Building Fire at 240 S 200 East

This abandoned building caught fire last Wednesday. 240 S 200 East SLC.

James and Mary Jane Gardner Miller House in Murray

The historic James and Mary Jane Gardner Miller House once sat on a 160-acre homestead but now lays hidden within an apartment complex in Murray, Utah. It was built in two phases between 1865 (adobe house) and 1882 (Victorian-style house- most of what remains today). The Miller House is significant as one of only five known extant homes built during the homesteading period of Murray's history.

James Miller began farming the homestead in 1859, but was also a prominent merchant in farm implements. Mary Jane Miller raised silk worms and contributed to the pioneer silk industry in Utah.

The farmstead included a flour mill where hundreds of residents from neighboring communities came to grind their wheat. Two mill stones were found in the pond during the construction of the apartments; one is now installed as a monument near the house and the other is believed to be on display at the Gardner Mill in West Jordan.

On the interior, the Miller House has an exceptionally rare collection of 19th-century interior murals with scenes of the pioneer era including line-drawn scenes of a cattle roundup, a farmer plowing, a cowboy, and a landscape of what appears to be the former Mormon settlement of Nauvoo, Illinois.

The historic address of the home was 864 East 4800 South but is now known as 4929 S. Lake Pines Drive, Murray, and is located just off the Van Winkle Expressway.

Thanks to the Murray City Museum for helping me track down this information! Source: Miller House NRHP Nomination site form.

Note: Although this house was submitted for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, it was determined to not be eligible for listing on the National Register because of recent alterations.

Heritage Trees in Liberty Park

These two rows of Fremont Cottonwood Trees in Liberty Park are part of the state of Utah’s Heritage Trees. These Fremont Cottonwoods were planted in the early 1880s, around the time that Salt Lake City opened Liberty Park to the public. Photo 4 is a Shipler photo of these same trees in winter from 1929 (photo courtesy UDSH).

Liberty Park, winter 1929. From UDSH.

St Mark's Hospital Cornerstone

St Marks Hospital was established in 1872 and was the first hospital in SLC. It was originally a 6 bed facility in an old Adobe house in downtown SLC. It then moved to 700 North and 300 West in the early 1890s. This cornerstone from that building is now on display at the current St Marks at 1200 E 3900 South.

Early picture of St. Mark's Hospital located in north Salt Lake City.
Courtesy Bishop Watson, From UDSH.

UP Steam Locomotive 833

This is Union Pacific Steam Locomotive #833, built in 1939. It is a FEF-2 class steam locomotive. 

The large smooth metal plates on the front of the engine are called “elephant ears.” They help lift the smoke above the engine so it does not flow into the cab. The 833 was used to pull passenger and express trains, which ran through Ogden and then at the end of the steam era, it was used to pull fast freight trains. It was originally donated to SLC in 1972 where it was on display at Pioneer Park. It was eventually transferred to the Ogden museum in 1999.

It is now on display at Spencer and Dolores Dore Eccles Rail Center at Union Station in Ogden, Utah.

Rotary Snow Plow Locomotive

Designated as OWR&N 900061, this unusual locomotive is a rotary snow plow.

It was built in 1912 by Alco/Rogers as the Oregon, Washington Railway & Navigation Co. number 061, and was based out of Pocatello, Idaho. It spent its entire life working in the Pacific Northwest and was overhauled in 1951, receiving new steel sheathing and repainted silver with a red plow (it was originally brown with white lettering). The original tender was modified to be an auxiliary water tender but was not included with the donation. It was retired in 1978 as one of the last pieces of steam-powered equipment on the UP system.

It is now on display at the Spencer and Dolores Dore Eccles Rail Center at Union Station in Ogden.

American Indians Served in the US Army in the 1890s at Fort Douglas

This is the grave site of Pvt Frank Bear-Heel (Ma-to Sig-ti-e). Company I, 16th Infantry, US Army.

A member of the Brule Sioux Indian Tribe, Private Bear-Heel died at Fort Dougals by suicide on 28 August 1893, after he heard his father had died; he was buried with military honors in the Fort Douglas Cemetery, Salt Lake City. Pvt Bear-Heel was the only death of the 16th Infantry, Company I.

In the nineteenth century, the U.S. Army was a racially segregated institution. Along with the Buffalo Soldiers, Fort Douglas was briefly home to a Native American company of U. S. Army Soldiers. Native Americans were authorized to enlist in the U. S. Army on March 9, 1891; the orders allowed for an enlistment of 1,485 men but only 780 would actually enlist. Many of the enlisted were Sioux from the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota and were surviving family members to the Sioux killed on 29 January 1891 at the Battle of Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

A Salt Lake Herald Republican newspaper article described Pvt Frank Bear-Heel as about 21 years old, the oldest son of Bear Heel, a respected member of the Two Kettle Brule Sioux Tribe. He enlisted at Rosebud agency on December 27, 1892, and was quite intelligent, and able to speak and write English. He was an able Soldier in good standing and a popular man

Sources: SL Herald Republican 1893-08-29 and 30; Warriors in Ranks: American Indian Units in the Regular Army 1891-1897 by Robert Lee, South Dakota History, V21 N3.