The devil gets a good deal of credit in Weber Canyon: About 23 miles east of Devil's Gate is a similarly named natural feature, Devil's Slide.
Devil's Slide - more visible today than the Gate - can be reached along I-84 at a special turnout on each side of the interstate, about eight miles east of Morgan. The unusual rock formation on the highway's south side is composed of two parallel slabs of limestone, about 20 feet apart and 40 feet high.An 1846 map by T.H. Jefferson mentioned "Gutter Defile," possibly the first reference to Devil's Slide. The accepted name was probably given to the site by Clarence King, a geologist working for the Army in the area during 1877. (Utah's highest mountain, King's Peak, was named in his honor). King described the formation as a set of "bold, blade-like outcroppings."
Walter R. Buss, a retired professor of geology and geography at Weber State College, has written that the limestone ridges of Devil's Slide were originally horizontal, formed by deposits in a shallow sea. Then, about 75 million years ago, when huge layers of rock were pushed up to form peaks like the Rocky Mountains, the ridges were tilted to a vertical position.
A layer of shale that originally separated the limestone ridges eroded over time, being less resistant to the erosive forces than limestone. This formed the chute.
Many rocky features within a half mile of Devil's Slide also stand vertically. The Goblin slides, much smaller versions of Devil's Slide, are visible.
The limestone in the Devil's Slide area is well-suited to making cement - the Ideal Cement Co. is located just across the canyon, near Croydon.
Howard Wadsworth, 79, of Magna, used to travel through WeberCanyon and remembers many years ago (probably in the 1940s or earlier), when there used to be a big, flat, shiny rock on the side of the old highway below Devil's Slide. A man named "Robinson" had apparently painted this inscription on the rock: "My Native Home. Do Not Tread on Me," along with a sketch of a large rattlesnake - this area of Weber Canyon is indeed known for a high number of resident rattlesnakes.
Many travelers were startled when they saw the rock, but since the original highway was quite curvy in that area, the rock was blasted out during road improvements probably made long before the route became an interstate highway.
Today, Devil's Slide still attracts a lot of curious visitors. With huge roadside trash cans along the interstate, it makes a quick scenic/garbage stop for most travelers.
Visitors who want a close look at the slide have to be going east on I-84, and after stopping at the turnout must walk 100 feet down the interstate across the Weber River bridge and then must cross over a barbed-wire fence. The Weber River flows between I-84 and Devil's Slide.
The slide is indeed like a huge rock chute, and the inside shows evidence of many visitors who have climbed up it. Loose, jagged shale rocks make climbing difficult. A carefully situated piece of wood has been wedged inside the chute, about 75 feet up the slide.