Utahns have a history of dreaming through rose-colored glasses.
In the late 1800s, for example, progressive thinkers wanted to light up Millard County by constructing a giant windmill to generate electricity. But only the foundation was built. A brief mention is also made in the state's history about harvesting whales in the Great Salt Lake, according to the State Historical Society.More than 200 Utah communities can qualify for the failed dream file. The failures are usually blamed on depleted minerals, crop failures or natural disasters. Today, most of those communities have been swallowed up by Utah's harsh climate. Foundations are about all that remain of most of these settlements.
In 1905, the Grand Valley and Mineral Co. was chartered in Indianapolis, Ind., to build a dam and farms at Valley City in Grand County. The project, initially successful, came to an abrupt end in 1910 when a severe flood breached the dam and washed away orchards and fields.
In 1910, 800 acres of land were developed into Mosida on the western shores of Utah Lake. Fruit trees, grains, a school, 400 residents and a $15,000 resort hotel began to flourish. However, fruit trees began to die because the ground was too salty, and pumping lake water to farmland became more expensive than originally planned. By 1920, "Mosida-by-the-lake," extolled in promotional literature, was a ghost town.
Another example of great expectations was Corinne, Box Elder County, termed in the late 19th century as the "Gentile Capital of Utah." Eastern newspapers predicted its eventual greatness. "(Corinne has) better prospects for growth than Ogden," the New York Herald reported. Corinne's own Utah Reporter blew more hot air into the predictions when it trumpeted in 1870 that the city was "the coming Chicago of the Great Salt Lake Basin."
By 1880, the "burg on the Bear" was more of a bear of a burg, as population plummeted from several thousand to only 277. Today it remains a small farming community of 590.
Utahns have dreamed of many schemes to harness water for development and recreation. While proj-ects like the Glen Canyon Dam and Flaming Gorge Dam have proved successful, others, like the Central Utah Project, have been dogged by controversy, and some never made it off the drawing boards.
In 1964, a University of Utah professor proposed adding four more dams below Flaming Gorge Dam on the Green River to create a large navigable stream. Under the plan, barges would transport coal and other minerals down the river.
By 1965, the Utah state engineer had effectively killed the plan by ruling that it wouldn't work.