Davis County used to sport a lot of lanes — and we're not talking bowling lanes, but rather colorful streets in days gone by.
A couple weeks ago, the Deseret Morning News published a story on Davis County street names. Omitted was detail about the history of lanes in the county.
Halvor M. Olsen of West Bountiful, who has done historical research, notes that Cudahy Lane in south Davis County is named after the Cudahy Packing plant, a meat processing facility, that was there long before there was a North Salt Lake city.
He said the area was open country and was adjacent to the North Salt Lake stockyards, where farmers and ranchers took their livestock to sell. The meat processing plant was a landmark for travelers well into the 1960s.
Today, neither the meat packing plant nor the stockyards exist. In their place is a large industrial park, dominated by Albertson's warehouses.
Next was Odell Lane. Olsen said it was named after the Odell family. It is now a residential street packed with apartments in North Salt Lake.
Another is Pages Lane, which traverses three cities — Bountiful, West Bountiful and Centerville. Pages Lane takes its name from from the John Page family, which homesteaded the area. The Pages' house and farm are long gone, but the name hangs on.
Still another is Porter Lane, which runs though Centerville and West Bountiful. It is named for the Porter family, which began the Porter-Walton nursery business in pioneer days.
Parish Laneis a major thoroughfare named after the Parish pioneer family thatsettled near there.
Next, there is Chase Lane in Centerville. The Chase family owned a pioneer grist mill. (It has been relocated to Salt Lake City's Liberty Park.) Farmington has Lund Lane. The Lund family had a boys orphanage in Centerville Also in Farmington are Clark Lane and Burke Lane, named after pioneer families.
Olsen notes that there are other important streets that have lost their names over the years and are now known only by numerical designations. He said 2600 South, 1500 South and 500 South are examples.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com