long for the old racious manners, staid politeness, and elegance that marked a man as a gentleman, a woman as a lady.
The Utah Historical Quarterly
A brief account of an incredible, venerable Utah institution
by Kent Powell, UHQ editor
“The most important and enduring collection of writings on Utah history” is the way one historian has described the Utah Historical Quarterly. First published in 1928, the Quarterly begins its 74th volume in 2006. Speaking at the founding of the Utah State Historical Society in 1897, Governor Heber M. Wells championed the writing of a “true history of the state.”
In his book A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community, the historian Robert Archibald asks, “How do we construct narratives that acknowledge the perspectives of all who are Americans? Is there a story in which all of these points can coexist? How do we accord ownership to all who once lived here, live here now, and will live here in the future? How do we reconnect past, present, and future?”
In answering his own questions and, for our purpose the charge of Governor Wells to write a “true history of Utah,” Archibald explains, “The task…demands recognition of multiple perspectives on the past and a shared ownership of the past in which no one perspective prevails. America is, after all, a work in progress.”
The Quarterly editors recognize that the writing of a “true history of the state” will always be a work in progress. Therefore, they seek to make the Quarterly a forum for all peoples of Utah to present and interpret their history.
UHQ Through the Years
The first six volumes of the Utah Historical Quarterly covered a wide variety of topics through interpretative articles, personal narratives, and original sources. The first volume focused on Utah’s native peoples, with articles on Indian names in Utah geography, Father Escalante and Utah Indians, an account of the 1853 Gunnison Massacre (by one of the attackers), and the recollections of Shoshone chief Washakie. Subsequent issues covered the Spanish slave trade, black slaves in Utah, Spanish and Mexican exploration and trade, and the Salt Desert and Hastings Cutoff trails. The editors also included extracts from the journals of overland travelers, early settlers, and members of the Mormon Battalion.
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Cover, Winter 2004 edition, Utah Historical Quarterly |
Unfortunately, one of the countless impacts of the Great Depression was the suspension of publication of the Quarterly for five years, from 1934 until 1939.
When the Quarterly resumed publication in 1939, most of the volume was devoted to publishing Almon Harris Thompson’s diary of the 1871-75 explorations of the Colorado Plateau. The last issue for the year included articles on the Orderville United Order. Three issues for 1940 presented Dale L. Morgan’s monograph on the State of Deseret. In 1942 Utah women were highlighted with a lengthy article on Mormon midwives and the memoirs of Alice Parker Isom, a pioneer in Utah’s Dixie.
The decade from 1943 to 1952 brought forth several important diaries and studies including the diary of Father Escalante, Herbert E. Bolton’s study of the Dominguez/Escalante expedition, the Utah War journal of Albert Tracy, the diary of Brigham Young’s brother Lorenzo Dow Young, “Indian Relations on the Mormon Frontier” by Juanita Brooks, articles on John Wesley Powell’s Colorado River expeditions, a history of national parks, and a collection of diaries and articles on immigrant trails across Utah from 1846 to 1850.
In 1952 the journal returned to publication of the four issues on a quarterly basis and starting publishing book reviews and book notices. The Quarterly also began to expand its focus to immigrant history, non-Mormon religious history, and prehistory. In addition, political history received greater attention with articles on Utah presidential elections, county boundaries, political leaders, and the “Mormon Question” (polygamy). Utah’s diverse religious community also found representation in the pages of the Quarterly with articles on Catholic bishop Lawrence Scanlan, the Episcopalian bishop Daniel Tuttle, and the Norwegian-Danish Methodist Mission in Utah.
In 1963 the size of the Quarterly was increased to its present 7 ¼” x 10 3/8” format. Since then, most issues contain an eclectic group of articles. But a number of thematic issues have proven especially popular. These issues have focused on mining, livestock, the transcontinental railroad, John Wesley Powell, women, Greek immigrants, rural Utah, urban Utah, labor and immigrants, architecture, education, folklore, German immigrants, law and justice, the Great Depression of the 1930s, industry, artists and writers, World War I, the Utah State Historical Society, winter sports, and World War II.
The Quarterly Today
2006 will see another special folklore issue. Other upcoming articles include studies on Swiss immigrant/Dixie pioneer Daniel Bonelli, SLC police chief George Sheets, the Lehi Brass Band, the 1940 Utah photographs of Arthur Rothstein, Senator William King and his campaign against Russian Communism, and the first Dutch Mormons in Utah.
Our goals for the Utah Historical Quarterly remain to: (1) present the best studies in Utah history; (2) present the great diversity of Utah history; (3) present untold and little-known aspects of Utah history; (4) examine important topics through the publication of thematic issues and bibliographic essays; (5) provide a forum where the work of academics, independent scholars, lay historians, and students can be presented in the same publication; (6) continue to recognize and assess studies of Utah and the West through book reviews and notices; and (7) maintain the high quality and timeliness of publication that is a hallmark of the Quarterly.
Since its first issue in 1928, the Utah Historical Quarterly has reached thousands of readers who receive it as part of their membership in the Utah State Historical Society. Others read the Quarterly in the many public libraries that receive it, or hear it on audio tapes provided through the Utah State Library for the Blind and Disabled. School students use the Quarterly in their Utah and American history classes; their teachers have access to lesson plans developed from selected articles.
Early Utah State Historical Society members received the Quarterly and other benefits of membership by paying a
two-dollar initiation fee and two dollars in annual dues. While price increases have occurred since then, the current annual dues of $25 for regular members and $20 for students and senior citizens 65 and older provide a great bargain with the four issues of the Utah Historical Quarterly, the annual Utah Preservation magazine and four issues of Currents.
Submit a manuscript; review a book The staff also keeps a list of prospective book reviewers. If you are interested in serving as a book reviewer, please send your name, address, and areas of expertise to Editor, Utah Historical Quarterly, 300 Rio Grande, SLC, Utah 84101. Digital Quarterly! |
The Utah History Research Center is a fertile source for family historians. In fact, the breadth of research possibilities here may surprise you. Check out this list of Utah records available at UHRC:
Birth registers: 1898–1905
Books
Brand registers: useful if a person was involved in livestock
Cemetery records of municipally owned cemeteries, showing plot ownership
Church histories
City directories: Polk directories (starting as early as 1867) may show name, profession, address, where moved, death date, widowhood, etc.
Civil records, such as divorce records
County histories
Court records
Criminal records (felonies, at least)
Death certificates from 1905-1955
Death registers from 1898-1905 (SLC registers 1848–1933)
Incorporation records (prior to 1974): useful if the person was involved in starting a business.
Manuscripts: life histories, letters, diaries, other papers
Maps: Sanborn Fire Insurance maps show footprints of individual buildings and streets
Marriage records: for selected counties
Military records: records of service, conflicts, and discharge
Newspapers on microfilm
Naturalization records
Obituary indexes for the Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, from 1850s-1971
Oral histories
Pamphlets
Periodical and biographies name index
Photographs, including Salt Lake Tribune photos from 1937-1968
Probate records: estates, guardianship, name changes, adoptions (adoption records are sealed for 100 years)
Yearbooks
You can easily see the holdings of the Utah History Research Center at historyresearch.utah.gov. On the menu, click on “Subject Guides.” This incredible resource will tell you exactly what the Utah History Research Center has—and where to look if we don’t have it. It also gives a myriad of research suggestions.
By the way, historyresearch.utah.gov has been recognized by Family Tree magazine as one of the best state websites for genealogists.
You can call 801/533-3535 for more information. The Utah History Research Center is located in the Rio Grande Depot, 300 S. Rio Grande St., SLC, and is open M–F from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Also.... Find your buried ancestors online
The Division of State History’s Cemeteries and Burials Database is a quick, easy-to-use way to find burial information on people buried in Utah. Data from most—but not all—of Utah’s cemeteries are on this database. To use it, go to history.utah.gov and click the “Find It Fast” button.
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Who hasn’t heard of the Oregon, Mormon, or Santa Fe Trails? But what about the “Southern Route,” the wagon trail between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles used by as many as 20,000 travelers—mostly over a 20-year period starting in 1849? This route included the western half of the Old Spanish Trail and was preferred by many because it could be used for travel and freighting year-round. However, it was also the nation’s most difficult wagon road, mainly because of the arid terrain’s inadequate supply of water and livestock feed. Surprisingly, although there was much hardship and suffering on the Southern Route, there was little loss of human life.
Edward Leo Lyman has written a masterful history of this trail, which had a significant impact on Utah in the mid-19th century. Published in 2004 by the University of Nevada Press, The Overland Journey from Utah to California: Wagon Travel from the City of Saints to the City of Angels was a top contender last year for the best book award given by the Utah State Historical Society.
I enjoy trail histories but am constantly humbled by how much I don’t know. Lyman’s book helped me to learn a lot more about an important and fascinating part of Utah and western history about which many of us have been relatively uninformed.
The Overland Journey is an attractive, oversize book with numerous maps, illustrations, and photographs that make it all the more enjoyable. “Based on extensive research in primary sources—including many early travelers’ accounts—and on Lyman’s own investigation of the route and its branches, the book discusses the exploration and development of the Southern Route. The route was used extensively by Mormon missionaries and colonizers of San Bernardino and other communities, mail carriers, soldiers, freighters, and even some world travelers. All of these groups interacted, sometimes violently, with the Native Americans along the trail.
I enjoy good fiction, but given a choice of reading true stories about real people, especially as they struggle with themselves, others, or their environment, I usually choose the latter. There are plenty of these stories in this nearly 300-page book, illustrating the good, bad, and indifferent amongst those who traveled and lived along the Southern Route.
One example is the story of a small party of Mormon packers and others traveling through southeastern Nevada under the direction of Mormon apostle Charles C. Rich. They were short on water, and one of their party offered to “pay any price for a drink”—but got no takers. Another, Henry Bigler, was equally thirsty, and when Rich learned of this, he “unhesitatingly handed over his canteen, instructing the younger man he was welcome to all he wished.” Rich also helped Bigler along the trail by offering the use of his horse when Bigler’s mount gave out.
So, if you’re a trail aficionado, history buff, or just one who enjoys a great read about a fascinating subject, this book is for you.
Curt Bench owns Benchmark Books in Salt Lake City.
Nominate a history hero
Every year, the Utah State Historical Society recognizes the people who greatly contribute to history, preservation, and archaeology in Utah. So many people do so much to make the past a vital of the present—and we want everyone to know of their efforts. So please—take a minute to tell us about the History Heroes you know. You can find a nomination form online at history.utah.gov, or call 801/533-5300 for a form or information. The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2006.
Call for papers
The Utah State Historical Society has issued a call for paper and session proposals for its annual meeting to be held September 14–15. Papers and sessions can deal with prehistory, history, historic preservation, archives, collections, oral history, folklore, and related topics.
Send a one- or two-page proposal to Kent Powell, USHS, 300 Rio Grande, SLC Utah 84101, no later than April 30, 2006. Please include a brief description of the paper or presentation and research base as well as a brief biographical profile of the presenter. Proposals can also be e-mailed to kpowell@utah.gov.
A dissenting opinion
Last issue we printed an article on discrimination in Utah, describing how Louis Armstrong was once denied a room at the Hotel Utah. But Phyllis Steorts remembered it differently. Steorts, who began a long career at the hotel in the 1950s, sent us an article she wrote several years ago. According to the article, shortly after she began working at the Hotel Utah, a party called to make a reservation for 35 rooms that same night, because mechanical problems had grounded their private plane.
“The group entered the west entrance carrying luggage and instruments, obviously tired and disgusted,” she wrote. “It took but a few seconds to recognize the entire Louis Armstrong band…. What fun it was. In the three days it took to repair the plane, employees and guests were amazed. Who’d ever expect to meet up with such well-known personalities in little old Salt Lake City, least of all the Hotel Utah. They didn’t sequester themselves in privacy as some have done but visited with everyone throughout their stay.
“Now, if you recall it differently, forget it. This is my story and I remember it as if it were yesterday.”
We appreciate any and all comments! If you have more information on this topic, please contact Kristen Rogers at 801/533-3542 or krogers@utah.gov.
A new award: for a student paper on Utah women’s history
In order to encourage new scholarly research in the area of Utah women’s history at colleges and universities the Utah State Board of History has approved a new award that will be presented for the first time at the Utah State Historical Society annual meeting in September 2006. The award is named after Helen Z. Papanikolas (1917-2004), a former Fellow of the Utah State Historical Society. Papanikolas was most noted for her research and writing of Utah and ethnic history but also wrote fiction as well as women’s history.
The award is being primarily funded with royalties from the sale of Women in Utah History: Paradigm or Paradox? edited by Patricia Lyn Scott and Linda Thatcher. To be considered for the award, the author must be enrolled at a university or college, and the submitted paper must address some historical aspect of women’s lives in Utah. Papers need not be published, but they should include original research into primary sources and be footnoted. Submit the papers to Linda Thatcher, Division of State History, 300 Rio Grande, SLC, Utah 84101 by July 1, 2006. If you have any questions, please contact Linda at (801) 533-3574 or lthatcher@utah.gov.
Happy birthday, National Historic Preservation Act!
Forty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Historic Preservation Act. That pen stroke has helped make preservation a vital part of public life.
According to the American Council for Historic Preservation, the public’s mushrooming support for preservation has many causes. “Some desire a tangible sense of permanence and community, while others wish to know about and embrace America’s heritage in a direct and personally meaningful way.”
People recognize that “historic districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects [enhance] their quality of life, adding variety and texture to the cultural landscape in which they live and work.” (see www.achp.gov/pubs.html)
Utah has benefited from this Act through preservation within business districts, neighborhoods, and heritage destinations.
Happy birthday, American Antiquities Act!
In 1906, Congress passed the first major piece of legislation aimed at protecting archaeological sites and artifacts on federal land. At the time, artifact hunters had looted archaeological sites throughout the Southwest. The Antiquities Act authorized legitimate archaeologists to study sites by permit, but it made it illegal for non-permitted people to take or destroy artifacts and sites on federal lands. This Act has helped save prehistoric sites and artifacts—along with scientific knowledge about them—for future generations.
You can learn more about archaeology in Utah at history.utah.gov.
The only constant is change
Jim Dykman, cultural resources coordinator; Sharon Odekirk, curator; and Mary Peach, web guru, have all retired from the Division of State History. We miss them greatly!
New staffers have joined us, and we’re glad to have them: Arie Leeflang as assistant archaeological records manager and Matt Seddon as cultural resources coordinator.
Utah Executive Transportation and Environmental Council
The Utah State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) is a charter member of the new Utah Executive Transportation and Environmental Council. SHPO’s involvement is important because of the impact that transportation projects may have on the state’s cultural resources.
The council will facilitate communication, cooperation, and collaboration on transportation-related environmental issues, opportunities, and concerns.
In addition to SHPO, members of the council include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Transit Administration, Federal Highway Administration, Utah Department of Environmental Quality, Utah Department of Natural Resources, Utah Transit Authority, and Utah Department of Transportation.
Grind corn. Throw an atlatl at an Ice Age animal. Make “rock art” or a fashion a Fremont-style figurine. You can jump into Utah’s unique prehistory at our annual Prehistory Week Open House. We’ll have music, tours of the state archaeology lab, a plethora of prehistory activities, Navajo tacos for sale, and demonstrations of skills like beading and flintknapping. The open house will be held on May 6, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Rio Grande Depot, 300 S. Rio Grande St., SLC.
The next weekend, you can take a tour of the amazing Danger Cave, which was occupied by humans as early as 11,000 years ago. The state archaeologists will be leading free tours of Danger and Jukebox caves (near Wendover) on May 13 and 14. Group size is limited, so call Ron Rood at 801/533-3564 for reservations.
We don’t have room to list all the exciting activities being held throughout the state for Utah Prehistory Week. But you can find a calendar on history.utah.gov. Or call Renae Weder at 801/533-3529 for more information.
| Where’s That At?* | *CAREFUL, KIDS!! Don't try this sentence at home! It's bad grammar. |
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Spring Puzzler
Identify the historic building in this photo and win a copy of Utah’s Historic Architecture 1847-1940: A Guide, by Thomas Carter and Peter Goss. Send your response (one guess per contestant) to Where’s That At, 300 S. Rio Grande, Salt Lake City, UT 84101. Responses must be postmarked by April 15, 2006. A drawing will be held of the winners to determine who receives the book.
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Answer to Winter Puzzler
The historic structure shown in the Winter 2005 Where's That At? is the George Hotel, located in Kanosh. Originally built as a private residence in 1887, the house was converted to a hotel in 1900. Since its inception as a hotel, the building has been a central feature of community activities. The building is architecturally significant as a fine vernacular example of the Gothic Revival style in an isolated settlement.
The following contestant correctly identified the building: J.W. Vande Merwe, North Salt Lake (and current owner of the George Hotel). Mr. Vande Merwe won a copy of Utah's Historic Architecture 1847-1940: A Guide, by Thomas Carter and Peter Goss.
Pioneer Park, Salt Lake City
a photo essay
Within a week of their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers began to build a fort at what is now Pioneer Park (the block south and west of 300 W. 300 S.). On September 1 they finished an adobe wall—7 feet high and 3 feet thick—and moved inside. Church leaders built log houses along the east side of the wall; everyone else built houses of adobe along the inside of the wall. But even the log houses had roofs made of willows and mud—and during rainstorms they leaked as much as the adobe homes did.
The pioneers lived inside the fort until they could build structures on their assigned city lots. Here in the fort, the foundations of the new settlement were laid. As A. R. Mortensen wrote, “The first settlement, the first houses, the first government, the first division of the city into its ecclesiastical wards, the reorganization of the First Presidency of the LDS Church, and a host of other firsts took place right here.”
Community activities were held in the fort’s log cabins or in the central bowery. The first school classes in Utah were taught by Mary Jane Dilworth in October 1847 in a tent outside the fort, but in November a log school was finished inside the fort.
After the first pioneers moved to permanent houses, the area became a campground for new immigrants, and it continued to be an important symbol of the Mormon settlement of the Salt Lake Valley.
On July 24, 1898, Pioneer Park became an official city park. Beautification of the park began and is still an ongoing issue today. Through the decades, several development ideas have been proposed. However, no decisions have been made, and various issues remain unresolved. Among those who gather here are wanderers and homeless, farmers’ market crowds, festival-goers, and downtown workers on lunch break.
Julie Osborne made an interesting statement when she wrote, “Something about this site continues to draw to it people who are seeking to find their way” (from Beehive History 22).
Susan Whetstone is photo curator for the Utah Division of State History. All images are from State History collections.
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Pioneer Park with the Denver & Rio Grande Depot in the distance, March 22, 1910. Shipler Collection. |
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Pioneer Park on May 10, 1911. Notice the young trees, which are now large, beautiful features of the park. Shipler Collection. |
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A pool and playground that are no longer in the park. The photo was taken on September 1, 1911 (probably Labor Day). |
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Boys play in a pool at the park on the same day. (Notice that only girls are in the water in the photo above.) |
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A map of the old Pioneer Fort, compiled by Nicholas Morgan. |
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Pioneer Park playgrounds, Sept. 1, 1911. Shipler Collection. |
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Festivities in Pioneer Park during Pioneer Days, July 23, 1911. Shipler Collection. |
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Music class with children in the park, August 12, 1920. Shipler Collection |