Category Archives: Tooele

Donner-Reed Memorial Museum and Early Bldgs.

Published May 4, 2022 / by Alex Mower / Leave a Comment
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Write-Up by Alex Mower

Placed By: Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association (Now overseen by the Sons of Utah Pioneers)

GPS Coordinates: (40.6019445, -112.4738719)

Historical Marker Text:

This property was within the walls of the Willow Creek Fort, (Grantsville), which was built shortly after the first white settlers arrived. The main building was erected in 1852. J. Reuben Clark II purchased the property in later years and restored the building. The site was eventually donated to Grantsville City for use as a museum. The log cabin and blacksmith shop were placed here in later years.

            This museum is named for the Donner-Reed Party. In 1846 they stopped at nearby Twenty Wells to let their animals rest and gain strength before continuing their ill fated trip. While crossing the Salt Desert they lost many wagons and other belongings on the mud flats east of Pilot Mountain. The hardships suffered in Utah delayed their journey. Winter overtook them in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, resulting in their well known catastrophe. Some of the articles left by the Donner-Reed Party are displayed in the museum, along with other pioneer and Indian relics.

            This monument contains cornerstones and markers from early Grantsville buildings. Refurbishment of the area began July 1975 and was completed July 1976. Funds were from Utah American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and Grantsville City Corporation.

Extended Research:

            The highly publicized story of the ill-fated Donner-Reed Party is one of America’s truly great cautionary tales. Having left the midwest en route to California in the spring of 1846 for greater economic opportunity, the group of pioneers officially set out on the dangerous journey many other Americans would attempt both before and after them.[1] Taking direction from Lansford Hastings’ The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California, a guide written more based on theory than experience, the group set off for the west, utilizing a “shortcut” through Utah and the Salt Desert. After delays forced them to winter high atop the Sierra Nevada mountains, the group was compelled to resort to cannibalism to survive.

Donner-Reed Party Artifacts

While no one in the group participated in cannibalism while they traveled across Utah, many of the delays the party incurred were the direct result of the group’s decision to blaze the “shortcut” through the Salt Lake Valley and forge their way through the muddy trenches of the Salt Desert.[2] Over ten days in 1846, the Donner-Reed Party created and navigated a road through Emigration Canyon that Mormon pioneers traveled through and enhanced the next year when they entered the valley for the first time.[3] After navigating the canyons, the group endured more delays in the Salt Desert, setting them even further behind on their journey west. On the salt flats, the Donner-Reed Party left behind material goods like wagon parts, animal equipment, and gun fragments. These artifacts now reside at the Donner-Reed Memorial Museum.

The “Old Adobe Schoolhouse”

            The building housing the artifacts has served many different purposes over the years. Known locally as the “Old Adobe Schoolhouse ” it was, unsurprisingly, originally built as a school. It was later adapted to function as a meetinghouse for religious services before eventually serving as the town’s city hall and jail from 1894 to 1917.[4] The building was then sold by Emma Burmester to J. Reuben Clark, Jr. in 1941, who gifted the building for use for meetings by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.[5] In 1969 the building came under the ownership of Grantsville City. It then began its life as a museum, and the home of many pioneer artifacts, including but not limited to those of the famed Donner-Reed Party.[6] The building has become a landmark for the community, and was added to the National Register as a Utah Historic Site in 1995.

Museum Contents

            Inside the museum, patrons can view a wide array of Donner-Reed and other pioneer relics. From guns to wagon remnants, artifacts in the museum tell a story of cost and loss for the Donner-Reed Party as they traveled across the salt flats, and it was possibly the most costly leg of the journey before the group would make it to the Sierra Nevada mountains, as the group experienced many delays in the Salt Desert. Not only was the desert larger than they had anticipated, it also proved more difficult to traverse than expected. On the Salt Desert, with water and grass all but impossible to acquire, the group was forced to abandon several wagons and lost an estimated 36 oxen.[7] Because of the Salt Desert’s “mud that never dries,” the Donner’s “Pioneer Palace Car” embedded itself and its wheels deep in the desert floor, and was left behind; it was one of many wagons that would reach the same demise in the desert.[8]

            The delays in both the Salt Lake Valley as well as the Salt Desert would contribute directly to the group’s late arrival to the Sierra Nevada mountain passes, which would ultimately lead to so many of their unfortunate and untimely deaths. The artifacts found in the museum help to ground one of the nation’s most hazardous tales to its connection to the state of Utah, and highlights the role played by the environment of the state in the tale of the Donner-Reed Party.

For Further Reference:

Primary Sources:

Hastings, Lansford Warren, Newberry Library, and Adam Matthew Digital. The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California : Containing Scenes and Incidents of a Party of Oregon Emigrants; a Description of Oregon : Scenes and Incidents of a Party of California Emigrants; and a Description of California; with a Description of the Different Routes to Those Countries; and All Necessary Information Relative to the Equipment, Supplies, and the Method of Traveling. Selected Americana from Sabin’s Dictionary of Books Relating to America. Unit 170 ; Fiches 14,252-14,253. 1845.

Secondary Sources:

Hardesty, Donald L. The Archaeology Of The Donner Party. Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History and Humanities. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997.

Hawkins, Bruce R., and Madsen, David B. Excavation of the Donner-Reed Wagons : Historic Archaeology along the Hastings Cutoff. Paper ed. 1999.

Johnson, Kristin. 1996. Unfortunate Emigrants. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press.

McGill, Sara Ann. Donner Party. 2009.

National Register of Historic Places Registration: Grantsville School and Meetinghouse https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/95001432_text

Stookey, Walter M., 1869. Fatal Decision : The Tragic Story of the Donner Party. Utah: Desert Book Company, 1950, 1950.

Spedden, Rush. The Donner Trail across the Salt Lake Valley. 2008.

All photos taken by Alex Mower

[1] McGill, Sara Ann. Donner Party. 2009.

[2] Hardesty, Donald. The Archaeology Of The Donner Party. Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History and Humanities. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997. P. 10

[3] Spedden, Rush. The Donner Trail across the Salt Lake Valley. 2008.

[4] National Register of Historic Places Registration: Grantsville School and Meetinghouse https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/95001432_text

[5] National Register of Historic Places Registration: Grantsville School and Meetinghouse https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/95001432_text

[6] National Register of Historic Places Registration: Grantsville School and Meetinghouse https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/95001432_text

[7] Hawkins, Bruce R., and Madsen, David B. Excavation of the Donner-Reed Wagons : Historic Archaeology along the Hastings Cutoff. Paper ed. 1999. And Johnson, Kristin. 1996. Unfortunate Emigrants. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. P. 143

[8] Stookey, Walter M., 1869. Fatal Decision : The Tragic Story of the Donner Party. Utah: Desert Book Company, 1950, 1950. P. 99 And Donald L Hardesty. The Archaeology Of The Donner Party. Wilbur S. Shepperson Series in History and Humanities. Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1997. P. 5

Benson Grist Mill

Published May 3, 2022 / by Dean Church / Leave a Comment
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Write-up by Dean Church

Placed by: The Benson Grist Mill Restoration Volunteer Committee

GPS Coordinates: N 40° 39.033 W 112° 17.834

Historical Marker Text:

BENSON GRIST MILL In 1850 L.D.S. Church Apostle, Ezra Taft Benson, was authorized by President Brigham Young to develop a mill site at Twin Springs Creek to serve Mormon communities in Tooele County. In 1851 a sawmill commenced operating and in 1854 the Lee brothers, skilled pioneer artisans, were hired to build the mill. The mill’s large mortised timbers were hauled by team and wagon from the nearby Oquirrh Mountains. 

In 1855 the millsite community became known as “Richville” and served as the County Seat until 1861, when Tooele City was designated. 

In 1860 the “E.T. Benson Flour Mill” had one male employee and one run of millstones which produced 1,200 barrels of flour, 72,000 pounds of bran and 56,000 pounds of corn meal, together valued at $17,000. In the same year, Brigham Young acquired the mill, when E.T. Benson moved to Cache Valley. 

By 1862, the mill was referred to as “Young and Rowberry’s,” Bishop John Rowberry being an early resident of the Milltown (Richville) area. The mill that year reportedly processed 200 bushels of wheat per day under a 250 horsepower capacity. 

In 1922, J. Reuben Clark, Jr. (A U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and later an apostle in the Mormon church) purchased the mill. Earlier it’s original wooden waterwheel and millstones had been replaced by a metal turbine and imported free-standing “grain breakers.” After finally ceasing flour-milling operations in 1938, the mill was used several years for grinding animal feed. 

A volunteer committee was organized in 1983 to acquire and restore the historic mill, which was donated by Terracor Corp. to Tooele County. 

Photo Credit: J. Willard Marriott Digital Library (accessed on 3.2.22)

Extended Research:

Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, the original founder of the mill, was one of the first to arrive in Utah alongside Brigham Young’s pioneer company in 1847. After arriving in Utah, he was shortly sent back to Missouri where he helped prepare more Latter-day Saints for the trip to Utah.[1] He stayed in Missouri for two years until he eventually made his permanent move to the Salt Lake Valley in 1849. Ezra Benson would then help settle what we now call the Tooele Valley.

Cyrus Tolman is also important in this early history of the Benson Mill, as according to local history Tolman brought a load of straw and shingle timbers to Brigham Young to show the natural resources located in Tooele Valley.[2] This helped convince Brigham Young to sign off on milling and timber rights to Ezra Benson, Anson Call, Josiah Call, and Judson Tolman. In return these men promised to help develop roads to the new facilities. Due to the rich supply of timber, and grain grown by early settlers, milling operations were quickly attracted to the Tooele Valley

Benson hired brothers Cyrus and Judson Tolman, along with millwright Phineas Wright to find locations for mills and to begin construction. New Settlers to the area built their first homes around Benson’s sawmill in an area they called Settlement Canyon. These shelters were quickly abandoned, as a “Fort” was created due to hostilities with nearby Native Americans.[3] 

Latter-day Saint carpenter Thomas Lee and his brothers constructed the Benson gristmill in 1854. John Rowberry supervised construction and then maintained the mill for the owners, a group of people that included Rowberry, Ezra Benson, Benjamin Crosland, and other church leaders.[4] 

Settlers relied heavily on the Benson Mill in its early years, with reports describing workers there grinding as many as 6,000 bushels of wheat, 1,000 bushes of corn, and 228,000 pounds of flour.[5] To the right is an ad in the Deseret News written in 1857 advertising the Benson Gristmill. It mentions short notice grinding at any time of the year.[6]

Deseret News, 11 March 1857, 7.

Ownership of the Mill has changed several times throughout the decades. In 1860, Ezra Benson sold off his two-thirds share to Brigham Young. Young’s brother Lorenzo was interested in the mill and constructed an adobe home across from it. A conflicting story reports that Ezra Benson acquired sole ownership of the mill in 1866. It is thought that this was done in order to protect the ownership of the mill in behalf of the LDS church, as around this time the Church was being investigated by the federal government for polygamy.[7]

J. Reuben Clark Jr., an apostle in the LDS church, then purchased the Gristmill in 1922. Alterations were made to the mill including exchanging its original wooden waterwheel for a metal turbine, and its millstones were replaced with “imported free-standing ‘grain breakers’”. It ran all the way until the 1940’s, being used for grinding animal feed. Terracor, a land development company, then acquired the Gristmill. For roughly 40 years the mill sat abandoned until Terracor donated the building to Tooele County. 

The Benson Grist Mill Restoration Volunteer Committee created by Jack Smith, and consisting of members Wayne Shields, Boyd and Ouida Blanthorn, Ray Court, Bob and Marilyn Shields, Douglas Smith and Maxine Grimm, worked hard to return the Gristmill to its current condition. Today, the mill is used as a setting for field trips, weddings, reunions, and other social gatherings. “The site, complete with covered picnic tables, has become a virtual village as well as a roadside park. It hosts a replica miller’s house, historic cabins, a granary, a large barn and all manner of other buildings, plus several wagons.”[8]

[1] Ezra Benson, “Ezra Taft Benson, 1811-1869,” Autobiography of Ezra T. Benson (1811-1869), accessed April 8, 2022, http://boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/ETBenson.html

[2] Ouida Nuhn Blanthorn, A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historical Society, 1998), 70-72.

[3] Ouida Nuhn Blanthorn, A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historical Society, 1998), 70.

[4] Ouida Nuhn Blanthorn, A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historical Society, 1998), 73.

[5] Ouida Nuhn Blanthorn, A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historical Society, 1998), 226-227.

[6] “Grinding, Grinding,” Deseret News, 11 March 1857, 7.

[7] Ouida Nuhn Blanthorn, A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historical Society, 1998), 73-74. 

[8]  Ray Boren, “The Benson Grist Mill Is a Rugged Monument to a Dynamic Pioneer Past,” Deseret News, 17 May 2012.

For Further Reference: 

Primary Sources: 

Benson, Ezra. “Ezra Taft Benson, 1811-1869.” Autobiography of Ezra T. Benson (1811-1869). Accessed April 8, 2022. http://boap.org/LDS/Early-Saints/ETBenson.html

“Grinding, Grinding,” Deseret News, 11 March 1857, 7.

Secondary Sources:

Blanthorn, Ouida Nuhn. A History of Tooele County. Salt Lake City, UT, Utah: Utah State Historical Society, 1998. 

Boren, Ray. “The Benson Grist Mill is a Rugged Monument to a Dynamic Pioneer Past.” Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 17, 2012. 

Iosepa Settlement Cemetery

Published May 2, 2022 / by Cooper Bolton / Leave a Comment
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Write-up and photos by Cooper Bolton

Placed by: Iosepa Historical Society

GPS Coordinates: 40°32’31.5″N 112°44’00.7″W

Historical Marker Text (1):

This hallowed place was dedicated on August 28, 1890 by President Wilford Woodruff for all the nations in the isles of the seas, the Polynesian pioneers, their descendants and the faithful church leaders who left their home in the mid 1800’s and migrated to this gathering place in Zion to be married in the holy temple for time and eternity.

   For 28 years (1889 – 1917) Iosepa was their home. In spite of the climate, isolation, loneliness, sickness, hardship, and death, their faith and courage never faltered. They overcame the cold winter, the summer heat, enjoyed the new life of spring and the bounteous harvest of the fall.

Their native songs and dances filled this beautiful valley, which they made “bloom as a rose” with love and aloha. A few remained in Utah, some on this consecrated spot, while the rest returned home to their beloved isles of the sea. The seeds of our Polynesian pioneers bore fruit in Hawaii – the Laie Temple, Brigham Young University – Hawaii, and the Polynesian Cultural Center. Holy temples stand firm in New Zealand, Western Samoa, Tonga, and Tahiti as monuments to the testimonies of the faithful Polynesian pioneers. We close this memory with their song of love:

Iosepa kuu home aloha

Iosepa kuahiwi ika nani

Iosepa ka home no ka’oi

Iosepa my home of love

Iosepa with it’s beautiful mountains

Iosepa my best home

DONORS

THE FIRST PRESIDENCY OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS PRESIDENT EZRA TAFT BENSON • GORDON B. HINCKLEY • THOMAS S. MONSON • PRINCESS ABIGAIL KEKAULIKE KAWANANAKOA • POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER LAIE, HAWAII – BOARD OF DIRECTORS & EMPLOYEES • IOSEPA HISTORICAL SOCIETY LAIE, HAWAII • IOSEPA HISTORICAL ASSN, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH • AL HARRINGTON FAMILY & FOUNDATION • RIVERTON 6TH WARD A.P.Y.M. + Y.W. 1988-89 • SKULL VALLEY RANCH CO. & EMPLOYEES • ZIONS SECURITIES CORP., LAIE, HAWAII • SALT LAKE MONUMENT CO. – MIKE ELLERBECK + FAMILY • MONTEREY SCULPTURE CENTER – CHARLES L. FISCHER • SCULPTOR–DR. JAN G. FISHER • HISTORIAN – DR. DENNIS ATKINS • ELDON P. & RUTH J. MORRELL • NORMAN & NANCY SWALLIE & CHILDREN RALPH & BETTY A. MAUGHAN & FAMILY • BERNICE W. THOMAS • IRMA W. MACDONALD MALU & CUMA S. HOOPIIAINA • JOSIAH, GEORGE, WILLIAM & CAROLINE HUBBELL & OHANA • ANDREW, FLORENCE, LOTTIE + JOHN KAMAUOHA & OHANA • EDWIN LEROY & TUSIPEPA KAMAUOHA & CHILDREN • LEROY PUKAHI + MALEKA MAHIAI + CHILDREN • LU & SCULLY ROGERS • GEORGE, WILLARD, BARBARA & CLIFFORD KEKAUOHA OHANA • WILLIAM AH QUIN & MABEL POEPOE & CHLN. • ANNIE KANAHELE TAUA & CHLN. • MARGARET K. LOPES VANAMAN + CHLN. • ELWOOD K. ALAPA & CECELIA HO’A • DESCENDANTS OF CLARENCE H. ALAPA, EDITH L. ALAPA, TUIA (OUR MOTHER) OHANA OF KUAHUA & KAAU A. FRANK & LA VINH MOELLER • CRAIG PETERSON • MARIE, MATILDA & STAN ALAPA OHANA • RALPH AND EMMA MAKAIAU & CHILDREN • LUCY PUKAHI AND WALTER TASHIRO & CHILDREN • MAGGIE BROAD & WILLIAM WALLACE OHANA • JOHN NAUAHI • LARRY AU + W. M. J. HART • CHARLES & HANNAH HALLIWELL & OHANA • WILLIAM J. AND PATRICIA CLARK • REP. LEE & BERNICE ALLEN

National Register

Utah Historic Site

IOSEPA SETTLEMENT CEMETERY

The Iosepa Community developed after Polynesian converts to the Mormon faith were employed as laborers by the Iosepa Agriculture and Stock Company in 1889. After numerous hardships, including bouts with leprosy, the colony attained a degree of financial independence and its population reached 228. In 1915 when the L.D.S. Church began to build the Hawaiian Temple, the need for “gathering” subsided. The Iosepa project was allowed to end and most of the settlers and their children returned to the Islands by 1917.

Division of State History N-38

Historical Marker Text (2):

ADMINISTRATION

HARVEY H. CLUFF 1889-1890 & 1893-1900

WILLIAM KING 1890-1892

THOMAS A. WADDOUPS 1901-1917

ORIGINAL SETTLERS

HARVEY H. CLUFF • FREDERICK A. MITCHELL • ELIHUE BARELL • FRANK W. MARCHANT • FRANCIS M. LYMAN, JR. • JOHN W. KAULAINAMOKU • KAPUKINI KAULAINAMOKU • JOHN MAKAULA • MARIA MAKAULA • KAPELA • CHARLES NAAU • JANE NAAU • EMILY S. NAAU • HAIKI • MOKE KALIMA • OLIVA ALAPA • JOSEPH KEKUKU • MILIAMA KEKUKU • HATTIE KEKUKU • IVY KEKUKU • VIOLA KEKUKU • EDWIN KEKUKU • PETER KEALAKAIHOUNA • PELEKANE KEALAKAIHOUNA • KAHAIANA KEALAKAIHOUNA • PETEROPIO KEALAKAIHOUNA • PIIPIILANI SOLAMONA • MOSES SOLAMONA • MAKAOPIOPIO • WILLIAM COLES • JOHN MAHUALII • ELIZABETH MAHUNALII • KALAWAI • KAPAINUI • JOHN K. N. MAHOE • HANAH MAHOE • LUCY MAHOE • DAVID MOKUILIMA • HOOKAIA MOKUILIMA • MARY MOKUILIMA • DAVID MOKUILIMA JR. • JOHN MAKAKAO • LUCY E. MAKAKAO • JOSEPH KEKUKU • WILLIAM K. HALEMANY • ELLEN HALEMANU • JAMES HALEMANU • JONATHAN NAPELA • MOCHAHO NAPELA • H. NAPELA • GEORGE KAMAKANIAU • V. MAHUNALII • KEALOHANIO KAMAKANIAU • GEORGE W. NIAU • HARVEY ALAPA • N. POMARIKAI

Here lie the honored Polynesian pioneers who have sealed their testimonies in the dust, that God lives, Jesus is the Christ, all the presidents of the church are prophets of God, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.

There are 79 graves in the cemetery. Only the names listed below are recorded. The rest are unknown, honored souls.

HARVEY O. ALAPA • MARY KAHOOHIG ALAPA • JOE ANTONE DRUMONDA • WILLIAM S. FREESTONE • PETER N. GEORGE • DORA KAILIAHI HALEMANU • EDWIN IOBA HALEMANY • EMMA PURCELL HALEMANU • GEORGE DELAWARE HALEMANU • MARIAH IHUNA HALEMANU • MATILDA KAMEHAILILANI HALEMANU • WILLIAM NIEWALANI HALEMANU • LEVI HANAKAEA • NAPAPALE HALEKAEU • CLARA KALIMAHII MAHOE HOOPIIAINA • CONNIE HOOPIIAINA • JOHN HOOPIIAINA • DAVID HALEAKALA HUBBELL • ELIZABETH KAAHU HAILI HUBBELL • JULIA KAAHU KAWAHINEKAWAI HUBBELL • EDWARD APUA IMAIKALANI • HARVEY K. IMAIKALANI • MARY POMAIKAI IMAIKALANI • JOSEPH K. O. KAIHIWAI • MARJORIE LAIE KAILIKEA • JOHN K. KAINI • KAPAINUI KALAVAO • JOHN KAMAUOHA • JOHN W. KAULEINAMOKU • EMILY KEALAKAIHOUNA • KEALAULA KEALOHA PAUOLA • HOSEA NAHINU OPIO KEKAUOHA JR. • MAKAOPIOPIO • JOHN. H. MAKAULA • MARIA K. MAKAULA • MOSES NAKUAAU • NAPAPALE • CECELIA NAWAHINI • ISAAC KEAHI NAWAHINI • MARTHA KAHOKUWAHILANI NAWAHINI • LEHI PAAHAO • BESSIE PETERS • ANNIE HULIA PUKAHI • SAMUEL KAUIHOU PUKAH • MARIA PAKAIAH MAKAIAU • KALEHUA MAKANOE • KEEPA MAKEHAU

PROJECT COORDINATOR – EDWIN L. KAMAUOHA

BUILT BY WILLING HANDS AND LOVING HEARTS

Historical Marker Text (3):

IOSEPA

HISTORICAL

SOCIETY

TIME CAPSULE

OPEN 28 AUGUST 1990

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2015

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2040

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2065

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2090

OPEN 28 AUGUST 2115

Historical Marker Text (4):

This lonely fire hydrant serves as a landmarker for the townsite of Iosepa, Utah, located on the desert floor between Cedar Mountain & the Stansbury Range in Skull Valley. Iosepa was named after Joseph F. Smith, 6th. President of the L.D.S. church. About 50 Hawaiians left Salt Lake City via Garfield by train, then by 20 wagons, to Grantsville, spent the night, arriving in Iosepa August 28, 1889.

The public square consisted of 16.9 acres, with 4 center streets, 132 ft. wide on four sides of the town park. A row of trees were planted in the center of each street. All the other streets were 66 feet wide and the blocks were divided into 4 lots, each containing ¾ acres.

All the streets had Hawaiian names. The original purchase consisted of 1,920 acres, of which 200 were under cultivation, the next two years accumulated to 5,273 acres. The water came from five streams collected in an open ditch put into a concrete conduit that furnished culinary water to each home. A fire hydrant and irrigation ditch went with each lot. The cemetery, about ½ acre, is located a mile northeast of the settlement. Iosepa won the state prize in 1911 for the best kept town and most progressive city in the state of Utah.

Only the Hoopiiaina family and J. Palikapee Nawahine remained in Utah. The rest returned home to Hawaii to settle and help build the Laie temple (1917-1919). Iosepa returned to dust, leaving a heritage of the faithful Polynesian pioneers, and closed a chapter in the great western American history.

IOSEPA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

EDWIN L. KAMAUOHA OHANA

PLAQUE & MARKER DONATED BY REX & PHYLLIS CROSLAND MAY 28, 1990

HOOPIIAINA OHANA

MALU, CUMA, WILFORD, CLIFFORD, CORY

Extended Research:

The Iosepa settlement was established by and for the Polynesian (mainly Hawaiian) members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which wished to live in Utah. It was founded with the arrival of 56 settlers to the site on August 28, 1889 and was abandoned by 1917.1 The town was settled out of a desire to relocate Polynesians in Salt Lake City to somewhere outside of the city. This was spurred on growing animosity towards Polynesians which was largely the result of controversy over Polynesian applications for American citizenship as well as fears over a rumored leprosy outbreak among native Hawaiians.2

Iosepa residents pickup up goods at Timpie Station
Photo Credit: Utah State Historical Society (accessed on 3.2.22)

The colony was originally settled as a joint stock company incorporated as the Iosepa Agriculture and Stock Company, being owned by the L.D.S. Church. Harvey H. Cluff was the president of the corporation and manager of the company, while a person by the name of I. W. Kauleinamoku was the leader of the Polynesian Mormons. The land was dedicated by then L.D.S. Church President Wilford Woodruff on August 28, 1890, exactly one year after colonization, as a “gathering place for the natives of the islands of the sea.” Contrary to the story told on the marker, Iosepa was not self-sustaining and relied heavily on the L.D.S. Church to cover expenses, likely due to its isolation (The closest settlement to Iosepa, Milton, was about 40 miles away. After 1906, Timpie Station, a station at which trains stopped only if signaled to do so, was established, but it was still roughly 15 miles north of Iosepa). Furthermore, the colony saw a number of crop failures due to the climate of the region. This, combined with the scorching heat of summer, the freezing cold of winter, and disease took a massive toll on the settlers.3

Iosepa residents in front of one of the original homes
Photo Credit: Utah State Historical Society (accessed on 3.2.22)

Despite these setbacks, life in Iosepa was reportedly pleasant. The L.D.S. Church was incredibly important to the colony and as such, the residents followed a schedule of annual holidays, including their own version of Pioneer Day, celebrated on August 28, and Church leaders visited the colony often. The diversity of cultures in the settlers could be seen especially in their festivities. Settlers prepared traditional Hawaiian food which was eaten alongside Euro-American food and eventually, the practices of the colony became unique in Utah while differing greatly from their Polynesian origins.

Welcome sign outside Iosepa cemetery

The people of Iosepa also made the education of all residents a priority, eventually hiring a teacher from outside the town. Additionally, the town was designed to provide enough space for everyone as well as to make freshwater available in every home.4 This can be seen in the townsite plat that was filed at the Tooele County Courthouse on July 31, 1908 based on the original townsite survey conducted by Frederick A. Mitchell and Francis M. Lyman.5

The historical marker within the Iosepa cemetery was dedicated on August 28, 1989, 100 years after the town’s founding, by then L.D.S. Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. All that remains of the settlement is the cemetery and a fire hydrant. The settlement reached a peak population of 228 in 1915 but was gradually depopulated as the L.D.S. Church began to build the Laie Temple in Hawaii and most of Iosepa’s residents chose to return to Oahu to assist in the Temple’s construction.6

[1] Dennis H. Atkins, “A History of Iosepa, the Utah Polynesian Colony,” 1958

[2] Matthew Kester, “Race, Religion, and Citizenship in Mormon Country: Native Hawaiians in Salt Lake City, 1869-1889,” Western Historical Quarterly 40, no. 1 (2009), 52; Matthew Kester, Remembering Iosepa: History, Place, and Religion in the American West (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013).

[3] David L. Schirer, “Iosepa,” Utah History Encyclopedia, 1994

[4] Dennis H. Atkins, “A History of Iosepa, the Utah Polynesian Colony,” 1958

[5] “Big Event for Iosepa Colony,” Deseret Evening News, September 1, 1908, 5.

[6] Scott Lloyd, “Iosepa Memorial Honors Utah’s Hawaiian Settlers,” Deseret News, August 29, 1989; Dennis H. Atkins, “A History of Iosepa, the Utah Polynesian Colony,” 1958

For Further Reference:

Primary Sources:

Diary of Harvey H. Cluff. Digital scan of original manuscript. 1889. Digital Collections, Special Collection Miscellaneous 3. BYU Library. https://cdm15999.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15999coll24/id/30510

Secondary Sources:

Atkin, Dennis H. “A History of Iosepa, the Utah Polynesian Colony,” 1958. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5488&context=etd.

“Big Event for Iosepa Colony.” Deseret Evening News. September 1, 1908. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045555/1908-09-01/ed-1/seq-5/.

“Iosepa Memorial Honors Utah’s Hawaiian Settlers.” Deseret News. August 29, 1989. https://www.deseret.com/1989/8/29/18821578/iosepa-memorial-honors-utah-s-hawaiian-settlers.

Kester, Matthew. “Race, Religion, and Citizenship in Mormon Country: Native Hawaiians in Salt Lake City, 1869-1889.” Western Historical Quarterly 40, no. 1 (2009): 51–76. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40505603.

Kester, Matthew. Remembering Iosepa : History, Place, and Religion in the American West. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. https://utah-primoprod.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/dtufc4/UUU_ALMA51536031950002001

Schirer, David L. “Iosepa.” In Utah History Encyclopedia, edited by Allen Kent Powell. Accessed March 2, 2022. https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/i/IOSEPA.shtml. 

Bonneville Salt Flats & Speedway

Published April 23, 2022 / by John Henderson / 2 Comments on Bonneville Salt Flats & Speedway
2 Replies

Write-up by: John W. Henderson, Jr.

Placed by: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, June 1972

GPS Coordinates: 40.77953, -113.83226

Photo 1 by John Henderson, January 29, 2022.

Historical Marker Text:

Photo 2 by John Henderson, January 29, 2022.

WELCOME TO THE BONNEVILLE SALT FLATS

And Utah’s Famed Measured Mile – Site of World Land-Speed Record Runs

Utah’s famed measured mile is located approximately seven miles beyond this marker, well in front of the mountains you see on the horizon. The elevation along the course is approximately 4,218 feet above sea level. *** The total length of the course that includes the measured mile varies from year to year, but for recent runs it has been laid out in a path 80 feet wide and approximately ten miles long, with a black reference stripe down the middle. Due to the curvature of the earth, it is impossible to see from one end of the course to the other. *** Timing of world land-speed record runs is under the jurisdiction of the United States Automobile Club. World land-speed record times represent an electronically-timed average of two runs over the measured mile, within a one hour time period – one run in each direction. *** The first world land-speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats was set on September 3, 1935, by Sir Malcolm Campbell. His speed was 301.13 miles per hour. *** Craig Breedlove holds the honor of being the first man to go faster than 400, 500, and 600 miles per hour. His record of 600.601 miles per hour, set on November 15, 1965, was finally broken on October 23, 1970, by Gary Gabelich. *** Gabelich’s new record is 622.407 miles per hour. Both Gabelich’s rocket engine ‘Blue Flame’ and Breedlove’s jet-powered ‘Spirit of America’ were equipped with specially designed inflatable tires, pre-tested to speeds in excess of 800 miles per hour.

Photo 3: “Bonneville Salt Flats P.10,” Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1914.
Photo 4: “Craig Breedlove’s ‘Spirit of America’, Shipler Commercial Photographers, 1964.

Extended Research:

Known for hosting land-speed record attempts, the Bonneville Salt Flats are a geological and geographical wonder. Located near the shared border of Nevada and Utah in Tooele County, Utah and spanning 30,000 acres, this salt pan is a remnant of the ancient Lake Bonneville, which existed 32,000 to 14,000 years ago and was originally part of a larger body of water that existed during the geological Gelasian Stage of the Pleistocene Epoch, also known as the “Last Ice Age”.[1] Lake Bonneville covered an area of approximately 2,300 square miles and included the area now known as the Great Salt Lake and Great Salt Lake Desert.[2]

Euro-American explorers conducted reconnaissance of the area encompassing the Bonneville Salt Flat as early as 1833. Ordered by Captain Benjamin L.E. Bonneville, Pacific Coast explorer Joseph R. Walker may have encountered some of what remained of Lake Bonneville during his journey to California.[3] The Bartleson-Bidwell company, captained by John Bartleson and carrying the first white woman and child through Utah, would skirt the western edge of the desert on their way to California in 1841.[4] However, the first recorded crossing of the Great Salt Lake Desert region came 20 years later in 1845, when Captain John C. Fremont, accompanied by scouts Walker and Kit Carson, surveyed the area.[5]

Still, the Bonneville Salt Flats itself remained virtually untouched due to being too harsh an environment for early settlers and wagon trains passing thru to California. But western industrial development and modernization soon entered Tooele County: first, the permanent establishment of the telegraph in 1861; telephone services in 1905; and the first permanent crossing of the Bonneville Salt Flats by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1910.[6] These developments gave rise to increased mining operations and travel through the county in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The Bonneville Salt Flats may be known best for one reason: speed. In 1907, Bill Rishel began promoting the flats as a place for racers to drive their automobiles, following others’ attempts to set land-speed records in Paris, France and Daytona Beach, Florida. Although many initially refused the idea of racing on the flats, news of Utahn Ab Jenkins’ race against a locomotive train in 1925 and 24-hour endurance race in 1932 eventually spread, and in 1935, drivers from England arrived to break Jenkins’ records. In July 1935, John Cobb broke over 64 records on the flats, including Jenkins’ endurance record. In September 1935, Sir Malcolm Campbell, who had previously set the world land-speed record at Daytona Beach, broke his old record on the flats with a new land-speed record of 301.1202 miles per hour.[7] The race was on (so to speak) and the flats have seen racers come to be the new driver to best. The impacts of natural climate (i.e., wind, excess rain) and human events (i.e., commercial industries, interstate transportation) have been grounds for scientific and government concern. Increased temperatures, evaporation, and manmade boundaries have permanently affected the natural ecosystem and depleted the salt in and around the Bonneville Salt Flats, despite continued restoration efforts.[8] Several federal and local organizations, including the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, have joined forces to restore and preserve the flats.

Photo 5 by John Henderson, January 29, 2022.

[1] C. Claiborne Ray, “The Great Salt Flats,” New York Times (New York City, NY), November 30, 2004; Brenda B. Bowen, et al., “Temporal dynamics of flooding, evaporation, and desiccation cycles and observations of salt crust area change at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, Geomorphology 299 (2017): 1; “GSA Geologic Time Scale,” Geological Society of America, updated August 2018.

[2] Ouida Blanthorn, Utah Centennial County History Series: A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City: Tooele County Commission, Utah State Historical Society, 1998), 5.

[3] Blanthorn, A History of Tooele County, 48.

[4] Dean L. May, Utah: A People’s History (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987), 50.

[5] Blanthorn, A History of Tooele County, 13.

[6] “The Bonneville Salt Flats,” Utah.com, accessed February 24, 2022.

[7] Jessie Embry and Ron Shook, “‘These Bloomin’ Salt Beds’: Racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats,” Utah Historical Quarterly 65, no. 4 (1997): 357.

[8] Bowen, “Temporal dynamics,” 10.

For Further Reference:

Primary Sources

“GSA Geologic Time Scale.” Geological Society of America. Updated August 2018.

Secondary Sources

Blanthorn, Ouida. Utah Centennial County History Series: A History of Tooele County. Salt Lake City: Tooele County Commission, Utah State Historical Society, 1998.

“The Bonneville Salt Flats.” Utah.com. Accessed February 24, 2022.

Bowen, Brenda B., Evan L. Kipnis, and Logan W. Raming. “Temporal dynamics of flooding, evaporation, and desiccation cycles and observations of salt crust area change at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.” Geomorphology 299 (2017). Accessed February 24, 2022.

Carpenter, Glenn A. “The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Role in Resource Management of the Bonneville Salt Flats.” In Great Salt Lake: An Overview of Change, edited by J. Wallace Gwynn, 498-507. Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Field Office, Bureau of Land Management, 2002.

Embry, Jessie, and Ron Shook. “‘These Bloomin’ Salt Beds’: Racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats.” Utah Historical Quarterly 65, no. 4 (1997): 355-71.

Ray, Claiborne C. “The Great Salt Flats.” New York Times (New York City, NY), November 30, 2004.

Aunt Libby’s Dog Cemetery

Published April 25, 2020 / by Shannon Gebbia / 2 Comments on Aunt Libby’s Dog Cemetery
2 Replies

write-up by Shannon Gebbia

Placed by: Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Associations, No 95

GPS Coordinates: N 40° 07.123, W 112° 34.660

Historical Marker Text:

BURIAL PLOT

Enclosing graves (west side) of two men and a child emigrants of the early eighteen sixties.

Original wall erected in 1888, By Mrs. Horace (Aunt Libby) Rockwell to shelter graves of her beloved dogs. 1. Jenny Lind, 2. Josephine Bonaparte, 3. Bishop, 4. Toby Tyler, Companions in her lonely, childless vigils here about 1866 to 1890.

Erected by enrollees U.S. grazing division C.C.C camp g-154, company 2517.

Utah pioneer trails and landmarks association Tooele tourism tax grant

Sons of Utah pioneers

-settlement canyon chapter

SUP No. 239     Rededicated 2017

Extended Research:

Sometime between 1860 and 1870, Horace Rockwell and his wife Elizabeth “Libby” Rockwell moved to Skull Valley, a 40-mile long valley in what is now Tooele County, Utah. They operated the Pony Express station known as Point Lookout then continued living on the property in a log cabin built by stage workers after the station had closed.[1] They became horse and cattle ranchers and garnered a reputation as “rough frontiers folk” and “two strange characters.”[2], [3] Over time, the pair came to be known affectionately as Uncle Horace and Aunt Libby.

Uncle Horace and Aunt Libby owned one of the only sources of water along their stretch of the Overland Trail and charged travelers a fee to access it. Many riders and locals remembered Aunt Libby for smoking a pipe and treating her dogs better than her hired men.[4] Her “colony of dogs” were described as black and tan, short-haired, possibly of the “Fiste” breed (perhaps a misspelling of Feist, a small hunting terrier).[5] Aunt Libby liked to name some of her dogs after popular characters of the time, both fictional and real. Her variety of name choices reveals a wide range of interests in music, history, and popular literature: Jenny Lind, the “Swedish Nightingale” of the mid- to late-19th century opera scene; Josephine Bonaparte, the first Empress of France; and Toby Tyler, the 10-year-old protagonist of the children’s novel, Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks with a Circus.[6]

Photo of the site in August, 1941, prior to restoration by the UPTLA.

 As testament to her devotion for her dogs, Dr. W. M. Stookey, a member of the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks association, recalls an instance when Aunt Libby called upon Tooele’s Dr. William Bovee Dods to tend to one of her dogs, which had fallen ill. When Dr. Dods refused, Libby forced one of her workers, Elijah Perkins, to play sick, thus tricking Dods into paying a visit to the cabin. Once there, he reluctantly tended to the dog, and she paid him $100. Aunt Libby’s trick only worked once—the next time a dog got sick, the Rockwells had to travel roughly 70 miles to Salt Lake City.[7]

Photo of the site in August, 1941, prior to restoration by the UPTLA.

When one dog died en route for treatment in Salt Lake City, Aunt Libby brought him back to Point Lookout and buried him near a collection of three graves belonging to immigrants who had died while passing through Skull Valley.[8] She then hired a stone worker, Gustave E. Johnson, to build a wall around the small graveyard.[9] As her beloved dogs passed on over the years, Aunt Libby buried each one in her cemetery.

The Rockwells moved to California sometime after May 25, 1890 and lived there for the remainder of their lives.[10] Aunt Libby’s Dog Cemetery is the only structure still standing on the property known as Point Lookout.

View from Hwy 36 Pony Express Road

The historical significance of this cemetery seems to be centered around its location among the Pony Express stations along Utah’s section of the Overland Trail. Unlike Horace’s brother, Orrin Porter Rockwell, Horace and Libby Rockwell were not major figures in Utah or Mormon history—monuments haven’t been built in their name, we don’t learn about them in history lessons. But one story about a rough, pipe-smoking woman who tricked a Tooele doctor into treating her sick dog has survived the test of time and given historical value to this cemetery. Dr. Stookey explains that the reason for including the cemetery as an “extra in the line, both in design and significance,” was due to a “growing increase in its unique history,” and perhaps because it is one of the only remaining structures along this section of the Overland Trail.[11] Regardless of the reasoning, by including the cemetery among Utah’s historical markers, the UPTLA created an avenue for Aunt Libby’s stories to be retold forever. Within the chasm between the details of each recollection, we find the personality of that “strange character” Aunt Libby. According to most of the people who described her over the years, she was a rough, childless, pipe-smoking woman, unafraid of outlaw Porter.[12] But by way of the legacy of pet cemetery and the stories about her dogs, we see a giving, loving, motherly woman whose cultural knowledge reached far beyond the secluded scope of the Wild West.

For Further Reference:

Primary Sources

“Fatally Burned.”  Los Angeles Times. March 26, 1901. Accessed February 24, 2020. https://www.newspapers.com/image/380059910/?terms=Mrs%2BRockwell.

Sharp Manuscript: Stories published by James P. Sharp. Compiled by Shirley Sharp Pitchford and Susan Sharp Hutchinson. Utah State Division of History Archives.

Sharp, James P. “The Pony Express Stations.” Improvement Era (February 1945): 76–77.

https://archive.org/details/improvementera4802unse/page/n21/mode/2up

Stookey, W. M. “They Died But Lived Again! Aunt Libby Rockwell’s Doggone Dogs and Their Lonely Cemetery Beside the Historic Overland.” Salt Lake Tribune. August 31, 1941. Accessed February 24, 2020. https://www.newspapers.com/image/598747615/?terms=libby%2Brockwell

Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association marker records, ca. 1930–1990s. MSS B 1457, box 1. Utah State Division of History Archives.

Secondary Sources:

Bluth, John F. “The South Central Overland Trail in Western Utah, 1850- 1900.” U. S. Bureau of Land Management. https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/DownloadFile/101963?Reference=61466

Bluth, John F. “Supplementary Report on Pony Express Overland Stage Sites in Western Utah.” https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/DownloadFile/101965?Reference=61468.

Fike, Richard E. and John W. Headley. “The Pony Express Stations of Utah in Historical Perspective.” Cultural Resources Series Monograph 2. Bureau of Land Management of Utah, 1979.

https://archive.org/details/ponyexpressstati00fike/mode/2up

Jessop, J. D. “The Ghost of Aunt Libby May Be Nearby.” Tooele Transcript Bulletin, October 2, 2014. http://tooeleonline.com/the-ghost-of-aunt-libby-may-be-nearby/.

[1]Bluth, John F. “The South Central Overland Trail in Western Utah, 1850-1900” (U. S. Bureau of Land Management), p. 4. (accessed February 10, 2020) https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/DownloadFile/101963?Reference=61466; Jessop, J. D. “The Ghost of Aunt Libby May Be Nearby.” Tooele Transcript Bulletin – News in Tooele, Utah, October 2, 2014. (accessed January 29, 2020) http://tooeleonline.com/the-ghost-of-aunt-libby-may-be-nearby/; Stookey, W. M. “They Died But Lived Again! Aunt Libby Rockwell’s Doggone Dogs and Their Lonely Cemetery Beside the Historic Overland.” The Salt Lake Tribune, August 31, 1941. (accessed February 24, 2020). The exact date is unknown as several accounts differ, but they all agree the Rockwells lived at this location until sometime in 1890.

[2] Stookey.

[3] Sharp, James P., “The Pony Express Stations ,” Improvement Era, (February, 1945), 76-77. (accessed Feburay 10, 2020) https://archive.org/details/improvementera4802unse/page/n21/mode/2up

[4] Stookey.

[5] Sharp.

[6] Jessop, Stookey.

[7] Stookey, Jessop. Several newspaper stories reported this story, but the accounts differ as to which dog was ill, who called for Dods, and the amount he charged.

[8] Stookey, Bluth. Three unknown emigrating travelers died and were buried here.

[9] Stookey.

[10] Jessop; Stookey; Los Angeles Times, “Fatally Burned.” March 26, 1901. (accessed February 24, 2020) https://www.newspapers.com/image/380059910/?terms=Mrs%2BRockwell. Again, much is contested about the date, but one fact stands out: Aunt Libby burned in her house after falling asleep smoking her pipe.

[11] Stookey’s article explains the UPTLA’s haste in using the nearby CCC camps to help place markers and monuments along the difficult terrain, and that most Pony Express stations had “little or nothing remaining of the originals.” The survival of this cemetery and its story provide a picture of life along the trail.

[12]Lloyd, Erin. “Colors of Life Paint Rich Past in Rush Valley.” Tooele Transcript-Bulletin, 9 Dec. 1998, pp. 25–27. The article states Porter Rockwell owed $500 to his brother Horace, and Libby vowed to cut off Porter’s hair if the debt remained. LDS history states Porter’s hair long hair held significance to his faith. https://www.newspapers.com/image/545721374/?terms=libby%2Brockwell

Tooele County Town Hall and Courthouse

Published April 19, 2019 / by Michael Anderson-McEwan / 2 Comments on Tooele County Town Hall and Courthouse
2 Replies

Write-up by Michael Anderson-McEwan

Placed by: Daughters of Utah Pioneers, No. 84, Utah American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and Tooele City Corporation, and The National Register of Historic Places

GPS coordinates: Latitude: 40.530757  Longitude: -112.297398

Photo Credit: picryl.com (Accessed 3.14.19)

Historical Marker Text (1):

Erected in 1867 as a county court house. Active in construction were James Hammond, William Broad, Isaac Lee, W.C. Gollaher, John Gillespie, George Atkin and John Gordon. The building was used for court house, city hall and amusement center, until 1941, when the new city hall on Main Street was completed. Later the building was turned over to the daughters of Utah pioneers for use as an amusement and meeting hall. Rock used in building was taken from settlement canyon in Tooele County.

Historical Marker Text (2):

Dedicated to the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the United States of America and sponsored by the Utah American Revolution Bicentennial Commission and Tooele City Corporation. Built in 1867 as a meeting hall, this building also served as County Courthouse and City Hall, with a jail in the rear. In 1941, the building was given to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers who have maintained it as a museum. They and Tooele City have renovated the building.

 

Historical Marker Text (3):

This Greek Revival temple-form building was constructed in 1867 using local stone. The belfry, added sometime after 1874, is picturesque in style and has lathe-turned posts accentuated by scroll brackets, a distinctive spindle band, and a slightly bellcast pyramid roof. The hall was built, according to a newspaper article of the time, by the citizens of Tooele “for a dancing hall, for dramatic representations and other social and intellectual purposes.” It was leased to William C. Foster and Thomas Craft but was also used for holding court and other city and country business. Live entertainment, however, proved financially unsuccessful, and by 1871 the hall was utilized primarily as a courthouse. In 1899 a new courthouse was constructed, and the building became solely the city hall. In 1942, with the construction of a new city hall, it was authorized for use as a museum by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers. Marker placed in 1991.

Extended research:

The Tooele County Courthouse and City Hall was constructed in 1867 thanks to the combined efforts and planning of James Hammond, William Broad, Isaac Lee, William Culbertson Gollaher, John Gillespie, George Atkin, and John Gordon (Atkin and Gillespie would later serve on one of Tooele City’s first city councils; see image). Using stone sourced from nearby Settlement Canyon, they constructed the only extant temple-form city hall in Utah (and the oldest known to date)¹ with the total cost for the initial construction and furnishing of the hall adding up to $600² ($10,884.91 adjusted for the 2018 inflation rate).³

Tooele City council featuring George Atkin and John Gillespie (3rd and 6th from the right) (Photo credit: Utah State Historical Society)

The hall was meant to be used as both a social and governmental space, but due to the lack of money in the territory⁴, few Tooele residents were able to scrape together the necessary $400 to rent out the building. The hall’s managers soon found themselves unable to make ends meet and they were forced to use the building and its furnishings as collateral to pay off overdue rent to the city, in April of 1871. From then on, it was used predominantly as the county’s city hall, jail, and courthouse⁵ and was used as such until the county built a new courthouse in 1899 and a new city hall in 1941.⁶

After city officials moved to the new city hall in 1942, they granted the Daughters of Utah Pioneers a 50-year lease on the property, which they converted into a museum of local history.⁷ An addition to the building in 1975 connected it to the adjacent Sons of Utah Pioneers Museum (formerly Carnegie library), creating what is today known as Pioneer Plaza. These two museums possess a wide array of artifacts from local history, including an entire log cabin (originally built in 1855) which occupies the lot next door to the courthouse where a fire station formerly stood.⁸

[1]National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form page 2

[2]Information from an interview I conducted on site with one of the Hall’s current docents, Judy Schneider

[3]“The Inflation Calculator,” Morgan Friedman, accessed March 15, 2019

[4]George W. Tripp, Early Tooele A Documented Chronology 1867-1874. Vol. II, 5, Accessed April 5, 2019.

[5]NRHP nomination form page 4

[6]Ouida Nuhn Blanthorn, A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historical Society, 1998), 86-87, accessed March 14, 2019.

[7]NRHP Nomination form page 6

[8]Interview with Judy Schneider

For Further reference:

Primary sources:

Tooele City Council. 1850-1870. Utah State Historical Society Classified Photo Collection, Utah State Historical Society, Tooele. In Tooele City Council. UT: Utah State Historical Society, 2013. Accessed March 14, 2019.

Secondary sources:

Blanthorn, Ouida Nuhn. A History of Tooele County. Salt Lake City, UT: Utah State Historical Society, 1998. Accessed March 14, 2019.

Friedman, Morgan. The Inflation Calculator. Accessed March 15, 2019.

Schneider, Judy. “On the History of Tooele County Courthouse and City Hall.” Interview by author. March 1, 2019.

Tripp, George W. Early Tooele A Documented Chronology 1867-1874. Vol. II. Accessed April 5, 2019.

United States. United States Department of the Interior Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service. Tooele County Courthouse and City Hall. By UDSH Staff. National Park Service. 1-6. Accessed March 14, 2019.

Simpson Springs Pony Express Station

Published April 19, 2017 / by Paul McKnight / 1 Comment on Simpson Springs Pony Express Station
1 Reply

Simpson Springs Pony Express Station

Write up by Paul McKnight

Placed by enrollees U.S. grazing division C.C.C camp 8-184, Company 2517, No. 87

GPS coordinates: 40°2′16″N 112°47′11″W.

 

Historical Marker Text (1):

NO. 87

                        Erected AUG 23, 1940

Simpson’s Spring- Pony Express Station

            One of the important desert stations on the Pony Express and overland stage route between ST. Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California. From this point, water was carried for west-bound travelers and animals. The Spring was discovered by Captain J.H. Simpson, U.S. Army. In 1858, the first east-bound Pony Express courier halted here about 5 P.M. April 7, and west-bound about 2 A.M. April 10, 1860. The Last riders passed about October 22,1861. The coming of the overland telegram made it inadvisable to continue the Pony Express.

            This monument constructed by enrollees U.S. grazing division C.C.C camp 8-184, Company 2517.

 

Historical Marker Text (2):

The Station

A number of structures have been built and destroyed in the vicinity of Simpson Springs over the years, and it isn’t known for sure which served as the station for the mail route and the Pony Express. The nearby restored cabin is located at the approximate site of the original station and closely resembles the original.

George Chorpenning did not benefit from the effort and money spent in building the mail stations. In 1859 financial troubles struck. Chorpenning’s government mail contracts were suddenly reduced; no money reached route employees during the fall. Chorpenning’s animals were “attached” and sold for back wages. William Russel acquired the new mail contract. Chorpenning notes that Russel “stepped in, took possession of my stations, provisions, improvements…” Thanks to Chorpenning, the Pony Express was in business.

Historical Marker Text (3):

Stone Cabin

Alvin Anderson used stone from the abandoned Pony Express station when he built this cabin in 1893. It was intended for his wife, who died in childbirth before she could live in it.

Extended Research:

The Pony Express was established in April of 1860. The idea behind the Pony Express was to establish an overland mail route between Joseph Missouri and Sacramento California. During this time, transporting mail and information from one side of the U.S. to the other proved too time consuming. The mail and other information was placed on a boat which sailed around to California. This could take weeks if not months. By the time the news arrived, it was too old to even matter. Therefore, the Pony Express was considered to be a better alternative to a long voyage.

William H. Russel, Alexander Majors and William B. Waddell started what at the time was known as the Leavenworth & Pike’s Peak Express Company. The postmaster general, Joseph Holt requested their services. The people who rode the Pony Express could achieve 1800 miles between Joseph, Missouri and Sacramento, California in just ten days. This definitely cut down the time it took for a ship to sail around the world. While the information transported was still not very current, it sure was more up to date than the news which came to California by ship.

Travel for many of the riders on the trail was often hazardous. As can be illustrated by this first-hand account by Buffalo Bill Cody, who was most famous for his Wild West Show. When Buffalo Bill joined the Pony Express, he was only 15 years old. This was not uncommon to see in the Pony Express at this time. Buffalo Bill shared his account of some of the events which happened to him while on the trail with these words:

 

“. . .The next day he [Mr Slade,the manger of Cody’s Pony Express station] assigned me to duty on the road from Red Buttes on the North Platte, to the Three Crossings of the Sweetwater – a distance of seventy-six miles – and I began riding at once.

One day when I galloped into Three Crossings, my home station, I found that the rider who was expected to take the trip out on my arrival had got into a drunken row the night before and had been killed; and that there was no one to fill his place. I did not hesitate for a moment to undertake an extra ride of eighty-five miles to Rocky Ridge, and I arrived at the latter place on time. I then turned back and rode to Red Buttes, my starting place, accomplishing on the round trip a distance of 322 miles.

Slade heard of this feat of mine, and one day as he was passing on a coach he sang out to me, ‘My boy, you’re a brick, and no mistake. That was a good run you made when you rode your own and Miller’s routes, and I’ll see that you get extra pay for it.’

Slade, although rough at times and always a dangerous character – having killed many a man – was always kind to me. During the two years that I worked for him as pony-express-rider and stage-driver, he never spoke an angry word to me.

As I was leaving Horse Creek one day, a party of fifteen Indians ‘jumped me’ in a sand ravine about a mile west of the station. They fired at me repeatedly, but missed their mark. I was mounted on a roan California horse – the fleetest steed I had. Putting spurs and whip to him, and lying flat on his back, I kept straight on for Sweetwater Bridge – eleven miles distant – instead of trying to turn back to Horse Creek. The Indians came on in hot pursuit, but my horse soon got away from them, and ran into the station two miles ahead of them. The stock-tender had been killed there that morning, and all the stock had been driven off by the Indians, and as I was therefore unable to change horses, I continued on to Ploutz’s Station – twelve miles further – thus making twenty-four miles straight run with one horse. I told the people at Ploutz’s what had happened at Sweetwater Bridge, and with a fresh horse went on and finished the trip without any further adventure.”

On June 16, 1860 congress approved the construction of a telegraph line which would connect the west coast with other lines in Missouri. Thus, in October of 1861 the Pony Express was deemed obsolete and unnecessary. The travel was dangerous, the rides were long. The Pony Express station at Simpson Springs was just one of many stations along the route to California. Riders would arrive at this station and either another rider would continue the ride or the same rider would switch horses and continue riding to the next station. The arrival of the telegraph put an end to the hazardous transfer of information. This station at Simpson Springs served as one of many stations used by members of the Pony Express such as Buffalo Bill. Such stations provided security, food, and fresh horses for incoming riders.

Primary Source:

  • “Pony Express Rider, 1861” EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2008).

Secondary source:

https://www.nps.gov/poex/learn/historyculture/index.htm

 

Garfield and Lake Point Resorts

Published April 5, 2017 / by Ben Kiser / 2 Comments on Garfield and Lake Point Resorts
2 Replies

Written by Benjamin Kiser, MA History Student, University of Utah

Placed By:  Daughters of Utah Pioneers Tooele County Company

GPS Coordinates:  40°42’57.0″N 112°14’21.9″W

Historical Marker Text:

Garfield and Lake Point Resorts Marker

DAUGHTERS OF UTAH PIONEERS No. 115

ERECTED 1954

GARFIELD & LAKE POINT RESORTS

            From 1881 to 1893 Garfield Beach was the most famous and finest recreation resort on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, with its railroad station, lunch stand, restaurant, bath houses and pier leading to the dance pavilion, and with the pioneer steamboat “City of Corinne” exhibited at anchor.  Lake Point was located 1 miles west.  A three story hotel erected there by Dr. Jeter Clinton became a stopping place for overland stages.  The boulder used for this shaft was taken from “Old Buffalo Ranch” one half mile west.

TOOELE COUNTY

Extended Research:

Marker with Great Salt Lake on Right, I-80 and Oquirrh Mountains on Left

From the beginning of Euro-American settlement in Utah, Utahns have enjoyed recreation.  Before the rise of Wasatch Mountain ski resorts, hiking, and biking trails, residents turned to the Great Salt Lake for their recreational pursuits.[1]  The late 1800s were the heyday of Great Salt Lake resorts.  Two of the earliest resorts were at Garfield Beach and Lake Point.  Dr. Jeter F. Clinton, Mormon physician and Salt Lake City alderman turned resort promoter, founded Lake Point resort, also known as Clinton’s Landing, in 1870, building a large “Lake House” near the beach at the northwest point of the Oquirrh Mountains.  The resort remained small until 1875 when the Utah Western railroad completed a branch out to the area.  Expansion began leading to the construction of a multitude of bathhouses along the beach.[2]  Bathers came to Lake Point to experience the Great Salt Lake’s saline water, described by one local booster as “so buoyant; never chilling, it is so warm, free from danger, recreating and invigorating, a tonic for all, a healing for many ills, health restoring and strength renewing.”[3]  Lake Point was also a hub for the renowned steamboat “City of Corinne” which would transport passengers across the lake to Corinne, a railroad town on the Bear River.  Eventually, Black Rock and Garfield Resorts would eclipse Lake Point in grandeur and visitation.[4]

Lake Point Illustration from the Great Salt Lake
Courtesy Utah State Historical Society

Lake Point also served as a backdrop to an interesting incidence in the Utah Territory.  A breakaway from Mormonism, a group called the Morrisites under leader Joseph Morris, formed in the early 1860s.  Conflict quickly ensued between the dominant Mormon population and the newly formed sect.  In 1862, the territorial militia was called out to subdue the Morrisites, ultimately leading to the death of Joseph Morris.  A member of the Morrisite presidency, John Banks, was mortally wounded in the skirmish.  Dr. Jeter Clinton attended to Banks but he ultimately succumbed to his injuries.  Shortly after Banks’s death, some Morrisites began spreading rumors that Clinton killed Banks while tending to him.  Authorities largely left the rumors unheeded until 1877 when they arrested Clinton at his Lake Point home, indicting him for the murder of John Banks.  While ultimately exonerated of the crime, the Deseret News reported the 1877 case as an example of “shameful abuse” of a “prominent Mormon” in which “the bigotry, intolerance and persecuting spirit of our opponents…have been among the bitterest and most unprincipled.”[5]  Taken in the context of increased federal weakening of Mormon control over the territory through the 1874 Poland Act, the Clinton case provides a curious commentary on how Mormons perceived one instance of judicial persecution in the territory.

Garfield Beach Resort Pavilion and Bathers
Courtesy Utah State Historical Society

Garfield Beach resort, located approximately 1.5 miles to the east of Lake Point, opened its doors in 1875, remaining the premier Great Salt Lake destination until the opening of Saltair in 1893.  A product of the Utah Western Railway’s expansion into Tooele County, Garfield Beach wowed visitors with a 165 by 62 feet dance pavilion over the lake.  The resort cost $70,000.  Six trains a day serviced Garfield bringing 80,000 people to the beach in 1888.  The “City of Corinne” docked at Garfield, as well, where it furnished steamboat rides on the lake for 25 cents.[6]  The great resort dwindled after Saltair’s opening, as it experienced a reduction in visitors and beach degradation due to the pesky nature of the Great Salt Lake’s fluctuating levels.  Garfield Beach resort ultimately succumbed to a fire in 1904.[7]

Garfield Beach Advertisement
Courtesy Utah State Historical Society

A 2017 trip to the southern shores of the Great Salt Lake reveals a landscape greatly changed from the high point of lake recreation from the 1870s to the 1890s.  An interstate highway runs where both resorts once stood.  Little evidence remains of the great pavilions, lunch bars, railroad stations, and dance halls that were the highlight of a trip to Utah in the late nineteenth century.  Though a reconstructed Saltair remains, the specters of Lake Point and Garfield are long gone, eclipsed in a recreational shift from the Great Salt Lake to the Wasatch Mountains.

Garfield Beach from the Foothills of the Oquirrh Mountains
Courtesy Utah State Historical Society

[1] Jared Farmer, On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009).

[2] Dale L. Morgan, The Great Salt Lake (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973 [1949]), 355-356.

[3] Ovando James Hollister, The Resources and Attractions of the Territory of Utah (Omaha: Omaha Republican Publishing House, 1879), 66, accessed March 29, 2017, https://archive.org/details/resourcesattract00holl.

[4] Tooele County Daughters of Utah Pioneers, History of Utah’s Tooele County: From the Edge of the Great Basin Frontier (Tooele, UT: Transcript Bulletin Publishing, 2012), 177-179.

[5] “The Infamous Proceedings against Dr. Clinton,” Deseret News, April 30, 1879, retrieved on February 16, 2017, https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2661652&q=jeter+clinton&page=3&rows=50&fd=title_t%2Cpaper_t%2Cdate_tdt%2Ctype_t&sort=date_tdt+asc&gallery=0&facet_paper=%22Deseret+News%22#t_2661652.

[6] Marcus E. Jones, Resources and Attractions of Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Real Estate Board, 1889), 46-48, accessed on March 29, 2017, https://archive.org/details/saltlakecity1889eng.

[7] Ouida Blanthorn, comp., A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1998), 154-158.

For Further Reference:

Primary Sources

Ovando James Hollister, The Resources and Attractions of the Territory of Utah (Omaha: Omaha Republican Publishing House, 1879), accessed March 29, 2017, https://archive.org/details/resourcesattract00holl.

“The Infamous Proceedings against Dr. Clinton,” Deseret News, April 30, 1879, retrieved on February 16, 2017, https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2661652&q=jeter+clinton&page=3&rows=50&fd=title_t%2Cpaper_t%2Cdate_tdt%2Ctype_t&sort=date_tdt+asc&gallery=0&facet_paper=%22Deseret+News%22#t_2661652.

Marcus E. Jones, Resources and Attractions of Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City: Salt Lake Real Estate Board, 1889), accessed on March 29, 2017, https://archive.org/details/saltlakecity1889eng.

Secondary Sources

Jared Farmer, On Zion’s Mount: Mormons, Indians, and the American Landscape (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.)

Dale L. Morgan, The Great Salt Lake (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1973 [1949].)

Tooele County Daughters of Utah Pioneers, History of Utah’s Tooele County: From the Edge of the Great Basin Frontier (Tooele, UT: Transcript Bulletin Publishing, 2012.)

Ouida Blanthorn, comp., A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1998.)

Adobe Rock

Published April 5, 2017 / by Ben Kiser / 1 Comment on Adobe Rock
1 Reply

Written by Benjamin Kiser, MA History Student, University of Utah

Placed By:  Tooele County Company of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers

GPS Coordinates: 40°39’36.2″N 112°17’18.4″W

Historical Marker Text:

DUP Marker Jan 22, 2017

DAUGHTERS OF UTAH PIONEERS No 103

ERECTED JULY 27, 1947.

ADOBE ROCK

On July 27, 1847, three horsemen from the scouting party sent out by Brigham Young, obtained an excellent view of the surrounding valley, from the top of this rock.  In 1849, Captain Howard Stansbury of the United States Topographical Engineers built a small adobe house by this rock, for his herders, hence the name “Adobe Rock”.  The near by highway follows the same route as the old pioneer trail used by explorers, trappers, emigrants and gold seekers.A spring near by made this a favorite camp site.

Extended Research:

Adobe Rock Jan 22, 2017

Adobe Rock is a large stone promontory in the northeast corner of Tooele Valley.  Early explorers of the Great Basin, California-bound pioneers, and Mormon residents of the valley saw Adobe Rock, a collection of three individual boulders, as a prominent landmark.  According to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers historical marker that was placed on the rock in 1947, three men from Brigham Young’s scouting party surveyed the valley from atop the rock. [1]  Unfortunately, a written account of this much-referenced incidence is nowhere to be found. However, Mormons weren’t the first to distinguish the rock as a significant spot in the valley’s landscape.  Though no written record exists, Goshutes who occupied the Tooele area were well acquainted with the valley’s geologic landmarks.  The first Euro-Americans to describe Adobe Rock and the surrounding area were overland migrants who took Hastings Cutoff in 1846 on their way to California.  Edwin Bryant, a California immigrant with a book deal to publish his expedition’s journal, recounts that on July 31, 1846 “we passed several remarkable rocks rising in tower-like shapes from the plain, to the height of sixty or eighty feet.”[2]   A few short weeks later, Henrich Lienhard, a Swiss emigrant to California, recorded his entrance to the Tooele Valley, camping at a spring that modern historians interpret to be near Adobe Rock.[3]

Perhaps the most prolific character to venture near Adobe Rock was U.S. Army Captain Howard Stansbury.  In an 1849 expedition around the Great Salt Lake to study its environs and the geology of the mountains bordering it, Stansbury entered the Tooele Valley from the west, exiting toward Salt Lake to the east near Black Rock.[4]  A variety of secondary sources, including the DUP marker on Adobe Rock, reference the construction of an adobe hut near the rock for Stansbury’s herdsman to occupy while wintering cattle in the “Tuilla” Valley.[5]  However, in Stansbury’s report, no reference is made to Adobe Rock or the construction of a hut for his herdsman. In fact, Stansbury does not even include Adobe Rock on the map he attaches to his report.[6]  References are made to herds wintering in the valley, but there is no specific mention of the adobe hut.

Regardless of whether or not reports on the construction of a herdsman hut are accurate, Adobe Rock was a striking feature on the landscape for overland travelers who took Hastings Cutoff, government explorers, and Mormon pioneers.  The boulder remains an iconic Tooele County landmark as State Route 36, the main highway to Tooele, passes nearby to the west.

Howard Stansbury’s Map of the Great Salt Lake and Adjacent Country in the Territory of Utah
Courtesy of Utah State Historical Society

 

[1] Tooele County Daughters of Utah Pioneers, History of Utah’s Tooele County: From the Edge of the Great Basin Frontier (Tooele, UT: Transcript Bulletin Publishing, 2012), 169-170.

[2] Edwin Bryant, “The Journal of Edwin Bryant,” in Utah Historical Quarterly 19 (1951), ed. J. Roderic Korns, 78.

[3] Heinrich Lienhard “The Journal of Heinrich Lienhard,” in Utah Historical Quarterly 19 (1951), ed. J. Roderic Korns, 138.

[4] Howard Stansbury, Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah, Including a Reconnaissance of a New Route Through the Rocky Mountains (Washington, D.C.: Robert Armstrong, 1853), 117-199, accessed March 29, 2017, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015073282918;view=1up;seq=146.

[5] Ouida Blanthorn, comp., A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1998), 55.

DUP, History of Utah’s Tooele County, 161-162.

[6]  Howard Stansbury, Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah, Including a Reconnaissance of a New Route Through the Rocky Mountains (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, and Co., 1852), 3, accessed March 29, 2017, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015070221182;view=1up;seq=9;size=400.

For Further Reference:

Primary Sources

Edwin Bryant, “The Journal of Edwin Bryant,” in Utah Historical Quarterly 19 (1951), ed. J. Roderic Korns.

Heinrich Lienhard “The Journal of Heinrich Lienhard,” in Utah Historical Quarterly 19 (1951), ed. J. Roderic Korns.

Howard Stansbury, Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah, Including a Reconnaissance of a New Route Through the Rocky Mountains (Washington, D.C.: Robert Armstrong, 1853), accessed March 29, 2017, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015073282918;view=1up;seq=146.

Howard Stansbury, Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah, Including a Reconnaissance of a New Route Through the Rocky Mountains (Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, and Co., 1852), accessed March 29, 2017, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015070221182;view=1up;seq=9;size=400.

Secondary Sources

Tooele County Daughters of Utah Pioneers, History of Utah’s Tooele County: From the Edge of the Great Basin Frontier (Tooele, UT: Transcript Bulletin Publishing, 2012.)

Ouida Blanthorn, comp., A History of Tooele County (Salt Lake City: Utah State Historical Society, 1998.)