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Tooele Valley Railroad Complex

31 Tuesday Mar 2026

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Tooele Valley Railroad Complex

Built in 1909, the Tooele Valley Railroad Complex is historically significant for the integral role it played in the transformation of Tooele from a primarily agricultural community to an industrial based community. For over 60 years the Tooele Valley Railroad transported products from the smelter east of town to the main railway lines west of town. The smelter, constructed in 1909-10 and dismantled in 1972, was one of the major facilities of its kind in the state and served locally as a dominant factor in the growth and economic development of the community. The depot is the only remaining building in Tooele closely associated with the activity of the smelter. During much of the time of its operation, the Tooele Valley Railroad also served as an important local carrier of passengers and freight.

The Tooele Valley Railroad Complex is located at 35 North Broadway Avenue in Tooele, Utah and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (#84002426) on May 17, 1984.

The Tooele Valley Railroad (TVR) was built as a connection between the International Smelting and Refining Company’s plant, (built 1909-1910) located five miles east of Tooele, Utah, and the Union Pacific and Western Pacific railways at Warner, Utah, two miles west of Tooele. The International Smelting and Refining Company brought many new peoples to the Tooele area. By 1912 a new town had been built east of Tooele to house 1,000 people. Most of these new citizens were from the Balkans, Italy, and Mediterranean areas. The TVR transported smelted products from the smelter to the main railway connections in Warner, two miles west of town. For years, the TV (as the railway was called) was a familiar sight as it passed through town several times a day hauling workers to and from the smelter as well as ore and supplies to and from the Warner depot.

The Tooele Valley Depot was built “car door to dock high” to facilitate loading and unloading less-than-car-load (LCD freight for Tooele merchants. Prior to 1909, Tooele merchants had to have their goods hauled by team and wagon from the Warner depot. In 1942 the depot was handling three cars of LCL items each week, but, with the advent of graveled roads, automobiles and trucks gradually took over Tooele Valley Railroad’s LCL business. By 1950 a trucking line had taken over all of the railroad’s small lot shipments.

The depot was the operations center for the railroad. Weigh bills and bills of loading for outgoing freight from the smelter and local shippers were prepared there. The depot issued operating instructions to railroad conductors and section foremen and processed reports received from them. The building provided office space for a telegrapher, station agent, time keeper, paymaster, two accountants, and the TV railroad superintendent as well as a baggage room and scales.

age room and scales. Besides serving the International Smelting & Refining Co. and local merchants, the TVR provided passenger service that matched Union Pacific Railroad’s schedule (tickets were sold at a small office at 18 West Vine). Rail spurs also served coal and oil companies in the area with car load lots. Approximately seven miles of track was serviced by crews working 7 hours a day, three shifts each day. Four steam driven, coal fired engines pulled the freight along the tracks. The last run made by one of these steam locomotives was on May 30, 1963 when they were replaced by two diesel/electric locomotives.

By 1970 the price of lead was 14tf per pound while it cost the International Smelting and Refining smelter 18tf per pound to produce lead. About this time the Environmental Protection Agency was also requiring installation of pollution control devices. Faced with increased production costs and decreasing prices, it was decided that the smelter would be shut down. This was Utah’s last copper-lead and zinc smelter. In 1972 the smelter was dismantled. Without the International Smelting and Refining smelter operating, ore concentrates were trucked to the Union Pacific Railroad for shipment to Japan where they would be smelted. This action made the Tooele Valley Railroad unnecessary. After over sixty years of operation the railroad was abandoned and the tracks, except those near the depot, were torn up. The depot currently houses the Tooele County Museum run by the Settlement Canyon Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers.

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The Tooele Valley Railroad Complex appears very much the way it did at the time of its construction in 1909. A chain link fence currently surrounds the 2.10 acre parcel of land which includes the buildings and some of the railroad cars which served as the vital elements on the railroad’s operations. The property includes the depot, the section head’s house, a frame maintenance shed, and four railroad cars. Also included on the property are two out-of-period outbuildings and three ineligible railroad cars which were not part of the railroad’s operation.

The Tooele Valley Railroad depot, built in 1909, is a one-story brick building on a raised concrete foundation. It is a rectangular building measuring 61′ 4″ by 31′ 3″ on the outside. It is surrounded on the east, north, and south sides by a wooden dock approximately 4 feet high and 8 feet wide. On the south side of the building is a three part bay window, which was used as the work location of the telegrapher. The roof is a gablet roof with overhanging eaves. The detailing of the building is very simple. The windows are two-paned, long and narrow and double hung. They are topped by two rows of radiating arched brickwork while the two doorways are topped by large square transoms. On the west and south sides of the building are two large freight doorways. The building is in good condition. It is unaltered and appears as it did at the time of construction in 1909.

The section head’s house is a 1 1/2 story frame house with a gable roof and horizontal lap siding. A full-width porch spans the gable-end east facade, and a smaller porch is attached on the southwest rear corner of the house. Other features of the house include a central, ridgeline chimney, two-over-two double hung windows, a concrete foundation, and a rear shed extension, possibly original. The house appears to be in a virtually unaltered condition.

The maintenance shed is a one-story frame building with a gable roof and horizontal lap siding. The broad, gable end east facade features returns on the eaves and two openings, a doorway and a window, arranged symmetrically. The building is in good condition and appears to be unaltered.

he four eligible railroad cars include two cabooses, a coal car, and a locomotive which was built c. 1905 and acquired by the Tooele Valley Railroad around 1909.

The complex is currently being used as a museum by the Settlement Canyon Chapter of the Sons of Utah Pioneers.

Commencing at the Northwest corner of the Vine Street and Broadway Avenue intersection, thence North 216 feet, West 423 feet, South 216 feet, and East 423 feet to beginning. This parcel of land was chosen because:

1) it is visually well defined by the fence surroumng it;
2) it is part of the original railroad headquarters property; and
3) it includes all of the resources identified in this nomination.

This 2.10 acre parcel is only part of the overall 3.42 acre parcel of land as legally defined in the county property records. The additional acreage comprises a narrow unfenced piece of land extending to the west of the 2.10 acre parcel, paralleling and including the old railroad grade. The legal description for the overall 3.42 acre parcel of land is as follows:

Beginning South 2031.8 feet and West 1275.4 feet from the Northeast corner of the Northwest quarter of Section 27, Township 3 South, Range 4 West, Salt Lake Base and Meridian on the West line of Broadway Street; thence South 216.58 feet to the Southeast corner of Block 153 of Plat C and the North line Vine Street; thence West 280 feet to the Southwest corner of said Block 153 and the East line of 3rd Street; thence North 13.91 feet; thence North 80 degrees 32 minutes West 143.17 feet; thence North 38.27 feet to the South line of the Tooele Valley Railroad Southerly line; thence South 81 degrees 59 minutes West 379.11 feet to the North line of said Vine Street; thence West 206.42 feet along the North line of said Vine Street to the East line of 1st Street; thence North 83 feet to the South line of Lot 4 of Block 142, Plat C; thence North 81 degrees 59 minutes East 587.87 feet to a point South 2094.41 feet and West 1698.56 feet from said Northeast corner of the Northwest quarter of Section 27; thence North 66.75 feet; thence South 89 degrees 28 minutes East 423.18 feet to the point of beginning. Being situate within Blocks 142, 154, and 153 of Plat C, Tooele City Survey, Tooele City and said Section 27, Township 3 South, Range 4 West, SLB&M.

James Lynn Bevan

26 Tuesday Dec 2023

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James Lynn Bevan
March 10, 1931 – June 14, 2016
Blessed, Honored Pioneer!

“It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future. It is good to look upon the virtues of those who have gone before, to gain strength for whatever lies ahead. It is good to reflect upon the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world, but out of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries. Their tremendous example can become a compelling motivation for us all, for each of us is a pioneer in his own life…”
-Gordon B. Hinckley, 1984

These words are now found on a plaque at the entrance of the Pioneer Museum, the place that Jim Bevan loved so much. Jim loved these words because they epitomized his own thoughts and feelings. He had a drive and desire to help everyone visualize and understand the struggles and sacrifices that were made by those men and women that lived in the very early days of Tooele.

Jim was a descendent of the faithful pioneers that established the city of Tooele. He was the 10th of eleven children born to Eli Edson Bevan and Sarah Shields Bevan. He was named after his relative James Bevan who was born in 1821 in Herefordshire, England and came to Utah in 1847 after coming from California, as a member of the Mormon Battalion. Jim’s father, they called him Kelly, was an engineer of the train that used to travel Vine Street every day giving the men a ride to and from the Tooele Smelter. Jim’s mother died when he was only twelve years old. Jim worked at the lumber company in Tooele, at the Tooele Ordinance Depot and finally at Utah Power and Light Company. He served the LDS church as a bishop, a high counselor and stake president.

Over the years Jim spent thousands of hours with his friends Russ Hammond and John Bryan and gave much in the way of personal resources in an effort to establish a place where people could visit to catch a glimpse of the past. His desire to share his love of those early pioneers and their struggles resulted in many of the displays at the Pioneer Museum. The museum now stands as a monument to his life.

The text on this page is from Sons of Utah Pioneers historic marker #249, located at the James L. Bevan Tooele Pioneer Museum at 39 East Vine Street in Tooele, Utah.

Tooele County Courthouse and City Hall

14 Thursday Dec 2023

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Tooele County Courthouse and City Hall

The Tooele County Courthouse and City Hall was added to the National Historic Register (#83003194) on July 21, 1983 and is located at 41 East Vine Street in Tooele, Utah.

Pioneer City Hall – DUP Historic Marker #84 is located here.

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

The text below is from the nomination form from when it was added to the register.

The Tooele County Courthouse and City Hall, built in 1867, is significant as an important governmental building in the historical development of Tooele County, Utah, and as an excellent example of an early city hall-county courthouse in the state. It is one of fourteen such structures documented and remains both the oldest (known to date) and only extant temple-form city hall in Utah The temple-form, which typically has its short end to the street and a pedimented gable façade in imitation of monumental classical buildings, originated in the Greek Revival period of American building, and was the first and most common building type used in Utah’s early public buildings. Tooele County, located immediately west of Salt Lake County, was organized in the 1851-52 period, some four years after the founding of Salt Lake City by Mormon pioneers. Within the county political framework, Tooele City functioned as the center, but did not gain votes as the County Seat until 1861, and did not become the effective location of county government until 1867, upon completion of this building. The red sandstone, rectangular structure, topped by a belfry (post-1874), also served as an early pioneer social center. It functioned as a courthouse and city hall until 1899, and as city hall until 1944; thus, the Tooele County Courthouse and City Hall formed a central link in the community’s social and political life. In 1968 the building was recorded by the Historic American Buildings Survey.

Tooele County, located approximately twenty-five miles west of Salt Lake City, and extending to the Nevada border, formed one of the earliest units of government in Utah. Settlement in the area reportedly occurred in 1849, with agricultural and milling activity dominant. Within this early period, Mormon ecclesiastical authority also served political purposes; but in 1851 Tooele County was organized and the “first” civil political government in the county was formed in 1852. Although Tooele City, incorporated on January 3, 1853 — the fifth incorporated settlement in Utah was the predominant settlement, the Territorial legislature placed the county seat at Richville. However, in 1861 that act was repealed and citizens voted to make Tooele City the seat of county government. County court continued to be held alternately in Tooele, Richville, and Grantsville until 1867 when the new building was constructed in Tooele to house county facilities.

The structure was built in 1867 of red sandstone, in an uncoursed rubble masonry construction. Interestingly, this time marked a transitional period in building materials and ideas of permanence in the Tooele area. Writing from Tooele in March, 1867, Eli B. Kelsey stated:

The time honored “adobe” is fast loosing [sic] prestige as a building material, and brick and rock are rapidly taking its place. The primitive log cabin, with its turf roof, is fast approaching its destiny, namely, to shelter the lower orders of the animal creation for a little season, and then become one of the things of the past, while the “genus homo” find refuge in structures of brick and stone, with shingle roofs.

In August, 1867 a newspaper article reported that the citizens of Tooele were constructing a social and multi-purpose hall, which was “being done by shares.” The notice continued, “the house is substantially built of rock; its dimensions, 60 x 30. It will be used for a dancing hall, for dramatic representations and other social and intellectual purposes. It is estimated that this building will cost twelve thousand dollars.” In addition, the structure was to house county and city records, and form a type of community center.

According to one source, bids to erect the structure were actually submitted to county officials on February 13, 1865. Those involved in the construction were: Isaac Lee, James Hammond, W. C. Gollaher, and John Gordan. The architect is unknown. A basement was then excavated, where a jail was to be located, and a foundation laid. A Tooele County history noted that a two-room structure started by Isaac Lee, one of the contractors, was purchased and placed on the foundation. Finish work was then completed, including the plastering of the interior by George Atkin and George W. Bryan.

In describing the building’s use, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, History of Tooele County, records:

Upon the completion of these two rooms, it was decided that the building might serve as the general entertainment and amusement center for the community, inasmuch as no such building was then available and could also be used for purposes of holding court or transacting any city or county business also. A committee was appointed to consider any suggestions or offers from anyone who might be interested. An offer of leasing the building to present home dramatic plays and entertainments was made by William C. Foster and Thomas Croft, and was considered favorable by the council.

On December 25, 1870, the first entertainment was held in this building and the leasors offered a rental of $400.00 for the building. However, due to hard times the financial end of the project was not so good, and in April of 1871, the leasors appeared before the council and petitioned them to be merciful, and offered all the furnishings they had acquired for dramatic purposes in payment of the overdue rent. This petition was accepted and the building was from then on used as a court house except for special entertainments given on very special occasions.

. . .it became necessary to build onto the building to enlarge the jail quarters. The Tooele City officials then petitioned the county officials to permit them to use a portion of the building for city offices. This was granted.

Thus, the Tooele County Courthouse and City Hall continued to function as such until 1899. At that time a new court house was built and the county moved into that facility. The structure then became solely the City Hall, until 1941 when Tooele City erected a new building. In 1942 the city leased the 1867 structure to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers for fifty years. That group utilizes the hall as a museum.

The Old City Hall is a Greek Revival inspired temple-form stone building. It was built in 1867 of uncoursed rubble masonry containing some red sandstone. The building is a rectangular form (27′-3″ x 66′-5″), one story in height at the front, and two stories at the rear. It has a gable roof. A belfry was added sometime after 1874.

This building is oriented with its gable end toward the street, a typical characteristic of temple-form buildings. It has a heavy wooden cornice, and a door is centered between two windows on the façade. A round date stone is located in the point of the gable over the door. Each of the openings on the façade has a semicircular relieving arch of stone, and the date stone is also surrounded by a ring of stone pieces. The windows are the two over two double hung sash type. There is a segmented transom over the door.

Originally the building had three long, narrow windows on the east and west side walls. A window on the east wall was later enlarged to contain an inset door, providing additional access to the interior of the building. A modern addition, made in the 1970s which connects the old courthouse to the city library, resulted in covering two of the windows on the west wall. These changes, however, have not affected the original integrity of the building. The door in the east wall was added well within the historic period, and the brick addition attached to the rear of the west side is unobtrusive, and has provided access to the building, so that it may function as part of a cultural complex.

The belfry, reflecting the influence of the Picturesque movement which followed the period of the Greek Revival, has lathe turned posts accented by scroll brackets, and a distinctive spindle band. It has a slightly bellcast pyramid roof. The addition of the belfry may have been an attempt by the Tooele townspeople to highlight the building in the Victorian period when because of its small scale it would not have been as distinctive among the larger buildings of the period. It may also represent an attempt to bring the building up to date using decorative features of the period. Or, it may have been added strictly for practical reasons, and was designed using the most typical decorative features of the period.

The Old City Hall in Tooele is an excellent, well preserved example of a Greek Revival inspired temple-form building. It has received alterations, previously mentioned, which were made to allow it continual use, but which do not affect the original integrity of the building.

Tooele City Pioneer Memorial

03 Wednesday May 2023

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Tooele City Pioneer Memorial

The base or bottom ring symbolizes the family, the basic unit of our society. The plow represents the industry of man. The wheat is the fruit of honest labor. The wheel represents our effort to move forward. The father is the head or leader and provider of the family. He provides direction for the future with his hand on the wheel. The mother located in the center, represents the heart of the home, also teaching and nurturing the family. The boy kneeling at his mother’s knee represents that the greatest lessons are taught in the home. The girl standing with a book in her hand represents the need for continued education giving her wisdom and learning in her youth. All of these is a family unit. Each unit represents understanding and accepting of its different roles, working together in harmony and peace, and progressing forward to a brighter day.

Sons of Utah Pioneers historic marker #97, located at 128 West Vine Street at the Library in Tooele, Utah

Note: The monument statue is flanked on each side by two panels of stone in which are engraved the names of more than 800 men, women, and children who were the original pioneers.

Tooele’s Mud Wall

04 Tuesday Apr 2023

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Tooele’s Mud Wall

In the year 1854 or 1855 the settlers built a mud wall most of the way around the town. The wall began at the corner of West Street and Vine Street intersection and then south to the south side of Locust Street (1st South) then east to the east side of 1st East Street then north to the north side of Green Street (1st North) then west to a point about twenty rods east of Main Street where it ended.

The Mud Wall was built to help protect the settlers from Indian attacks. The attacks never came, due in part to the counsel given by Brigham Young, to feed the Indians, rather than fight them.

The only thing that the Mud Wall was used for was that a number of wolves were shot from the wall at the south west corner.

We call the attention of the reader to the laborious work of building the Mud Wall. Food was scarce at that time. They had many hardships to contend with in their poverty, with houses to build, fencing materials to get out of the canyons, roads and irrigation canals to build and Indians to guard against. It should also be remembered that the tools they had to work with were crude and inferior.

Building the mud wall

The work of building the Mud Wall was done by taxing every able body man to do his share. The wall was 2 ½ feet wide at the base, 1 foot wide at the top, 9 feet high and each section was 16 feet long.

Water was flooded over the ground each night and a strip on both sides of the wall was ploughed to soften the mud. Planks were then set on edge and held together by long 1 ¾ inch round pins secured by wooden keys.

The wet soil was then shoveled between the planks from both sides with one man tamping the soil. A young boy spread straw into the mud so that it would be less likely to crack as it dried.

When the first pair of planks were filled and thoroughly tamped, the next pair was put in place until the top was reached.

When the mud dried the planks were removed and another section built as before so that the wall was built by section.

Note: The replica is one-half size of the original wall built 2 ½ feet wide at the base, 1 foot wide at the top, 9 feet high and built in 16 foot sections.

Sons of Utah Pioneers historic marker #147, located at 100 West Vine Street on the Library grounds in Tooele, Utah

Tooele Carnegie Free Public Library

18 Wednesday May 2022

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“On Saturday, the 13th inst. The doors of the Carnegie library will be thrown open to the public and any citizen may take out books under the rules and regulations of the library. Under the administration of ex-Mayor A. A. Walters, negotiations began with Andrew Carnegie and the location for the library procured. The drawing of plans by several architects, was unsatisfactory and Mayor Walter’s term of office expired before any great results could be obtained. Mayor Henry Marshall took office in January, 1910, and took active means to push along the library. He discharged the architects, then employed and secured plans from Ulmer & Son that were acceptable to Mr. Carnegie. The contract was let to Miller Brothers of Tooele last May and the building was finished in November. The cost was close to $6,000. Only $5,000 was given by Mr. Carnegie so that the city had to raise the balance. There is a library and gymnasium fund, and there was over $1,000 in that fund, so the council decided to draw from that fund and pay off the library indebtedness. There are over 600 volumes in the library.”
– The Tooele Times – Thursday, May 11, 1911

Although not the first library in Tooele, the Carnegie library was the first FREE public library. As the Times article above states, the Tooele Carnegie Library was built in 1911 with a $5000 grant from millionaire/philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The conditions upon which all Carnegie grants were given were that the recipient community donate the building site for the library, and promised to provide at least $500 per year for the upkeep and operation of the library building. Designed by Salt Lake City based architect Frank M. Ulmer, the Tooele Carnegie Library, which, complete with books, cost a total of $6500, was officially opened on May 10, 1911.

This page is for the Sons of Utah Pioneers historic marker on the building, the page directly for the building itself is located here: Tooele Carnegie Library

This monument is #242 in this series of S.U.P. Markers.

Tooele Carnegie Library

08 Monday Nov 2021

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Built in 1911, the Tooele Carnegie Library is significant as one of sixteen remaining Carnegie libraries of the twenty-three built in Utah. Thirteen of the sixteen library buildings maintain their original integrity and are included in the Carnegie Library Thematic Resource Nomination. In addition to making important contributions to public education in their respective communities, these libraries are Utah’s representatives of the important nation-wide Carnegie library program, and they document its unparalleled effect in the establishment of community-supported, free public libraries in Utah.

Located at 47 East Vine Street in Tooele, Utah and added to the National Historic Register (#84000420) on October 29, 1984.

Related:

The Tooele Carnegie Library was built in 1911 with a $5000 grant from millionaire/philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie funded the construction of over 1650 library buildings in the U.S., 23 of which were built in Utah communities. The conditions upon which all Carnegie grants were given were that the recipient community donate the building site and provide an annual maintenance budget of at least 10% of the grant amount. The city of Tooele
provided the books and building site for the library, and promised to provide at least $500 per year for the upkeep and operation of the library building. Designed by Salt Lake City based architect Frank M. Ulmer, the Tooele Carnegie
Library, which, complete with books, cost a total of $6500, was officially opened on May 10, 1911.

Although the Carnegie library was the first building constructed and used specifically for library purposes in Tooele, it was not the first library organized in the city. The Tooele City Library Association was first organized in February 1864 under a territorial legislative charter. Due to financial difficulties brought about by the Association’s involvement in the construction of a social hall in the town, the book collection was taken over by the Tooele (LDS church) Ward Ecclesiastical Board in 1878. Members of the library were assessed annual dues to cover the operation expenses of the library and to pay the $35 annual salary of the librarian. The library operated out of the social hall (known as the Opera House), which it shared with other community activities. A private, fiction library was opened in Tooele in 1893 by William C. Foster, secretary of the library association. Foster, who operated his library until his death in 1906, rented out books for a fee of 25tf per month. The $5000 Carnegie grant enabled the city to replace those private, user-funded libraries with the city-supported Tooele Free Public Library. It has continued to serve as the city’s library up to the present, although the original building was expanded in 1973 by a major addition on the west. Despite that addition, the building retains its original integrity.

The Tooele Carnegie Library is a long rectangular building set on a slight hill so that from the façade it appears to be a one story building, but it actually drops off to two stories in the rear. It is oriented gable end to the street, resembling a temple-form building, with a door centered between two windows, and has a portico spanning the façade. The low pitch of the gable roof, the domestic scale of the building and porch, and the use of fish-scale shingles in the gable section are reminiscent of bungalows that were being built at the same time. The symmetrical arrangement of openings on the façade, the returns of the cornice, and the wide frieze of the entablature, however, counter the domestic character and emphasize Classical Revival influences.

Alterations to the Tooele Carnegie Library include the addition of a large brick wing on the west side of the building in 1973, which cuts into the west wall of the library building, and the painting of the exterior brick walls (n.d.). These changes, however, do not substantially affect the original integrity of the building. The addition was set back far enough that the façade of the library is completely unaffected by the addition. The 1973 addition visually joins the library building with the 1867 stone Tooele County Courthouse/City Hall on the west, although the addition is joined to the courthouse only at the roof level and the two buildings neither share a common wall nor are connected on their interiors. The Tooele County Courthouse/City Hall was listed in the National Register in 1983.