The History Blazer, March 1995

THE HISTORY BLAZER ATEI1'S OF UTAH'S PAST FROiII T H E

Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt ~ a k Cit? e ITT84101 (801) 533-3500 FAX (801) 533-3503

March 1995 Blazer Contents How Utah Lost One of Its U.S. Senate Seats in 1899 .

-Vacation School Provided Activities for City Children 'Even the Grasshoppers Were Starving" during the 1934 Drought Broadway Star Ada Dwyer Helped a Major Poet's Career It Could Be Called Utah's Fort Knox, but It's Not Locked Up A Dummy Called 'Hurricane Sam" Gave Pilots a Safety Edge

U. S. Grant Was First President to Visit Utah Unsolved Mysteries in Utah-the Bizarre Case of Grave Robber Jean Baptiste 'Dinosaur Rush" Created Excitement in the Uinta Basin In 1920 a Utah Lawyer Ran for President on the Farmer-Labor Ticket In 1879 a Mormon Choir Sang for a Catholic Mass in St. George A Utah Naval Officer Died a Hero's Death at Pearl Harbor A Fafnous Seismolbgist Shidied 'Urn's 1934'Earthquake

Utah Banker Marriner S. Eccles Helped Design FDR's New Deal The Steamboat Era Was Glamorous but Very Brief in Utah James P. Beckwourth and the Mythology of the West The Bear Lake Monster-Real,

Imaginary, or Tall Tale?

Legendary Mother Jones Came to Help Striking Utah Coal Miners Boxing Legend Jack Dempsey Loved Fighting, Mining, and Cowboying Der Beobachter Helped German Immigrants Acculturate in Utah

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How Utah Lost One of Its U.S. Senate Seats in 1899

THE CROWDED ROOM WAS EXPECTANT BUT-NOTHOPEFUL As the night wore on the long list of names was read aloud nine times, but the results barely changed. Finally, just after midnight, the last count ended. Some in the crowd seemed relieved and excited, while others were disappointed. On the 60th and last day of the 1899 legislative session, after 164 roll-call ballots, the Utah State Legislature had failed to choose a U.S. senator. For the next two years the state of Utah would have only one voice in the United States Senate.

This unusual state of affairs resulted from several factors. Until the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution was adopted in 1913, U.S. senators were elected by their respective state legislatures rather than by popular vote. The founding fathers, somewhat suspicious of popular rule, expected the state legislatures to choose U.S. senators from among the 'better men" of each state. Accordingly, the two houses of the Utah Legislature met separately on the second Tuesday of their 1899 session, which began in January, to vote for a senator. When both houses failed to give any candidate a majority, they met the next day in joint session. At least one ballot a day was conducted for the remainder of the constitutionally limited 60-day session, with no candidate gaining a majority.

Records of the Legislature's votes indicate that several candidates had a core group of supporters that stuck with them throughout the lengthy balloting. The incumbent senator, Frank J. Cannon, was a Silver Republican; Sineeboth houses-of-the State-Legislaturehad gone Democratic in 1898, Cannon wuld not expect to be reelected and in fact had lost most of his Republican supporters to George Sutherland and A. L. Thomas. Democrat A. W. McCune had slowly gained support throughout the session and appeared poised to win the necessary 32 votes on the 121st ballot. Before the voting, however, Republican Albert A. Law took the floor for a dramatic announcement. Law claimed that McCune's supporters had offered him a $1,500 bribe for his vote. McCune's partisans angrily denied the charge and countered that Law had offered his support to McCune for $5,000 and had fabricated the bribery charge when his offer was spumed. The Legislature' s Bribery Committee launched a three-week investigation that resulted in a 5-2 vote cl&ing McCune, but that report was issued with only three days left in the legislative session-not enough time to undo the damage to McCune's candidacy. In the meantime, legislators awaiting the committee's report had clung to their original candidates.

The pace of voting quickened, and thirty ballots were cast in the final three days of the session. The last ballot began at 1157 P.M.on the 60th day and ended at 12:OS A.M. McCune (more)

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led with 21 votes out of 63, well short of a majority. Senate President Aquila Nebeker (who had received one vote on each ballot) declared the s~ssionover and the U.S. Senate seat vacant.

A number of explanations have been offc:ed for the Legislature's failure. Since Utah had been a state for only three years, legislators may have been inexperienced in the process of choosing a candidate. Two years previously the Legislature had needed 53 ballots to elect Joseph L. Rawlins to the other Senate seat. Although traditional MormonIGentile political conflict had officially ended around 1893, when the People's party (Mormon) and Liberal party (Gentile) were disbanded in favor of the national parties, old divisions and antagonisms apparently still remained.

Mormons and Gentiles nevertheless appeared on both Democratic and Republican lists of candidates. Historian Stewart L. Grow blamed the lack of Democratic party discipline for failing to unite the party behind a single candidate. Whatever the reason, the Republicans took the lesson to heart. When they gained control of both houses of the Legislature in 1900 they needed only one ballot to elect mining millionaire Thomas Kearns, a Catholic, to the U.S. Senate. . .. . -

See Stewart L. Grow, "Utah's Senatorial Election of 1899: The Election That Failed," Utuh Historical Quurterly 39 (winter 1971): 30-39.

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Vacation School Provided Activities for City Children

FORTHE CHILDREN WHO LIVED.ON TAE WEST SIDE 0' Salt Lake City,Vacation School was a popular summer activity during the 1930s and 1940s. Though children of any religion or ethnicity wuld and did participate, the program was run by the Catholic administrators of the Mexican Chapel of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The building, located at a site that is now under the viaduct on 400 South and 524 West, was originally part of St. Patrick's Italian Parish. When six Mexican nuns arrived in the city in 1927, however, the building was made into a chapel and convent dedicated to the growing Mexican population in the area. Three years late, Father James Collins was assigned as the chapel administrator. For the next twelve years the combined energy of the Sisters and Father Collins was dedicated to the enrichment of the city's children.

Vacation School took place each summer from June to August. The day began with religious training courses and then progressed to ball games and handicraft activities. At the end of the day the children often saw two-reelers of popular Nms with such favorite characters as Charlie Chaplin and the Keystone Cops. Children who worked hard throughout the day and maintained perfect attendance received tokens. On the last day of Vacation School they wuld use their tokens to buy prizes during an auction.

Along with an auction on the last day of school, Father Collins and the Sisters organized a celebration for all the children. At the close of the 1933 Vacation School a lawn fete with games, music, and prizes was held. In 1934 the children dressed-up and marched in a parade that covered fifteen blocks and was followed by motorcycle escorts.

Each year enrollment increased as the Vacation School became more popular. In an article in the lntennountain Catholic on November 23, 1934, Father Collins explained that his recent effort of using English in his sermons and classes had encouraged a larger group of children to participate in the Vacation School. In fact, by 1933 children of Mexican, Greek, Mormon, and Italian parentage were attending the summer program. In 1934 the idea of Vacation School spread to parishes in Kenilworth and Spring Glen in Carbon County and to Salt Lake's Cathedral Parish.

The wholesome child care provided by this program was a boon to parents struggling to find work during the depression.

The success of the Vacation School encouraged the Sisters and Father Collins to establish children's programs that continued throughout the year. In 1935 and 1936 they organized separate girls and boys clubs for teenagers. Meetings were held for several hours twice a week. A h forty minutes of religious instruction club members could play games such as checkers and Monopoly, listen to favorite radio programs, and socialize. In 1936 the Guadalupe Mission also established

a Daily Mass Society involving 36 children. They attended mass each morning at 7 A.M. and then played games until school began.

The decade ended with the departure of the Mexican Sisters to other missions on December 27, 1939. Though soae children's programs continued, Father Collins could not direct them all alone. The church was going through changes that took up much of his energy. In 1944 Bishop Duane G. Hunt made the Guadalupe Mission an independent parish. The church purchased the site for a new chapel at 600 West and 200 North; built in 1948, it is still standing.

Even with such demands on his time Father Collins was able to maintain a Guadalupe Boys Club and a Boy Scout troop. He and the Mexican Sisters left a unique tradition of dedication to children's programs that has continued to the present.

See Jedd H. Merrill, "Fifky Years with a Future: Salt m e ' s Guadalup Mission and Parish," U t d Histodd . .-. . .... . .

Qwrtmb 40 (summer 1972). . *

THEHISTORY BLAZER is produced by the Utab State Historical Society and funded in pprt by a grant from the Utab Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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"Even the Grasshoppers Were Starving" during the 1934 Drought

L m RUBBING SALT IN A WOUND, the nationwide drought of-1934 dramatically increased suffering among many Americans already left destitute by the Great Depression. The Great Plains states were hit especially hard, and following the terrible windstorms that created the Dust Bowl many farmers left their land in search of a better life. Utah also felt the effects of this drought.

From June 1933 to May 1934 rainfall in the state was only 51 percent of normal. Utah Lake contained only one-third its usual volume, and Bear Lake was fourteen feet below its average level.

Gov. Henry H. Blood expeditiously responded to the demanding circumstances and with help from the federal government was able to lessen the suffering. The governor's initial action involved appointing George Dewey Clyde, an irrigation engineer with the Agricultural Experiment Station in Logan, as state water conservator. Clyde immediately conducted an investigation of Utah's 1934 water prospects. He found that the state's supply of irrigation water was about 35 percent of 1933 levels and in several counties only 25 percent. He also noted that on average around four million acre-feet of water ran through Utah's canals each year, yet in 1934 he doubted if even one million acre-feet would be available. Clyde projected that only one crop of alfalfa was likely to mature due to lack of water. Sheep and cattle also faced desperate circumstances with fodder scarce and waterholes drying up. Even culinary water supplies were running low in some areas. The situation was .critical.-- .-.-. , - . .- - Governor Blood endorsed Clyde's report and turned it over to Robert Hinckley, Utah's director of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA).Hinckley sent a telegram to Washington, D. C., detailing Clyde's findings and the state' s drought conditions. Within thirty-six hours Resident Roosevelt had approved a grant of $600,000 for Utah. These funds were quickly depleted and, following another appeal to FERA officials, the state received an additional $400,000. In a little over three months a state committee had distributed the money to a plethora of projects. With federal funds workers sunk 276 wells, developed 118 springs, lined 183 miles of irrigation ditches and laid 98 miles of pipeline. Utah officials also lobbied for long-term solutions to drought problems. Those efforts eventually resulted in the construction of Deer Creek and Pine View dams and other reclamation projects across the state.

June, July, and August 1934 brought devastatingly hot and dry conditions. Individual citizens responded to the problem with local conservation efforts. They also prayed for rain incessantly in Mormon wards and other churches, historian Leonard J. Amngton wrote. And in northern Arizona the Coyote Clan of Hope organized three snake dances in Hotevilla on August (more) a

24, followed by an eight-day ceremony in an attempt to bring rain to the parched land. 'Even the grasshoppers were starving," Arrington noted.

Rain finally fell in Utah in early November. It came too late to rescue the summer crops, but it did benefit the ranges and pastures. Utah farmers and ranchers certainly appreciated the state and federal efforts to mitigate the suffering brought on by the drought, but in the end it was the rain that offered the most welcome relief.

See Leonard J. Arhgo11, 'Utah's Great Drought of 1934, " Utah Historical Quarterly 54 (1986): 24543.

THEHISTORY BLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennisl Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500. &.

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Broadway Star Ada Dwyer Helped a Major Poet's Career

Tm SALT LAKE THEATRE GAVE BIRTH TO ~ANY.iUUstrioustheatrical careers. In fact, many of Broadway's leading ladies around the turn of the century were native Utahns. Maude Adams was certainly the most famous for her role as Peter Pan, but another star from the Beehive State, Ada Dwyer, also enjoyed success on many of the world's stages.

A& was born on February 5, 1863, to Sarah Ann and James Dwyer. Her father was a prominent Utah businessman and intellectual, and the Dwyer home was often filled with various professionals, including representatives of the stage and music worlds. Early in her life Ada expressed an interest in acting, and her father responded by securing the best possible training for her. At age eight Ada traveled with her father to Detroit to study public recitation and later was tutored in the science of elocution as well as Spanish and French by Professor S. S. Hamill in Salt Lake City. She also learned from experts in New York and Boston, and at a young age performed in numerous amateur productions in Salt Lake City. She also began to perform at the Salt Lake Theatre. Then, in 1890, she won a role in the play One Error, fulfilling her dream of performing on Broadway. Following this first New York play she enjoyed a three-year engagement as Roxie in Puddn ' Head Wilson, a role she considered her "masterpiece."

On the stage of One Error Ada was dazzled by Harold Russell, the leading actor in the John Drew Company of New York, and the two eventually wed in February 1893. The couple's busy schedules frequently kept them apart. They had one child, Lorna, who was primarily raised by her grandparents in Salt Lake City. Ada and Harold continued to pursue their individual careers and, though never divorced, remained separated for most of their lives.

In 1912, while attending a party of distinguished Boston society women, Ada met Amy Lowell, the famous American poet. The two became close companions, and Ada shortly assumed the role of secretary, nurse, and critic to Lowell and was influential in the publication of much of Lowell's poetry.

Ada's career took her throughout England, Europe, and Australia, but she always kept close ties with her Utah family and occasionally returned to the Salt Lake Theatre for perfomances. Ada was respected in her native state as a great actress and an influential woman.

In 1925 Amy Lowell died, leaving her estate in Ada's care. Ada saw to the publication of Lowell's final volumes of poetry and her biography of John Keats. Three years later, on October 28, 1928, when the Salt Lake Theatre opened its doors for a final performance before the building was demolished, Ada, as an honored guest, read Lowell's poem "Lilacs. " Ada died on July 4, 1952, at her daughter's home in Maryland.

Source: Chris Rigby, "Ada Dwyer: Bright Lights and Lilacs," Utah Historical Quarter& 43 (winter 1975): 41-51.

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It Could Be Called Utah's Fort Knox, but It's Not Locked Up

h ONE OF THE WEST'SGREAT MINING STATES, Utah be*une h

0 ~ .for n ib-silver, Oopper,

and gold production. Bingham Canyon, Park City, Silver Reef, and Mercur are just a few of the historic mining areas, but the Great Salt Lake holds a huge cache of minerals estimated in 1981 to be worth $90 billion. One might call this vast treasure house Utah's Fort Knox. 'In view of the riches stored in the lake,"Peter G. Czerny wrote, 'it is ironic that in 1873 a study was made to see if the lake could be drained into Nevada to get rid of it once and for all."

Most schemes involving the lake, though, have sought to exploit its unique offerings rather than destroy them. Recreation-everything from bird watching and duck hunting to boating, bathing, and other resort activities-continue to attract people to its shores. Several individuals, including artist Alfred Lambourne, have lived on islands in the lake, and ranchers have run livestock operations on Antelope Island.

By far the most profitable use of the lake has been the development of mineral industries.

Sodium chloride-common salt-is but one of many minerals extracted from the lake. In 1991 Utah produced 2.5 million short tons of salt valued at $41.6 million. Other minerals drawn from the briny waters include chlorine, magnesium, potassium sulfate, sodium sulfate, sulfur, calcium, bromine, boron, and lithium. Potassium sulfate and sodium sulfate have world wide industrial uses in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, glass, fertilizer, paper, and dyes.

Another multimillion-dollar.industry-assqciated yith the lake is the harvesting of brine shrimp. According to a Bureau of Land Management newsletter, 'brine shrimp, at different stages of development, are an ideally nutritious food for tropical fish and are used worldwide in local and international markets. " The shrimp are peculiarly adapted to survive in water eight times more salty than the ocean. They have "a defense mechanism that allows them to return to egg form... if salinity conditions are too high" for the babies to live. They will remain dormant until conditions ate right for their development to adulthood to continue. The dormant 'eggs are harvested, cleaned, dried and stored under vacuum, remaining viable for years." Some eggs have been marketed as 'sea monkeys" for people to place in water and watch them grow.

Shortly before statehood yet another lake industry captured the imagination of Utah entrepreneurs. In 1895 the Cummings brothers and others discovered immense deposits of guano on Gunnison Island in the northwest section of the lake. On February 27 the brothers, accompanied by Charles Bates, and an 'expert from Chicago, " a Mr. Jennings, boarded Captain Charles L. Wilkes's steamer Talula at Saltair for the 70-mile run to Gunnison Island. The 155-acre island's rocky ledges are a nesting place for pelicans and seagulls. The party reportedly found deposits of guano two feet deep and estimated 75,000 to 100,000tons of it was available. (more)

They moved rapidly forward with their project and by April 9 the fist carload of Gunnison Island guano had arrived at Cohn's warehouse near the Union Pacific depot in Salt Lake City. Two wagon loads of it were soon dispatched to Lehi for experimental use as fertilizer for vegetables and sugar beets. The Salt Lake Tribune hoped it was the beginning of yet another Utah industry, but guano proved difficult to procure, according to historian Dale L. Morgan. For one thing, rain tends to wash it into the lake almost as fast as it accumulates.

None of these industries has excited the imaginations of historians, sociologists, and writers the way precious metal, copper, and coal mining have. Perhaps, it is because there are no towns like Bingham, Castle Gate, or Park City with their colorful ethnic enclaves surrounding the lake.

Nevertheless, the Great Salt Lake as a storehouse of mineral wealth may top them all.

For more information on the lake see Dale L. Morgan, 31te Great Salt Lake (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Memll, 1947); Peter G. Czerny, Zhe Great Great Salt Lake (Provo:Brigham Young.University-Press,1976); and W a p L. Wablquist, et al. Atlas of Utah (Provo:Brigbarn Young University Press, 1981).

THE HISTORY BLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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A Dummy Called "Hurricane Sam" Gave Pilots a Safety Edge

FOLLOWING WORLD WAR II AMERICA'S'RAPIDLYADVANCING military technology produced jet planes with the capability of reaching speeds in excess of 500 miles per hour. At such high velocities pilots had trouble safely escaping from their planes during emergencies. Behveen 1949 and 1956 only 220 percent of pilots who ejected did so without harm. The need for an ejection system that threw pilots clear of their planes without causing injury eventually found its solution on a desert mesa in southwestern Utah.

In 1953 the Air Force awarded a $2 million contract to the Coleman Engineering Company of Torrance, California, to construct the Supersonic Military Air Research Track. The Air Force selected the flat, arid Humcane Mesa in southern Utah (16 miles west of Zion National Park near the town of Hurricane) as the site for the facility. The location proved to be ideal. The region's mild weather allowed year-round testing, the mesa's flat bedrock provided a secure anchor for the track, its 1,500 foot drop into the Virgin River Valley was perfect for the planned tests, and the Virgin River supplied all the necessary water.

Coleman Engineering began construction of the facility during the summer of 1954. The track consisted of 12,000 feet of continuously welded, heavy-duty rails that formed the longest rocket research track in the United States to that date. The entire facility included the track, launching pad, crew shelters, camera towers, rocket storage depots, water system, power system, communication system, security facilities; -administration-building-,and .a shop building. Coleman had completed the base by July 8, 1955, when the first test took place.

Testing at the site typically involved hurling a rocket sled, carrying a seat with a dummy known as "Hurricane Sam" strapped to it, along the track at a speed of 1,050 miles per hour (Mach 1.3). "Sam, " in actuality, was a highly instrumented anthropoid simulator with electronic equipment and a radio connected to it. Just before reaching the edge of the cliff the ejection mechanism fired, flinging the dummy over the precipice where its parachute opened and it floated to the valley floor. In one series of tests 'Humcane Samn was replaced by apes to determine the effects of ejection on live beings. By 1958 Coleman Engineering had begun using the track for other tests, including the launching of missiles from the rocket sled at targets 75 miles away. At one point Coleman even set a world land speed record when the 9,400-pound sled reached a speed of 1,800 miles per hour. Eventually the Air Force allowed different aircraft companies to test their equipment at the Humcane Mesa site, and many of Coleman Engineering's innovations were adopted by various industries. (more)

In the six years of the site's operation some 334 tests helped the Air Force to standardize its ejection systems and perfect a seat that made emergency escapes much safer for American pilots. With this original purpose accomplished, the facility began a gradual phaseout that ended with the closure of the southern Utah base in December 1961.

Source: Tho-

G. Alexander, 'Brief Histories of Three Federal Military Installations in Utah: Keams Army Air

Bsse, Hurricane Mesa, and Green River Test Complex, " Utah Historical Quarterly 34 (Spring 1966): 121-37.

HISTORYBLAZERis produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more infomation about the Historical Society telephone 533-3500.

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U.S. Grant Was First President to Visit Utah FOLLOWING HIS ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY-.IN 1868 Ulysses S: Grant adopted a gettough policy toward the Mormons in Utah Temtory. His agenda for Utah was in line with the traditional anti-polygamy stance of the Republican party, and to enforce this view he appointed a group of anti-Mormons to the territory's top political positions. Needless to say, neither the Republican party nor President Grant's appointees were highly regarded by Brigham Young and the Mormon faithful. Despite such feelings of animosity, in 1875 Grant became the first president of the United States to visit Utah.He received an astonishingly warm and gracious welcome.

News of the president's visit surprised Utahns and sent Salt Lake City officials scurrying to make preparations. Mayor George Q. Cannon oversaw a committee appointed to meet Grant's train at Ogden and escort the president to the territorial capital. Gov. George W. Emery and a number of federal officials bested Cannon's group by meeting the president in Echo Canyon and riding with him into Ogden.

At about 12:30 P.M. on October 3, 1875, the eager crowd that thronged the Ogden depot caught their first glimpse of the nation's chief executive. President Grant stood on the rear platform of a Pullman car and waved to the crowd as the Ogden brass band struck up 'Hail to the Chief." The Salt Lake City welcome committee then boarded the president's train and exchanged greetings, after which the committee's train was coupled to the president's and they left together for Salt Lake City. En route Brigham-Young. was.introduced,-toGrant.. The Mormon leader said, 'President Grant, this is the first time I have ever seen a president of my country. " After an exchange of compliments Young was invited into the president's car and introduced to Grant's wife. The two quickly entered into 'pleasant conversation" that lasted for nearly half an hour.

Upon arriving in Salt Lake, Grant and his party were taken by camages to the Walker House where they were to spend the night. All along the carriage route thousands of the city's Sabbath School children lined the streets with their teachers to applaud and wave to the president.

According to one report, Grant leaned over and inquired of Governor Emery whose children they were. Emery replied that they were 'Mormon children." Upon learning this Grant pondered for several moments and then murmured in self-reproach, 'I have been deceived."

Utah citizens were cordial throughout the president's short visit. On Monday morning officers escorted Grant and his party to Temple Square. They looked at the foundation walls of the temple and were treated to an organ recital in the tabernacle that Mrs. Grant particularly enjoyed.

Grant's group then traveled to the city's north bench for a fine view of the valley and afterwards toured the new stone barracks and officers quarters at Fort Douglas. (more)

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Back in his hotel President Grant held a public reception where he met and entertained several hundred citizens. Following an early dinner he returned to the train depot and found his special car profusely decorated with flowers, courtesy of a number of Salt Lake City women. The president then departed to the cheers of the crowd for Denver where he would spend several days before returning to Washington, D .C. It is difficult to determine how Grant's visit affected his perspective of Utah and the Mormons. Regardless, the territory's citizenry appreciated their opportunity to shine and demonstrate their loyalty to the Union. A Deseret News column printed after Grant's departure read: "If no other occasion should offer, the present will have to suffice for our presidential visitors to discover the sentiment of respect for the federal government that animates the bosoms of the inhabitants of this far off territory, but integral portion of the great and growing republic of the United States. " Sources: Latter-day Saints 'Millennial Star, 37 (November 1, 1875): 700-701;Deseret News, October 4, 5, 1875; Leanard J . Arrington, Brigham Young: American Moses (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985), pp. 373-74.

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Unsolved Mysteries in Utah-the Bizarre Case of Grave Robber Jean Baptiste

THOSE WHO KNEW AND LOVED YOUNG MORONI CLAWSONwere no doubt saddened by his death in January 1862 and may have even witnessed his burial in the city cemetery on the north bench of Salt Lake City. Several days later, however, their private grief turned public. An event had occmed that, according to outraged citizens and public officials, could not pass unnoticed and without severe consequences.

Only weeks before his death, Moroni Clawson had been arrested for participating in the sensational robbery and assault of Gov. John W. Dawson whose stormy relationship with the Mormons had prompted him to flee the territory. When the young man escaped from the penitentiary on January 17, he was pursued and shot down by a Salt Lake police officer. Since no one came forward to pay for a proper burial, Henry Heath of the city police department purchased, with his own money, Clawson's burial clothes. After witnessing the burial, Heath was surprised to learn a week later that, while uncovering the grave to move the body to a family cemetery, George Clawson, Moroni's brother, had discovered that the corpse was completely naked!

Heath quickly organized an investigation of the strange occumence. Finding no evidence at the grave site, he continued his inquiry at the home of gravedigger Jean Baptiste. His wife invited the officers into the house. While there they noticed a stack of boxes in a comer of the room. One of the officers peeked inside a box and found neatly folded burial clothes. Upon further investigation it was discovered that Jean Baptiste -had-collectednearly -60 pairs of children's and adult's shoes, clothing, and personal belongings by robbing some 300 graves. He was arrested and sent to jail.

When news of the lurid discovery spread throughout the city, residents expressed both their horror and loathing of the crime. Mobs gathered at the jail, threatening to lynch the grave robber.

Hundreds thronged to the city courthouse during his trial. In reaction to the situation, Brigham Young assured worried residents that the bodies of their loved ones would rise up in the resurrection wearing the original clothes in which they were buried. Meanwhile, police officers tried to correct part of the problem by putting all the burial clothes found in Baptiste's home in a large box and burying it in a single grave in the cemetery.

Still, the question of what to do with Jean Baptiste remained. Shunned even by his fellow inmates, he was not safe within or outside prison walls. Arguing that the prisoner's safety could not be guaranteed, city officialshad Baptiste secretly placed in a wagon at night and taken across the Antelope Bar to Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake. He was soon moved to the more (more)

remote Fremont Island in order to prevent his wading ashore to tke mainland.

Jean Baptiste's life in exile on Fremont Island was short-lived. Only three weeks afta his arrival cattle herders came to the island to survey their animals. They discovered that a he* had been killed and its hide tanned for leather. Lengths of wood had been torn from a small ranch house on the island, presumably to construct a raft. Leaving behind only these small traces of his existence and possible escape, Jean Baptiste was nowhere to be found.

The mystery of the eventual fate of Jean Baptiste has never been solved. When hunters found a skeleton with an iron clamp around its leg near the mouth of the Jordan River in March 1893, an article in the Salt Lake Tribune retold the story of Jean Baptiste and speculated that the skeleton belonged to the unfortunate convict. The Deseret News contested this theory by recording the statements of police officers Henry Heath and Albert Dewey confirming that Jean Baptiste was not wearing a ball and chain around his leg when he was placed on Fremont Island. This controversy added yet another puzzling element to the Jean Baptiste story. Even today the bizarre tale of his grave robberies and island exile remains a mystery in'the annals of Utah history. See, in addition to contemporary newspaper accounts, Dale L. Morgan, Zhe Great Salt Lake (New Yo*. BobbsMerrill, 1947).

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"Dinosaur Rushn Created Excitement in the Uinta Basin

D

~ THEG1870s NORTHEASTERN.UTAHBECAME Brie of the -sites associated with what

some have called the 'Dinosaur Rush." Within the nation's scientific community stories of dinosaur finds in Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming created a fervor for excavations. Scientists scoured these areas in hopes of finding the biggest and most exotic dinosaur bones to send to collections and museums throughout the nation.

Earl Douglass, a young paleontologist from Pennsylvania, became involved in the dinosaur craze. He had been hired by the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh to find and identify fossil animals. In 1877 he found the bones of a gigantic saurian near Denver, Colorado. The search then took him to the Uinta Basin of northeastern Utah in 1907. When the Camegie Museum director, Dr. W. J. Holland, visited Douglass the following year, the two men found a dinosaur thigh bone nearly six feet long at a place near the Green River north of Jensen, Utah. They were not equipped to excavate or move the bone. Douglass marked the spot, however, and returned the next year.

Douglass spent the summer of 1909 exploring the area where the thigh bone had been discovered. One day, while climbing Split Mountain, he found eight large vertebrae partially embedded in the rock. With increasing excitement, he spent two whole days chipping into the rock. His efforts finally revealed the entire body of a brontosaur nearly 70 feet long! It took six years for Douglass and a hired crew to excavate, ship, and reassemble the skeleton at the Carnegie Museum Dinosaur Ha .in Pittsburgh:----. ..- -. -.- . -.. - . - - - ... - Meanwhile, Douglass kept digging. Mixed with the brontosaur's skeleton, he found three apatosaurs, a partial stegosaur, and numerous scattered bones of other dinosaurs. As the paleontologist worked westward along the quarry ridge he discovered more bones, including the skeleton of the largest lcnown predator of the time, the allosaur. In all, it took Douglass seven years to excavate the western half of the quarry.

Digging for dinosaurs was hard work. Because of the hardness of the sandstone and granite rocks, workers had to blast the mountainside with dynamite. Debris and rocks from the explosions were hand-pushed in a single mining car to a waste pile. When workers reached a skeleton, more delicate methods were used to prevent destruction of the fragile bones. Small chisels were used to cut the rock close to the bone. The bones were covered with tissue paper and dipped in plaster.

Each item was then packed in straw, placed in a sturdy wooden crate, and sent to Pittsburgh by way of a horse-drawn freight to Dragon, Utah, a ride on the Uintah Railroad to Mack, Colorado, and a direct trip on the transcontinental line to Pennsylvania. In the seven years that Douglass

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spent at the quarry, nine boxcar loads full of dinosaur bones were sent to Pittsburgh-much to the dismay of Utahns who wanted to display these prehistoric treasures closer to home.

All seemed to be going well for Douglass until 1915 when increasing numbers of homesteaders came into the Winta Basin. The scientist feared that settlers would disturb dinosaurs bones as yet undiscovered. When he tried to file a mining claim on the land, the government rejected his claim with the argument that bones are not minerals. Dr. Holland, concerned about Douglass's situation, conferred with a colleague at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C. Soon, President Woodrow Wilson learned of the problem and quickly took action to resolve it. On October 4, 1915, the president proclaimed 80 acres surrounding the dinosaur quarry as Dinosaur National Monument, bringing it under federal protection.

Douglass continued to excavate under the sponsorship of the Carnegie Museum until 1922.

AAer the death of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie in 1919 the museum lost its major source of funds. For two more years Douglass's work was jointly sponsored by the University of Utah and the Carnegie Museum. By the time he left-in 1924 most-of the east and west sides of the quarry had been stripped clean. Nearly 350 tons of fossils had been removed. After 1924 no fossil materials were removed from the dinosaur quany.

Dinosaur National Monument was enlarged in 1938 to 209,000 acres. During the same period a temporary museum was built on the west side of the quarry to accommodate tourists. In 1958 a permanent visitors center was built that is still used today. Since the pioneering discoveries of Earl Douglass many fossils of prehistoric life forms have been discovered throughout Utah, adding to the state's rich scientific heritage.

See, for example, Mark W. T. Harvey, "Utah, the National Park Service, and Dinosaur National Monument, 190956," Utah Historical Quarterly 59 (1991): 243-63.

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In 1920 a Utah Lawyer Ran for President on the Farmer-Labor Ticket

THESHORT-IJVED

FA.RMER-LABOR"PARTY - MET in poorly ventilated convention hall over a

four-day period in mid-July 1920 to hammer out a political platform and to choose a candidate for president of the United States. By the end of the convention, delegates had adopted a platform that called for radical governmental reforms and nominated Parley P. Christensen, a Salt Lake City lawyer, as their presidential hopeful. Christensen, an unlikely candidate from politically unimportant Utah, traveled to Chicago to serve as joint chairman of the convention and returned home as Utah's first ever presidential candidate.

Christensen was born in Weston, Idaho, on July 19, 1869. About a year later his family moved to Utah where he received his early education before attending Come11 University. He was awarded his law degree in 1897 and in September of the same year passed the Utah Bar and began a law practice in Salt Lake City. Prior to his presidential nomination Christensen had served in a variety of public positions, including principal of the Grantsville city schools, city attorney of Grantsville, Tooele County school superintendent, secretary of the Utah Constitutional Convention in 1895, Salt Lake County attorney, and representative in the Utah Legislature. He had previously worked in the Republican, Democratic, and Bull-Moose political camps before joining the FarmerLabor party.

Represented at the Chicago convention were at least nineteen diverse groups seeking to unite into a new politicalcal-movement..-Due to-the-widespectrum of -ideas held by the delegates tempers often flared, and the convention frequently erupted with rowdy and colorful demonstrations. Even choosing a name for the new party proved challenging and when the platform was finally adopted several factions bolted, claiming their views were not adequately represented. In his position as chairman, Christensen's commanding personality often emerged from the chaos to establish order and help resolve conflict.

After four tedious days of political wrangling, balloting for the party's presidential candidate began. By far the most popular name among the delegates was that of Robert M. La Follette, the progressive, reform-minded senator from Wisconsin. Senator La Follette, however, found the Farmer-Labor platform too extreme to suit even his advanced notions of reform; he declined nomination, leaving the field open for lesser-known candidates. On the first ballot Dudley Field Malone, a lawyer from New York, and Christensen, the Utahn, emerged as the top contenders. One more ballot was all that Christensen needed to solidify his support and secure his party's nomination.

In his brief acceptance speech Christensen afkned his devotion to the party platform saying: 'Every fiber in my system sounds in harmony with [it] and I can stand on it firmly and without equivocation." The platform to which he readily espoused himself was built upon nine planks that critics claimed smacked of communism. Among other things, it called for equal suffrage for all, democratic control of industries, public ownership of all public utilities and natural resources, the right of all workers to strike, a maximum standard eight-hour work day, and the withdrawal of the United States from 'the dictatorship" it exercised over the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam,and Hawaii. Christensen promised if elected he would "go to the limit to see that every one of the planks is enacted into law."

On July 23 Christensen returned to Utah and was met in Ogden by a committee of railmad shopmen who escorted him to a platform where he spoke to nearly 200 waiting railroad workers.

He then traveled to Salt Lake where at eight o'clock that evening supporters held a parade down Main Street in which the city's various labor organizations participated. Upon arriving at the City and County Building, Christensen delivered a speech -declaringthe Fanner-Labor platform a 'one hundred per cent American effort to restore to the people the right to govern themselves and to participate as freemen in the management of their economic and political affairs. The first thing to be done after I am elected president," he proclaimed, "will be to move the capital from Wall Street to Washington, where the constitution placed it."

After spending a week in Salt Lake, Christensen left for New York where he began an extensive speaking campaign leading up to the election. When the votes were tallied Warren G. Harding had won a lopsided victory, and Christensen had finished a distant fourth behind James M. Cox, the Democrat, and Eugene V. Debs, the Socialist. Even in his home state Utah's first presidential candidate failed to attract much support. He did manage to beat Debs by over a thousand votes in Utah but still finished third, garnering only a meager 3 percent of the vote.

...

Sources: Gaylon L. Caldwell, "Utah's First Presidential Candidate," Utah Historical Quarterly 28 (1960): 328-41; Salt Lake Tribune, July 15,23, 1920;Deseret Naos, July 15, 23, 1920.

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In 1879 a Mormon Choir Sang for a Catholic Mass in St. George

ONMAY14, 1876,FOLLOWING-THIRTEEN YEARS OF LABOR and sacrifice, diligent Mormon pioneers of southem Utah gathered to dedicate the St. George Tabernacle. The stately building could comfortably accommodate over 2,000 people and quickly became the center of religious worship for area residents. Not surprisingly, the tabernacle echoed with many enthralling sermons over the years by Brigharn Young and other Mormon leaders. One event in the tabernacle's history, however, stands out against these Mormon gatherings-an 1879 Catholic High Mass led by Father Lawrence Scanlan.

During the last half of the 1870s the Silver Reef mines near St. George were at the height of activity, and Father Scanlan, a scholarly Catholic priest, came to the boom town to see to the spiritual needs of the many miners who shared his faith. His friendly, honest personality won confidence and respect not only from the miners but also from the Mormon people of Dixie. One St. George resident, John Macfarlane, had become well acquainted with the Catholic priest and on one occasion asked Scanlan why he did not hold a high mass while he was in southern Utah.

Father Scanlan replied that he would be thrilled at such an opportunity, but he did not have a building available to accommodate the event.

It was not long before Macfarlane spoke with Erastus Snow, the Mormon ecclesiastical leader for the area, about Scanlan's lack of a facility. As a result Snow invited Scanlan to use the new tabernacle in St. George-for his Catholic worship service-; Scanlan gladly accepted the offer and additionally requested that Macfarlane's choir provide the music for the mass-in Latin of course.

Since moving to St. George in 1868 Macfarlane had formed a choir from local talent and it quickly gained a reputation for its fine singing. Macfarlane's choir had perTormed at civic and religious events, funerals and dedications, but certainly not at a Catholic mass and certainly not in Latin. None of the choir members knew Latin, but the determined group set to work memorizing the text of the songs and learning the music. They practiced every night for six weeks until they could sing in the ancient language with confidence.

On the third Sunday in May 1879 the St. George Tabernacle filled to capacity with Catholic faithful and curious onlookers alike, as Father Scanlan conducted High Mass, centering his sermon around the topic 'True adorers of God adore Him in spirit and in truth." Macfarlane's choir performed with its usual precision, and following the sewice Scanlan complimented the group for singing the Latin as beautifully as he had ever heard. It proved an uplifting occasion for all involved.

Sources: Reed Paul Tbompon, "Eighty Years of Music in St. George, Utah, 1861-1941" (Master's thesis, Brigham Young University, 1952); Andrew Karl Liusen, ' I Was C a W to Dixie" (Salt Lake City: Deseret News Press 1%1), pp. 487-88; Robert J. Dwyer, "Pioneer Bishop: Lawrence Scanlan, 1843-1915," Utah Historical Quarterly 20 (1952):

13558.

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A Utah Naval Officer Died a Hero's Death at Pearl Harbor

THEJAPANESE A T M ~ ~ON PEARLHARBOR'-ON December 7; 1941; shocked the nation and

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propelled the United States into World War 11. The surprise attack killed 2,396 American civilians and military personnel and severely crippled the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The main Japanese targets were the U.S. battleships, including the USS West Virginia with its Utah-born commanding officer, Captain Mervyn S. Bennion.

M e w Sharp Bennion was born in Vernon, Utah, on May 5, 1887. After attending high school in Salt Lake City, he received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1906, where he graduated near the top of his class. His first tour of duty was in the engineering section of the USS California. The young officer eventually specialized in ordnance and gunnery, and he commanded the 1-inch batteries aboard the battleship USS N o ~ hDokota during World War I. His first command was the destroyer USS Bemudou, followed by a tour as commander of Destroyer Division One. After a shore tour as a student and instructor at the Naval War College, Bennion assumed command of the West Virginia on July 2, 1941.

The 'Wee Vee," as she was affectionately called, was moored with other vessels at Battleship Row along the southeast side of Ford Island in Pearl Harbor on a quiet Sunday morning, December 7, 1941. Japanese torpedo bombers struck the battleships just before 8:00 A.M., and the West Virginia was hit hard almost immediately. At least six torpedoes struck the giant vessel's port side, along with two-bombs-: Captain-%emion, .strugglingto -organize-defenses from the bridge; was hit in the stomach by bomb splinters from the nearby Tennessee. Still, he continued to direct his ship's battle, eventually ordering his men to leave him and save themselves. Crew members nevertheless carried him from the bridge to a safer spot where his wounds soon proved fatal.

Bennion's heroism during the one-sided attack was recognized by awarding him posthumously the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation' s highest. In his presentation, President Franklin D. Roosevelt noted of Captain Bennion that Yascommanding officer of the U.S .S . West Yirginia, after being mortally wounded, he evidenced apparent concern only in fighting and saving his ship, and strongly protested against being carried from the bridge."

Captain Bennion received another traditional Navy tribute on July 4, 1943, when the destroyer USS Bennion was christened by his widow Louise. The Bennion went on to fight in a number of important actions during the successfbl American offensive in the Pacific. In 1951 the Salt Lake City Navy Mother's Club dedicated a plaque in honor of World War I1 veterans in Salt Lake's Memory Grove. Bennion was also honored in 1968 by the University of Utah's Naval (more)

Reserve Officer Training Corps, which dedicated the midshipmen's wardroom in the Naval Science Building to him.

See Clippings file, ''Memory Grove," USHS Library;NROTC Unit, University of Utah, Dedication Cgemony, April 16, 1968; Robert Anthony Sumbot, "The Utah Fleet:A History of Ships in the United States Navy that Bore Utah Place Names and Personality Names" (M.S.thesis, Utah State University, 1966).

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A Famous Seismologist Studied Utah's 1934 Earthquake

THEHANSEL VALLEYEARTHQUAKE OF.1934.was -oneof the largest in the history of the state. Though the epicenter was located near the small town of Kelton in Box Elder County, tremors were felt throughout the morning of March 12 as far south as Richfield and in the surrounding states of Idaho, Wyoming, and Nevada. Seismologist Charles F. Richter studied the Hansel Valley Earthquake in defining his famous magnitude scale.

The earthquake was of interest not only because of its power-later placed at 6.6 on the Richter Scale-but because it was one of the fist in the Utah region to show evidence of historic faulting. Geologists Frederick Pack of the University of Utah and Reed Bailey of the A g r i c u l d College in Logan made extensive studies of the Hansel Faults. Cracks 18 inches wide ran through the earth at Kelton. At Locomotive Springs, near Promontory, small geysers were formed when fissures up to three feet wide opened to pour out hot water from deep below the surface of the earth. The Deseret News of March 13, 1934, reported that railroad ties that fell in the boiling holes were immediately thrown out by the force of the water.

Though few individuals were seriously injured, the earthquake caused panic and concern for many in northern Utah. The first major shock began at 8:06 A.M. A local jewelry store in Brigharn City could confirm the time, since all the clocks and watches stopped when the shock began. For the next 33 minutes, the earth shook with continuous tremors. In Logan, residents rushed out of their homes, some still in -thek-pajamas,A-maa.~-mscreaming-from a barber shop, his beard only half shaved. Mrs. Madsen, an employee of Ogden's First National Bank, reported that her typewriter fell into her lap and filing cabinet doors shook open as she was working in an office on the ninth floor of the building.

Schools in many towns closed. All schools in the Salt Lake District were closed until the buildings wuld be inspected and approved for safety by the state health commissioners. Students at the Catholic Sacred Heart School in Ogden were sent home early in the morning. In Tooele, school was closed when shocks broke two windows at the Linwln School. Most classes at the Utah State Agricultural College were canceled. Teachers in Garland were perhaps more determined to carry on than others in the valley; when the public school was damaged by the earthquake, they conducted classes outside.

Business was disrupted in Salt Lake City until the tremors subsided at noon. Governor Henry H. Blood was giving a speech on highway problems at the Hotel Utah when the quake began. U.S.Senator Tasker Oddie of Nevada, present at the meeting, later humorously remarked: "When he [the Governor] merely mentions the subject [of highways], as he did a little while ago, (more)

the earth trembles for miles around." Court cases at the City and County Building were quickly adjourned when jurors and witnesses alike left the building without being formally excused.

Workmen cleaning the dome of the State Capitol held on for their lives as the building swayed from side to side. When asked to return to their tasks after the tremors subsided, they adamantly refused. Inmates at the county jail, fearing that the chimney above them would crash into their cells, called out to be released.

The only reported injury occurred when an employee of the city water works, Charles Bithel, was trapped in a 6-foot trench near Sugar House. When finally dug out, he had suffered severe internal injuries and was immediately rushed to the Holy Cross Hospital. Some believed the death of Ida May Vanable Atkinson, age 21, was indirectly caused by the earthquake. The young woman had been ill and bedridden for nearly two weeks. When the first tremor hit she awoke to ask, 'Who is shaking my bed?" She died shortly after, affected perhaps by the shock. To treat and help prevent injuries as a result of the quake, Salt Lake Commissioner John M. Knight and Police Chief W. L. Payne stationed first aid personnel at various points throughout the city.

Considering the force of the Hansel Valley Earthquake the damage was minimal. In Salt Lake City plaster fell in office buildings and hotels. The statue on top of the City and County Building was bent. The elevator shaft in the LDS Church Office Building was damaged. Some claimed that the Angel Moroni statue atop the Mormon temple was twisted slightly to the southeast. At Kelton, the town closest to the quake's epicenter, the chimneys and walls of several buildings collapsed, and the schoolhouse was set on fire. Oddly enough, Provo was almost unaffected by the earthquake. Of the 5,000 people participating in the parade celebrating the 85th anniversary of that city, only a few noticed the tremors.

By the early afternoon of Monday, March 12, the tremors had ceased. On Tuesday most residents of northern Utah returned to their daily schedules, and most schools and offices were reopened in the morning as if nothing had happened the day before. While the Hansel Valley Earthquake eventually became only a memory to those who had experienced it, the event has been identified as an important moment in the geological history of the state.

See Walter Arabasz et at., eds., Earthquake Studies in Utah, 1850 to 1978 (Salt Lake City: University of Utrrh, 1979), and contemporary newspaper accounts.

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Utah Banker Mamner S. Eccles Helped Design FDR's New Deal

Tm G w T DEPRESSION LASTED FROM-1929'until war production revived the economy in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Although conservative economists argued that the depression reflected normal cycles and should not be addressed with extraordinary measures, the high levels of unemployment and general suffering forced policymakers to seek new approaches. One of the major architects of the New Deal programs was a short, slender, seemingly ordinary Utah banker, Marriner S. Eccles.

Eccles was already an established banker and entrepreneur when he came to the attention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 'brain trust." Born in Logan in 1890, Eccles worked at his father's Oregon lumber mills and then attended Brigham Young College in lagan. After serving an LDS mission in Swtland, he returned to manage the family estate. His business activities flourished during the prosperous 1920s, and at various times he served as president of First Savings Bank, Sego Milk Products Company, Utah Construction Company, Stoddard Lumber Company, and First Security Corporation.

Dr. Rexford G. Tugwell, one of Roosevelt's closest advisors, invited Eccles to Washington for a number of conferences. While there he testified before the Senate Finance Committee, advocating many of the measures that would become comerstones of the New Deal.While traditional economics stressed a hands-off, open market approach from government and balanced budgets, Eccles proposed -publicworlcs--to-relieve-unemployment-and direct relief measures, as well as a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, and old age pensions. He was appointed assistant to the secretary of the Treasury and then left after ten months to become chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in 1934. Established major bank executives initially underestimated the somewhat obscure Utahn, but Eccles's diplomatic skills and expertise made him an influential policymaker.

He wrote the Banking Act of 1935 and moved to restructure the Federal Reserve System. Although New Deal policies did not end the depression, they did help to ameliorate the worst suffering and stabilize the country's financial structure.

During his term Eccles helped to establish the independence of the Fed from the Treasury Department. He championed the now-familiar compensatory policies of manipulating interest rates, tax rates, and currency supplies to counter harmful economic trends. When Eccles disagreed with Truman administration officials over policies, the president declined to reappoint him as chairman in 1948. Eccles remained on the Fed's Board of Governors until 1951, and served on a number of important advisory bodies. He was the U.S. delegate to the Bretton Woods Conference that created the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. (more)

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Eccles returned to his private business and philanthropic interests in 1952, serving as CEO and later honorary chairman and director of First Security Corporation, Amalgamated Sugar Company, and Utah International Incorporated until his death in 1977. In 1982 the Federal Reserve Building in Washington; D.C., was renamed the Marriner S. Eccles Fedeal Reserve Board Building.

See, for example, First FocusS'cial Founder's Day Supplement (First Security Bank), September 1990.

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The Steamboat Era Was Glamorous but Very Brief in Utah 23, 1871, NEARLY 3,000 PEOPLE STOOD BY--THEBANKS of-the Bear fiver in ON Corinne to witness the launching of Utah's fnst steamboat-an event that excited the imagination of the public. About a year earlier, Corinne businessmen had conceived the idea of creating a steamship line to rival the newly constructed Utah Central Railroad. By offering cheaper freighting rates than the local railroad, investors were convinced that the steamboat would capture the mineral transport business created by the growing mining camps south of the Great Salt Lake.

The Corinne Steam and Navigation Company purchased some $40,000 worth of machinery to begin the project in January 1871. When the parts arrived from St. Louis, Corinne was bombarded with the clanking sounds of construction as workers labored for nearly four months to assemble the steamboat.

The completed ship, majestically docked at the Corinne port, weighed two tons and was 150 feet long. Prepared for leisure cruises, the three-decker vessel had eight staterooms, a dance hall, and private dining cabins that wuld accommodate 60 to 70 people. A large paddle wheel was fixed to the stem of the ship. On the side was emblazoned the steamboat's name, the City of Corinne.

The May celebration of the launching of the ship was a lively affair. Horse races, baseball, and a grand ball in the Opera House kept the guests from Salt Lake and beyond busy throughout the day. At 2 P.M.an excited crowd-stood.at-Corime's-port-to witness the launching of the City of Corinne. Many walked away disappointed, however, when the vessel was caught, apparently on the launching timbers, in shallow water only 20 feet downriver. Four hours later the City of CoriMe was finally freed and on its way to the Great Salt Lake.

During the months of June and July the steamboat kept a tri-weekly schedule, transporting passengers and cargo to and from Lake Point on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake and the transcontinental railroad at Corinne. Though Lake Point was a remote port far removed from Salt Lake City, investors worked hard to make it an appealing destination for their customers. Fox Diefendorf, owner of the Ciry of Corinne, invested in a newly invented "steam wagon" to transport ores from the Stockton and Ophir mines to the landing at Lake Point. Meanwhile, Jeter Clinton was busy transforming the port into a resort beach. In early 1871 he had constructed a temporary building, Lake House, that provided showers and refreshments for tourists. In the fall Clinton replaced the structure with a hotel.

Despite these efforts business had dropped by late July. Since no railroad connected Salt Lake City with Lake Point, few passengers were willing to take the trip. Numerous attempts were (more)

made to promote passenger sales but to no avail. Diefendorf sought to lure passengers with newspaper advertisements that read: "(Spend) a whole day on the south shore, to visit the caves and grottoes near Lake Point, enjoy surf bathing, and hunting.. .." When passenger rates continued to drop in August, Diefendorf had no choice but to end scheduled sightseeing trips around the lake. Instead, the Cily of Corinne was launched for private parties and school field trips. Finally, in April 1872, Diefendorf sold the City of Con'nne to H. S. Jacobs of Salt Lake City.

Three years later John W. Young (a son of Brigham Young) bought the ship to attract tourists to his Great Salt Lake resort at Lake Side near Farmhgton. In September 1875 General James A. Garfield, soon to be elected as the U.S. president, took a complimentary tour of the lake in the Ciry of Connne. At the suggestion of a woman passenger, Corinne's steamboat was re& General GarJied. To the humiliation of the people of Corinne, who had so proudly celebrated its launching, the steamboat was permanently anchored at the Garfield Beach Resort until it was destroyed by fire in 1904. .

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.,

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See Dale L. Morgan, Ihe Great Salt Lake (New York: Bobbs-Med, 1947); Brigham D. Madsen, Corinne:

llhe

Gentile Capital of Utah (Salt Lake City:Utah State Historical Society, 1980).

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James P. Beckwourth and the Mythology of the West

Tm WESTHAS ALWAYS FASCINATED .AMERICANS.-For much=ofthe nation's history people have believed that the West meant opportunity and adventure. Independence, strength, hard work, and sometimes a willingness to use violence have been the perceived .ingredients of western success. Mythical characters stock our collective consciousness: the cowboy, the Indian, the gunfighter, the pioneer. One of the most enduring images is the mountain man, a solitary hunter/b'apper exploring the wilderness, living by his wits, and alternately befriending and fighting the "savage" Indian. Few fit this model better than James P. Beckwourth.

The 'true" details of Beckwourth's life, appropriately enough, are shrouded in myth and mystery. Many of the facts and much of the mystery come from Beckwourth's own account. In 1856 he teamed up with a would-be journalist and temperance reformer (albeit with a drinking habit) named T. D. B o M to ~ ~write ihe Life and Adventures of J m s P. Beckwourth, a lengthy recitation of adventures, bloody battles, close calls, and hairbreadth escapes-most starring Jim Beckwourth as the hero.

Beckwourth claimed to have been born in Virginia in 1798. His father, Jennings Beckwith, was a white man; his mother (whom he does not discuss) was apparently Beckwith's AfricanAmerican slave. The family moved to Missouri, perhaps for the relative freedom that the frontier gave to the interracial liaison. Jim learned to hunt with his father and soon demonstrated a love of adventure that would last throughout his sventful-life. -- -- . - - .Beckwourth was apprenticed to a St. Louis blacksmith, a useful profession that may have brought him to the attention of General William Ashley. Ashley and Andrew Henry owned the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, which spawned some of the most famous explorations and some of the most durable legends in the annals of the West. In 1822 the company advertised for adventurous men to explore the upper Missouri River and beyond in search of fur. The group recruited was a veritable who's who of future mountain men: Jedediah Smith, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Etienne Provost, William Sublette, Jim Bridger, and David Jackson joined the company in its first years.

Jim Beckwourth joined, too, perhaps as a blacksmith.

Beckwourth may have played a role in the early exploration of Wyoming's South Pass and subsequent expeditions along the Bear, Weber, and Green rivers. What seems certain is that he was trapping in the Utah region by 1825, and he frequented the area over the next few years, often trapping in the Cache and Salt Lake valleys.

In that famous year of the first mountain man rendezvous at Henry's Fork (1825), Beckwourth began to establish his reputation as a master storyteller. Like his colleague Jim (more) --,

Bridger, Beckwourth relished telling heroic and improbable tales with himself at the center. Many historians, on reading contemporary opinions of Beckwourth and analyzing his "autobiography," have concluded that he was an audacious braggart and prevaricator. Many quote the description of Beckwourth as a 'gaudy liar" as proof of his unreliability. Bernard DeVoto and others, however, note that exaggerated storytelling was a valued skill among mountain men and that the "autobiography" dictated to B o ~ e was r an extension of that oral tradition. 'Gaudy liar" may well have been a compliment bestowed upon Jim by his friends. Beckwourth also looked and dressed the part. Six feet tall and strongly built, he wore his dark hair to his waist and frequently sported braids, ribbons, earrings, gold chains, and Crow leggings.

The "facts" of Beckwourth's life are impressive enough. Simply to endure in this unforgiving region implied that his hunting and survival skills were excellent. In 1828 he was captured and adopted by the Crow Indians (perhaps willingly, as he longed for the adventure). He may have enjoyed the lack of racial prejudice among the Crow and may also have welcomed the relative sexual license that the Indians permitted. BBckwourth became a."war chief" and participated in many battles, events that he gives great weight to in his life's account. Others have noted, however, that 'chief" was an unofficial and common enough title.

Beckwourth's adventurous spirit led him to participate in the Seminole War of 1837-38.

Returning to the West, he earned a substantial sum selling whiskey to the Cheyenne and operating saloons in New Mexico. In the 1840s he crisscrossed California, playing cards, prospecting, guiding settlers (a famous pass is named for him), and stealing horses. He served (perhaps unwillingly) as a guide for Colonel John Chivington at the notorious Sand Creek Massacre of the Cheyenne in 1864. In 1866 he returned to his beloved Crow territory and died near the Bighorn River.

Sources: llte Lifeand Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, ed. T. D. Bonner, with a preface and introduction by Bernard DeVoto (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1931); Sean Dolan, James Beckwourth (New Yo*: Chelsea House, 1992).

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The Bear Lake Monster-Real, Imaginary, or Tall Tale?

BYT m TIME JOSEPHC. RICH'S ARTICLE about the Bear Lake Monster was published in the Deseret News on August 3, 1868, the Bear Lake settlements were already stirred up about the beast. Less than a month earlier, Rich explained, C. M. Johnson of South Eden had found a drowned person on the shore of the lake. When he approached the body he came face to face with a strange animal staring at him from the water. He said it had "ears or bunches on the side of its head nearly as large as a pint cup." The beast seemed to be large enough to touch the bottom of the lake. Johnson had no doubt that the body lying on the shore had been killed by the monster he saw before him.

The next day, Rich reported, three women and one man saw a large creature in the lake.

Then, on Sunday, a party of women and men returning from Fish Haven to St. Charles spotted four large creatures and six smaller ones in the lake nearly three miles away. One of the spectators, Thomas Sleight, said the largest animal was "no less than 90 feet in length." Rich ended the article by confirming the validity of his accounts with a personal statement that he had truly seen the Bear Lake Monster.

These reports had apparently convinced all but the most hardened skeptics that monsters ruled the lake. Few boats ventured out from Bear Lake's shore for several months after the scare.

Too frightened to swim or fish in the lake, residents spent their leisure time watching from the shore for any signs of the -monster,--- -.--- -. -- .. . - -- . .. - -- Only a few brave men dared to face the monster head on. The Deseret News reported on November 25, 1868, that Mr. P. U. Cook had set out to catch the monster in a boat equipped with a large hook attached to 20 feet of cable and 300 yards of rope. Unable to spot the animal, he went home empty-handed. Another story tells of a Bear Lake resident who tried to bait the monster with the carcass of a ewe attached to a hook. A scavenger stole the meat while the hook was unguarded at night. The next morning the hunter found the empty hook and was convinced that the monster had visited his trap, eaten the bait, and escaped alive.

As tales of the Bear Lake Monster spread throughout northern Utah other strange creatures seemed to come out of hiding. In 1871 an affidavit signed at Corinne by J. H. McNiel confumed that a five-foot monster that looked "like a crocodile but with a head like a horse" had chased several men from the Great Salt Lake to Corinne. During that same year four campers claimed they were chased by an alligator-like animal some 75 feet long near the shores of the Great Salt Lake. (more)

Meanwhile, the Bear Lake Monster seemed to be growing in size and aggressiveness. A rumor spread that Aquila Nebeker, a resident of South Eden, had confronted the monster when it came ashore and devoured his twenty sheep. Then, the hungry creature unintentionally swallowed an entire roll of badxxr wire, thrashed its tail, and crawled back into the lake.

When Brigham Young visited the Bear Lake Valley in June 1869 he did not see the monster. Nonetheless, he heard plenty of stories from townspeople wnfinning that they believed a strange creature lived in the lake. When the well-known traveler John Codman spoke to the settlers during a visit to Bear Lake in 1874, he learned that the monster was believed to be 80 feet long with a body covered with seal-like fur and a head like an alligator. A visitor in 1883 report& that the townspeople talked about a monster 200 feet long with a mane like a horse and eyes as big as a human head.

When 1st Lt. Samuel E. Tillman participated in the Wheeler Survey in 1877 he, too, heard reports of the Bear Lake Monster and determined 'to verify or refute reports of the monster's existence" as his crew circled the I&e on its topographical mission. One foggy morning as he rode along the shore looking for his mules he heard 'a distinct clapping sound as of two solid bodies.. .quickly followed by sprays of water shooting up through the thin layer of fog." He dismounted and set out on foot to discover the source of these sights and sounds. If he had not, he noted, he probably would have 'felt able to endorse.. .some sort of lake monster." What Tillman saw was strange enough: two bulls facing each other in water up to their sides, heads down and horns clashing. When water filled their nostrils the bulls raised their heads up and blew out a spray.

In the spring of 1883 a boating party on Bear Lake saw a large, threatening animal approach the boat at enormous speed. Fearing for their lives, the men shot the creature and brought it to shore. What they had thought was the Bear Lake Monster was only an unfortunate beaver whose reflection in the water had exaggerated its proportions!

When sightings of the monster decreased after 1883 some reasoned that the monster had returned through an underground tunnel to its original home at Loch Ness. Others chose to believe a purported Native American legend that the monster would wme again at its own time to reclaim the lake.

Even today, some still claim to have seen a huge body rise momentarily from the lake and splash back into the water. Whether real or legendary, the Bear Lake Monster has lived on in campfire stories and incredible tales since the early days-of-settlementin the Bear Lake Valley.

See Russell R. Rich, Land of the Sky-Blue Water (Provo: BYU Press, 1963); Bonnie Thompson,Folklore in the Bear Lake Valley (Salt Lake City, 1972); Dwight L. Smith, "The Wheeler Survey in Utah, Idaho, and Montana. Samuel E. Tillman's Tour of Duty in 1877, " Utah Historical Quarterly 59 (199 1).

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Legendary Mother Jones Came to Help Striking Utah Coal Miners

W ~ = R AMERICANWORKERS STRUGGLED TO-IMPROVEheir -conditionsof labor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Mary Harris Jones was likely to be there. A tireless champion of workers' rights, Mother Jones, as she was called, was involved in the great railroad strike of 1877, the Haymarket riot of 1896, and the steel strike of 1919. In April 1904 she came to Carbon County, Utah, to assist coal miners in their strike against the Utah Fuel Company.

The Castle Gate coal mine employed so many Italian immigrants that it was known as the 'Italian mine." The miners went out on strike in 1903 seeking better wages and hours and recognition of the United Mine Workers union. Mother Jones came to Utah at the behest of the UMW immediately after she was ordered out of the striking mining districts of Colorado by the governor.

Already well-known when she arrived in Helper, Mother Jones quickly garnered attention when she promised to 'agitate, educate and aggravate" on behalf of the miners. She told reporters that '...Mormonism is about as good as any of the rest of the religions, as all the churches and preachers are in league with the big thieves and join hands with corporations in oppressing the poor laboring man." The Deseret News sought to discredit her, claiming that she had been a Denver brothel keeper and 'an erstwhile fast friend of Kate Flint, one of the pioneer scarlet women of Salt Lake."

Both fearless and wmpassionate, she endeared herself to ordinary working men and women with her forthright manner-and lackaf-pretensionJWhen,-for example, after serving Jones her dinner at a Helper hotel the waitress brought a finger bowl to the table, the labor advocate, speaking so everyone in the dining room wuld hear, said: 'Take it away my girl....such things are not for me, they only give some poor overworked girl extra work at washing dishes." The story quickly spread throughout the town.

Jones, called by the press a 'well-presewed woman of about 60 years of age" (actually 74), soon met with labor organizer William Price who was confined with reportedly the worst case of smallpox that the local health officer, Dr. Holmquist, had ever seen. The doctor quarantined Jones, and she was forbidden to address strikers at an open-air meeting in Helper. The quarantine shack was burned down, however (apparently by strikers), forcing her to seek shelter at a lodging house.

She later claimed that a company detective tried to rob her there at gunpoint, mistakenly believing that she was the guardian of the strike fund.

Mother Jones broke quarantine a number of times in the next few days, once addressing evicted miners in their tent colony. The local papers reported that she was about to lead a force of strikers-with women and children at its head and backed up by at least 150 armed men-who

planned to march on Castle Gate and retake their company housing. The Deseret News claimed that "Castle Gate Italians, until goaded by this Amazon, had kept themselves within the law and very few arrests were made.. ..[Jones] has become a ranting vixen seeking to lead a mob of destructionists into the execution of some diabolical plot.. " Alarmed local citizens called for the state militia, but Sheriff Hyrum Wilcox formed a posse instead and arrested about 120 miners. The mass arrests broke the strike, which ended shortly thereafter.

Mother Jones later wrote that she had been held captive under the pretext of quarantine for 26 days, although research indicates it was probably less. She left Carbon County for Salt Lake City near the end of April and then continued west to San Francisco where more strikers awaited her encouragement. Viewed as a compassionate Joan of Arc by many American workers,Mother Jones lived to age 100, fighting for labor most of her life.

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See Dale Fetherling, Mother Jones, the Miners' Advocate;.Eastern Utah MHoa~e.;:SaltLakc Wbune, and Datret N m s for April and May 1904; and Allan Kent Powell "The 'Foreign Element' and the 1903-4 Carbon County CoPI Miners' Strike," Utah Historical Qwr~erly43 (1975).

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Boxing Legend Jack Dempsey Loved Fighting, Mining, and Cowboying

D m THB 1920s AMERICANS CELEBRATED their-material prosperity and made national

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heroes out of sports figures. The greatest American sports hero was' undoubtedly Babe Ruth; his closest rival was a tough heavyweight boxer from the mining West called Jack Dempsey.

Dempsey's family originally came from Logan County, West Virginia. Jack claimed that his family was related to the Hatfields of feud fame. An LDS missionary converted his parents, Hyrum and Celia Smoot Dempsey, and they moved West, arriving in the Mormon village of Manassa, Colorado, around 1880. While Hyrum fell away from the church, Celia remained faithful. (Jack would later write, 'I'm proud to be a Mormon. And ashamed to be the Jack Mormon that I am.") The future boxing great, William Harrison Dempsey (named after the president), was born in Manassa on June 24, 1895. His father and older brothers were miners, and the family moved many times as they followed mining jobs around Colorado and Utah. Harry,as the youngster was known, began working on a farm near Steamboat Springs at the age of eight.

Over the course of the next several years, he would work as a miner, cowboy, and odd-job man.

The future heavyweight champ always claimed that he loved fighting, mining, and cowboying and could have been happy doing any of the above for the rest of his life.

Harry's older brother, Bernie, who often earned extra money as a prize fighter in the tough Rocky Mountain mining towns, taught Harry the rudiments of the sport. Bernie convinced Harry to chew rubbery pine tar gum-to-strengthenhis jaw-and-to-soakhis face in brine to toughen the skin and prevent cuts. From age eleven Harry was in training to be a prize fighter.

The Dempsey family finally settled in Provo, Utah, when Harry was twelve, and he attended Lakeview Elementary School before dropping out of the eighth grade. He worked shining shoes, picking crops, and unloading beets at a sugar refinery for ten cents a ton. Then from 1911 to 1916 he 'rode the rods" -hung below railroad freight cars-from town to town across Utah, Colorado, and Nevada, picking up fights where he could. Peter Jackson's saloon on Commercial Street in Salt Lake City sewed as his home base. Hardy Downey, a local promoter, got Harry a number of fights. In his Salt Lake City debut, fighting as Kid Blackie, he knocked out One-Punch Hancock with one punch. Downey was so displeased that he made Dempsey fight Hancock's brother before he would pay him.

Bernie Dempsey was traveling a similar circuit in Colorado, billing himself as "Jack" Dempsey after a great middleweight of the late nineteenth century. In 1914 Harry substituted for the ill Bernie in a match and for the first time became Jack Dempsey himself. He later estimated (more)

that he fought 100 fights in those years, winning most, losing some, and earning very little. H e often survived on the free saloon lunch that came with the purchase of a nickel beer.

Jack finally got a break when his manager got him some quality fights in San Francisco and the East. On July 4, 1919, Jack met the much larger champion, Jess Willard, in Toledo, Ohio.

The Salt Loke Telegram had a direct wire to Toledo, and the sports editor in Salt Lake City read the blow-by-blow results aloud to a crowd of 5,000 in Jack's adopted home state. Dempsey knocked Willard out and went on to rule the heavyweight division until two famous losses to Gene Tumey forced his retirement. Dempsey remained an enormously popular figure for the rest of his long life, starring in movies (generally awful) and operating a string of restaurants. He often returned to Utah where he bought his mother several homes.

Sources: Dempsey: By the Man HimseIf, as told to Bob Considine and Bill Slocum; Dmpsey, by Jack Dsmpssy with Barbara PiateIli Dempsey; Og&n Standard .Examiner, . . -

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Der Beobachter Helped German Immigrants Acculturate in Utah

GERMAN AMERICANSHAW LONG CONSTITUTED one of the largest ethnic populations in the United States. Immigrants from the various German states flooded into America, especially during the 1830s-1850s. Substantial numbers stayed in eastern cities, while others went to the Midwest to farm or trade, creating large German-American communities in cities like St. Louis and Milwaukee. Thousands came to Utah as well, part of the influx of converts to the LDS church from northern Europe. From 1890 to 1935, and again briefly in 1955, the Salt Lake Beobacer ("Observer") sewed German language speakers as an important link with the old country as well as an instrument of acculturation to a new country and a new religious faith.

German Americans in Utah made great efforts to assimilate into American society. Unlike some other ethnic groups, such as the Chinese, Greeks, and Italians who mostly came to Utah as unskilled, poorly paid labor, many of the German immigrants came from the middle and upper socioeconomic levels, with a high rate of literacy. The Utah Germans tended to look to the Mormon hierarchy for direction, which encouraged acculturation.

The Beobachter followed a number of previous German-language newspapers, including the Intelligenz-Blatt, which it closely resembled. The first publisher, owner, and editor was Joseph Harvey Ward, a native-born American who had served an LDS mission to Germany. The first issue, August 9, 1890, set a pattern that the paper long followed. It called for tolerance of immigrants, attacked the Liberal. (anti-Mormon) party., and featured many news stories and letters from Germany. The paper also carried articles about American history as well as LDS material, which would increase over time. Beginning about the time of the Boer War (1899-1902), the paper adopted a tough anti-British stance that continued into the World War I years.

When Ward died in 1905 the LDS church bought controlling interest in the Beobachter, and the paper continued much as it had before. Its editorial stance was generally Republican in politics, with stmng support for woman suffrage and a general sympathy for the rights of labor versus capital. fn July 1914 its masthead began carrying the words "German Organ of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. " World War I caused agonizing problems for German Americans, problems that were reflected in the Beobuchter's pages. The paper staunchly defended German motives, blaming the outbreak of war in 1914 on other nations and countering anti-German propaganda. With the U.S. entry into the war against Germany in 1917, the Beobachter again reflected conflicting GermanAmerican loyalties. The paper's editors swore loyalty to the U.S. while calling on immigrants to (more)

remember and honor their ancestry. In 1918 they added this statement to the masthead: 'American in Everything but the Language. " The paper continued until 1935, covering Hitler's rise without much editorial comment, although it condemned the Nazis' anti-Semitism and what it called the 'un-Christian" nature of the regime. The Beobachter steadily lost readership; the 1921 Immigration Act had stopped most Germans from immigrating, while the first and second generations in Utah lost their ties with the old country and gradually died out. In 1923 the LDS church established the Associated Newspapers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an umbrella organization for its foreignlanguage papers. Thereafter, all papers had the same content, except for news from the homeland, and shared a common executive editor. The Beobachter was discontinued when the church considered it no longer financially viable. The title was briefly revived in 1955 but failed after several issues.

See Salt Lake Beobachter, microfilm, Utah State Historical Society Library; Thomas L.Broadbent, "The Salt Lake Beobachter: Mirror of an Immigration," Utah Historical Quarterly 26 (1958): 329-52.

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