This year’s winner is Sara Dant for “Driving Utah’s Rivers: Working Water in the West,” published in the Spring 2022 issue. In this article, Sara Dant presents an extensively researched history of log drives along the Weber River and other waterways. A regional market for timber grew in the final decades of the nineteenth century, stimulated by the development of railroads and mines. Entrepreneurs answered this demand by cutting thousands of trees in mountain forests and driving them down river to their next destination. Dant’s careful scholarship establishes the importance of this industry, with its many financial and environmental results.

CHARLES REDD CENTER FOR WESTERN STUDIES AWARD | Awarded to the best general interest article appearing in the Utah Historical Quarterly.

NICK YENGICH MEMORIAL EDITOR'S CHOICE AWARD | Awarded to the Utah Historical Quarterly article selected by the editors as their choice for the year.

This year’s winner is Rebecca Andersen for “Bound to the Land: Cove Fort in Kesler Family History and Memory,” published in Spring 2022. In this beautifully written article, Rebecca Anderson draws on oral histories to tell the story of the Kesler family and their relationship with Cove Fort. When William Kesler arrived at the Millard County landmark in 1903, it was almost a ruin. But over the course of the twentieth century, generations of Keslers renovated and cared for Cove Fort and the land it occupied, using it as a ranch, way station, and destination for tourists. Andersen contextualizes the Keslers’ experience within the broader changes of the twentieth century as the family tried to maintain their way of life.

LEROY S. AXLAND BEST UTAH HISTORY ARTICLE | Awarded to the best Utah history article not published in Utah Historical Quarterly.

Awarded to Jennifer L. Lund for “I am not considered much of a polygamist”: Sarah Peterson Lund Writes to Her Missionary Husband,” published in the Journal of Mormon History, 48, no. 2 (in 2022). Sarah Peterson Lund may have written about polygamy to her husband, Anthon H. Lund, in a flippant way, but beneath her jokes was a deep lack of confidence. So establishes Jennifer L. Lund in this article, which carefully analyzes the letters between “Sanie” and her missionary husband. Jennifer Lund drew on the experiences of Sanie, her mother, and other women in the community to understand this anxiety and the outlook for faithful Latter-day Saint women who sent their husbands on missions without knowing if they would return with another wife.