Friday, July 4, 2014

Magna 4th of July parade 2014

Pleasant Green Circa 1920. Notice the Pleasant Green ward building in the background. Main Street facing east. Photo taken near today's 8700 West.
Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.
     If anything can be said about Magna (historic Pleasant Green) it is that we certainly love our parades. Rick Duckworth, a generational Magna resident, history lover, and president of the Magna History Club said not only is our parade known to be, at times, one of the largest in the state, but to us it's a "family reunion."
     Though this day commemorates 238 years of our nation's independence, this month we commemorate 140 years since this pioneer town of Pleasant Green was established, July 21, 1874. The pioneer spirit burns bright still in our hearts. Many of today's residents are descendents of the original pioneer settlers of Coonville and Millstone Point, which later became Pleasant Green (popularly known as "Magna").
Historic Pleasant Green Main Street. Notice the Empress Theatre on the lower left. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Sutton Sharp.
Historic Pleasant Green Main Street. Notice the original Magna Elementary (later Webster Elementary) behind the trees. Photo courtesy of Sylvia Sutton Sharp.

     The following photographs aren't as old, but they do show the ever-changing character of Main Street. We often take the present for granted and find ourselves surprised when it disappears into the past.
Parade circa 1991. Photo courtesy of the Magna Times.
July 4th 2014
1990s Photo courtesy of the Magna Times
July 4th 2014
Many things can change in two decades, yet many things can stay the same. Notice the Perk Dry Cleaners to the left and the Gem marquee to the right. This was a Christmas parade, possibly mid-nineteen eighties. Photo courtesy of the Magna Times.
July 4th 2014
Notice the small park at the left next to the dry cleaners. Both are now gone, and the library is now in their place. Photo courtesy of the Magna Times.
State senator Daniel Thather: Magna's senator, a man who doesn't quit, let alone hardly rests. He fights for the kind of government that will work for us, standing against those who would assume that we work for the government. With every step he takes and every day he spends on the hill, he carries that spirit of the Declaration of Independence that we celebrate: the Spirit of '76.  
     "Now I take my responsibility as a senator very seriously.  I think that my primary obligation is to protect people. Sometimes that means protecting people from the government. I don't represent the government, I represent the people. When the government steps out of bounds, there is nobody that can step them down. There is no one that can intercede. When Salt Lake County-- I'll tell you, half the reason that I ran for office in the first place was because of the response that I got from the person that had been representing us in the senate, when I asked him what he was going to do about the police fee that Salt Lake County dropped on Magna. Salt Lake County broke the law to do that. They violated tax law by calling a tax a fee. But here's the problem: even though it was blatantly obvious that they broke the law, there's only one entity with the authority to make them stop, and that's the state. Only the state can make the county stop when it's out of bounds. In this particular case we had a senator who felt..."well...you know...whatever the county does, that's not my problem. I should let the county do whatever they like. I'm sorry. I couldn't stand for that.        
     "So the very first thing that I did when I decided that by golly somebody has to stick up for us, and if nobody is going to run, I guess it's going to be me, I made a commitment that I was going to walk every precinct. I knocked so many doors it was ridiculous. I wore out three pairs of shoes." 
--State Senator Daniel Thatcher.
     
Christmas parade circa 1984 or 1985. It was around this time that many of the buildings along the historic Pleasant Green Main Street (popularly known as Magna) were demolished. Courtesy of the Magna Times.

4th of July 2014.
Early 1990s Courtesy of the Magna Times.
4th of July 2014. The celebrated Cyprus High School Spinnakers. More than a tradition, this institution boasts generations. Main Street hasn't known a 4th of July without their swinging swords since Cyprus has had a drill team.
        Though another parade has been added to history, the experience and the fun won't be forgotten. Buildings and landmarks will come and go, but it is each other who we celebrate; it's the greatness that comes from small things as we choose to build each other up, instead of tearing each other down that we celebrate. We celebrate the freedom to become anything we choose according to how hard we work, and we celebrate the freedom to take such roads as long as that freedom can be preserved. We celebrate the on-going fight against the forces that would keep us from realizing our highest potential, the fight laid out clearly and the lines drawn in the Declaration of Independence.
Carolyn Richards and daughter, Cassie, working to make sure the 5k goes smoothly.
Joseph Hastings, the tired runner.
The Lion's Club breakfast, special thanks to Smith's.
Pete Renaldi
Sue Duckworth, Magna's State Representative, a generational resident with a special love four our history and our community. Through the toughest of times, the Duckworth family has continued to serve our community.
Sebastian Randazzo, owner of Nonna's Pizza.
Storm, owner of Art On You studios.
Folks show support for candidate Bill Both, running for state representative District 22.
Miss Magna
Rick Duckworth speaks to Senator Daniel Thatcher
Cyprus dancers strut in the heat.









Saturday, June 14, 2014

Where does Cyprus High School get its name?


Note: The following article was taken from e-mails I had sent to Randall Martin as he worked on the points of interest map and explanations for the Ethnic and Mining Museum of Magna and an e-mail I had sent to Georgia Vallejos, secretary at Cyprus High School, as she updated a history for Cyprus High School.

Thead's Peak: named after Hyrum Theron Spencer Jr., nicknamed "Thead" by friends, affectionately called "Hyde" by his parents, who died at the age of nineteen of appendicitis, "inflammation of the bowels." He passed away October 31, 1885. The Spencer ranch now lies under tailings. It had once stood a little north and a little west of the peak. The Spencer's were some of the original settlers of Millstone Point, which by 1874 would become part of the larger Pleasant Green precinct that included Coonville.
Notice how the shape of the Cyprus High School auditorium reflects the shape of that peak, a peak that has become the beacon for historic Pleasant Green, popularly known as "Magna." The modern auditorium, the darker building to the right, was designed by Charlie Brown, the famed drama teacher, and constructed in 1976.


 The Myth Versus the Facts
     Cyprus High School (Cyprus Junior High at the time) wasn't named by Greek immigrants nor was it named in honor of them. That's a myth.
     The Greek mill workers were new to the area in 1917, when the decision to name the new junior high school was made. They simply weren't rooted deep enough into the community nor had they the pull and influence that would inspire the naming of a $40,000.00 school.
     The facts have to do with the new Granite School District Board of Directors, who or what they wanted to honor at that time, and the influence Daniel C. Jackling, the president of the Utah Copper Company, had on Pleasant Green.

Colonel Jackling's Private Rail Car and the Luxury Yacht

     Being classically inclined, Jackling, there is no mystery why the word "Cyprus" is associated in relation to his interests in Pleasant Green and would directly or indirectly influence the naming of a school in Pleasant Green; after all, he had named his steamer yacht (in which he sailed the ocean blue like a pirate) "Cyprus," and he had named his personal rail car (much like today's private jet) "Cyprus." For the words Aes Cyprium (Latin) "Metal of Cyprus," Cuprum, or χαλκος κυπριος (Greek) "chalkos kuprios," held specific symbolic importance in his mind: the porphyry coppers had been mined on the island of Cyprus for six millennia and had sustained empires.
     In a Salt Lake Tribune article dated January 1, 1914, a headline read: "Jackling Party is Sailing on the Deep" The article went on tell of the maiden voyage of the steam yacht "Cyprus" that "sailed from Los Angeles harbor...on one of the most luxurious cruises ever enjoyed in the Pacific coast waters. D. C. Jackling, millionaire copper king, and owner, with a party of fourteen guests, went on board.... Preparations were complete for weighing anchor at dawn. Mr. Jackling, as host, is giving a yachting party which exceeds in magnificence anything that has been carried out in the west. He will transport his guests to Panama on the Cyprus. There the yacht will be left, and by rail and steamer he will take them to Jamaica, Cuba and Florida, and return them to Los Angeles on his private car." --his private car also named "Cyprus."
     In the society page pf the Salt Lake Herald dated May 3, 1915, it was reported that "Col. and Mrs. D. C. Jackling will arrive here tomorrow afternoon in their car 'Cyprus,' and will remain only twenty-four hours, leaving for San Francisco on Wednesday. A large dinner will be given in their honor tomorrow evening either at the Alta or Tennis club...."
     In an article from the Salt Lake Telegram dated May 15, 1920, Colonel D. C. Jackling "arrived here with his family in their private car 'Cyprus' from San Francisco. The party immediately proceeded to Bingham and Garfield for an inspection trip to the smelters...."

The Junior High is Named

     It's important to note what would seem to be an outside influence (besides the naming of Jackling's Magna concentrator and the new Magna post office) on the small community of Pleasant Green, how its very identity was being rapidly transformed, not from within, from the original generations of settlers, but once again from a body of individuals unconcerned and even ignorant of local history and heritage. What glittered like gold (or better copper) before their eyes was the past decade of new industry, a world renowned sulfuric tsunami washing over the once quiet community of pioneer farmers and ranchers. For this was not only the biggest copper milling facility in the world at the time, but it was already contributing to the war effort against Kaiser's Germany: World War I.
     On the Tuesday evening of September 25, 1917, the Board of Directors for the Granite School District held a meeting, announcing the plans to construct a one-story junior high school in Pleasant Green--Magna already to the Tribune reporter and the board of directors. The building contract was awarded to Salt Lake contractors Kempa & Holchaw. State architect Richard Charles Watkins, who had planned and superintended the construction of hundreds of schools and other buildings throughout Utah, had drawn the plans and supervised the construction of Cyprus Junior High. The twelve-room building had an auditorium and the latest ventilation and heating of the time.     
    According to a Salt Lake Tribune article dated September 26, 1917, the name of the building would be "Cyprus, a term meaning copper, and significant of the copper workings in and near Magna."
     As reported in the Salt Lake Herald, March 29, 1918, The new Cyprus Junior high opened for formal ceremonies Friday, March, 29, 1918 at eight o' clock pm with music performances in the new auditorium. Among the speakers included Granite School District Superintendent, John Martin Mills and president of the board of education, Delbert William Parratt, who would later become a Granite School District superintendent and a state senator.
     Classes began on Monday, April 1st under the direction of principal J. J. Harris, 1918 - 1921. The new junior high drew 7th to 10th grade students from the Hawthorne school (which stood north and west across the street from today's vista school, directly in front of the old Vosnos property) and Magna Elementary (later known as Webster Elementary).
     By then the red brick Coonville school (District 47) and Pleasant Green (across from the historic Pleasant Green ward building on Pleasant Green Main Street, approximately where the fire station stands) schools were no longer in use.

An Ever Evolving Campus, Even Then

     Pleasant Green still didn't have a high school at this time. The eleventh and twelfth grade students  took the new Magna branch of the Salt Lake & Utah Railroad (popularly known as the "Orem" after W. C. Orem, president of the A. J. Orem company which built the line from Provo to Salt Lake and Granger and later from Granger to Pleasant Green.), and traveled the electric interurban line to West High School. Students from Garfield took the Salt Lake & Los Angeles railroad, which shouldn't be confused with the Utah & Nevada narrow gauge that brought mail to Pleasant Green and bathers to the Black Rock and Garfield resorts several decades before, and by then was buried under tailings. Twenty round trips on the "Orem" would cost the student $8.90.
     This arrangement with the Salt Lake School District would be short lived. According to the History of Granite School District 1904 - 1976 by Marie E. Gooderham, the "Cyprus Grammar School" was "remodeled and changed to a high school in 1925." Students no longer traveled to West High School, but many students in the surrounding area, including Hunter, then took the "Orem" the other way, west, to the new Cyprus High School.
     Note: Irene Hulse, in Rags to Riches, has the high school students being transported to "Granite High School." The remodel in 1925 to the high school added seven rooms. The gymnasium and manual arts building were added 1927 - 1928 and the auditorium was completed in 1928 - 1929. The home economics department and library were added in 1933 - 1934.
     This was the building demolished in and rebuilt in 1983 - 1984 and currently stands as the "main building" today.

The Cyprus high school campus in 1937. Taylor Park Brockbank was the principal.


Down in Flames, Up from the Ashes


     According to local oral history and also documented by Hulse, on July 24, 1947, during the Pioneer Day Celebrations that included a parade on Main Street, some boys were playing with fireworks near the Cyprus Junior High building. The building caught fire and burned to the ground in spite of efforts to save it. The high school addition was spared.
     

Cyprus high school campus from the air 1964.
Notice the industrial arts building is under construction. The old auditorium still stands next to it. 


Cyprus High School June 14, 2014


Sources:

Schow, Nora Brown, Mary Barr Young Spencer Biography, May 1989

Hemingway, Colette; Hemingway, Seán; Cyprus--Island of Copper, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cyco/hd_cyco.htm

Portrait, genealogical and biographical record of the State of Utah : containing biographies of many well known citizens of the past and present (1902)

Cuprum Copper, History and Etymology, http://www.vanderkrogt.net/elements/element.php?sym=Cu

Salt Lake Tribune, "Jackling Party Is Sailing On The Deep," January 1, 1914

Salt Lake Herald, Society, May 3, 1915

Salt Lake Telegram, "Colonel Jackling And Family Arrive," May 15, 1920

Salt Lake Tribune, "Why He Named Her 'Cyprus,'" August 30, 1914

Salt Lake Tribune, "Awarded Contract For Magna School," September 26, 1917

Salt Lake Herald, "Cyprus School To Hold Housewarming," March 29, 1918

Hulse, Irene, Rags to Riches, 1964

Gooderham, Marie E., History of Granite School District 1904 - 1976 its roots in Utah and American Education, 1977, Granite School District

Saturday, March 8, 2014

So, why does Magna have two councils? By Colin B. Douglas


      This article by Colin B. Douglas was originally published December 18, 2008 in the Magna Times. For a while it could be found on the Magna Town Council site but no longer appears there, and now it is currently published on this blog by his permission.   
     Though some of the information in this story is outdated, it serves as an important historical resource for understanding of the on-going two-council question in Magna. It can also make clearer the issues of why or why not Magna should incorporate, take hold of its own future, insist that ALL of its representation (those who have the county's ear) should be made legitimate by the ballot box. It also clarifies the strange on-going relationship that Magna has with the County, why Magna's "silence" on the issue (and by no means has Magna been silent over the years, many concerned voices have been more or less ignored) constitutes "consent of the governed." Hopefully it might clear confusion on why a prospective business owner or developer would be expected to appear before two councils.
     After all, the way we choose to govern ourselves still matters in 2014 as much as it mattered in 1776. Self-government takes work and education, and how educated the residents of Magna are of their own history, and how much effort residents of Magna make in making their voices heard will determine the quality of our government, whether someone outside Magna's boundaries makes the decisions for us, and whether someone who has been legitimized by ballot speaks for you makes all the difference. 
     Without further ado, I give you the history on Magna's two councils.

     Donnie Sweazey's dispute with the Magna Township Planning Commission, County Planning and Zoning, and the Magna Community Council has a context: a 21-year-long tale of two councils that goes to the heart of Magna's history and politics.
     The two councils are the Magna Community Council (MCC), which was a target of Sweazey's anger last Thursday, and the Magna Town Council, formerly the Magna Area Council (MAC-MTC).
     So why does Magna have two councils? The question might occur to you if, as happened to Sweazey, you go before the Magna Township Planning Comission to obtain their blessing on a building project and are told that you need the blessing of both councils, whereas, in, say, Kearns, you would need to make your pitch to only one.
     A short answer would be "tradition and politics." A longer answer requires long lessons in civic and history.

The civics lesson
The Magna Town Council 

     Salt Lake County Ordinance 2.56 provides for "establishing community districts and recognizing community councils in the unincorporated area of the county...to provide a mechanism by which a geographical area may be identified as a community for purposes of formulating and presenting recommendations on actions within the authority of the county which affect that geographical area by force of law or practice."
     A community council as defined by this ordinance is formed not by the county government but by the citizens of the community as a private corporation. Though it is a private organization, all its members must be elected by nonpartisan secret ballot in an election free and open to all registered voters in the community council area. A community council established in accordance with the ordinance may be "recognized" in a community district. More than one may be recognized (as in Mill Creek, which has three councils representing different areas of the district) only if there is no boundary dispute.
     Only a recognized council may receive appropriated funding from the county.
     The MAC-MTC, which meets on the first Thursdays, at 7 p.m., at the Magna Chamber of Commerce building, 9141 W. Historic Magna Main Street, is Magna's recognized community council under the ordinance.

The Magna Community Council

     The MCC, which meets on the fourth Thursday, at 7 p.m. at the Magna Senior Center, is also a private corporation but is a different sort of creature and is not recognized under the ordinance and receives no appropriated county funding (but otherwise, it is treated in virtually very respect by the county as if it were recognized). It is self-appointed and self-perpetuating. Under its articles of incorporation (as of 1986), it is made up largely of "appointed" members, mostly (at least on paper) representatives of community and industrial organizations and unions. At least two seats are reserved for elected public officials.
     Each of the organizations represented on the MCC is entitled to one member. There is one exception to the rule: Kennecott Copper Corporation (which provides most if not all funding for the MCC; and also, by the way, donates some funding to the MAC-MTC) is entitled to two members. 
     The 1986 articles of incorporation "grandfathered in" all who were members at that time and provided for others to be appointed by application. Furthermore, they provide that "a seat shall be reserved for any member who has served two years or more as an officer of the corporation, providing he/she maintains continuous membership after his/her term of office expires."
     The articles also provide for 20 percent of the member of the MCC to be elected from five geographical districts of Magna. 
     There is a residency requirement: "members of the corporation must be residents of Magna...except that the requirements as to residence shall not apply to present members."
     That exception grandfathered in some members of the council who were not residents of Magna in 1986, including its president at that time, Laura Jo McDermaid, who presently serves as vice-president and who lives in the Hunter area of West Valley City.
     Any member, including elected members, "may be removed from membership by a majority vote of the members present at any regular meeting or at any special meeting of the member called for that purpose, for conduct deemed prejudicial" to the MCC. (That clause figured largely in the events of 1987 that led to the formation of the MAC-MTC). 
     In current fact, the MCC has eight active voting members, according to information provided by MCC Secretary Arlene Pattison. According to officers of the MCC, elections of community representatives have not been held in recent years. None of the eight current members represents industry or other organizations. Some of the current permanent members were originally elected member but became permanent by way of service as officers or by appointment. 
     The meetings are regularly attended by Megan Hillyard, liaison representative from the county mayor's office, and Greg Shulz, who is employed by the county to represent the west-side community councils to the county council. Magna resident Dan Peay serves as president, and West Valley City resident Laura Jo Mc Dermaid as vice-president.
The history lesson
The established order

     The MCC was here first, by about 60 years, and is the standard bearer of an old Magna tradition. According to documents in the possession of the MCC, it was first organized in 1927 by a Utah Copper foreman. 
     Magna of that time was a mining company town overlaid on an earlier Mormon farming community called Pleasant Green. The company town has become the core of "old" Magna. The newer developments to the south and east of that core (mainly eastward of 8400 W.) are built over the farms. 
     Though the oral history tells of some division between the older agricultural Magna and the newer company town, at least the company-town Magna itself had a strong sense of community. As explained by Kent Goble, a Magna resident and former member of the MCC who has deep roots in the community and is a local-history buff,  "The county government was not a factor in those days." Whatever was done to improve the community had to be done by local volunteer service, and through the years much was done, much of it with leadership from the Magna-Garfield Lions and the MCC.
     "We built our own churches out here," Goble says. "We created our own water company. It was our labor that put in sidewalks and roads. There was a time in Magna when you could raise an army of volunteer workers for a civic project."
     Magna's main street became a vibrant center of life and business. The vestiges remain of a J.C. Penny store, a hotel, two movie theaters, a Safeway, and other evidences of a past prosperity. 
     Those years are remembered by older residents as something of a golden age, Goble explains: "We old-timers, myself included, remember the way Magna used to be 'back in the day' and dream of it's one day being that way once more. You had to be there to understand, but it was something very, very special. They (the MCC) are vestiges of something that was really special. In their own way they are trying to perpetuate that concept of community." (MCC president Dan Peay recently said as much, comparing the two councils: "The Community Council is probably more concerned with restoring Magna to what it used to be.")
     The MCC seems to have entered a new phase of its life in 1945. Dissatisfaction with county government's responsiveness to Magna's needs gave rise to an incorporation movement, led by one George Cromar, who was connected with the Lions. The movement fizzled (as with others since) when a study showed that incorporation would raise Magna's property taxes to an unacceptable level.
     At the time, representatives of Utah Copper Company and the neighboring smelting and refining company (which later was absorbed into the copper company) approached the incorporation committee with the suggestion that many of the aims could be achieved through a community council. Cromar became president of the council, and the two companies together put up $3,000 to hire and executive secretary for it, and also paid off the debts fro the Magna sewer development that had been in the works since 1941. Since then, the copper company, under its changing names and forms, has, according to current president Dan Peay, been the MCC's sole financial support.
     The MCC as organized in 1945 was not a democratic institution. In an article published in the Magna Times in 1946, Cromar responded to criticism that "the group should have been more democratically chosen" by outlining the organization and bylaws of the council. One representative each had been appointed to it by the copper and smelting companies and also by Bingham and Garfield Railroad, Garfield Smelter, the fire department, The American Legion, the Lion's club, the Arthur-Magna Millmen's union, the AF of L Machinists' Union, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineermen. Three individuals were "asked" to be members at large. Cromar explained that a mass election would have been prohibitively expensive, though later newspaper reports indicate that mass elections of three at large members came to be held. 
     In the process of time, the MCC came to be treated by county government as the "voice of Magna," much as a "recognized" council is treated now, and it can claim credit for many good works, including the Magna Water and Sewer Improvement District, the Mosquito Abatement District, the Cyprus High School swimming pool and skating rink, the senior center, and several parks.
Unrest
  
     As Magna changed, however, dissatisfaction with the structure and performance of the MCC emerged. 
     Change began after World War II, not long after the original organization of the MCC. New homes began to be built to the east of 8400 West. (Kent Goble grew up in the first "new" house built on the east side of 8400 W., in 1948; the house is still inhabited). The development continues to this day. Meanwhile, economic change came to Magna. Harder times came to the copper industry, and by the 1960s shopping centers were growing up further eastward. By the end of the 1960s, Magna's Main Street was well on its way into blight. 
     At first, most of the people building houses eastward had Magna roots and family connections, but then more "outsiders" came in. By 1980, the population of "East Magna" was largely Anglo, Mormon, white collar, non union, and Republican, with no connection to the copper company or the unions and no historical or cultural roots in "old" Magna, which tended to be southern European, Roman Catholic, and blue-collar, with strong loyalties to both the copper company and the unions. (The two populations still have not melded into a unified community.)
     Furthermore, east-siders wanted services and parks to be more centrally located. Many came to perceive the MCC as representing the "old" Magna and being too narrowly focused on revitalization of Main Street. The began to demand more representation on the council, whit at some point responded by increasing the elected members to five, who represented districts. 
     As Goble explains it, it was a problem of mistrust: "The old-timers didn't trust the newcomers to understand and honor the old magna tradition, and the newcomers didn't trust the old-timers to look after their interests."
     The rift between old and new widened in the early 1980s., with the rodeo grounds issue. For years, a 24-acre parcel of land near 3700 S. and 8000 W., on the south side of the irrigation canal, commonly known as the "rodeo grounds," had been designated in Magna's master plan as green space. It had long been the expectation among east-siders that it would eventually be developed as a park.
     Then, on Aug. 12, 1980, the County Planning and Zoning Commission held a public hearing to consider rezoning the parcel for subdivision development. Petitions were circulated, and a concerted effort to secure the property for a park got underway, led by the East Magna Community Parks Association. 
     A Magna Times article published on Aug. 7 noted, "The last area tentatively earmarked for consideration as a park was located south of Lake Ridge School. Unfortunately, Granite School District sold the property to a developer and a subdivision was built there. Hundred of homes have been constructed since in the Lake Ridge area and still there are no decent prospects for a park to serve the new families and their children."
     The park movement eventually lost, and the rodeo grounds became a subdivision. An individual who was present to observe events at the time recalls that the east-side residents felt betrayed by the MCC, which was perceived as having refused to support their cause.
     In the early 1960s and the early 1980s, at least two attempts were made to establish community councils to represent "East Magna," but neither gained traction. As a person who was involved in one of those movements put it, "We got so much opposition from the Community Council that we just got tired of fighting it." We withhold the individual's name by request. That is a request that we encountered frequently in preparation of this article with explanations like "I've put all that behind me" and "I don't want to start another war with so-and-so."
Insurrection

     What finally "tore it" for the east-siders was a controversy over the location of the new Magna Library branch (which is now under construction on Magna's Historic Main Street). 
     The MCC favored a Main Street location. East-siders, still wanting more centrally located services, wanted it to be built more eastward, preferably in the Arbor Park shopping center. After discussion in 1985 and 1986, the MCC's recommendation was forwarded to the county.
     Opposition to that recommendation resurfaced in 1987. In the spring of 1987, an elected member of the MCC, Craig Taylor, representing the MCC's District 5, mailed a letter to all of his constituents urging them to write to the county if they disagreed with the Main Street location of the library. As reported in the Magna Times of Apr. 9, 1987, "Taylor said he had been approached by residents in his district who had questions. 'I was elected by the district,' he said, 'and I have a responsibility to let them know what's going on.'"
     The article continues, "Taylor's letter prompted considerable discussion among Council members, some of whom felt Taylor was reopening last summer's controversy unnecessarily after the Council had voted to support the (Main Street) site." The MCC had, in fact, voted unanimously.
     The controversy brought back the old complaints about what some saw as the nonrepresentative nature of the MCC, and a new movement to establish an all-elected council in conformity with county ordinances ensued, with support from some MCC members. 
   "One disgruntled resident" was reported by the Salt Lake Tribune on June 10, 1987, as complaining that the structure of the MCC "opens the door for control by special-interest groups." Craig Taylor's wife elaborated, "Even if the five elected officials vote the way the community wants, they are still outvoted by the others."
     There were also complaints that the representation was unbalanced, since one district had only one representative, and another had twelve. Furthermore, it was argued, three of the members (including then MCC president Laura Jo McDermaid, who now serves as vice-president of the council) did not live in Magna.
     On the evening following that Tribune report, the MCC in a closed-door session voted 11-5 to expel three of its members--elected members Craig Taylor and Marlene Norcross and also Chick Paris--for actions "prejudicial to the council" (not, be it noted, to their constituents). Two other members resigned on the spot in protest, and another, also and elected member, resigned later. 
     McDermaid was quoted by the Deseret News (June 11-12, 1988) as saying that the three were stripped of membership for "systematically throwing suspicions on the council's structures and its accomplishments," which she termed "subversive actions."
     McDermaid added: "The five elected members (two of whom had just been expelled) represent neighborhoods, while the others were elected by their organizations to represent the groups on the council. I think that's pretty democratic." (McDermaid still holds to that view. "We feel that we are very democratic.... It's always been a very open council," she said in a recent MCC meeting. "We're the voice of the people, as much as an elected body. We're still the voice of a lot of people in the community." )
     A few days later, at a stormy MCC meeting, about 100 residents attended to demand that the council reorganize in conformity with county ordinances. When the council refused to discuss the crowd's demands, the Deseret News reported (June 19, 1987), the crowd exited to the parking lot of the senior center, where the meeting was being held, and voted to form a steering committee to establish by-laws that conformed to those of the United Association of Community Councils (UACC, now the Association of Community Councils Acting Together, or ACTT).
     Eleven member so the new council (called the Magna Area Council), all representing districts, were elected on Aug. 3 and on Aug. 4 the Board of County Commissioners issued a notice that it had "formerly accepted and recognized the MAGNA AREA COUNCIL as the County Community Council for the Magna Community District," directing that "all Salt Lake County agencies are to accord to this Council the same status as other County Community Councils.
A new equilibrium, more or less
  
     Despite the setback, the MCC managed to hold on to its influence with the county, as county officials first set out to treat the MAC-MTC as the "voice of Magna," then wavered, then determined on a strict "middle-of-the-road" course between the two councils.
     On July 13, 1987, County Commissioner David Watson told a town meeting of those supporting the all-elected council that he had instructed the Public Works Department and its director, John Hiskey, "to recognize the Magna Area Council as the official voice of Magna," and, since elections would not be held until Aug. 3, to recognize the steering committee during the transition (Salt Lake Tribune, July 14, 1987). "This is the community council (meaning the MAC-MTC) that we will listen to," he said.
    Laura Jo McDermaid reacted with what the Magna Times (July 23, 1987) described as "outrage" over Watson's statements, at a MCC meeting shortly afterward.
     "He took sides," McDermaid said. "Why does COmmissioner Watson take such a divisive stand against the council that has served this community effectively and loyally for so many years?"
     She continued: "Why are we being ignored? The new group is quick to charge that they are not receiving their democratic rights. Well, I say that we are denied our civil rights also, and found to be guilty without first being heard."
     At a meeting, requested by McDermaid, just before the Aug. 3 election, representatives of the MCC (including McDermaid), the steering committee for the new council representatives of the UACC, and the Salt Lake County Commission engaged in a long discussion, Former Governor Calvin Rampton also attended, in behalf of the MCC (Magna Times, Aug. 6, 1987)
     Rampton observed, "I worked with this council (the MCC) for many years and would hate to see the experience (of the MCC) thrown away." He advised the commissioners to slow down their decision-making process on which council to recognize, "before we break something."
     Commissioner Mike Stewart said, "I don't think we need to hear one group over the other. We can take advice from wherever and weigh it accordingly and hope that down the road evolution will maybe bring them back together."
     Beginning to back off from his earlier bold statement about the new council's being "the one we will listen to," Watson ended the meeting by saying, "Just to be fair, it is not our purpose to discourage the new group if they want to go ahead." As the polls closed for the new council's election, he said, "The county will consider the wishes of both councils. If there's a conflict, the commissioners will decide which opinion to back. We've decided not to really pick one over the other as long as they are working toward the betterment of this area."
     At the MCC's August meeting, after the election, McDermaid reported, "The county commissioners never intended to exclude any interested group from giving input on county decisions, whether the group is a member of the UACC or not."
     An interoffice memo from John J. Hiskey, the Director of Salt Lake County Public Works, dated Aug. 18, 1987, stated: "Please be advised that it will be necessary for our Divisions to include both the Magna Area Council and the Magna Community Council on any mailings or notifications of County meetings impacting the Magna area.... Although the Magna Area Council will be formally recognized by the County, this will not preclude other groups already in existence from partidipation in County government."
     The county planning commission began referring zoning applicants to both councils.
     The Newly organized MAC-MTC was not as satisfied with the county's accommodation to the situation as was the MCC. In a letter to the Board of Commissioners dated Oct. 2, 1987, MAC-MTC President Steve Harris wrote: "Since this decision of August 5 (to recognize officially the MAC-MTC as the County Community Council for the Magna Community District), the County has decided to refer zoning applicants to two Magna Councils. This is not acceptable and is unfair to applicants, neighboring property owners, and the voters of Magna and the Council members they elected to represent them."
     Harris quoted a Magna resident as saying, "Doesn't the voice of the people mean anything?"
     He told the commissioners that they were "sending a confusing and frankly disappointing message to the residents of Magna."
     He wrote, "The Magna Area Council, hereby, requests that the Board of County Commissioners direct the Salt Lake County Planning and Zoning Department to refer applicants to and request recommendations from the Magna Area Council as it is the only officially recognized all-elected County Community Council in the Magna Area."
     Twenty-five days later, another interoffice memo in the Public Works Department directed, "Only the Magna Area Council name should appear on Planning Commission and Board of Adjustment meeting agendas. Developers should clearly understand that they are not required to go before two councils (italics added). Listening to both councils on division letters, rosters, etc. is causing confusion."
     Meanwhile, the MCC was trying a new tactic. An attorney for the MCC addressed a letter to the MAC-MTC president pointing out that "the Magna Area Community Counsel (sic) has been in existence and used this name since 1927." The letter continued: "Please cease and desist in using the phrase "Magna Area Counsel" immediately (italics in original) as it is 'deceptively similar' and has been the cause of confusion for individuals and entities dealing with my clients. Be aware that you are now violative of Utah Code Annotated 16-10-8 1984 (1985) and as such my client could be entitled to injunctive relief, damages, cost and associated fees should you not comply voluntarily."
     One of the original members of the MAC-MTC (name withheld by request) told the Magna Newspapers, "That scared us." Nothing seems to have come of it, however, as the MAC continued to use the name "Magna Area Council" until with advent of the township status it changed to "Magna Town Council."
     At some point in the process, McDermaid, of the MCC, requested to the County Commissioners that the MCC "be granted the rights, privileges, and authority provided to community councils under Salt Lake County Ordinance Title 2, Chapter 2.56." The county declined to do so. A letter from Commissioner Stewart to McDermaid dated Feb. 10, 1989, stated: "It is our determination that these powers cannot be granted to your organization because the ordinance stipulates that a community district ma be represented by only one community council. A council already exists and is formally recognized by the County as prescribed in the ordinances."
     The letter pointed out that "the bylaws of your organization allow for appointed council members as well as elected members" and continued, "This is in conflict with the ordinance as it makes no provision for appointed council members."
     The letter made one concession: "Your request to receive the agendas of all public Planning Commission meetings and Planning Division staff recommendations that are provided to other community groups will be honored."
     Despite those policy statements, the Magna Township Planning Commission continues to refer applicants to both councils, although according to Bev Uipi, of the Mayor's Office, no one has directed the Magna Township Planning Commission to do so.

The current situation 
  
     The objective of the county government treatment of the two councils is, as one county official (name withheld) recently said, "to keep the peace."
     According to Bev Uipi, of the County Mayor's Office, Mayor Peter Corroon has directed county representatives to attend both councils, because "both are functioning councils." She said that "the only difference between the two is that the Community Council does not receive appropriated funds."
     Some of the acrimony that existed earlier between the two councils has dissipated, and they frequently cooperate and collaborate on events. They send representatives to each other's meetings. One member of the MAC-MTC, Norm Fitzgerald, is also and appointed voting member of the MCC. A seasoned member of the MTC said that new member of the MTC tend to want to insist that "we are Magna's council!" but overall relations are more amicable.
     Some might say that that is because the MTC has learned to "remember its place." One MTC member was heard to say in an open meeting, "We know we're second-class citizens," though other members took issue with that view.
     The MCC's view of the relative place and importance of each council may have been revealed in a glossy business guide published in 2007 by the Magna Chamber of Commerce, of which Laura Jo McDermaid, vice president of the MCC, was president at the time. All of page 10 is devoted to a history of the MCC, with a quarter-page photo of its president, Dan Peay. It is faced by a half-page photo at the top of the page, of seven of the then nine members of the council, with an identifying caption. By contrast, on page 15 is a half-page photo of the MAC-MTC, set at the bottom of the page, with now descriptive or historical information.

Is this good for Magna? 
  
     Does this arrangement--one council formally recognized, and another treated virtually in every way except fundings if it were formally recognized--serve the general welfare of Magna? Opinions differ, of course. 
     As Bev Uipi sees it: "Both groups of private citizens have always had the best interests of the Magna constituency at heart. Though they may be involved in different activities, they collaborate on many events."
     LaDell Bishop, former president of the MAC-MTC, said at a Magna Town Hall meeting held last spring as a joint meeting of the two councils, "Magna is fortunate to have two groups of citizens so concerned about her welfare."
     Ron Henline, a long-time Magna resident who once served as president of the MAC-MTC, and also as member and chairman of the Magna Township Planning Commission, says it's a good thing. "We didn't have to exclude one at the cost of the other," he said, "and I firmly believe in that."
     Henline sees certain advantages for Magna in having the two councils. "The Community Council as an ad hoc committee can go in and say things and do things the Council can't do," he explained. "The Town Council is more limited because all they can do is go in and say, 'County Council, we need money.' They go out and lobby some of the businesses and some of the large concerns, like Rio Tinto." Explaining why the Magna Township Planning Commission refers applicants to both councils, Henline said, "It increases public input."
     Chick Paris, one of the three tho were expelled from the MCC during the 1987 fracas, disagrees: "It doesn't serve the interests of Magna to have two councils acting as voices of Magna to the Salt Lake County Council. It confuses people, and sometimes the two councils take different positions. Then what is the county supposed to do?"
     Outgoing MAC-MTC member William Penton said, "I think it's purely political, a good-old-boy thing--you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. I think when people are told they need to go talk to both, they ought to raise hell about it. There's no way I'd go to both."
     And some express their disapproval with even less gentility. At that Town Hall Meeting last spring, one Magna resident said to Democratic County Council Member Jim Bradley after the meeting, "This two-council situation is ridiculous. The county just needs to have the balls to fix it." (Bradley stood with his arms folded and gazed silently back.)

What of the future?

     Commissioner Stewart's hope expressed in 1987 that "down the road evolution will maybe bring them back together" has not been wholly fulfilled, and there is no sign that it will be, beyond occasion collaboration on activities.
     Politically the MCC is heavily Democratic, and all along it seems to have enjoyed patronage from Democratic allies in county government. A current member of the MTC, who asked not to be identified, recalls being told by a currently serving Democratic member of the county council, whom he also asked not to be identified, "I know that you are the official council, but those people are my friends." Also, an elected official (a Democrat) from the Magna area, who asked not to be identified, asked us rhetorically and with good humor, "Don't you know the Community Council is the Democratic council and the Town Council is the Republican council?")
     With a Democrat in the Mayor's Office and a Democratic majority on the County Council, that political reality seems unlikely to change.
     Meanwhile, the MCC has been diminishing in size, and President Peay explained why they haven't held elections for community representatives in recent years: "We've just had such a hard time getting participation."
     In the end, it comes down to the consent of the governed. Magna as a whole has implicitly accepted this arrangement for 20 years. How long it continues depends largely on how long that consent continues. 

Last word

     To those inclined to find fault with the MCC, Kent Goble might well be given the last word: "We need to keep in perspective the contributions of the old council and the historic Magna that it represents. They have a vision for the future of Magna as valid as other folks do, and it's a legitimate vision, based on their love and passion and caring for this community. The county and other government entities that have come in here to replace the old ethic of community and self-reliance don't have the same love and loyalty to Magna. The council is there because they have a vision, and they refuse to give up."
     "Keep things in perspective," Goble urges. "Remember the great good that the Community Council has done for Magna."

The Magna Town Council (MAC-MTC) currently (as of March 2014) meets every first Thursday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the new UFA station #111 8200 West 3500 South. 

The Magna Community Council (MCC) currently (as of March 2014) meets the fourth Thursday of the month at 7:00 p.m. at the Webster Center (formerly the Senior Citizen's Center) 8952 West 2700 South. 

For more information please see the following two articles that had come out in the Salt Lake Tribune after the Colin B. Douglas article in the Magna Times had gained attention:


Sunday, February 16, 2014

Magna Arctic Circle to be demolished and rebuilt.

A time of change.

Photo by Robert Goble

     Affectionately known by the locals as the "A/C Greasy," this particular Arctic Circle had weathered more than four decades as a Magna, Utah landmark. During the summers, it was the destination for many a thirsty kid on bicycle or on foot, a watering hole for a Lime Ricky or a courtesy cup of water--if you'd rather have used your pocket change to afford an ice cream or some fries. It was the place to stop between the library and home. It was the hang-out during all the many summer car shows. Maybe, after all, you had to make that quick trip to the outside restrooms--how can I not mention those darn restrooms?

Photo by Robert Goble.

     It had been the place for part-time work for many Cyprus High School students. Kemari Rawlings had worked there in the early in the early nineteen-eighties. She laughingly remembers the brown polyester uniforms with the orange rainbow. Speaking of the importance of the job to her at that time, she said:
     "It paid for Madrigals. I wouldn't have been able to go on a mission to Japan or anything. After my mission, my mom asked, 'what do you want to eat? I'll bring it to the airport.' All I wanted was a chicken filet sandwich with cheese and tomato and extra white sauce, and a diet Pepsi. It was to die for. She thought it was some kind of joke."
     In a strange way, I imagine Kemari's experience wasn't unique. It was a part of coming home, of reconnecting with something (though not unique to Magna itself) that was a part of the experience of living in Magna: this particular Arctic Circle. It was a "Magna" experience as much as the old Pizza Stop, Grub Box,  Ken's Sandwich Shop, or the Taco Time--Ken's being the last of the aforementioned standing.  
     Years ago, I picked up a friend of mine, Robert Hosford, from the airport. After he'd spent a long period of time away from home, working in Chicago, I'd asked him the same thing: what did he want to eat?
     "Take me to Arctic Circle. I want a Ranch Burger," he said.
     Michael Goble, who now lives in Texas, had worked there in the mid-nineties.When he heard about the demolition, he jokingly said, "It's good that the lousy high school work memories will be torn down.... It was my first job. It was cool for a while and the food was good, until I needed more money. After two years I'd had enough of it. it's kind of sad to see it go, because it's a piece of Magna history. Good thing we stopped there with the family last time we were in Utah."
 
View from the drive up menu. You can see the construction of the new Arctic Circle. How many obnoxious teenagers had walked up to that drive-up window around the corner to try and place an order? This spot was like a little canyon, as the north side of the original Smith's Food King and Francesco's Italian Restaurant rose to the right.
Photo by Robert Goble.
      Very few folks can remember what this area was before Arbor Park came along. Ernie Gust remembers his family's home along 3500 south, and, not far away, the original Arctic Circle, another burger place built not far to the west in the nineteen-fifties.
     "The home used to stand where the right lane of the road is today," he says.
     I recall my grandmother, Evelyn Sadler Goble, could remember when all that property was still a part of Coonville and how the Lucerne (old British name for alfalfa) used to stretch south of the dirt crossroads (the corner of 3500 South and 8400 West. For a time, 3500 South was the main way to Salt Lake City--there wasn't a highway 201.
     Soon the old Arctic Circle building will be brought to rubble, as nearly all the rest of Arbor Park. It's concrete pillars and tight drive-up window will be but a memory, much as the old Smith's Food King, Sprouse Reitz, Library, The Best Shop, Thrifty's (which later became the Reel Movie Theater).
     What was most special about this particular Arctic Circle (besides the individual memories of those who grew up in Magna) were the unique paintings that adorned the upper walls in the eating area. It was a place to sit and contemplate Magna history and look out at the Oquirrh Mountains at sunset (if sitting at the west windows), or looking out at Antelope Island and the distant Wasatch Mountains (if sitting at the north Windows). You night have done just that: contemplated the Magna history in the paintings, but did you know where the inspiration for the paintings had come from?
    
Paintings taken from historical photos, painted directly onto the sheet rock circa 1978.
Photo by Robert Goble

Photo by Robert Goble.

      Rag Town

Was Magna, Utah really known as Rag Town? Not the "Magna" we know today. Rag Town was north of Webster and west of 9180 West. It was right up against the hill and cornered into where highway 201 runs up the same hill.
Photo by Robert Goble


Many folks confuse Rag Town with Pleasant Green. To state that Rag Town was the origin of Magna would be both true and false. It's not the origin by any means of today's Magna. If you consider it being part of the real "Magna" that was on the hill, that would be true. If you confuse Rag Town with Pleasant Green, that would be false. Rag Town was a very short lived episode in Magna's history. It was temporary housing for workers, quickly thrown up to accommodate the massive influx of mill workers. It appeared on the hill northwest Pleasant Green not long after the Magna Concentrator (1906) and the Arthur Mill were built. Pleasant Green had been around since the 1860s. When you drive Magna Main Street, you're really driving Pleasant Green Main Street. This photo was taken on the hill far north and west of 9200 West. This is just north of the flumes. To get and idea of where it's at, look at the smoke stack in the upper right corner. That smoke stack (there's another just to the left outside the photo) was part of the old power house, which stood where highway 201 runs today. The dirt road in the photo was just above the "flumes."
Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.
To add more perspective, take a look at this photo, which was taken from Thead's Peak ( "C Mountain"). The peak was named after Thead Spencer, the son of one of the original settlers of Pleasant Green. The original Spencer farm was north and a little west of that peak. Its remains rest under millions of tons of tailings.
To your right you see the new power house under construction higher on the hill. This photo would have been taken in the early 1940s during World War II. As far as Rag Town would be concerned, this photo would be much later in its history. Most of it was gone by then. What was left of it were the houses in the upper middle. Notice to their right, where they end, is "the flumes." In the upper left hand corner is where today's 9180 West meets highway 201. To the upper left, you see the old power house smoke stacks still standing. You notice Highway 201 still took a curvy route past the "row houses."
Here's a far older example of Rag Town in 1917. Notice the old power house in the center slightly to the left. Rag Town was at its peak then. Look at the flumes, how many small houses butted up against it to the north. That is all vacant and dug out today. You can still see 9180 West in the upper middle to the right. What you can't see is Pleasant Green. Just off the photo to the right would be Webster Elementary and Pleasant Green Main Street. This photo looks north and slightly to the east.
If you're still wondering where Rag Town was, it was right in the area at the base of the hill (the photo is looking south.) next to highway 201, just as you start going up the hill. This photo is taken directly in line with where the old power house (the two old smoke stacks) were--in other words, directly behind me as I took this photo toward the Rag Town site. Those smoke stacks were demolished in the early fifties. Photo by Robert Goble.

The old power house

The old smoke stacks that are seen in so many historic photos had stood for a half-century as landmarks for those who took the dusty highway to Garfield (established 1906), Black Rock, and Saltair. By the early nineteen-forties, the new power house on the hill had taken over, energizing the Magna copper industry into the twenty-first century. The power house on the hill has become a symbol for Magna, a most recognizable land mark. It even appears in feature films, including The Crow: A Wicked Prayer. Meanwhile, all that is left now are the fading memories of an older generation and this concrete foundation on the north side of highway 201 just as you go up the hill. It's at the base of the dike. A careful study of old photographs reveal that the tailings had once barely touched a lower elevation north and west of the old power house and over the years had filled in around the power house. In other words, the reason for the L shape in the dike in this particular spot is because the dike was built up around the old power house. My grandmother said that the folks of Pleasant Green had once been able to look North and see the Great Salt Lake. The younger generations have known nothing but the horizontal dike, a man-made hill that holds back millions of tons of gray tailings. Photo by Robert Goble.


Magna Grocery

Much as the previous painting, this one caused some confusion, though its plaque essentially correct. Many folks assumed this was Pleasant Green Main Street. That small store was, indeed, in "Magna." It was a hop away from the Magna Concentrator on the hill. Most of its customers had come from the row houses and Rag Town. It was likely a company store. Photo by Robert Goble.

So given the name, "Magna Grocery," on the store sign. That should give as good a clue of where this photo was taken as the smoke stacks in the distance. Compare with the next photo.
 Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.
Here is the original Pleasant Green Main Street with the relatively new Hayes (Webster) Elementary, looking east. This had been Pleasant Green Main Street since the 1860s. Pleasant Green, as a precinct, was also officially "established" and recognized by the county July 21, 1874. Just a little tidbit of trivia: did you know shortly after Webster was built (1912) it was called the Hayes School? It held that name until 1922, when the Granite School District Board of Education officially changed the name to Webster.

So just for fun, I'd like to point out a very big boo boo. 

Why this sign would advertise "Historic" Magna as being "established" in 1906, especially on the historic Pleasant Green Main Street (Est. July 21, 1874) makes me scratch my head. Magna was never "established" at any time. No records exist of such establishment. If this banner were to be correct, it should fly over today's highway 201 heading up the hill just under the power house. That's where "Magna" began in 1906 when the concentrator was put in. Pleasant Green had been alive and well and flourishing for three generations up until then. Pleasant Green adopting "Magna" as an identity hadn't started to fade in until well into the 1920s and 1930s. Photo by Robert Goble.



 Perspective 
In this panorama taken in 1951, the first thing that clearly becomes apparent is where Magna and the scars of Rag Town stood on the hill to the lower left. Pleasant Green, (upper right) which by the time this photo was taken, had, for a generation, adopted the identity of "Magna." But by no means had the older generations, those who were already there before the invasion of industry, still knew their Pleasant Green and Coonville heritage. Coonville, which by the time this photo was taken would be known as Hercules and Bacchus, is to the right, outside the frame. Photo courtesy of Doug Wood.

Black Rock Beach

Black Rock is a "sea stack," a natural formation of ancient limestone, carved by the geologically recent Lake Bonneville, limestone left over from another era, the remnants of an ancient sea (not Lake Bonneville), known to geologists as the Western Interior Seaway that split the North American continent in two over a hundred million years ago. Black Rock is the very northern point of the Oquirrh Mountains, those being at the very eastern edge of the Basin and Range mountain ranges that stretch from Utah to California. As the continent stretched, and massive sections slipped downward, ancient layers of rock were exposed.
Black Rock stands in an area where historically there had been many springs, both fresh and brackish, and a natural passage for many generations of Native Americans who hunted and camped nearby. In the early part of the nineteenth century, trappers had passed by it, including Jedediah Smith. By 1846 the Donner and Hastings wagon trains had passed nearby. In 1851, the Mormon pioneers celebrated Independence day there, unfurling a great American flag from the top and firing cannons.
The rock house was built by Heber C. Kimball, a prominent Mormon, in 1860. Later it would be turned into a boarding house and a resort. By the 1880, it was the very western edge of the Pleasant Green Precinct. Thousands of people would visit the Black Rock resort by the Utah & Nevada Raliroad and by horse and wagon. Black Rock beach was a popular destination until the late nineteen-fifties, when it would fall into disrepair. The rock house was demolished for highway construction. Used by permission, Utah State Historical Society, all rights reserved.

Garfield Beach

The Garfield resort was a contemporary of the Black Rock resort--several years before Saltair. In the early 1880s Thomas Douris, the captain of the City of Corinne, a popular steam boat that would take sight seers from the Lake Park resort (its remnants became Lagoon) west of Farmington to other parts of the lake, established a resort a little west of the already thriving Black Rock resort. Soon thereafter the railroad acquired it and built better bath houses with showers and dressing rooms, a pavilion, a saloon, and a French restaurant. Tens of thousands of railroad tourists visited both the Black Rock and Garfield resorts throughout the decade of the 1880s. It was destroyed by fire in 1904, and by 1906 the Western Pacific Railroad had driven its tracks right through where it had once stood. The Garfield resort was named after president James A. Garfield, who had visited Utah as a congressman in 1872 and 1875. He was assassinated in 1881. The resort shouldn't be confused with the Utah Copper Company town of Garfield, which rapidly rose two miles to the east from tent cities surrounding the Boston Consolidated Smelter in 1906 and would just as rapidly be torn down fifty years later.
Only a few pilings remain of the Garfield Resort, just over the Tooele County line. Photo by Robert Goble.

  Saltair

The most famous resort on the Great Salt Lake, it was world renowned for nearly eight decades. My own great grandparents, Amelia Hardman and Leslie Sadler (Amelia Hardman was the granddaughter of Abraham Coon, his family being some of the original settlers of Coonville.), had won a dance contest on the famous shining wooden dance floor. It had weathered several fires and the rising and receding lake. Sadly, by 1970, its abandoned structure would succumb to one last fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rarrvJmVneI
Over this past week as I wrote this, the curator of the Fort Douglas museum, Beau Burgess, has been working to remove the paintings from the restaurant. Because they were painted directly onto the sheet rock and framed, he's had to cut them out stud by stud, but because of time constraints, he's only managed to save a few so far. The artist is still a mystery. Kimberly Buckner had managed to take this photograph before the building was closed for demolition. If anyone knows who the painter was, please contact Robert Goble at robgoble@yahoo.com
Photograph courtesy of Kimberly Buckner.

Photo by Robert Goble.