September Announcement for the Utah Westerners
THE NORTHFIELD RAID
NEW INSIGHTS ON THE JAMES-YOUNGER GANG’S GREATEST BLUNDER
MARK LEE GARDNER
It’s the most famous bungled bank job of all time. As the notorious James-Younger gang fled Northfield, Minnesota, on the afternoon of September 7, 1876, their loot from the First National Bank totaled $26.60 in coin and scrip. They left behind $15,000 in cash in the bank’s unlocked safe and two dead comrades in the street, shot down in a firefight with the town’s plucky citizens. In two weeks, another gang member would be dead and the three Younger brothers captured. Only Frank and Jesse James would elude their pursuers and make it back to Missouri.
Historian and author Mark Lee Gardner will highlight some of the new findings in his latest book: Shot All To Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West’s Greatest Escape (William Morrow). Publishers Weekly calls the book “an elegant narrative that’s as entertaining as it is historically accurate . . . a must-read.” He will discuss why the James-Younger gang traveled to Minnesota and the identity of the bandit who murdered bank employee Joseph Lee Heywood, long a source of debate. Gardner has uncovered never-before-seen evidence that adds substantially to what is known about this legendary bank heist and the robber pursuit that followed, the largest manhunt in U. S. history up to that time.
A native of Missouri’s Jesse James country, Mark Lee Gardner has made Colorado his home for the last 28 years, where he lives with his wife Katie, and where their two children, Christiana and Vance, were born. Shot All to Hell won the 2014 Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for Best Western Nonfiction Historical Book and the 2014 Best Book Award from the Wild West History Association. True West magazine named Gardner “Best Author” in its annual Best of the West issue for 2014. He is also the author of the critically lauded To Hell on a Fast Horse: The Untold Story of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett. An authority on the American West, Gardner has appeared on PBS’s American Experience and ABC’s World News, as well as on the History Channel, the Encore Westerns Channel, NPR, and BBC Radio. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, American Heritage, Wild West, American Cowboy, and New Mexico Magazine. Gardner is also an authority on the popular music of the American West and will perform two or three historic outlaw ballads at the end of his presentation.
Reading Material for the UW Field Trip to the Greasy Grass
Steve has compiled some reading material that you can view here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m1omwrf21assvkl/2014Book.pdf?n=146792586
this is a large pdf file, so it will take a moment to download.
July Announcement for the Utah Westerners
THE NATURE OF THE BATTLE
HOW THE ENVIRONMENT SHAPED THE COURSE
OF THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIGHORN
GREGORY E. SMOAK
Few places in the American West are more iconic and contested than the rolling hills and riparian bottomlands of the Little Bighorn Valley in southeastern Montana. There in June of 1876, George A. Custer’s Seventh Cavalry suffered the United States’ most spectacular defeat of the Indian Wars at the hands of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors led by Crazy Horse, Gall, and Lame White Man. Histories of the Little Bighorn have focused most often on the decisions and actions of combatants on both sides. While few would deny the importance of these individuals, the battlefield itself was a critical, and often overlooked, part of the story.
This presentation is part of a larger environmental history of the Little Bighorn Battlefield commissioned by the National Park Service and will address the ways that understanding the human and natural forces that shaped the landscape of the battlefield can enrich the visitor’s experience at Little Bighorn. Points of discussion will include the environmental context of the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877, the radically different ecological relationships of a Plains Indian village and U. S. Army column to the land, and how the actual terrain of the battlefield impacted the conflict.
Gregory E. Smoak is Director of the American West Center and Associate Professor of History at University of Utah, where he specializes in American Indian, American Western, Environmental, and Public History. He completed an M.A. at Northern Arizona University and a Ph.D. at the University of Utah in 1999. He has taught at Colorado State University and the University of Minnesota. The University of California Press published his book Ghost Dances and Identity: American Indian Ethnicity, Racial Identity, and Prophetic Religion in 2006. He is currently working on an environmental history of Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument under a contract with the National Park service. He has served on numerous committees for professional organizations including the National Council on Public History, the Organization of American Historians, and the Western History Association.
This presentation promises to be an excellent segue into our August field trip, but will undoubtedly also be enjoyed by anyone in the Utah Westerners. Feel free to invite a guest who has any interest in the Custer battle or just western history.
June Announcement for the Utah Westerners
HO FOR PROVO!
AN EVENING AT BYU
It’s time once again for what is becoming our traditional, annual regional field trip within the state. This time we are headed south to Brigham Young University where we will dine at the famous Sky Room and then have an exclusive look at some of the treasures from the holdings of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Library at the Harold B. Lee Library.
The Lee Library has 98 miles of shelving (if laid end to end, the shelves would stretch from Provo to Salt Lake and back again) with over 6,000,000 items in its various collections. The Special Collections Library was founded in 1957 and began with a mere 1000 books, 50 manuscript collections and one curator. Today the department consists of 14 full-time curators, plus manuscript processors assisted by 30+ student employees working with 350,000 books, more than 25,000 manuscript collections, and 1.5 million photographs. In 1990 Special Collections was moved into BYU’s impressive new library addition. With a generous donation from Aline and L. Sam Skaggs came a request that the school name its Special Collections after L. Tom Perry, an apostle of the LDS Church. Housed in this state-of-the-art facility and department is a vast array of printed books and pamphlets, manuscripts, maps, music, broadsides, fine artistic printing, posters, and photographs.
We could not begin to see more than a fraction of the vast holdings of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, but in the short time we will be guests there, we will view such memorable items as early western brand books, books and manuscripts of Zane Grey’s works, Robert Spurrier Ellison’s photographs of the Little Bighorn, and photos taken by William Henry Jackson, Charles R. Savage, and Andrew J. Russell (including the “meeting of the rails” by the latter two photographers), materials from the fur trade, and much more.
There to present this fascinating assortment of materials are three key people at L. Tom Perry Special Collections: Maggie Gallup Kopp, Lyn Clayton, and John Murphy. Maggie Gallup Kopp is Curator of Rare Books and responsible for the European historical collections and rare British and American Literature. She holds an M.A. from Fordham University and an M.L.S. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Lyn Clayton is Collections Administrator and is also responsible for the extensive Yellowstone collection. He has a BS in chemistry and zoology and an M.A. in Western American History.
John Murphy is Curator for 20th and 21st Century Western and Mormon Manuscripts. He has a B.A. in history from BYU, an M.A. in history from Brandeis University, and an M.S.L.I.S. from Simmons College.
May Announcement for the Utah Westerners
STATE HISTORY
(AND THE STATE OF UTAH’S HISTORY)
BRAD WESTWOOD
JULIE FISHER
BRIAN SOMERS
We at State History–known officially as the Utah Division of State History (UDSH) and the Utah Historical Society—are asking each of you Utah Westerners to lend an ear and your heart to a presentation about State History.
There has been a symbiotic relationship between State History and the Utah Westerners since the UW was established in 1967. In the recent past, Michael Homer, longtime Board of History chair (13 years), deputy board chair Greg Thompson (6 years), and State History directors Phil Notarianni, Wilson Martin, Kristen Rogers-Iverson, and the current director Brad Westwood, have all participated in the Utah Westerners’ energetic and independent forum for Western and Utah history. State History and its parent organization, the Department of Heritage & Arts, want to carry on this relationship by making this presentation.
Established in 1897, this statewide enterprise documents and celebrates Utah’s history. Come learn about the “state” of Utah History (present and future). We will explore the State’s efforts at collecting, protecting and writing its history.The Utah Westerners play a major role in the enterprise of history in Utah, so please come listen and play a part in the future of State History.
In June 2013, State History selected three broad, long-range goals: 1) Make Utah’s history relevant and valuable to every citizen (State History to be a household name); 2) Make the state’s history useful for public policy; and 3)Pursue a state-of-the-art professional facilityfor Utah’s premier history collection. At the same time, State History wishes to showcase or exhibit (digitally or otherwise) a history where all of Utah’s communities will see themselves in the pages of history.
Formed first as a private organization in 1897–amid the rush of the pioneers’ celebration (fiftieth anniversary, 1847-1897), a growing national interest in genealogy and a grassroots desire to document the pioneer past–the Utah State Historical Society was embraced in 1920 as a worthy state-funded agency. Following the establishment of a library and museum collection, the Utah Historical Quarterly was launched in 1928. In the 1970s, the division became the state’s agency for documenting and encouraging the protection of archaeological sites and historic architecture.
For sixty-two years, State History has also hosted the Utah History Conference (held each September). We hope you will be surprised and pleased with both the present services and the future plans for State History.
This presentation will be offered by UDSH director Brad Westwood, assisted by Julie Fisher, Executive Director of the Department of Heritage & Arts, and Department Deputy Director, Brian Somers.
In addition to her duties as Executive Director, Julie Fisher, also administers support to the State Library, Division of Arts & Museums, Office of Indian Affairs, Mulitcultural Commission, and the Commission on Service & Volunteerism. Before her appointment by Governor Gary Herbert in 2011, Julie was a state representative (District 17) serving four terms, representing Fruit Heights, Kaysville and Farmington.
Deputy Director Brian Somers, has held this position since February 2013. Prior to this, he was Governor Herbert’s speech writer, before which he was a congressional staff member in Washington, D.C.
Brad Westwood has been director of State History since May 2013. Prior to that appointment, he managed programs and departments at the LDS Church History Department, Brigham Young University, and The Athenaeum of Philadelphia. He also owned a private business, Westwood Research & Consulting, which he ran for four years. Brad has degrees in American Studies from BYU and Historic Preservation from University of Pennsylvania.
April Announcement for the Utah Westerners
SILVER TO SAVE ZION:
THE BULLION, BECK & CHAMPION MINING COMPANY AND THE REDEMPTION OF ZION
R. JEAN ADDAMS
A fundamental tenet of the LDS Church and other churches of the 1830 “Restoration,” inspired by Joseph Smith, is the “redemption of Zion,” meaning a “return to Jackson County, Missouri,” from which the early church was driven in the fall of 1833. The “return” to “redeem Zion” was, thereafter, a promise proclaimed by leaders of the various churches of the Restoration. The Church of Christ was the first group of early members to return to Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, in 1867. The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints began their movement back to Jackson County a decade later. The LDS Church was “late to the gathering” notwithstanding the frequent discussion and desires of the church leaders and members from the 1850s through the 1890s.
In 1870, John Beck, a German Mormon convert, staked a mining claim in the Tintic Mountains in and around what is now Eureka, Utah. He went on to establish the Bullion Beck and Champion Mining Company and became its principal owner, president, and general manager. He was also a major owner of the Bullion-Beck Tunnel and was sole owner of the hot spring resort, Saratoga Springs. In 1883, Beck solicited the help of LDS Church President John Taylor and Taylor’s first counselor George Q. Cannon in his mining venture. Soon the three men entered into an arrangement which turned over 60% of their individual shares to John Taylor and established a “consecrated” stock fund with Taylor as trustee. A select group of other church officers and clerks were also included, but on a minor scale. The primary purpose of this fund was to re-acquire land in Independence, Missouri, building the Jackson County Temple and, in general, to re-establish a meaningful LDS Church presence in the area. The mine became profitable early on. However, the death of John Taylor in 1887 complicated the arrangement and dissension arose within the leadership of the church over the consecrated stock ownership and mine management.
Until now, this piece of Utah history has been virtually unknown and has gone untold. R. Jean Addams now tells the story of this fascinating tale of mining, money, and religious fervor in Utah.
R. Jean Addams is a lifelong enthusiast of Mormon and Utah history and has become a recognized independent historian. He has written and has had published several articles in various scholarly journals dealing with the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) in Independence, including “’Upon a Lot . . . Not Far from the Courthouse:’ A Photographic History of the Temple Lot in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri.” He also wrote a book on the subject. More recently, his interest has shifted to the LDS Church and the redemption of Zion and he has written on that topic. His article, “The Bullion, Beck, & Champion Mining Company and the Redemption of Zion” will be soon be published in the Journal of Mormon History. Addams is past president of the John Whitmer Historical Association. Besides researching and writing history, his interests include family, skiing, and fishing.
March Announcement for the Utah Westerners
A EUPHONIOUS EVENING
RED DESERT RAMBLERS
We are in for a real treat this month as we change direction a bit by not having a speaker and by just asking you to come, relax, and have fun as you listen to the harmonious sounds of a superb regional band, The Red Desert Ramblers. The band plays Bluegrass, Classic Country, Celtic, and Swing music with a style all their own. The Ramblers, whose members hail from Salt Lake and Summit Counties, have achieved national recognition and have participated in numerous regional and national festivals including the International Bluegrass Music Association FanFest in Nashville, Pickin’ in the Pines (Arizona), Memorial Day Bluegrass Festival (Grand Junction, CO), Bluegrass in the Barn (Nampa, ID) Red Rocks Bluegrass Festival (St. George, UT), Windwalker Ranch Bluegrass Festival (Spring City, UT), and more.
The Red Desert Ramblers have been honored by the International Bluegrass Music Association by being the first Utah band to ever be hired for an IBMA performance and were the only bluegrass band featured at the Mountain West Conference of the Arts. Members have won several awards including band leader, Sharon Mitchell, as best Utah hammered dulcimer player and Rick Martinez as best banjo player for the Intermountain Acoustic Music Association (IAMA). The Salt Lake Tribune says, “When it comes to locally produced bluegrass bands, it’s hard to do better.”
Sharon Mitchell (hammered dulcimer, harmony vocals) is the band leader/manager and has played the dulcimer since 1989. She is the first hammered dulcimer player ever to be hired for an IBMA performance. Sharon also plays with the Public Domain String Band and The American Irish Duo. In addition, she runs the IAMA Local Concert Series. She’s considered the “roots and branches” of the Red Desert Ramblers.
Steve Hewson (lead vocals, guitar, and mandolin) is best known as the host of the Rockport Dam Jam and is the former manager of Rockport State Park. After “going electric” with the country band “Desert Skies,” Steve returns to his first love of acoustic music with the RDR. He also plays with Detour Utah.
Rick Martinez (5-string banjo) has a style of 30 years steeped in traditional and progressive bluegrass music. His clean, precise, and dynamic playing reinforces the authentic sound of the band. Rick has played with the Rick Martinez Band, Holdin’ Out, and the Prairie Dogs.
David Bates (upright bass) has been a mainstay in the SLC/Summit County communities for many years. He has been or is a pilot, bus driver, and farmer. He helps mentor teenagers and youths as they seek to become proficient musicians. Dave also plays with the Silver Creek String Band.
Richard Schmeling (lead/harmony vocals, mandolin) adds to his impressive vocals with impressive guitar and piano playing. His ballads are amazing and no one can belt out traditional heart-wrenching songs like Richard. He also performs with the band, Bluegrass Rising.
February Announcement for the Utah Westerners
A CLASH OF CULTURES
SEVIER AND PIUTE COUNTY NATIVE AMERICANS AND THEIR RELATIONS WITH EURO-AMERICANS BETWEEN 1810 AND 1874
EDWARD LEO LYMAN
The so-called Old Spanish Trail from New Mexico to southern California (1829-1848) was first a slave capturing trail into central Utah utilized by Ute Indians and New Mexico traders to carry Southern Paiute women and children to its southeastern terminus as slaves. When the first Anglo-American explorer in the Sevier Valley, Jedediah Smith, arrived in 1826, he noted a line of Paiute smoke signals warning of his approach extending from later Salina through Clear Creek Canyon and on toward later Beaver, demonstrating great apprehension regarding strangers. By the time fellow mountain man, Elijah Barney Ward, settled near Salina in 1848 and Mormon explorers commenced reconnoitering that region, there were no Paiutes noted residing anywhere nearby.
The formerly besieged Native Americans had clearly relocated to safer areas. Almost twenty years later, during the Black Hawk War between the Latter-day Saint militiamen, mainly of Sanpete and Sevier Counties and the Northern Utes of central Utah, the Southern Paiutes of the same region remained neutral, certainly distrusting their former oppressors in the slave trade far too much to assist them. However, the Mormons did not differentiate between hostile and neutral Native Americans and on two tragic occasions, a large number of Paiutes were mistakenly killed. Possibly up to fifty people died in two massacres, which constituted nearly two thirds of the total lives lost in the war on all sides. Thus the horrible fact was that neutral persons suffered much more than the belligerents and their families.
Most of the fighting in this largest of all Utah Indian wars ended in 1868-69, except for a few Utes residing between Fish Lake and Red Lake (later Wayne County). In 1872, they informed Latter-day Saints they were willing to also talk peace. Thereafter up to 150 Ute and Paiutes cooperated with Mormon interpreter-agents in establishing individual farms in Grass Valley in Sevier County, founding an Indian reservation without any input or assistance from the federal government.
Edward Leo Lyman, a native of Delta, Utah, received degrees in U. S. History from BYU the University of Utah. While studying for a PhD. in U. S. History at UC Riverside, he also taught and coached in high school locally. For some twenty years he spent most vacations at the LDS Church Historical Department, partly being mentored by Leonard J. Arrington. During and after completing his doctorate, he commenced writing western American and LDS history, which he has continued for over forty years, producing many articles and books. He recently won awards for a biography of his great-great grandfather, Amasa Mason Lyman: Mormon Apostle and Apostate, A Study in Dedication; an edited work, Candid Insights of a Mormon Apostle: The Diaries of Abraham H. Cannon, 1889-1895; and a journal article, “Chief Kanosh: Champion of Peace and Forbearance.” He is presently awaiting publication of his history of Utah’s seven attempts at statehood, 1848-1896, and is currently writing a history of the Southern Paiute tribe of Native Americans. He and his wife, Brenda, reside in Silver Reef, Utah. Lyman is presently an adjunct history professor at Dixie State University.
January Announcement for the Utah Westerners
HISTORICAL VIGNETTES
FROM THE JOE HATCH FILM LIBRARY
DR. JOSEPH L. HATCH
Joseph Hatch has had a life-long fascination with still and movie photography; he even filmed and co-directed an 8mm color silent western melodrama when he was only 17 years old. He also made several Super-8 color sound movies and has put together an impressive photographic archive. Joe will lead off the new year at our January meeting with historical vignettes from his film library that he will narrate. They include Ab Jenkins’s record-breaking last race on the Salt Flats in the “Mormon Meteor III,” a footrace with Henry Eyring and other University of Utah faculty (with entertaining, perhaps surprising results), the floods of 1983 in the Salt Lake Valley and the brilliant way firefighters coped with them, the horse head figure on the north flank of the east side of Mt. Timpanogos, and the implosion of the Newhouse Hotel in 1983. Joe will show us fascinating snippets of local history not likely to be seen anywhere else.
Utah Westerner, Joseph Hatch, comes from early Utah pioneer stock; all eight of his great- and some of his great-great-grandparents came to the Salt Lake Valley prior to the Pony Express and the completion of the railroad here in the 1860s. He was born and raised in Salt Lake City, but there was always a horse for him in Heber City where his father was born. He spent many summers of his youth there riding his horse almost everywhere. Over the years he participated in horse club activities and even calf-roping while he was in the army. To this day he enjoys cattle roundups, trail rides, and horse pack trips in the Uinta Mountains and Yellowstone.
Some years ago Joe became interested in and involved with the National Pony Express Association and is currently a Re-ride Captain in the organization’s Utah Division. In 2012, the book he did with fellow Utah Westerner, Patrick Hearty, The Pony Express Stations of Utah, was published.
Dr. Hatch has an impressive resume in his chosen professional field of medicine, chiefly, ophthalmology. He has done extensive research and writing in that field and has won numerous awards and received scholastic honors as well. He has extensive professional and administrative experience, serving on and often leading dozens of medical and other boards and committees over the years. He has been an active participant in various community activities and has frequently served as a consultant and teacher in his field. Joe is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the Moran Eye Center of the University of Utah where he serves as senior consultant to the ophthalmology residents in some of the general and corneal eye clinics at the VA Hospital
December Announcement for the Utah Westerners
UTAH RADIO: AN INSIDERS PERSPECTIVE
DOUG WRIGHT
With a career that has spanned nearly a half-century in radio, Doug Wright has a unique perspective on Utah’s illustrious radio and broadcast history and the people who have filled the airwaves for the past 91 years. He has had the opportunity to rub shoulders with, be mentored by, and work along-side many of the men and women who shaped that very history.
Doug will share stories, memorabilia, and a behind-the-scenes view on Utah’s major broadcast accomplishments. He’ll also highlight the lives of broadcasting pioneers and other past and present professionals who have built Utah’s nationally respected radio legacy.
Public service and community involvement are important to Doug and he has long been recognized as one of the most trustworthy voices in the Intermountain West. The largest part of his more than forty years in the broadcast industry has been spent at KSL Radio and Television in Salt Lake City where faithful listeners depend on his level insight and knowledge of worldwide and local political and current events to keep them informed.
Doug is a Utah native, proud of pioneer roots tracing back to the 1840s. Raised in the Sugarhouse area of Salt Lake, Doug began his broadcast career while still a high school student. He has been honored with many awards for his professional and community efforts including induction into the Utah Broadcast Association Hall of Fame and a Marconi Award for Large Market Personality of the Year in 2010—the highest honor in the broadcast industry. He is an avid reader who loves history, coin collecting, hiking, movies, his historic home in Eureka, and, above all, his family. Married for 33 years to his wife D., they are the parents of three wonderful children.
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