A Route for the Overland Stage, a FREE book to download

May 2, 1859, Capt. James H. Simpson departed from Camp Floyd (now a Utah State Park Museum in Fairfield, UT) and headed west “to explore the country between [Camp Floyd] and Carson River, at the east foot of the Sierra Nevada, for a new and direct route to California.”

Illustration from Simpson’s expedition, "Crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert from Simpson's Spring to Short Cut Pass, Granite Mountain in the Distance." Image from the National Archives.

This new overland trail would eventually become the general route of the Pony Express, Overland Mail and Stage, Pacific Telegraph line, the transcontinental Lincoln Highway, and Highway 50.

Photograph of a stagecoach that was used on the overland trail.
Image from Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, link here.

Simpson was an Army Topographical Engineer, an elite group hand-picked from West Point. (The Topographical Engineer Corps merged with the Army Corps of Engineers in 1863, which the organization is known by today).

The 64 members of his expedition included an artist, geologist, wheelwright, blacksmith, teamsters, surveyors, 20 soldiers, 12 six-mule wagons, and scientific apparatus.

After Jesse G. Petersen retired in 1999 as Police Chief of Tooele, he set about exploring the various trails of the Great Basin. In 2003 he authored the Utah volume of The Lincoln Highway book series and in 2008 he authored A Route for the Overland Stage. The goal of both books was to identify the exact locations of the trails, not just the general location which is commonly identified.

In recent years, Utah State University Press has made his Overland Trail book available for FREE as a downloadable PDF. The book intermixes Simpson’s recordings along with Jesse Petersen’s field observations.

Cover of  "A Route for the Overland Stage" by Jesse Petersen

Excerpt from "A Route for the Overland Stage" by Jesse Petersen

Excerpt about Camp Floyd, from "A Route for the Overland Stage" by Jesse Petersen

Excerpt from "A Route for the Overland Stage" by Jesse Petersen.
(I added the green note).

One note of caution about the book, the coordinates published are in NAD27 and most GPS’s today default to WGS-84 or NAD83.

The link to the USU download site is here: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/114/

Citation for the book:
Petersen, Jesse G., "A Route for the Overland Stage" (2008). All USU Press Publications. 114.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/114

Illustration of Bridal Veil Falls from Simpson’s expedition, titled "Beautiful Cascade, Timpanogos River Canyon." Image from the Utah Division of State History [color corrected by author]

A Recap of the 2022 Sema Hadithi History Conference

What a weekend with the Sema Hadithi Foundation!

On Friday, we toured the Richmond Park area, a historically Black and multi-racial neighborhood in SLC, and talked about the lives of four remarkable women (Images 1-2).

Friday night was a remembrance celebration where I received an award for researching forgotten histories.

Some great food was provided by @papastewskitchen and entertainment with @pepper.rose.slc, @findafinley, @caribbean.nightingale. (Images 3-6)

And I learned about the cultural significance of red velvet cake (Image 7) and found that I really liked this Honey Lovin Hot Sauce from Papa Stew's Kitchen (Image 8).

Saturday was the history conference. I presented about H. H. Voss and Franklin Ave (now Edison Street). And I learned all about the importance of military bands and their relation to the 24th Infantry Buffalo Soldiers stationed at Fort Douglas, from @fiona_robinson.

A good, but busy, weekend.

Vintage Postcards Showing Black Rock in the Great Salt Lake

More vintage postcards about the Great Salt Lake, these are specifically about Black Rock.

The first postcard is from the 1910s-1920s and the others are 1940s.

The second postcard is actually at Sunset Beach, which is just a smidge east of Black Rock. Sunset Beach is between Black Rock and the Great Salt Lake Marina.

And, as an FYI, the Great Salt Lake Marina is at Silver Sands Beach.

I didn’t realize until recently that we had named beaches

Vintage Postcards About the Great Salt Lake

“Greetings from the Great Salt Lake” is the topic of today’s #WestDesertWednesday

I like looking at old postcards to see how the landscape and people have changed. When looking at postcards about the Great Salt Lake there seems to have been quite a bit of human interaction with it in the past- both locals and tourists. Obviously, Salt Air was a hot spot but so was Black Rock (which I will post those images right after this one).

Now Black Rock is a lonely rock and is high and dry. The marina is unusable and all the boats have been pulled out. Those wood trestles of the Lucin Cutoff have been pulled out (and repurposed by a local).

And even the new Great Salt Air seems a lonely shadow of its past.

My guess is that most of these postcards are from the 1970s-1980s. The postcard showing the reading of newspapers in the lake is probably from the 1940s. And the new Great Saltair postcard appears to be from 1990s.

Source of images: personal collection and Ebay. 

Video Directions to the Skull Valley Airmail Arrow

 I made a video!

Historic Bathroom Tiles in SLC Apartments

Check out these pics of an original bathroom in the Hillcrest Apartments, 173 E 100 South SLC.

The Hillcrest was built in 1916 by the Covey Investment Co.

The Covey Investment Co (the Covey brothers) built several apartment complexes around SLC. Their first project was the La France, which was built in 1905. It was the first collaboration among Covey Investment Co, architect David C. Dart, and builder Charles Andrew Vissing.

This group built about 20 apartment buildings in SLC, many of which survive today including the Kensington, Princeton & Boulevard, The Covey, and Hillcrest buildings.

Lots of people commented on my posts about the demolition of the La France that the same tile was used in other Covey buildings.

I was able to find a newspaper clip from 1916 that states Frank A Caffall did all the tile work for the various Covey properties.

The Caffall family is still in the tile business in the Salt Lake area.

The Salt Lake Herald Republican Sun Jun 4 1916

University of Utah Student Housing in 1988

This fun image of SLC and the University of Utah comes from the Jan 11, 1988, edition of The Daily Utah Chronicle.

A lot of these landmarks are still standing including Huntsman Center, Marriott Library, University Union, Kingsbury Hall, Park Building, and the Fieldhouse building.

Other locations like the golf course (now gone), the stadium (modified for the 2002 Olympics), Medical Center (now University Hospital which keeps growing), and University Student Housing (East and West University Village student housing, now undergoing demolition and rebuild) have undergone significant changes.

The prominent “twin towers” in this illustration are the Medical Plaza Towers student housing. That twin towers term certainly did not stand the test of time.

The second image is the full size showing the entire illustration.