Tag Archives: Provo

Large Showboat Once Sailed on Utah Lake.

02 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

4658

Large Showboat Once Sailed on Utah Lake.

Two young men from Provo, Hewitt Strong and Elmer Smith, spent much of their free time hunting, fishing, swimming, and boating on Utah Lake.  They dreamed of operating a large showboat on the lake.  In 1931, they accumulated enough money to begin turning their dream into a reality.

The two men selected a flat construction site near the Provo River south of where Utah Lake State Park now stands.  They bought lumber, assembled their hand tools, and with the help of their friends, began construction of a flat bottomed boat ninety feet long and twenty-two feet wide.  The large craft could operate in water twelve or fourteen inches deep.

Twin Buick straight-eight engines propelled the boat, and a gas generator provided electricity.  The boat contained a spacious, enclosed dance floor and stage, a kitchen, and two bathrooms, which drained into the lake.  Above the dance floor stood a large, open observation deck.

The S.S. (Smith-Strong) Sho-Boat provided numerous chartered cruises.  Many of these customers ate catered dinners and enjoyed various types of entertainment on-board.  A regular Sunday cruise took customers to Bird Island near the south end of the lake.  The kitchen served hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad, soft drinks, candy, and gum.

Insurance costs gradually increased through the years, and the owners worried about how much longer their craft would last.  In 1946, they beached the big craft near it’s construction site, and the long career of the Sho-Boat came to an end. 

This plaque is part of this series and is located in Fort Utah Park in Provo.

A Curious Craft Once Skimmed the Ice on Utah Lake.

02 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , ,

2017-09-23 14.15.13

A Curious Craft Once Skimmed the Ice on Utah Lake.

A homemade sleigh-boat once skimmed across the frozen surface of Utah Lake.  Hewitt Strong and Elmer Smith, two young, mechanically inclined enthusiasts of Utah Lake, constructed the strange 18-foot-long craft.  It consisted of a canvas-covered frame forming a helicopter-like body that was mounted on a sturdy set of steel runners.  A glass windshield  gave the driver a clear view of the course ahead and two small, round porthole-like windows gave passengers (the craft could carry give or six people) a glimpse of the frozen lake. 
 
An 80-horsepower LeRhone airplane engine and propeller mounted on an elevated stand in front of the body provided the means of locomotion.  The pilot steered the craft by using a third, movable runner and a large rudder that resembled the tail of an airplane.  There was one major problem that made trips more exciting: the vehicle had no brakes. 
 
The men took the curious craft for its first trip on Utah Lake in January, 1924.  It reached speeds of approximately 60 miles per hour.  The builders anticipated that under optimum conditions with no snow and smooth ice, it could achieve eighty miles per hour.  Strong and Smith made four more trips to the frozen lake that year.  When the roads were covered with snow, they drove their creation to the shore and onto the frozen surface of the lake.  This doubtless scared many horses and startled many people they happened to pass on the way to the lake.  
 
A reporter for the Deseret News covered one of their trips to the lake.  When he asked Hewitt the name of the strange vehicle, the young Provo man replied, “Damned if I know.”  From that response, the reporter christened the craft the Dami-phi-no,” and the name stuck.  During the summer, the owners attached pontoons to the rails and sailed their creation on open water. 
 
After several seasons, the novelty of the curious craft, as well as its canvas, wore thin, and the men to the “Dami-phi-no” in mothballs, awaiting its inevitable salvage. 
This plaque is part of this series and is located in Fort Utah Park in Provo.
2017-09-23 14.15.19

Provo’s First Volunteer Fire Department.

02 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

2017-09-23 14.43.29

Provo’s First Volunteer Fire Department.

Provo went more than forty years before organizing its first volunteer fire department. It a fire got a good start on a building, the owner saved very little before the flames consumed the structure.

It was in 1879 (thirty years after the city’s founding) that the first serious campaign for a volunteer fire department got underway. That year the Timpanogos Flour Mill, which was located near Provo’s large woolen mills, burned down. Within a year and a half, three disastrous fires had resulted in some $13,000 in losses.

Provo’s newspaper called for the organization of a volunteer fire department and the purchase of a pump wagon, a pair of horses, and a few hundred feet of hose. The newspaper warned readers that very often the stable door was not locked until after the horse was stolen. City government took no serious action because of the expense involved.

Five years later in 1884, the Brigham Young Academy caught fire and was completely destroyed. The only effort to quench the flames was the formation of a bucket brigade leading to the mill race a block away.

The academy fore caused a flurry of action by the city council. The council formed the “Committee for a Fire Department.” After seeing the expense involved in creating a fire department, the city council again lost interest.

Finally, in 1890, city officials realized that merchants were reluctant to invest in a city without a water system and a fire department. The city council voted in favor of financing both. It authorized the purchase of a new horse drawn, steam powered pump.

The new pumper arrived that May and the fire department organized in June. Twenty-three men joined during the first meeting. The department fought their first fire in July. The Brereton barns, sheds, wagons, and animals in the southeast part of town went up in flames before the department arrived, but the men saved the homes of Mr. Brereton and his son.

Read about their first fire station here.

This plaque is part of this series and is located in Fort Utah Park in Provo.

2017-09-23 14.43.36

Fort Utah Park

02 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

, , ,

2017-09-23 14.09.06

Fort Utah Park was named after a Fort Utah replica built on the park grounds in 1972. The original fort didn’t stand at this location, but was originally several blocks east of the park. The original fort was used by the Mormon Pioneers when they first settled Provo. The replica was demolished in January of 2017. You can read more about the replica Fort Utah demolition by clicking here. This park also has four league baseball fields, a playground and challenging skate park. The Provo River Parkway Trail is also easily accessed from Fort Utah Park and the Geneva Rd Trailhead which is conveniently located across the street. (text from Provo’s website)

Related posts:

2017-09-23 14.10.00

2017-09-23 14.10.41

2017-09-23 14.11.23

2017-09-23 14.14.58

2017-09-23 14.16.24

2017-09-23 14.16.28

2017-09-23 14.19.56

2017-09-23 14.20.02

Karl J. Thalman Fields

These youth baseball fields were dedicated May 3, 1996 in honor of Karl J. Thalman, a long time champion of youth and recreation activity in Provo.  Raised just a few blocks from this site, Karl set down roots in Provo and founded Thalman Jewelers and Awards, which began operations in 1952.

karl has always believed in the importance of maintaining excellent recreational and athletic activities for youth as an alternative to idle time and mischief.  Consistent with that belief, he served as president of the Provo City Youth Baseball Council from 1954-1983.  He also served many years as an officer of the Utah County Boys and Girls Club and the Utah Golf Association.  Karl Thalman has provided a better tomorrow to many through his years of dedication to the youth of Provo.

2017-09-23 14.45.46

2017-09-23 14.45.49

 

Provoans Built First Railroad in 1873

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

2017-10-07 11.20.09

Local Citizens Financed and Built Provo’s First Railroad in 1873

The Union Pacific Railroad disappointed Brigham Young when it bypassed Salt Lake City and went through Ogden and around the north end of the Great Salt Lake.

Undaunted, Young supervised the organization of the Utah Central Railroad Company to span the 37 miles between Ogden and Salt Lake City.  The last spike on this railway was driven on January 10, 1870.

A year after the completion of the Utah Central Railroad, local investors incorporated the Utah Southern Railroad, which was initially to run the 65 miles from Salt Lake City to Payson.  Officials broke ground for the railroad on May 1, 1871, and Brigham Young drove the first spike a month later.  When construction reached Utah Valley in 1872, Young encouraged the people to provide cash, labor and ties in exchange for stock in the railroad.

Provo City gave the railroad a right of way along 600 South in 1872, and in 1873 City leaders selected a location for a depot where 600 South intersects what is now University Avenue.  On that site, the company erected a frame warehouse measuring 21 by 64 feet on the south side of the tracks and a ticket office on the north side.

Workmen completed the railroad to Provo late in November, 1873.  The first official trail from Salt Lake City arrived on November 24, the day of the opening celebration.  About 2,000 people gathered at the depot to hear music played by the Provo Brass Band and the speeches of church and civic leaders.

Today’s UTA FrontRunner station and transportation terminal is located near this same site.

This plaque is located in Ron Last Park in Provo and is part of this series of plaques.

2017-10-07 11.20.26

2014-03-07 15.50.27

Provo’s First Cooperative Opened in 1869

27 Friday Oct 2017

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , ,

2017-10-07 11.16.55

Provo Citizens Opened One of Utah’s First Co-operative Retail Stores in 1869

As the transcontinental railroad neared completion late in 1868, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worried that it might undermine self-sufficiency in Utah and increase the power of Gentile merchants.  Brigham Young proposed co-operative merchandising as an alternative to “trading with the enemy.”

He initiated the formation of a wholesale house, Zions Co-operative Mercantile Institution, in Salt Lake City.  Young hoped this wholesale outlet would provide inexpensive merchandise to co-operative stores owned by local stockholders in every Utah community.

The people of Provo established one of the first co-operative stores early in 1869.  Kimball & Lawrence, a Mormon firm located in Salt Lake City, had just built a two-story brick building where the Knight Block stands today on the northeast corner of University Avenue and Center Street.

The firm realized that they would lose most of their customers to the co-operative movement, so they sold the building and its stock at cost to the Provo Co-operative Mercantile Institution, called by locals the “East Co-op.”

The Co-op did well and doubled in size in 1880 by building an addition onto the east side of the store.  The firm continued to show a profit until 1887 when earnings began to fall.  By 1895, the co-operative store was bankrupt partly because of extending too much credit.

It successfully reopened two years later, and Jesse Knight bought the property from Z.C.M.I. in 1898.  His interests ran the store until 1900, when Knight closed out the stock, tore down the building, and built the present Knight Block, one of the most beloved buildings in the city.

See also:

This plaque is located in Ron Last Park in Provo and is part of this series of plaques.

2017-10-07 11.17.07
2014-03-07 15.48.37

Nunns Provo Station

24 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , ,

  • 2017-08-21 10.09.25

This plaque marks the site of the first 44,000 volt hydroelectric plant in America. Built in 1897 by Lucien L. Nunn at an estimated cost of just $50,000, this plant harnessed the power of the Provo River to generate electricity and transmit that power over a distance of 32 miles to mining operations in Mercur, Utah. This was almost three times the voltage of any existing line in the nation at that time, and was by far the longest.

Although Nunn sold his interests to Utah Power and Light Company in 1913, his innovative ideas and successes helped shape the future of electrical power for all of us.

See also:

  • 2017-08-21 10.09.40
  • 2017-08-21 10.09.37
  • 2017-08-21 10.09.31
  • 9485483