Author Archive
September Announcement for the Utah Westerners
“YOU CAN GO TO HELL, I’M GOING TO TEXAS”
THE ALAMO AND THE TEXAS REVOLUTION IN TRUTH AND LEGEND
JAMES DONOVAN
For nearly two centuries, the last stand at the Alamo has been recognized as a defining moment in America’s history. On February 23, 1836, a Mexican army thousands of soldiers strong attacked a makeshift garrison of about two hundred Texas settlers—among them, Davy Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis—who were holed up in the abandoned mission on the outskirts of San Antonio. The Texans refused to surrender and, for almost two weeks, the immense force laid siege to the fort, bombarding its occupants with artillery fire. Then, in the predawn hours of March 6, the Mexican troops unleashed a final devastating assault. What happened next would become legend.
Our special guest speaker, James Donovan, bestselling author of The Blood of Heroes: The 13-Day Struggle for the Alamo—and the Sacrifice that Forged a Nation, will share with us some of the insights gleaned while researching and writing the book as well as the process of its creation. He will discuss why family traditions can’t be trusted, why there are always new facts to find, and how they are found. He will develop some of the more interesting characters in the story and little-known facts about the Big Three: Travis, Bowie, and Crockett. Donovan will clarify what these men were fighting for as well as the two great controversies of the battle: how Davy died and the line in the sand that Travis did or didn’t draw.
Jim Donovan has worn many hats in the publishing business. After graduating from the University of Texas, he began his career in publishing in an Austin bookstore in 1981. He eventually moved to Dallas to become a buyer for a bookstore chain. Later he was a book editor at Taylor Publishing and advanced to the position of senior editor before leaving in 1993 to start his own literary agency. He has sold hundreds of books for dozens of writers to numerous well-known national publishing houses.
Donovan is the author of several books, including A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn—the Last Great Battle of the American West, which spent several weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. It has been called “the last word on the Last Stand.” His most recent book is The Blood of Heroes, which was released last May. The Houston Chronicle called it “the best book on the battle of the Alamo,” and the Dallas Morning News reviewer hailed it as “probably the best nonfiction I have ever read about Texas—history told in a way that reads like fiction.”
July Announcement for the Utah Westerners
ANCIENT PAINTERS OF THE COLORADO PLATEAU
DAVID SUCEC
The Archaic Period (ca. 6000 BCE-ca. CE 300) in Utah and on the Colorado Plateau is certainly the Golden Period of prehistoric rock art. Among the rock art styles, regardless of time periods, the Barrier Canyon style is recognized, certainly among scholars, as Utah’s premier style and is one of the two major Archaic styles of painting in America. No other prehistoric American rock art style matches the time depth, the number of sites, variations, and the vastness of its territory (about 400 x 150 miles from the St. George area north to the Vernal area and from the Castle Dale, Utah region east to the Grand Junction, Colorado area).
David Sucec’s presentation will offer the findings of two decades (1991-2013) of BCS (Barrier Canyon Style) Project work, drawing on more than 370 sites, and will propose a description and analysis of the style. He will also touch on the Barrier Canyon’s relationship to some other Utah rock art styles.
David Sucec, Director of the BCS Project, holds an MA in Art and has studied extensively in Art History and Archaeology at the University of Utah and elsewhere. He is an independent scholar, visual artist, curator, and teacher and has lectured and taught widely in his field. He is co-author (with Leslie Kelen) of Sacred Images: A Vision of Native American Rock Art, published by Gibbs Smith in 1996.
May Announcement for the Utah Westerners
SOUTHEASTERN UTAH HISTORY
ROY WEBB
Noted western river runner, expedition guide, and historian, Roy Webb, will discuss the many and varied aspects of the history of that corner of Utah that has, in the words of one guidebook, “largely remained outside (LDS) church control.” From the mysterious Native Americans of a thousand years ago, to the first Spanish explorers, the failed Elk Mountain Mission, the coming of the cowboys, the Hole-in-the-Rock expedition and the Mormon settlement of Bluff, uranium, the movie industry, and modern tourism.
Roy, whom one organization called “perhaps the foremost historian of western rivers in the world today,” has generously volunteered to be the guide and local expert on our field trip at the end of this month. He brings an unequalled expertise and vast knowledge on not just the rivers of the area we’ll be seeing, but on the whole region of country.
Roy D. Webb, earned both a B. A. and M. S. in history from the University of Utah. He has worked in the Marriott Library at that university since 1981, serving since 1994 as the Multimedia Archivist in Special Collections. He is the author of several books, mainly on river history, including If We Had a Boat: Green River Explorers, Adventurers, and Runners and The Lost Canyons of the Green River: the Story Before Flaming Gorge Dam, both published by the University of Utah Press. He has also written scores of articles, given many lectures and papers, and has been the curator of numerous exhibits on Utah, western rivers, and regional history. Roy is no armchair historian and writer; for many years he ran and then led expeditions on several rivers including the Green, Colorado, and San Juan. He has written extensively, based not only on meticulous research, but firsthand experience as well.
April Announcement for the Utah Westerners
THE WESTERN EXPEDITIONS OF
NATHANIIEL WYETH, 1832-1836
JIM HARDEE
Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth is not numbered among America’s greatest heroes. The successful Boston ice merchant is considered a failure in the fur trade, yet Wyeth was a practical businessman with an adventurous Yankee spirit that led him twice across the continent and back, in 1832 and again in 1834, prior to the development of reliable maps or emigrant trails. Wyeth’s contributions to westward expansion have been largely overlooked by historians. Historian and author, Jim Hardee’s newest book, Obstinate Hope, is part one of a two-part examination of the life of Nathaniel J. Wyeth.
Jim’s talk will begin with a look at Wyeth’s pre-fur trade life including his heritage, operation of the family’s Fresh Pond Hotel, and his early career in the ice industry. The bulk of the presentation will detail Wyeth’s first expedition to the West (1832-1833), using his letters and journals as its base. The narrative follows Wyeth on his trip to the fur trade rendezvous in Pierre’s Hole, on to the Pacific Northwest, and then back to the East Coast. Wyeth’s journal entries will be accompanied by commentary, providing insight into Wyeth’s experiences. Hardee’s telling of Nathaniel Wyeth’s story is supplemented with information from the journals and letters of other people who were with him for all or part of the trip. His commentary also compares what Wyeth encountered in the West with events and occurrences from other trapper diaries.
Jim Hardee is the editor of the Rocky Mountain Fur Trade Journal, published by the Sublette County Historical Society and the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, Wyoming. Jim is the author of Pierre’s Hole: The Fur Trade History of Teton Valley, Idaho. Not confined to works in print, Hardee has also provided commentary in television documentaries, including “Taming the Wild West: The Legend of Jedediah Smith,” produced by The History Channel in 2005. Jim is also the director of the FurTradeResearchCenter and is a presenter for many conferences and symposiums. He has published numerous articles on various fur trade topics, and lives in Pierre’s Hole, Idaho.
March Announcement for the Utah Westerners
“THE MODERN MORMON KINGDOM:”
FRANK J. CANNON’S NATIONAL CAMPAIGN
AGAINST MORMONISM, 1910-1918
KENNETH L. CANNON II
The story of Frank J. Cannon, up to the time he published Under the Prophet in Utah: The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft as a book in 1911, is well known by Utah history buffs. Frank was the talented son of George Q. Cannon, prominent Mormon Church, political, and business leader. Controversy surrounded Frank from an early age—he was first jailed for leading a group of Cannon sons and cousins in mugging federal prosecutor, William Dickson, who had reportedly treated one of George Q.’s wives impolitely. Frank was a binge drinker with a penchant for visiting prostitutes while under the influence and even fathered an illegitimate son. And yet, the LDS Church’s First Presidency still utilized Frank’s extraordinary abilities by having him serve as their agent in political and financial matters for most of the 1890s. He was elected as one of Utah’s first two U. S. Senators, but was not re-elected amid controversy over his opposition to the Dingley tariff bill and changing political parties. After his father’s death in 1901, Frank’s festering feud with Church president, Joseph F. Smith, erupted into full-scale war. Cannon attacked Smith from the editorial pages of the Salt Lake Tribune and Smith had Cannon excommunicated from the Mormon Church in early 1905.
Sometime after moving to Denver, Cannon became managing editor of the Rocky Mountain News. While there, he met Harvey J. O’Higgins, a talented New York muckraker, and the two collaborated on Under the Prophet in Utah. This launched Frank into a successful career as a Chataqua and Lyceum lecturer during which he frightened well over a million Americans with stories of the evils of the Mormons and their Prophet in his lecture entitled “The Modern Mormon Kingdom.” He was certainly the most eloquent and likely the most effective anti-Mormon agitator in LDSChurch history. It is this portion of Frank Cannon’s colorful life that Ken Cannon will discuss.
Utah Westerner, Ken Cannon, a Salt Lake City attorney with three degrees from BYU, served for several years as Adjunct Faculty at BYU and is currently in a similar position at the University of Utah’s law school. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles (including some which won awards) published in a variety of academic journals including the Utah Historical Quarterly, BYU Studies, Journal of Mormon History, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Several have focused on Frank J. Cannon and other members of the Cannon family. One, which bears the same title as that of this presentation, appeared in the Journal of Mormon History in 2011.
February Announcement for the Utah Westerners
J. C. PENNEY AND HIS MANY UTAH CONNECTIONS
LINDA THATCHER
Friday, May 9, 1969 was proclaimed “J. C. Penney Day” by Utah’s governor, Calvin R. Rampton. Penney was “not just passing through;” he had established and maintained his Utah connections for the past sixty years. After graduating from high school, James Cash Penney worked in a dry goods store in Hamilton, Missouri, but moved to Colorado in 1897 for health reasons. He became involved with the Golden Rule Mercantile Company and within a decade he had acquired ownership of the company. In 1909 he moved to Salt Lake City to set up a corporate headquarters and lived there for six years before relocating to New York. In 1913, all his stores were consolidated under the J. C. Penney banner.
Utah Westerner, Linda Thatcher, will discuss Penney’s family, including his first wife, Berta A. Hess, who is buried in Salt Lake’s Mt. Olivet Cemetery and his second wife, Mary H. Kimball, who was born in Salt Lake City. She will also illustrate his community involvement; for example, he was a member of Wasatch Lodge #1 of the Free and Accepted Masons of Utah and often participated in their meetings. Thatcher will also talk about the larger J. C. Penney Company, which incorporated in Utah, and the opening of Penney stores throughout Utah and the role they played in the local communities.
Linda Thatcher earned a Bachelor of Science and master’s degree from Utah State University as well as a master’s from BYU in Library Science. She worked for Utah State History from 1975 to 2007 as the Collection Manager. She has written several articles and co-edited two books: Differing Visions: Dissenters in Mormon History and Women in Utah History: Paradigm or Paradox? Since retiring from the Historical Society, she served as the co-director of a private history organization for three years and is currently a volunteer at the Utah State Archives. She became interested in J. C. Penney (an Avenues resident) when she was writing a monthly historical article for the Avenues Newsletter.
January Announcement for the Utah Westerners
WHEN UTAH WAS A DIFFERENT KIND OF RED STATE:
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON A RADICAL PAST
JOHN McCORMICK and JOHN SILLITO
In their recently published book, A History of Utah Radicalism: Startling, Socialistic, and Decidedly Revolutionary, (published by Utah State University Press, winner of the Utah State Historical Society’s Best Book Award in 2012), McCormick and Sillito explore Utah radicalism since the late 19th century, focusing on those movements on the Left “that have challenged the fundamental principles on which society has been established and have offered alternative visions of how to live and organize life.” Especially important is the Socialist Party of America which sunk deep roots in Utah, electing over 100 men and women to office in the early 20th century, and gaining significant support among various segments of the Utah population. McCormick and Sillito will discuss this little-known but fascinating story they think is worth a closer look.
John S. McCormick earned a Ph.D. in intellectual history from the University of Iowa. He is currently dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Salt Lake Community College. He has published numerous books and articles in a number of areas, including political history, urban history, and historic preservation. His books include The Gathering Place: An Illustrated History of Salt Lake City and A World We Thought We Knew: Readings in Utah History (with John Sillito).
Utah Westerner, John R. Sillito is Emeritus Professor of Libraries at Weber State University and currently teaches in Weber’s History Department. He is currently a member of the board of editors of the Utah Historical Quarterly. Sillito has degrees in history and political science from the University of Utah. He is the editor of History’s Apprentice: The Diaries of B. H. Roberts, 1880-9, which won the MHA Best Documentary Award in 2004. Sillito’s writings have appeared in several journals including the Utah Historical Quarterly, Sunstone, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.
December Announcement for the Utah Westerners
Golden Visions: Halfway on a Long and Perilous Journey
Will Bagley
With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849-1852 is the second of four scheduled volumes in Bagley’s acclaimed series, Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails. The first volume of this series, So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812-1848 was the recipient of several awards including Choice Magazine’s Outstanding Academic Titles of 2010 and the 2011 Western Heritage Award.
With narrative scope and detail unmatched by earlier histories, With Golden Visions Bright Before Them picks up where So Rugged and Mountainous left off, retelling this classic American saga through the voices of the people whose eyewitness testimonies vividly evoke the most dramatic era of westward migration. Traditional histories of the overland roads paint the gold rush migration as a heroic epic of progress that opened new lands and a continental treasure house for the advancement of civilization. Yet, according to Bagley, the transformation of the American West during this period is more complex and contentious than legend pretends. The gold rush epoch witnessed untold suffering and sacrifice, and the trails and their trials were enough to make many people turn back. For America’s Native peoples, the effect of the massive migration was no less than ruinous. The impact that tens of thousands of intruders had on Native peoples and their homelands is at the center of this story, not on its margins. Beautifully written and richly illustrated with photographs and maps, With Golden Visions Bright Before Them continues the saga that began with Bagley’s highly acclaimed, award-winning So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing the Trails to Oregon and California, 1812–1848, hailed by critics as a classic of western history
Will Bagley is an independent historian who has written about overland emigration, frontier violence, railroads, mining, and the Mormons. Bagley has published extensively over the years and is the author and editor of many books, articles, and reviews in professional journals. Bagley is the series editor of Arthur H. Clark Company’s documentary history series, KINGDOM IN THE WEST: The Mormons and the American Frontier. Bagley has been a Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellow at the University of Utah and the Archibald Hannah, Jr. Fellow in American History at Yale University’s Beinecke Library. Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows has won numerous awards including a Spur Award from Western Writers of America, the Bancroft History Prize from the Denver Public Library, Westerners International Best Book, and the Western History Association Caughey Book Prize for the most distinguished book on the history of the American West. With Golden Visions Bright Before Them: Trails to the Mining West, 1849-1852 is the second of four volumes of “Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails”.
Upcoming Speakers for the Utah Westerners
December – Will Bagley discussing his forthcoming work on the Gold Rush trails to California.
January – John McCormick & John Sillito discussing radicalism in Utah
February – Linda Thatcher discussing JC Penny in Utah.
November Announcement for the Utah Westerners
The Pony Express Stations in Utah
Patrick Hearty & Dr. Joseph Hatch
We are very pleased to announce that Utah Westerners, Patrick Hearty and Joseph Hatch, will discuss their recent book on the Pony Express stations in Utah. They will share their research in both the literature and in the field, on the stations across present-day Utah which served the historic mail service we call the Pony Express. They will describe the locations, and what is known about the structures, and also tell some of the stories from that fascinating episode in our western history. Dr. Hatch will talk about obtaining modern photographs of each site, as well as researching historic photographs, and how a comparison of the old and new confirms our conclusions as to station locations
Pat Hearty was raised in Grantsville, Utah, and much of his youth was spent on his grandfather’s cattle ranch. He has retained a love of history and ties to the Old West that he learned there.
As an elementary school student, he was captivated by the book, The White Indian Boy, about a young Grantsville boy, Nick Wilson, who was enticed to leave his home and join the Shoshone Indians when offered a pinto pony to be his own. Nick returned home after a few years and later became one of the 1860-1861 Pony Express riders. One might wonder if Pat might not have done the same thing in his early years, with a similar promise of a pony of his own.
He graduated from BrighamYoungUniversity with degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry. He is currently employed as a chemist for Battelle Memorial Institute, working at Deseret Chemical Depot.
Pat has been a member of the National Pony Express since 1978. He has been president of both the National organization and Utah Division of the Pony Express, and is currently a Re-ride Trail Captain in Utah, and the National Trails Liaison. He is a charter member of the Oregon-California Trails Association. He lives in Grantsville, with his wife, Linda, and his little band of horses.
Joseph Hatch was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah, but there was always a horse for him in Heber City, Utah, where his father was born. All eight of his great grandparents and three of his great- great grandparents were pioneers to the Great Salt LakeValley before the completion of the railroad in 1869. Most or all of them came west before the Pony Express of 1860-1861 came through Great Salt LakeCity.
Joseph is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the MoranEyeCenter of the University of Utah, where he serves as senior consultant to the Moran Eye residents in the general eye clinics at the Salt Lake Veteran’s AdministrationHospital.
Joe’s interest in still and movie photography began in his pre-teen years. He has made several Super-8 sound movies plus an early Regular-8 silent western melodrama that he co-directed and filmed when he was 17 years old with Don Smith, a life-long friend.
He spent many summers of his youth in nearby Heber, Utah, where he rode his horse everywhere. He enjoyed horse club activities, including tie-down calf roping, while serving in the Army at Fort Riley, Kansas. He enjoys cattle roundups, trail rides, and horse pack trips into the Uinta Mountains and Yellowstone.
Joe has been a member of the National Pony Express Association since 1997, and he currently serves as a Re-ride Captain in the Utah Division of the National Pony Express Association. He is a member of the Utah Westerners
Joseph lives in Salt Lake City, Utah with his wife, Annette
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