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.
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
“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
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.
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.
The old Broadway Hotel (built in 1911) at Broadway and Date in Tooele, Utah (145 N Broadway Ave) stands majestic and abandoned for now, there has been talk over the years of restoring it but nothing happening yet. I love the big cool looking building.
This area was first settled beginning in 1856. In 1934, a large area of some 33 square miles, comprising the settlements of Clover, St. John, and Vernon, was incorporated into a town called Onaqui. The incorporation was essentially a bureaucratic tactic to secure federal aid for development of municipal infrastructure, including from the Rural Electrification Administration. When the people of Vernon were granted a petition to incorporate separately on 22 February 1972, the remaining town was renamed Rush Valley.
Saltair has been several resorts on the shore of the Great Salt Lake. The first was built in 1893 and designed by Richard K.A. Kletting, resting on over 2,000 posts holding it above the water. It burned down in 1925.
The replacement, Saltair II also burned down, this time in 1931.
