History

By: Michael Rutter Massacres, mayhem, and mischief fill the pages of Outlaw Tales of Utah. Meet the Wild Bunch, outlaws who sought refuge between heists hanging out and hiding out in Utah. Butch Cassidy, its leader, once paid a farmer's mortgage and then robbed...

“John Wesley Powell: explorer, writer, geologist, anthropologist, land planner, bureaucrat. Which one do we focus on?” This is the question author James M. Aton poses at the beginning of his biography of Powell, though he soon decides that it is impossible to ignore any...

East of Utah's domed state capitol and near downtown Salt Lake City, a residential district sharply climbs the foothills of the Wasatch Range. The neighborhood is known as "The Avenues." Settlement of the oldest portion of the area took place from the 1860s until...

Settling in an isolated desert valley, Salt Lake City's Mormon pioneers laid out a city grid and constructed permanent structures to create their version of Zion. They brought with them their architects, builders, tools, and experience gained in the Midwest. Within a decade, the...

By: SueAnn Martell and the Western Mining and Railroad Museum In 1880, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad was hard-pressed to find a suitable rail route from Grand Junction to Salt Lake City. With the coal deposits of eastern Utah luring them on, railroad...

Award-winning journalist Zak Podmore brings to life the magnificent terrain and complex politics of the Colorado River, its dying reservoirs—and the surprising revelation that the inevitable loss of Lake Powell could be a turning point for more a sustainable future.   After decades of...

By Lynn Arave Author Lynn Arave has compiled more than 190 photographs, including many vintage images from the Wasatch Mountain Club to showcase the Uinta Mountains, known as the “roof” of Utah, with elevations exceeding 13,000 feet above sea level. These mountains, essentially “the...

Copublished with the Tanner Trust Fund, J. Willard Marriott Library.Robert Smithson’s earthwork, Spiral Jetty (1970), an icon of the Land Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s, is located on the northern shores of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Smithson built a masterpiece from local...

By Eileen Hallet In the late 1840s, the new frontier west of the Missouri River opened its floodgates to opportunity and adventure. In a new land, where men were lonely and women scarce, prostitutes poured in to ply their trade wherever they could--under trees,...

The Story of Clear Lake, Utah By Venetta Bond Kelsey This book tells the story of a little railroad, farming & ranching community situated in the middle of the Black Rock Desert and Pahvant Valley of south central Utah.  Clear Lake town was situated...

By: D.C. Beard Shelters, Shacks, and Shanties presents lively, step-by-step tutelage on building all types of temporary and long-term accommodations from both natural and man-made materials. Originally published in 1914, this practical classic is as essential a guide for today's modern homesteader as it...

By: Barbara Fifer and Martin Kidston This rare collection of Wanted Posters is from the American West, found in the basement of the Missoula County Courthouse, is a historical treasure. The book's nearly 150 original wanted posters, fugitive notices, and Pinkerton Agency circulars are...

By: Stephen E. Ambrose In this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author of D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding...

By: Edward Dolnick On May 24, 1869, a one-armed Civil War veteran named John Wesley Powell and a ragtag band of nine mountain men embarked on the last great quest in the American West. No one had ever explored the fabled Grand Canyon; to...

By: Hampton Sides In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of "Manifest Destiny", this land grab would lead to a...

By Tiffany Taylor Step back in time and experience the breathtaking beauty of Zion National Park through the lens of history with the Zion National Park Historic Postcards collection from Images of America. This captivating compilation, published in 2008, offers a unique glimpse into...

For 12,000 years, people have left a rich record of their experiences in Utah’s Capitol Reef National Park. In The Capitol Reef Reader, award-winning author and photographer Stephen Trimble collects the best of this writing—160 years worth of words that capture the spirit of the park...

From the earliest days of settlement, South Temple was Salt Lake's most prestigious street. In 1857, William Staines built the Devereaux House, Salt Lake's first of many mansions. The once-bustling Union Pacific Depot eventually found itself increasingly isolated. Downtown's "gleaming copper landmark" overcame numerous...

The acclaimed New York Times bestselling biography of the legendary Sioux warrior Red Cloud: “a page-turner with remarkable immediacy…and the narrative sweep of a great Western” (The Boston Globe).Red Cloud was the only American Indian in history to defeat the United States Army in a war,...

Salt Lake City’s oldest residential historic district is a neighborhood known as the Avenues. During the late nineteenth century this area was home to many of the most influential citizens of Salt Lake City. Built from 1860 until 1930, it contains a mix of...