When in Ephraim, you are in the heart of Utah. Geographically, it's true. Sanpete County is in the center of the state and Ephraim is in the center of Sanpete.
In one sense Ephraim is at the historical heart of the state as well.Brigham Young began sending Scandinavian converts to this high valley in 1849. Because of those pioneers, modern Sanpete Valley is architecturally significant.
Tom Carter, architectural historian for the Utah State Historical Society, explains, "Sanpete was settled early. (Manti was the fourth town in the state incorporated.) It built up fast and remained relatively isolated. All the other main towns - like Salt Lake and Ogden - became urbanized.
"The towns in Sanpete are our best representation of the early Mormon period."
Carter says each community has its own personality, and Ephraim is the most Scandinavian of them all. "In some ways its significance is the least obvious," he adds. "The converts who settled there weren't very wealthy. They built small adobe houses in the style of their homeland. There are about 50 of those houses left in Ephraim. When you see them you feel a powerful connection to Denmark and Sweden."
Half of all the Danes who came to America between 1850 and 1870 were LDS converts. Upon arriving in Zion, they joined their kinfolk in one of two places, in the Cache or Sanpete valleys.
In 1870, according to Ephraim resident Marge Bennion, 86 percent of the population was Scandinavian-born, with 69 percent of those born in Denmark. There were no Smiths or Browns in town, Bennion says, but there were 15 Pete Petersens at one time. They had to go by nicknames.
Bennion's son Mark can recite their names ("Big Pete, Little Pete, Baler Pete, Pretty Pete, Shingle Pete, Ice Cream Pete . . . the bishop was called Bishop Pete and his son was Petey Bishop . . ."). He has memorized stories, songs and dances of Scandinavia to perform for tourists. His mother was the one who got the tour buses to come to Ephraim.
Marge Bennion says she fell in love with the charming valley when the family moved there seven years ago; her husband, Steven, had just become president of Snow College. She decided to try to get tour buses to stop for dinner (the town's traditional barbecued turkey or some Scandinavian dishes) on their way to the Mormon Miracle Pageant in Manti.
She wrote a tour script and took it to bus companies along the Wasatch Front. Lewis Brothers Stages decided to give the area a tour of its own. Now visitors can go to Spring City, Ephraim and Manti - learning about history and architecture en route.
When they come to Ephraim, tourists can see the old juniper tree where Knut Peterson signed a treaty with Chief Blackhawk in 1868. They can see 1850s homes of oolite sandstone and 1890s Victorian-style homes. They can eat dinner at Snow College and are entertained with Scandanivian jokes Bennion gleaned from old books and diaries.
"Their humor was different," she says tactfully. In fact it is both corny and irreverent, and perhaps not as palatable to modern tastes as is their Scandinavian food. But worth saving, Bennion believes.
And so was the town's most important building: the United Order Co-op building. "Twelve years ago," says Mayor Robert Warnick, "most of the people in town wanted to see the old eyesore torn down." But then, three years ago a group of nontraditional college students - out of work and back to school when Ephraim's main industry, a computer plant, closed down - decided the building should be a co-op again.
They wanted a place to sell their handicrafts - modern versions of what their forefathers did. They wanted a place for tourists to visit, a museum and community center. They formed a group called STA, which first stood for the Second Time Around (referring to their job retraining) and then came to mean the Sanpete Trade Association.
This month their dream really started to come true, with a $330,000 community impact grant to renovate the building. "Architects have told me, now that the City-County Building in Salt Lake is restored, this will be the most significant historical restoration going on in the state," says Warnick.
For a town in a county bypassed by I-15, the United Order Building could be the key to tourism. Yet part of Ephraim's charm, the charm that will appeal to tourists, comes from its isolation.
Ephraim has a population of 3,000, with an additional 1,500 students at Snow College during the school year. The town is still surrounded by farms - by green fields, silver turkey sheds and decaying barns. Poplar trees, planted by the pioneers, grow tall along the irrigation ditches. Minus the trailer courts and shopping malls that dot the rest of the state, Ephraim is a peaceful place - still Scandinavian and uniquely Utah. *****
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Weekend's festival schedule
Ephraim's annual Scandinavian Festival is this weekend. A two-hour drive from Salt Lake City will put you in Sanpete County in time for several activities:
MAY 26:
5:30 p.m. Little Denmark Supper, honoring Ephraim's senior Scandinavians, Snow College Cafeteria, $4 per person.
MAY 27:
8 a.m. Fun run, City Building.
8:30 a.m. Tennis tournament, college courts.
9 a.m.-3 p.m. Historical tours leave from Main and Center streets.
10 a.m.-4 p.m. Old World crafts and food booths at Heritage Park, art show at City Building, sidewalk sales on Main Street, artifacts and cabin display at Pioneer Park, ugly troll display at the library and a quilt show at the Senior Center.
11 a.m. Parade and Scandinavian dancers on Main Street.
Noon-4 p.m. Festival Yeast Bread Bake-Off, First Ward.
1 p.m.-3 p.m. Festival Games, Heritage Park.
4 p.m.-6 p.m. Smorgasbord and prize drawings, Snow College Cafeteria, $6 per person.