A Glimpse of Prince Utah, the Elephant

I came across this photo of Prince Utah while going through the large number of Hogle Zoo images in the Utah Division of State History’s digital collections,

This photo is of the now-demolished Lion House as it appeared in 1945, around the time it was opened. Way in the back is the taxidermy form of Prince Utah. This is the only photo I have seen of Prince Utah after he died in 1919.

Prince Utah was the only offspring of Princess Alice that lived for any significant amount of time. The two elephants were the star of the zoo when it was located in Liberty Park

Click for my posts about Princess Alice and Prince Utah.

The old Lion House (now demolished) as it appeared in 1945.
From UDSH. (Direct Link)

The taxidermy form of Prince Utah is highlighted in the red oval.
Same image as above. 

Shasta the Liger

Postcard of Shasta the Liger at Hogle Zoo, 1950s.

Shasta was the first liger born in the US and holds the world record for being the longest-lived liger ever known. She was born at Hogle Zoo on May 6 1948 to an African Lion father (named Huey) and a Bengal Tiger mother (named Daisy). If Shasta had been born to a lion mother and a tiger father, she would have been a Tigon, one of which was at the NYC Central Park Zoo at the time of Shasta’s birth.

At the time of Shasta’s birth, zoos operated akin to a circus in that animals were used to attract visitors and they paid little attention to conservation or animal ethics.

Thus, Hogle Zoo officials encouraged the mating of a lion and a tiger to produce a hybrid, one not normally found in nature. Shasta’s parents were introduced to each other by first placing their cages next to each other and then by allowing them to be in the same cage for the duration of the mating season and were relieved when one did not kill the other. Zoo employee Joe M Naylor, who was likely responsible for the mating, later boasted that only he knew the secret “love potion” to making hybrids.

When Shasta was born in 1948, she was ignored by her mother so Superintendent of City Parks and top boss of Hogle Zoo, Joseph Sloan, took Shasta home for his wife Bertha to care for. As the Superintendent, the Sloans were provided city housing- the historic Isaac Chase house which now serves as the Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk Arts within Liberty Park.

Bertha took on primary care of Shasta for the first few months of her life. Shasta was doted upon by Bertha and a running joke of zoo employees was that she was named after her temperament in that “she hasta have this, and she hasta have that.” In reality, Shasta was named by a contest held by the Salt Lake Telegram.

Shasta was bottle-fed with a custom mix of milk formula, lime water, vitamins, egg, and cod liver oil and was burped like a baby when she needed it. She played in the house and after a couple of months, she was allowed to play outside on the lawn of Liberty Park (Image 2-3). Shasta’s favorite toy was an old leather purse of Berthas which Shasta pounced, chewed, and wrestled with. As she grew Shasta was moved to the upper porch of the Chase house where she could roam a little more freely.

Baby Shasta on the lawn of Liberty Park, June 10 1948, “Liger Shasta - 17” From UDSH

Baby Shasta on the lawn of Liberty Park, August 1 1948, “Shasta the Liger - 5” From UDSH

Shasta’s first few months were also her most famous with photographs of her published in newspapers around the world. Life Magazine even did a 4-page spread on Shasta in Sept 1948 (Image 4).

The first page of the 4-page Life Magazine article on Shasta, Sept 20 1948.

Shasta moved back to Hogle Zoo when she was about 3 months old and for the duration of her 24-year life, she was the most popular animal at the zoo. She had birthday celebrations every year in which thousands of people would visit her (Images 5-6).

Shasta birthday party, May 9 1964 “Shasta Birthday Party at Zoo -Shot 10” From UDSH

Shasta birthday party, May 9 1964 “Shasta Birthday Party at Zoo -Shot 10” From UDSH

Most of Shasta’s life was spent in the now-demolished Old Lion House building where the small animal exhibit is currently located. This facility was little more than metal cages within a concrete building with dividers separating Shasta from the other big cat species (Images7-8).

Sasta in her enclosure in the now-demolished old Lion House, March 1949 “Shasta the Liger - 19” From UDSH

Shasta in her enclosure in the now-demolished old Lion House, May 4 1949 “Shasta the Liger - 23” From UDSH

In 1970 the new Feline Building was completed (now remodeled into the Cat Wok Café) and Shasta and the other big cats were moved into the larger facilities. Shasta had never seen a lion or a tiger in her entire life and she cowered in the corner of her new enclosure for several days.

Shasta died in 1972 at the age of 24 years. Since Shasta was so loved and a major attraction, zoo officials decided to have her stuffed and return to the zoo for exhibit. In 1997 Shasta was moved to the Monte L Bean Life Science Museum at BYU because hybrids in zoo setting had become controversial.

You can still visit Shasta at BYU (Image 8).

Shasta at the Monte L Bean Museum, 2022

Sources:
Salt Lake Telegram 1948-05-06
Salt Lake Telegram 1948-07-28
Life Magazine 1948-09-20
Deseret News 1970-03-18
Deseret News 1970-05-07
Deseret News 1972-07-19
Davis County Clipper 1972-08-04
Salt Lake Tribune 1977-12-25
Salt Lake Tribune 2016-06-20

Native Place Atlas- some Native names of Salt Lake County

The Native Place Atlas is a project from the American West Center at the University of Utah.

Overview of the Native Place Atlas

From their website:

Place names in the United States are officially kept by the US Board on Geographic Names, which was first created in 1890 to address conflicting names and spellings that faced mapmakers in the American West.

The place names that appeared on the first maps of the West derived from Euro-American explorers, surveyors, and settlers. Native presence became “under-mapped” as the cartographic tools of settler-colonialism reconstructed the imagined landscape through place naming.

Out of respect for tribal knowledge and to safeguard against non-Native trespass, the map will not name or show the location of sacred sites.

Unlike drawings of territorial tribal boundaries, which are static and limiting due to the changing nature of these lines throughout history, Native Places allows viewers to see the spread of Native homelands through their linguistic presence.

The data currently contains nearly 600 place names.

https://nativeplacesatlas.org/

Map showing Native Placenames for Salt Lake County vv

Excerpt of Salt Lake County Native Placenames

SLC has a long history with quarantining its residents

Quarantine Sign, ca 1910, Utah State Board of Health.
Image from Utah State University, Mendon Collection via MWDL

SLC has a long history with quarantining its residents. 

The first ordinance was formalized on March 12, 1850: Before emigrants could enter the Salt Lake Valley they needed to pass through a quarantine station at the mouth of Emigration Canyon to isolate new arrivals who were ill. 

Later an isolation hospital, commonly known as the Pest House, was constructed in this same area; this area is now the Bonneville Golf Course.

By 1871 the “Yellow Flag” rule had been formally established into law: "A yellow flag should be displayed conspicuously on a quarantined residence giving notices that the premises are infected and prohibiting entry to the premises until all danger from infection have ceased and the area disinfected."

In 1910 quarantine rules continued to be refined and the yellow flag had been replaced with a yellow warning sign. New rules were also issued by the Salt Lake Board of Health, a selection of which are below:

1. Sick room should be isolated at the top of the house, sunny, freely ventilated. 
2. Cover the doorway with a sheet and keep moist with some disinfectant such as 1 to 1,000 solution of bichloride of mercury. 
3. All bed linen, garments, towels, etc used by the patient should be immersed in carbolic acid solution, 4 oz to 1 gallon of water, for 1 hr and subsequently boiled, aired and sun dried. 
4. Remains of food should be burned. 
5. All discharge from the nose, throat, eyes, and ears should be received in a 2% solution of Lysol or carbolic acid and stand for 1 hr before being thrown into the toilet. 
6. Groceries, milk, and other supplies must be left at the door. 
7. Do not kiss the patient. 
8. Do not allow your dog or cat to run at large. Cats and dogs from houses under quarantine found running at large will be taken to the city crematory and killed.
9. After the quarantine period burn all toys, books, or other articles used by the patient. 
10. All fumigation and disinfection will be done by the officers of the board of health only.

Sources: Deseret News 05 Aug 1871 p2; Deseret News 19 April 1910 p8; The History of Emigration Canyon by Cynthia Furse and Jeffrey Carlstrom