Friday the 13th Folklore

 More Utah folklore, this time about Friday the 13th!

Lucky / Unlucky.
stock image from Adobe.

1. It is an unlucky day so keep your fingers crossed (SLC 1963) … is a doubly unlucky day. If you do not have your fingers crossed, a person may say “Jinx on you” and you will then have to do any deed or favor they ask you to (SLC 1958).
2. Children born will always have bad luck but a part of this evil may be avoided by falsifying the record; if such a child ever does have any good fortune, it will be after the death of the last person who knows the true date (SLC 1960).
3. It’s unlucky to get married (Pleasant Grove 1910); …the couple will always have bad luck (SLC 1961).
4. Never sit down at a table with 13 people or bad luck will soon come (SLC 1960).
5. If you break a mirror you will have 7 years of bad luck (Provo 1964).
6. Don’t walk under a ladder or you will have bad luck (SLC 1964).
7. If black is worn then swallow one teaspoonful of salt; if white is worn, swallow one teaspoon of pepper (SLC 1964).
8. Never take a trip or you will have bad luck on your journey (SLC 1964).
9. Don’t wear black or you will soon wear it again in mourning (SLC 1964).
10. If a funeral procession passes you then you are condemned to death (SLC 1964).
11. Should be spent in bed, especially if it is your birthday (SLC 1930s).
12. Get out of bed on the wrong side so it won’t be so unlucky (SLC, 1964).
13. To prevent bad luck you should stay in your house (American Fork 1960).
14. Anything undertaken on Friday the 13th is doomed to fail (SLC 1930) …is an unlucky day for all ventures (Tooele 1964); …everything will go wrong (Kanab, 1960).
15. Don’t go swimming (SLC 1959).
16. Knock on wood to prevent bad luck (SLC 1959).
17. Don’t make a wish (Provo 1964).

These are all from the book Popular Beliefs and Superstitions from Utah (1984), compiled by Anthony S. Cannon.
Available here: https://archive.org/details/popularbeliefssu0000unse/

500 Eels Are Creepy Creatures

American Eels. From Getty Images.

Welcome to October (and my first #SpookySLC post). And yes eels are creepy creatures and I would hate to stumble upon 500 eels.

In July 1872 Albert P. Rockwood imported 500 American Eels and released them into the Jordan River.

Rockwood was Superintendant of the Zion Cooperative Fish Farm and Utah’s first Territorial Fish Superintendent. He was tasked by Brigham Young to determine why Utah’s native trout population was declining and to increase fish populations in waters along the Wasatch Front.

In addition to trying to propagate local trout species, his approach was to import exotic fish species. In addition to the eels, he introduced King Salmon, American Shad, lobsters, oysters, Asian Carp, and numerous other species. Many of these species (especially lobsters and oysters) failed immediately but we are now living with many of the impacts of his efforts such as the abundance of carp just about everywhere.

In 1871 Rockwood built a fish farm in Sugar House- probably near what is now the Forest Dale Golf Course. On the 20-acre farm he build a hatching house and 12 fish ponds fed by a large spring with water at a constant temperature of 55 degrees.

Rockwood’s trial-and-error methods combined with regular reports of his efforts and correspondence with the Smithsonian Institute means that his enterprise was the first scientific fish hatchery in the world.

One of his first attempts at fish farming was to import 500 baby American Eels from the Connecticut River in Massachusetts. Once the eels were about 4 in long he released them into a nearby tributary of the Jordan River.

The eels were seen sporadically over the next few years. One was caught and released in Sept 1874 in Utah Lake near the mouth of the Provo River, it measured 2 feet long.

Another was found dead in Jan 1875 along the shore of the Great Salt Lake near Centerville and was eaten by its finders who said “it was cooked and found to be well pickled in salt.”

The last sighting of a living eel was in the Jordan River just south of SLC in 1875.

Rockwood died in 1879 but others continued his fish farming experiments, thankfully without the eels.

Sources:
Utah Stories Sugar House Prison Farm by Lynne Olson; SL Herald Republican 1871-07-30; Des News 1873-03-26; Utah County Times 1874-09-10; Des News 1875-08-25; Des News 1875-01-27; Des News 1876-02-03; SL Herald Republican 1879-11-27; The Phrenological Journal and Life Illustrated Jan 1874.

American Eel, image from USFWS.

The First Honey Bees in the Salt Lake Valley

A native male Bumblebee
(maybe Bromus griseocollis)
on a sunflower in downtown SLC, 2020.
Even though it is not a honey bee
it is still a pretty pic!

Honey bees are not native to Utah and were brought in by early Mormon settlers of the Salt Lake Valley. The transportation of the bees prior to the railroad (1869) proved very difficult and few hives survived the journey and even fewer survived Utah’s climate. It took 20 years until successful beehives became sustainable in SLC and Utah.

Non-native bees were introduced to the Salt Lake Valley in 1848. The first wagon train with an inventory including beehives arrived in SLC in Sept 1848, others followed in Sept 1849 and Oct 1849. By 1850, only 10 pounds of honey and beeswax were being produced in SLC indicating at least one (but probably not all) of the hives survived and was producing some honey.

In 1851, Brigham Young called for more bees to be imported to SLC so that the honey could replace the need of making sugar.

Transporting beehives by wagon was risky and often beehives were damaged in accidents or high temperatures melted the honeycomb and killed the bees. Even after a beehive is established there are expected losses from diseases and predators and additional bees are required. Additional bees can be obtained by importing them or by having hives healthy enough to divide, both of which were a challenge to early SLC beekeepers.

By 1860 Brigham Young was discouraged about the Salt Lake Valley ever being able to support honey bees.

In 1863, William D. Roberts of Provo was able to transport 2 beehives from California, only 1 of which fully survived the journey and was able to produce honey. The Deseret News was overjoyed and declared these were “the first bees to live.” Roberts began importing bees from Los Angeles and selling them in Utah for $100 per hive (~$2,700 today).

By 1866 the bees in Utah (and specifically those owned by Brigham Young) were doing better and were swarming (naturally dividing). The transcontinental railroad of 1869 made transportation faster and easier and Roberts quickly utilized it for his business bringing 135 hives back to Utah in April 1870 in a single trip.

After 1870 beekeeping became more widespread and sustainable throughout Utah.

Source and Thanks:
Thanks to J. Michael Hunter’s article in the 2020 Utah Historical Quarterly Vol 88 No 3 (Summer 2020) titled “Laying the Foundation for Utah’s Beekeeping Success 1848-1888.”

I’ve been interested in how the honey bee was imported to Utah for several years now but after finding only a few snippets of info I realized it was going to be a daunting task to thoroughly research it. Thanks much for taking on this task!

You can read the full article for FREE on issuu!