During the 1950s, the U.S. government tested atomic bombs on in southern Nevada. They chose this area because the population of the area was not large, and only thousands of people, not millions, would be affected by radiation. In Short The fallout from the bomb tests drifted over southern Utah. Livestock died, and over time people became sick, some fatally, …

Colonel Paul W. Tibbets waving from the cockpit of the Enola Gay before taking off on August 6, 1945. U.S. Air Force photo. In short On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay B-29 bomber flew over Hiroshima, Japan, and dropped the world’s first atomic bomb. Three days later, the U.S. dropped another bomb on Nagasaki. The explosions annihilated tens of thousands of …

On May 1, 1900, the Winter Quarters No. 4 coal mine exploded, killing 200 or more men and boys either by explosion or toxic fumes. In short Many of the miners had immigrated to Carbon County from Europe to work in the mines. Some of the men left behind wives and children, others left grieving parents or siblings. The miners’ …

In 1861 Abraham Lincoln created by presidential proclamation a reservation for Ute Indians in the Uintah Basin. By 1870 several bands of Utes had been forced to move there. In Short The relationship between the American Indians in the Utah Territory and the Mormon settlers was complicated, and as the Mormons began to expand their settlements throughout the rest of …

In Short Mormons began to openly practice polygamy, or having more than one spouse, in 1852. At this point, they lived in the far West, away from the reach of the federal government. However, as the government’s influence and control began to expand farther west, the issue of polygamy and the Mormons became a hot political topic. It became so …

What do you do if you are curious, adventurous, and scientific, and you know of a place that hasn’t been explored scientifically? You go there.  In short: Of course, Indian groups had been living near the Colorado River and traveling up and down it for thousands of years. But John Wesley Powell led the first Anglo expedition to float from …

The first members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who were known as Mormons or Latter-day Saints (LDS), arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847.  They immigrated to what is now Utah to plant fields, build homes, open businesses, and establish a religious community they called “Zion.” More of the story Members of the LDS church …

This Spanish-led expedition included the first people of European descent known to visit Utah. In a six-month journey, they traveled all the way from Santa Fe to Utah Lake, then to southern Utah, and back to New Mexico. In shortOn July 29, 1776, a ten-man team of explorers left Santa Fe, New Mexico, and headed north. They were trying to …

After years of asking the United States government for statehood, Utah finally became a state on January 4, 1896. More of the story There’s a big difference between being a state and being a territory.  A territory is a little like a colony. As you remember, the early American colonists didn’t like being a colony of Britain! Neither did Utahns …