The 160-year history of the Deseret News connects to a tradition of newspapering that stretches back more than five centuries.
Although the sharing of news is as old as civilization itself, not until the printing press came along in 1447 did the idea of printed newsheets that could bring information to the masses take hold.
By the early 17th century, newspapers began to appear with regularity and frequency.
So important were newspapers to the U.S. Founding Fathers that freedom of the press was incorporated into Article 1 of the Bill of Rights, and Thomas Jefferson still is widely quoted as saying if he had to choose between "government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter."
So, it is not surprising that just less than three years after the Mormon pioneers made their way into the Salt Lake Valley, they wanted a newspaper.
"We propose to publish a small weekly sheet, as large as our local circumstances will permit," the Deseret News announced on June 15, 1850. It would be designed, editor Willard Richards said, "to record the passing events of our State and in connection, refer to the arts and sciences, embracing general education, medicine, law, divinity, domestic and political economy and everything that may fall under our observation, which may tend to promote the best interest, welfare, pleasure and amusement of our fellow citizens."
"News" was a relative term in those days, when the only way to get information from one place to another was to physically carry it. In our modern times, when the push of a button can connect us to any place in the world, it is hard to imagine living in a place so isolated that it took weeks and even months to find out what was going on in other parts of the country.
The first edition of the Deseret News, for example, contained a report from the U.S. Congress, where questions of slavery were already beginning to divide the country, and a message President Zachary Taylor had gioven to the House five months earlier. There was also news of an "appalling and destructive" San Francisco fire — which had been out for six months.
Still, it is easy to imagine how avidly residents of Salt Lake City may have read those accounts, and the connection they brought to lands and people far away. Early papers also contained news of local events, dispatches from outlying settlements, church discourses and other stories.
In those early days, a bigger problem than lack of news was the lack of paper. As available supplies of newsprint shrank, the Deseret News was often forced to print every other week and some weeks not at all. With typical Mormon resourcefulness, however, the call went out for rags to make pulp for homemade newsprint. Printing continued on locally made paper, of increasingly better quality as technology also improved.
Innovations also brought more news. When the Pony Express rode into town, the Deseret News began issuing one-page extras called the "Pony Dispatch." And with the arrival of the telegraph, extras (still called the Pony Dispatch) began appearing almost daily.
In 1865, the Deseret News became a semi-weekly publication, and in 1865 began publishing every day but Sunday and some holidays.
Over the years, the Deseret News has kept up with changing news sources and changing technologies — no small task, actually.
As technology made the printing of papers easier, a lot of other folks tried their hands at publishing newspapers. In the mid-to-late 1800s, more than 100 periodicals arose — and then died, unable to survive. The city was once described, in fact, as "a newspaper cemetery."
When radio came along, some society watchers were certain it would sound a death knell for newspapers. The same was said for television. And while it is true that overall circulation declined, newspapers have not been rendered obsolete.
Printing techniques also changed from hot-lead linotype to electric scanners and computers.
The modern technological revolution is creating new challenges, as newspapers must adapt once again. Yet the Deseret News has held on to become Utah's longest-operating business, the longest-operating business west of the Mississippi, in fact, and the West's oldest continuing newspaper.
In 2000, in honor of the Deseret News' 150th anniversary, the paper published a book celebrating its history and heritage called "Through Our Eyes." The book looked at the biggest stories of its time, not only locally, but nationally and internationally, as seen through the eyes of the writers and editors of the Deseret News.
Since then, we've added another decade to our history and are taking another opportunity to look at where we have been and how we got there.
In honor of our 160th anniversary, here's a decade-by-decade revisiting of the Deseret News' past — proof once again that yesterday's news is the first draft of history.
1850s: Settling in
The 1850s were a time of settling in for the Mormon pioneers. They had to learn to adapt to their new environment, explore and inhabit increasingly distant outposts, lay down the roots for a culture and society, create structures of government and business, establish educational facilities and, on occasion, fight for what they had.
The Deseret News soon established itself as an integral part of life in the newly established U.S. Territory, created in 1848 with the end of the Mexican War. Its pages were filled with news from "back East," messages from church leaders, word of arrivals and of pioneers still on the trail, as well as practical advice on how to grow crops, maintain health and rear children.
Brigham Young was obviously one of the "newsmakers" of the day, and his words frequently made it onto the pages of the paper:
DESERET NEWS: Sept. 14, 1852: Permit me to say that I am proud of my religion. It is the only thing I pride myself in, on the earth.
DESERET NEWS: July 9, 1856: Glancing at the past, perhaps we as a people have more reason to respect, honor, love and cherish the government of the United States, her Constitution and free institutions than any other people on the face of the earth; it is lamentable that professed statesmen should so far deviate from wise and correct principles of republican government as to fail of being entitled to that respect and confidence which ought to be deserved by those entrusted with its administration.
DESERET NEWS: June 7, 1857: Those whom the government sends here are a most miserable set, and, as a general rule, they do not know enough to tell a decent lie. … It is hard for them to tell a man who has got brains in his head from one who is filled with pudding.
As a territory, Deseret was subjected to rule out of Washington, so political leaders began almost immediately to push for statehood and self-government. Little did they know at the time, it would be a 48-year quest.
Petition after petition was rebuffed by the federal government, leading to response from the Deseret News with an eight-stanza song, addressed to the "Fathers of the Union":
DESERET NEWS: Aug. 10, 1856: My sisters all may be more pert, and sassier than me,
But, Dad, you know I'm as I am, just as the others be.
And why should they all flout around, turn up their nose and rage
I guess I'll be as smart as them, now that I am of age.
Stop that knocking. Let me in!
The government was unmoved, and tensions escalated to the point that President James Buchanan, acting on false reports that a rebellion was brewing in the Great Basin, ordered troops to the territory in the so-called Utah War of 1857-58. For two years — part of the time after moving to Fillmore — the Deseret News printed developments about the conflict, noting how much better it would be for government to encourage those "who are turning her barren wastes into smiling fields" instead of being "hungry for office and spoils."
It told of the approaching Army, the resistance of the locals, the formation and actions of the Utah Militia and, at last, on June 7, 1858, the declaration of new territorial Gov. Alfred Cumming that "Peace is restored to our Territory. … Those citizens who have left their homes, I invite to return, as soon as they can do so with propriety and convenience."
Other major stories of the decade included the handcart pioneers, including the arrival "in fine spirits, notwithstanding their late hardships," of the Willie and Martin companies and their rescuers; periodic updates of the construction of the Salt Lake Temple; attempts to accommodate the many languages now spoken in the valley with the introduction of the Deseret Alphabet; and even of a visit by New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley.
By decade's end, some 33,344 immigrants now lived in the territory, and, for the most part, they were settling in nicely.
1860s: Connections
By 1860, the Utah War was over and so was the relative isolation of the Saints. Several developments early in the decade made it easier to connect to the rest of the country.
First to arrive was the pony express, in April 1860, "bringing us within six days communication with the frontier and seven days from Washington," as the Deseret News said, "a result which we Utonians, accustomed to receive news three months after the date, can well appreciate."
During the 18-month life of horseback courier service, Deseret News stories frequently bore the notation: "By the pony express." Newspapers printed in the Midwest also became a news source.
Next came the telegraph:
DESERET NEWS, Oct. 23, 1861: On Thursday afternoon, the "operator" connected with the Eastern portion of the telegraph line informed the visitors who had gathered around this table to witness the first operation in communications with the Eastern States that the "line was built" but for some reason, there was no "through message" either sent or received till the following day.
On Oct. 24, Brigham Young sent the first message over the wire from Salt Lake City. Addressed to J.H. Wade, president of the Pacific Telegraph Co. in Cleveland, Ohio, it congratulated Wade on the "successful prosecution of a work so beneficial," and also assured him that "Utah has not seceded, but is firm for the Constitution and laws of our once happy country."
Even though Utah was a remote outpost not directly involved in the Civil War, its residents would follow the events of the conflict with avid interest through the pages of the Deseret News.
Based on pony express dispatches dated April 13, 1861, the paper broke the news on May 1 that "A Battle Between North and South Imminent." Over the next four years, every edition of the paper had reports of the seesaw actions of both armies. At times, so much had happened that the paper, which was also struggling from a shortage of newsprint, had a hard time keeping up.
The only direct involvement in the territory came when a Nauvoo Legion unit was ordered to guard the overland mail route. For the rest, it was mostly watching and waiting.
Then, in April, came news of the tragic climax to the ending of the war: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On April 19, the Deseret News carried the black-bordered announcement of his death four days earlier. Utah also observed his funeral:
DESERET NEWS, April 26, 1865: Public buildings were closed and business suspended from 10 o'clock a.m. till 4 p.m.; and at an early hour people began wending their way to the Tabernacle. At 12 the building was filled to its utmost capacity … the Choir sang hymns suited to the occasion.
During this same time, the settlers were occupied with local conflicts with hostile natives. When the Mormons arrived in the Salt Lake Valley, they came to a place visited but not occupied by American Indians. As settlements spread out in all directions, conflicts between the cultures became more direct and sometimes more violent.
Sporadic outbursts, a massacre on the Bear River and what came to be known as the Black Hawk War were covered by the Deseret News with the language and biases of the times, but the paper also found a fascination in Indian culture:
DESERET NEWS, July 1, 1862: The well-known Utah Chief, Peteetneet, as reported, died at or near Fort Crittenden Cedar Valley on or about the 23d ult. No horses were killed on the occasion, as is generally the case when an Indian of distinction dies, but a novel and brutal ceremony, by his express order, was instituted instead, and that was the killing of his wife.
During the 1860s, Salt Lake City found another connection with the world at large: arts. On March 12, 1862, the Salt Lake Theater, the first of its kind west of the Mississippi, was dedicated with much fanfare and celebrating. Eventually, it would host leading performers of the day, including P.T. Barnum, Billie Burke, Buffalo Bill Cody, Al Jolson, Lillian Russell, Oscar Wilde and the Barrymores.
The decade was also marked by the rise of commerce. Deseret News readers were probably delighted by such announcements as one that appeared Aug. 30, 1865, from the Walker Brothers: We take pleasure in informing our friends and patrons that we have THIS DAY received our FOURTH TRAIN OF FORTY-SIX WAGONS … loaded with A SPLENDID ASSORTMENT OF GOODS of every description."
Competition and controversy between LDS and non-LDS merchants would also lead to the formation in February 1869 of the Zion's Co-operative Association.
On May 10, 1869, one of the most important connections between Utah and the rest of the country came with the joining of the rails at Promontory Point:
DESERET NEWS, May 11, 1869: The meredian hour has come and on the expansive and lofty plateau at the summit of the Promontory, a scene is disclosed in the conception of which every exultant element of humanity is revivified. Never before has this continent disclosed anything bearing comparison with it.
1870s: Digging deeper
By the 1870s, the Mormons were firmly established in the Great Basin and had even learned to get along with an increasing influx of "gentiles," those of other faiths. This would be a decade of digging deeper, of learning more about the surrounding land and even about themselves.
Part of that digging was underground. Although Brigham Young had early on advised the pioneers to avoid the California gold rush, discoveries in this decade showed they were surrounded by mineral wealth of their own.
DESERET NEWS, June 26, 1870: THE FIRST COAL — Two car loads of coal from the Wasatch Coal Companies' mines, consigned to F.A. Mitchell, Esq., reached the city Thursday morning. This, we understand is the first coal that has been brought direct to this city by the UCCR (Utah Central Railroad).
Desiring to find locally produced iron, Brigham Young had earlier tried to establish an Iron Mission in Cedar City, with only limited success. Iron and coal were useful, he told the Deseret News on June 8, 1870, but "we are not anxious to obtain gold."
Other people coming into the territory, however, didn't share this view. Col. Patrick E. Connor gave his soldiers generous leaves to go prospecting and was instrumental in developing what became a huge silver industry. That was followed by discoveries of copper, galena and other ores.
Soon places such as Silver Reef, Bingham Canyon, Highland Boy, Emma, Silver King, Ophir, Flagstaff, Ontario, Black Dragon, Mammoth and Eureka made frequent appearances on the pages of the Deseret News.
There were other things to discover in the Territory, and between 1869 and 1872, John Wesley Powell, a one-armed soldier-turned-scientist, set out to find them. Known for his trips down the Colorado River, he is also the man who discovered the Escalante, the last large river to be named in the United States, and the Henry Mountains, the last mountain chain to be added to maps.
On May 29, 1872, W.D. Johnson Jr., who was participating in Powell's expedition, wrote a letter to the editor of the Deseret News, "thinking that a few items concerning our party would be interesting to your readers." Johnson talked about the work they were doing, including the process of triangulation to measure heights and distances, and described some of the scenery, which, he noted, "is grand, indeed, and it makes one feel the power and greatness of an all-wise God."
On the political front, the Utah Territory was trying another experiment: the novel idea of women's suffrage. Fifty years before women would be granted the right to vote in the nation, that right came to Utah's female population:
DESERET NEWS, Feb. 16, 1870: To the honorable Orson Pratt, Speaker of the House: SIR: I have the honor to inform you that I have this day approved, signed and deposited in the secretary's office "An Act" conferring upon women the elective franchise. In view of the importance of the measure referred to, it may not be considered improper for me to remark that I have very grave and serious doubts of the wisdom and soundness of that political economy which makes the act a law of this Territory, and there are many reasons which, in my judgment, are opposed to the legislation; but whatever these doubts and reasons may have been, in view of the unanimous passage of the act in both the House and the Council, and in deference to the judgment of many whose opinion I very much respect, I have as before stated, approved of the bill … (Signed) S.A. Mann, acting territorial governor.
In 1874, the church made a new push to establish the United Order, a plan of communal living and common sharing of goods and services, particularly in southern communities where, on a visit to St. George, Brigham Young found economic conditions in a sorry state. In a conference report on May 6 in the Deseret News, Orson Hyde presented the plan: "We now want to organize the Latter-day Saints, every man, woman and child among them who has a desire to be organized into this holy order. You may call it the Order of Enoch; you may call it a co-partnership, or just what you please."
The attempt eventually fell short, although many of the principles of self-reliance and responsibility were later incorporated into the church's welfare program.
During the decade, work on the Salt Lake Temple progressed slowly but surely. On June 27, the Deseret News reported that "four more car loads of rock rolled into the block this morning and the stone cutters, in large force, are busily engaged."
Temples would be completed in St. George and Manti in 1877 and 1879, but beloved and long-standing leader Brigham Young would not live to see the Salt Lake Temple finished.
DESERET NEWS, Aug. 20, 1877: At one minute past four o'clock this afternoon, PRESIDENT BRIGHAM YOUNG departed this life, surrounded by his family and intimate friends. This announcement will thrill the whole Territory with grief. We feel the weight of this great loss to the world, and cannot at this moment express in the faintest degree, our deep sense of the void occasioned by his departure.
It was a time for the Saints to dig deep for inner strength and fortitude.
1880s: New ways, old notions
The first telephone, what the Deseret News called a "Telephonic Marvel," came to Salt Lake City in March 1879; by 1890, the local system had 506 subscribers and 13 employees. The 1880s saw a growth of communication, but that wasn't the only marvel in town:
DESERET NEWS, April 1, 1881: A successful and satisfactory test was made of the Brush electric light on Main Street. … The two post lamps, one at Walker Brothers' corner and the other in front of the store of Lipman and Davis, gradually began to lighten and continue to increase in brilliancy until the vicinity was flooded with a beautiful white light.
In the early years, electrical service was sporadic and operated only from dusk to 10 p.m. — or until midnight on dance and theater nights. There was also service on Monday mornings, so housewives could get their washing done; and on Tuesday mornings, so they could iron. But gradually, it spread to where all homes in the city were electrified.
Electricity also brought changes to transportation: Electric trolley cars replaced those that had been pulled by mules. Eventually, more than 100 miles of trolley track would crisscross the city.
But if electricity and communication heralded the dawn of a new gentility, the Wild West was not done for yet. Although never as big, as wild, as romantic as later books and movies would portray it, it was a place largely governed by the law of the six-shooter. And readers of the Deseret News enjoyed an up-close look at some of the action:
DESERET NEWS, July 29, 1881: The killing of "Billy the Kid," alias Wm McCarthy, the New Mexico desperado who has shot from eighteen to twenty-five men, will be applauded by the good people of the region where he was a terror because of his skill with deadly weapons, and his utter recklessness and contempt of the law.
DESERET NEWS, April 3, 1882: Immediately after shaking hands he and Mott walked away to the end of the platform and held a short conversation. Jesse [James] then came up to me and said: "Mr. Land, I understand you are going in with us to rob the train tonight."
"Yes, sir."
"Have you brought any arms?"
"Yes, a breech-loading rifle."
"Be sure and bring it with you. Meet us at the out back of Jack Cote's farm as soon after eight o'clock as convenient. Come alone. When you get within two or three hundred yards of the spot, signal us by whistling twice. An answer will be once."
But violence wasn't confined to the West. In July 1881, the Deseret News was shocked, along with the rest of the country, to receive news of the assassination of President James A. Garfield.
DESERET NEWS, July 2, 1881: (The following bulletins and dispatches have been coming in all day. We publish them as they come, notwithstanding they are in some cases slightly contradictory. Ed. D.E.N.)
WASHINGTON — Prest. (James A.) Garfield was shot twice at the Baltimore and Ohio R.R. Depot, Washington, this morning. …
9:30 a.m. — Prest. Garfield was shot this morning at the Baltimore and Potomac Depot. Col Corbin has just passed in the President's carriage with a physician on the way to the Baltimore and Potomac Depot.
10 a.m. — It is reported that Prest. Garfield is dead, but the excitement so intense that it is impossible to find out anything definite at present. The man who shot him has been arrested. … The shooting was done by a slender man, about five feet seven inches in height. He refused to give his name.
On the home front, action was heating up over the practice of plural marriage. The Deseret News reported on increasing raids, such as the one that occurred in Iron County on Oct. 23, 1866, when "the quiet little burg of Enoch" was visited by deputy marshals, "who arrested on the going charge John P. Jones and his eldest son, John L. The former is one of our veteran citizens. … He is now quite feeble and must be verging onto three score and ten years."
In 1887, Congress passed the Edmund-Tucker Bill which disincorporated the church, dissolved the Perpetual Emigration Fund, abolished female suffrage, and gave the attorney general of the United States the right to control the real and personal property of the church. In all, some 1,000 or so men and some women were arrested on polygamy charges.
On Sept. 24, 1890, Church President Wilford Woodruff announced the Manifesto, discontinuing the practice of polygamy; it appeared in the Deseret News the following day.
As old institutions were ending in the 1880s, new monuments were rising. The Washington Monument, what the Deseret News called "a great work of patriotic endeavor," was completed in 1885. In 1886, the paper announced that a "mammoth figure stands, at last, on its massive pedestal, symbolizing the incarnation of all that the nation as lived, and suffered, and fought for, in the awful sacrifices it has laid" — the Statue of Liberty.
And in 1889 came another symbol of an age: "The Eiffel tower has been smiled at, as the great folly of the Exposition, but the giant manikin of iron threads professes a value apart from its ostentatiousness," the Deseret News said.
1890s: Ending and beginnings
The last decade of the 19th century has been called the Gay '90s, and characterized as a rather carefree time of relative peace and prosperity.
The biggest news of the decade for Utahns was that statehood finally arrived. After nearly a half century and seven formal petitions, President Grover Cleveland signed the statehood proclamation on Jan. 4, 1896.
Despite wintry weather, the proclamation set off a frenzy of celebration, captured by the Deseret News:
DESERET NEWS, Jan. 4, 1896: At 9:15 this morning the usual early morning serenity of East Temple Street was decidedly disturbed owing to the fact that Superintendent Brown of the Western Union Telegraph Company was observed to rush frantically out of the office armed with an old reliable shotgun, the contents of which belched forth in two resounding reports. …
Towards noon decorations became apparent upon nearly every store in the city. Amongst the most ambitious ranks the bunting display of the ZCMI Shoe Factory … Every man grasped the hand of every other man and the greeting of a few days ago, "A Happy New Year to you," was evolved into the very appropriate salutation of "A happy New State to you." At 11:30 the Battery of the N.G.U. took its position on Capitol hill and proceeded to fire a salute of twenty-one guns accompanied by the ringing of bells, blowing of steam whistles and igniting of a half dozen bombs on the NEWS corner which junior members of the establishment let off with the result that the concussion was felt for a long distance about.
Celebration aside, there was work ahead. But that joyful day would be long remembered.
A similar feeling of completion and excitement had occurred earlier in the decade, when, after 40 years of intense labor, the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated.
The Deseret News printed a large special edition in honor of the occasion; and prominently featured was a rare, expensive woodcut reproduction of the finished temple. In papers of the day, illustrations were few and used almost exclusively with advertising; but this was a great occasion.
Stories in the edition told of the laying of the cornerstone by Brigham Young on April 6, 1853, and noted that the date set for the first dedication rites by Wilford Woodruff would be April 6, exactly 40 years later. The statue of Angel Moroni was described in detail, saying that "its effect is beautiful." An outline of the historic Latter-day Saint devotion to temples was given. And there was also a warning for people coming to the dedication "to be on their guard against pickpockets and other bad characters who had probably been attracted to this city from other places … and think it a good time to practice their trade among the crowds which would be drawn together on this special occasion."
The Tabernacle Choir was also opening a new era during this decade. The first official choir had sung at the LDS general conference in October 1873 and had since been heard with regularity. But it was now ready for a larger stage and was invited to appear at the Chicago World Fair in 1893.
The Deseret News reported the fanfare accompanying their departure:
DESERET NEWS, Aug. 29, 1893: At 3:10 o'clock this afternoon the largest, happiest and most select excursion party that ever left this Territory pulled out from the Union Pacific Depot. It consisted of the Tabernacle Choir accompanied by a host of hopeful and enthusiastic friends.
Although much favored in the final sing-off with a Pennsylvania choir, the Utah group finished in second place. No matter, director Evan Stephens told the Deseret News: "On the whole it was a glorious trip. … Each choir, I have reason to believe, did the very best work they were capable of doing. I am certain mine did. Never have they tried harder or more effectually to excel."
The 1890s would also see the election of the first woman state senator in the country: Martha Hughes Cannon, who beat out her husband for the office. And there was the opening of a grand new amusement park by the Great Salt Lake; the Deseret News called Saltair "a magnificent piece of architectural work."
Decade's end would see another first: an opportunity for Utahns to serve the country of which they were now full-fledged citizens — on the battlefield.
After the sinking of the Maine battleship, Utahns enthusiastically joined the effort that would be known as the Spanish-American War.
The Deseret News had chronicled the growing tensions between Spain and America over the possession of Cuba and the Philippine Islands. It detailed the "grand public demonstration" as Utah's "brave boys" answered their country's call.
And it reported the even-more happy return:
1900s: A new century
The Turn of the century brought a new energy and optimism to the country. The Spanish-American War was over; new industrialism was signaling the beginning of the end of the horse-and-buggy era; and January 1901 marked the end of the Victorian Age.
The queen whose name had defined an era, a lifestyle, a philosophy, a type of architecture — not only in her native England but across the pond as well — had spent 64 years on the throne. She was 82 when word came to Utah of her passing:
DESERET NEWS, Jan. 22, 1901: QUEEN VICTORIA OF ENGLAND IS DEAD
London, 7:07 p.m. — The text of the Prince of Wales' dispatch to the lord mayor is as follows:
Osborne, 6:45 p.m. — My beloved mother has just passed away, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. (Signed) ALBERT EDWARD
The queen is said to have bade farewell in a feeble monosyllable to her family assembled at her bedside at mid-day. She first recognized the Prince of Wales, to whom she spoke a few words of great moment; then Emperor William and the others present filed past and heard a whispered good-bye. All those in the bedroom were in tears.
An earlier sorrow in the decade struck closer to home. On May 1, 1900, news came of a horrific explosion at the Winter Quarters coal mine in Carbon County. With a death toll of 200, it was the most lethal mine accident ever in Utah and, at the time, in the whole country. Condolences from the president were among the first to arrive:
DESERET NEWS, May 2, 1900: WASHINGTON — The President today sent the following telegram to the Governor of Utah: Governor Wells, Salt Lake City, Utah. I desire to express my intense sorrow upon learning of the terrible calamity which has occurred at Scofield, and my deep sympathy with the wives, children and friends of the unfortunate victims of the explosion. WILLIAM M'KINLEY
The Deseret News sent reporters to the site:
DESERET NEWS, May 4, 1900: We found the dead in every conceivable attitude. One man had filled his pipe and sat down to light it. The damp (a deadly combination of gases) struck him and he died then and there with the filled pipe in his outstretched hand. …
On a box where a dead Finlander was they picked up his watch. It had stopped when the explosion occurred and the hands marked 10:28 o'clock. …
Death's winding sheet seems to envelop Scofield this morning. Every house, without exception, is a house of mourning and every household is preparing to receive its dead.
A year-and-a-half later tragic news would come of President McKinley. For the third time in less than half a century, an American president had been fatally shot:
DESERET NEWS, Sept. 6, 1901: BUFFALO — President McKinley was shot twice in the stomach here this afternoon at the Temple of Music. His condition is serious. Two shots took effect in the stomach. He is now at the hospital in the Pan-American grounds. …
He was shot by a well-dressed man with whom he was shaking hands. … As the man approached the President, it is said, he had the revolver covered with a handkerchief and as he reached out his hand to shake the President's hand he fired. A bullet which had lodged against the breast bone has been extracted. The President is resting easy.
At first, it appeared that he might survive the attack; but a week later the Deseret News confirmed that gangrene had taken the life of the president:
DESERET NEWS, Sept. 14, 1901: Milburn House, Buffalo, N.Y. — William McKinley, twenty-fifth president of the United States, died at 2:15 o'clock this morning from the effects of an assassin's bullet. Theodore Roosevelt, twenty-sixth president of the United States, succeeds to the exalted office under the constitution and the laws of the country and with the administration of the oath of office today, he will begin to exercise the functions of President.
But for the moment, the transfer of the government is forgotten in the great sorrow which has fallen on the nation in the passing of President McKinley.
Then in 1906, news came of the calamity on the country's West Coast:
DESERET NEWS, April 18, 1906: The greatest and most desolating of all earthquakes in the history of modern America occurred in San Francisco this morning. The first news of the dreadful calamity came to Salt Lake in the form of the following dispatch over the one remaining wire out of that calamity-stricken and unfortunate city:
Denver, April 18 — At 9:15 a.m. Postal Telegraph Company here received the following information from Los Angeles: It is reported that thousands of lives have been lost in an earthquake in San Francisco. Both the Postal and the Western Union telegraph buildings in that city are reported to have been destroyed. A disastrous fire is eating its way up the south side of Market street and at last accounts was within three blocks of the Palace hotel. Water mains were bursting and the fire department was absolutely helpless. Business is entirely suspended.
About this time residents of Utah and the country may have wondered what this new century had in store for them. But, luckily, these tragedies were offset by more encouraging trends.
For one, the arrival of the horseless carriage. The first of these new contraptions were crude and pretty much home-made vehicles. Henry Ford had built his first one in 1896 and then found employment at a company that produced custom-made automobiles. But others were making them, as well.
The first of these novelties arrived in Salt Lake City in 1900 and was greeted with some enthusiasm:
DESERET NEWS, May 16, 1900: (LDS Church) President Lorenzo Snow enjoyed an exhilarating ride yesterday afternoon on Mr. Hyrum Silver's automobile, with Mr. Silver at the helm. Like many other prominent Salt Lakers who have enjoyed a whirl over the city with the Silver brothers the last ten days, President Snow pronounced the ride as being particularly fine and an indication of the possibilities of latter-day locomotion.
It would take awhile before the automobile took over. Ford established his Motor Company in 1903, but it would be a decade later that his innovative factory started chugging out the more affordable Model T's. But people could see which way the road was running. And it didn't take long for ads to start appearing in the paper:
DESERET NEWS; Dec. 19, 1903: If you are a doctor, how can you get along without an automobile physician's car? It has a physician's cabinet and can do your work in one-fourth the time you can now with the horse and buggy and you will add many times to your comfort.
The decade was greeted with even more amazing transportation news when two bicycle-building brothers took their invention to North Carolina:
DESERET NEWS, Dec. 18, 1903: A successful trial of a flying machine has been made near Kitty Hawk, N.C., by Wilbur and Orville Wright, of Dayton, O. The machine flew for three miles in the face of a wind blowing at the registered velocity of 21 miles an hour and then gracefully descended to earth at the spot selected by the navigator. The machine has no balloon attachment but gets its force from propellers worked by a small engine.
It would take awhile before this industry got off the ground, as well. But a new wind was blowing.
For many Utahns, there was more interest in bicycles and, in particular, bicycle racing. They were excited by the great wooden arena for bicycle racing that was part of the new Salt Palace, which had been built in 1899. This glittering, exquisite structure was made of wood, encrusted and sprayed with powdered salt and of slabs of salt cut from the shores of the Great Salt Lake and pressed into blocks. But, said the Deseret News on June 13, 1900, "What the Salt Palace would be without the bicycle races is hard to imagine."
For 11 years, until it was destroyed by fire in 1910, it provided a place of exposition and entertainment.
Another change that came to the Salt Lake skyline was the rise of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, a symbol of Catholic faith and community diversity:
DESERET NEWS, Aug. 14, 1909: For the first time since Escalante, the first white man to visit Utah, planted the cross in the soil, a large cathedral is to be dedicated Sunday. The dedication proper is one of the most impressive of exercises held by the Roman Catholic Church.
Some good, some bad, but clearly times were changing in Utah and the country in the 20th century.
1910s: World in turmoil
World affairs took a lot of newsprint space as the 20th century entered its teens, and, for the most part, it was not good news.
First, there was the unthinkable sinking of the world's greatest ship, which was making its maiden voyage:
The first dispatches to come in were somewhat muddled but mostly optimistic, reporting that the ship was "still afloat and making her way toward Halifax under her own steam." But the truth soon became clear:
DESERET NEWS, April 16, 1912: The appalling magnitude of the wreck of the liner Titanic has been little mitigated by the fragmentary information which has filtered in today. … The favorable details are insignificant compared with the fact that the Titanic is at the bottom of the Atlantic and that the shattered wreck took with her about 2,350 victims to their death.
In 1912, Utahns also were watching closely as civil upheaval in Mexico was having an increasing impact on Mormon colonies there. As Pancho Villa rampaged through the area, church leaders decided to bring the settlers back to the United States:
DESERET NEWS, Aug. 17, 1912: EL PASO, Texas — For the first time since the western portion of Chihuahua was colonized by American followers of the "Mormon" religion more than 25 years ago, that state is entirely deserted by the colonists."
But that was only a foretaste of the upheaval that was to come. Following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Dutchess Sophie, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, the nations of Europe had become embroiled in an escalating struggle.
For more than three years, the United States struggled to maintain neutrality, but on April 3, 1917, banner headlines in the Deseret News informed Utahns that their country was going to war. At that year's LDS general conference, the Deseret News reported that President Joseph F. Smith stressed the "absolute necessity of loyalty and unity on the part of Latter-day Saints" and said that if members of the church "shall be called to defend their country's honor, let them go with no hatred in their hearts, but with the desire to uplift and benefit mankind, if need be even by fighting or giving their lives."
For the next year and a half, they and other Americans did just that. The paper was filled with daily news of the conflict, and well as the exploits and deaths of local soldiers. And when news of the Armistice reach the paper, the response was predictable:
DESERET NEWS, Nov. 11, 1918: Salt Lake is celebrating with unprecedented enthusiasm the glorious news at the end of the world war. Cares and worries have been thrown away and men, women and children are joining in the most jubilant celebration ever held in the history of the city. It is a general holiday and only such work as is absolutely necessary is being done. The streets are thronged with joy-mad celebrations.
As the war had been winding down, Utah and the world watched the rise of another world force: the birth of communism. The Russian Revolution also made headlines. Vladimir Lenin took command of the country on Nov. 18, 1917. On July 20, 1918, came news that "Former Emperor Nicholas of Russia has been shot."
It would take a while before the world realized the full impact of the revolution. Meanwhile, there was another scourge to contend with: the worldwide Spanish Influenza pandemic of 1918-19. It killed about 20 million people; about 500,000 of them were in the United States. The Deseret News reported on closed schools, on canceled gatherings, offered rules to combat the disease, issued a call for supplies, listed new cases and chronicled deaths.
Amid such turmoil, the decade did offer some bright spots. One was the joining of the waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific in one of the world's greatest engineering wonders:
DESERET NEWS, Aug. 14, 1914: The United States warship Ancon today made the passage through the Panama Canal, and transit through the waterway is now officially open to the traffic of the world.
Another bit of good news for Utah was the completion ?— at last, 18 years after it became a state — of Utah's new state Capitol:
DESERET NEWS, Oct. 10, 1916: More than 10,000 people, representing practically every county in the state, formally accepted the new capitol yesterday. The motion to accept the building was made by W.J. Robinson, following the conclusion of the address by Gov. Wm. Spry.
Much of the cost of the building came from the inheritance tax the state received upon the death of railroad magnate E.H. Harriman. It was designed by Utah architect Richard K.A. Kletting, built in the Corinthian-style resembling the national Capitol, and it was a landmark for the century.
1920s: Ups and downs
By the 1920s, Utahns and the rest of the country were ready for better times — and, for the most part, got them. But life is a balancing act.
By now, the airline industry was getting off the ground. Airplanes had shown their potential in the great war, but after the war, military contacts were canceled. Other directions were clearly needed and soon found. One was mail service, and the other: passengers.
DESERET NEWS, May 15, 1920: First class mail service between Salt Lake and New York in 21 hours will be established by September.… Salt Lake will be required to establish a flying field and hangar and the government will spend fully $26,000 in improvements.
DESERET NEWS, May 22, 1926: Opening of passenger service between Salt Lake and Lost Angeles by the Western Air Express, Inc., Sunday marks the dawn of commercial aerial passenger traffic in America.
It will be the first time in the history of aviation that daily aerial passenger service has been offered by a commercial air line on a fixed schedule.
The new industry also brought the country a new hero: Capt. Charles Augustus Lindbergh. The News covered all aspects of his historic flight in May 1927 — alone in the Spirit of St. Louis, flying nonstop from New York to Paris. But for Utahns the best was yet to come:
DESERET NEWS, Sept. 3, 1927: ENTIRE CITY GOES WILD IN CHEERING AS PLANE COMES, Great Hero of the Air Greeted by 200,000 as He Circles Valley: Falling with a driving engine, Col. Charles Lindbergh passed westward over the 35,000 people gathered at Woodward field, at terrific speed. Those who thought the conqueror of the Atlantic was headed for the Pacific Ocean, however, were soon set at rights.
The wheels of the Spirit of St. Louis touched the ground at Woodward field at 2 o'clock to the second.
In the 1920s, Utahns, along with the rest of the country, had discovered another pastime: motion pictures. "The Birth of a Nation" opened in 1915, and the idea of telling stories through pictures became a huge hit.
DESERET NEWS, May 15, 1920: An announcement of release that will attract attention to the motion picture world is made by the president of Selznick enterprises, who states that between now and this time next year 537 subjects will be produced and distributed by the various Selznick organizations. This gigantic program, according to Mr. Selznick, has never been equalled.
Sound was provided by an organ while the well-known faces of Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Buster Keaton, Clara Bow and others were seen on the screen.
Sport, too, entered a golden age, dominated in large part by baseball's New York Yankees, and their stars, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. In 1927, the World Series pitted the Yankees against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and the Deseret News offered its readers a unique way to follow the action: Old Magneto, which would be set up in front of the building, where "direct wires will keep him posted on every move at the game and he reflects it like a mirror."
Radio was also just getting going in the '20s, and the Deseret News was once again at the forefront, establishing its own radio station on the roof of its building.
But times were not all good. In 1924, another mining disaster shook the state as, the Deseret News reported, "three successive explosions wrecked the portal of Mine No. 2 Utah Fuel company (at Castle Gate) at 8:30 a.m., strewing the canyon with timbers, leaving a 50-foot hole at the mouth of the tunnel and entombing 175 miners, mostly married men."
There was early hope that some of the miners might be able to escape, but it was not to be. Devastation was complete.
On the national front, another promising experiment was turning sour: Prohibition. Instead of turning the country into a nation of sober, hard-working citizens, it was creating a nation of rum-runners, bootleggers, moonshiners, bathtub-gin-makers and other law-breakers.
At decade's end came even worse news: a devastating crash on the financial markets on Wall Street on Oct. 29, 1929. Early optimism that the country would rebound was reflected on Deseret News pages, which talked about "a buoyant rally" and the "stability of the basic business structure" that "could take blows like those administered in the last 10 days and come back with its chin up."
Ensuing months would prove the optimists wrong, however, as the country slid into the seemingly bottomless pit of the Great Depression.
1930s: A long recovery
The next decade opened like the last one closed: in the depths of despair. As a state with a high birthrate and a heavy dependence on mining and agriculture, Utah was particularly vulnerable to the economic downturn.
By 1933, the average per capita income was $300; 35.8 percent of Utahns were unemployed—the fourth-highest rate in the country. Those who did have jobs faced shrinking wages; business failures increased by 20 percent; a fourth of the state's banks closed their doors.
Hungry, hopeless people staged several marches on the State Capitol to let Utah lawmakers know of their discontent. On Feb. 3, 1933, the Desert News reported that "tear gas was used to clear the sheriff's office of a mob that broke through the doors in the city and county building." And on Aug. 21, 1935: "Four deputy sheriffs and an undetermined number of civilians were injured today in rioting at the Salt Lake County emergency headquarters."
The LDS church responded with projects to provide work projects instead of outright charity. Deseret News stories told of things such as a wood-cutting project in the Liberty Stake. But even these could not fully address the depths of the Depression in the state.
Hope came with the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1932. His "Alphabet Soup" approach began creating agencies and projects to pull the country out of the abyss.
One was the CCC — the Civilian Conservation Corps — which offered young men $25 a month sent to their families, with $5 left over as spending money. In Utah, men lined up to join:
DESERET NEWS,May 4, 1933: "I wish we could take them all," said Gus P. Backman Thursday, as, with a corps of 20 young women aides, he took applications from upwards of 4,000 youth of Salt Lake County who wish to go to work in Utah forests for Uncle Sam.
The state soon had 20 CCC camps, primarily in national forests, where they built erosion control projects, dams, terraced hillsides and other improvements.
Another project that offered profound help in Utah was the Works Project Administration. Deseret News headlines noted that "Washington Okehs Million Dollar WPA County Road Project," "WPA Gives $80,000 Fund for Arsenal Improvements," "Three New Utah WPA Jobs Okehed." And there were also stories about WPA-sponsored projects in the arts and sciences. Utah artists were paid to decorate public buildings; Salt Lake's Art Barn was built; seed money was provided for an orchestra and more.
Against this backdrop of struggle and strife, another dramatic story played out in the pages of the Deseret News. The Great Depression and Prohibition were ready-made incubators for gangsters, scofflaws and criminals.
The notorious actions of the likes of Baby Face Nelson, Al Capone, Bugsy Segal, Machine Gun Kelly, Ma Barker, John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde all made headlines; as did the counteractions of crime-fighters such as J. Edgar Hoover and his Federal Bureau of Investigation.
In time, FBI agents made headway. But the good guys didn't always win. One who fell was Samuel P. Cowley, who had been born in Franklin, Idaho, and reared in Logan, Utah. He tracked down and killed Dillinger, but was killed by Baby Face Nelson.
The Deseret News reported that Cowley's death had been avenged: Nelson had been found shot to death, "the gruesome discovery bearing mute evidence that he died in retribution for killing two government agents last night …." The story also noted that, advised of the fatal wounding of Cowley, Hoover called him "as most courageous officer and devoted public servant."
In Europe, another sort of criminal was grabbing headlines:
DESERET NEWS, Jan. 30, 1933: Adolf Hilter, picturesque leader of the German Fascists, was made chancellor of Germany today, succeeding General Kurt Von Schlechler, who resigned last week.
But in granting him the ambition of his political lifetime President Von Hindenburg surrounded him with a cabinet of Conservatives … The new chancellor, who is only 43, told the appoint in his stride. "Well, we shall see," was all he said to the correspondents as he returned to the hotel from the president's office, "now let's eat."
The world would indeed see, and watched with horror as the Nazis launched an increasing campaign of violence and destruction that eventually spread beyond Germany's borders to once again engulf the world in war.
1940s: War and effect
War was already raging in Europe as the new decade opened. Once again Americans hoped to remain neutral, but a growing sense of foreboding gave the notion little hope. All hope ended in December 1941, as Japanese bombs fell out of the sky over Pearl Harbor.
DESERET NEWS, Dec. 8, 1941: WASHINGTON (AP) — President Roosevelt asked Congress today to declare war against Japan. He made the solemn, historic request after disclosing to the nation that yesterday's sudden Japanese attack on Hawaii had cost the United States two warships and 3,000 dead and wounded … the president said that yesterday was "a date that would live in infamy."
In typical Deseret News fashion, a tiny box on the front page also noted that "Missionaries and members of two Church missions in Hawaii are safe and well, according to cablegrams from Honolulu, received this morning by the First Presidency."
Three days later, Congress again acted, declaring war on Germany and Italy. For the next four years, World War II would be uppermost in the hearts and minds of Utahns.
Deseret News stories kept up with the latest actions on both fronts, the fates of Utah soldiers and the political maneuvering. It also told of efforts on the homefront: the campaign for defense bonds, the efforts to train women "to take over the work of nearly 100 men in the U.S. Grazing Service," as well as other industries.
There were stories of rationing, war-time measures and huge sacrifices. On March 4, 1944, a half-page was given to an "Honor Roll of Utah World War II Casualties," filled with scores of names, including 25 newly reported deaths.
There were stories, too, of prisoner-of-war camps located in the states, and of the "relocation centers" of Japanese descent living in the United States, including the one in Topaz, which had arisen out of war hysteria.
Names of far-away places and campaigns became familiar: Dunkirk, Ardennes, Cherborg, Desert Fox, Guam, Okinawa, Midway, Blitzkrieg, Battle of the Bulge, the Russian Front.
By the spring 1944, the news took a more optimistic turn:
DESERET NEWS, June 6, 1944: SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE (AP) — The Allies landed in the Normandy section of northwest France early today and by evening had smashed their way inland on a broad front, making good a gigantic air and sea invasion against unexpectedly slight German opposition. …
In decided contrast to many American cities, Salt Lake City today received the news of the long-awaited European invasion quietly and many persons were unaware of the great news for some time after arising. No sirens, whistles or bells were sounded during the night and the first word many Utahns received was when Deseret News boys screamed "EXTRA" through the streets.
After that it was only a matter of time in Europe. On May 1, 1945, the News reported that "Adolf Hitler died 'at post of battle,' according to German radio broadcast." And finally, on May 8, 1945, the Deseret News joined other papers around the world in noting "the guns fell silent on the Western Front tonight and President Truman and Prime Minister Churchill proclaimed the victory to the world."
The war in Europe was over — but the Japanese fought on, until, after much deliberation, President Harry S Truman authorized the use of a powerful new weapon. A B-29 named Enola Gay, whose crew had trained at the Wendover Air Base, would deliver it:
DESERET NEWS, Aug. 6, 1945: WASHINGTON (AP) — An atomic bomb, hailed as the most terrible destructive force in history and as the greatest achievement of organized science, has been loosed upon Japan.
President Truman disclosed … that the first use of the bomb … was made 16 hours earlier on Hiroshima, Japanese army base. The atomic bomb is the answer, President Truman said, to Japan's refusal to surrender.
It took a second bomb, dropped on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, before the end came.
DESERET NEWS, Sept. 3, 1945: Thousands of Salt Lakers of all religious denominations are expected to fill the Salt Lake Tabernacle to capacity tomorrow night in a huge mass meeting of thanksgiving for peace, which came officially yesterday with the proclamation of V-J Day.
Recovery would take time. Steps were taken to help rebuild Europe; a G.I Bill offered veterans money for schooling; what would become known as "The Greatest Generation" went back to everyday life.
In Utah those happier pursuits included such things as symphony concerts, under the baton of newly appointed leader Maurice Abravanel; movies, including one starring Dean Jagger in the title role of "Brigham Young"; following the University of Utah basketball team, which had won the NCAA tournament in 1944; and getting back into a love of society and fashion.
One of the happy occasions was also the celebration of 100 years in the Salt Lake Valley. Even Truman sent his congratulations:
DESERET NEWS, July 24, 1947: "Utah stands in proud place among her sister commonwealths. Her rich agriculture, her business and industry, her pioneering in the social services, her zeal for education, and not the least, her men of wisdom and valiant women have given her a prestige unexcelled by any other state."
1950s: The good life
The lingering aftermath of World War II stretched into the next decade. The heat of battle had hardly been extinguished before the chill of a Cold War arose. Mutual distrust and animosity between former allies sent an "Iron Curtain" descending across parts of the world.
A clearer understanding of atomic energy also gave rise to "World War III jitters," a specter lurking in the background.
In fact, by 1955, readers of the Deseret News got this advice: "Thinking of adding a new patio or outdoor dining room to your home? An air raid shelter may be more appropriate … to protect against 'radioactive fallout from nuclear weapons' (atom bombs and such)."
In the early years of the decade, America's determination to stop the spread of communism led to conflict on the Korean Peninsula. Although it was technically a "police action" under the command of the United Nations, the U.S. provided 90 percent of the troops. And once again, Utahns responded to the call:
DESERET NEWS, Aug. 19, 1950: Saturday morning Utah sent its first military units into federal service. In Salt Lake City, in Logan, in Cedar City, and in a dozen smaller communities, men answered early muster calls, in uniform again, after five years.
It was several years before those uniforms went back into storage. Of the 7,564 Utahns who served in Korea, 436 did not come back.
But despite these concerns and an inauspicious beginning, the '50s are remembered by most who lived through them as good times. The economy boomed, consumer goods and services were plentiful, there was plenty of entertainment of all kinds, and a general optimism for the future.
DESERET NEWS, July 15, 1955: Probably everyone who has driven out in the suburbs and marveled at the way costly, spacious homes are sprawling over the foothills, or at the way every second car on the highway seems to be this year's model, has asked himself the same question: "Where on earth is all the money coming from?"
Well, part of that answer lies in the fact that for the first time in the nation's history, personal income is at a rate of more than 300 billion dollars a year. Civilian employment in May was at an all-time high of 62,703,000 jobs. Industrial production is at a peak.
Deseret News pages were filled with ads and enticements: Cars could not have too many fins; automatic dishwashers were all the rage; roast beef only cost 69 cents a pound; Coldspot refrigerators were only $179.95 ($27.50 down, $10.50 a month); potato chips from the Clover Club factory in Kaysville were a popular snack; you could get a bucket of takeout chicken at Harmons for $3.50 and "give Mom a break."
The spare time created by such convenience foods and labor-saving devices was easily filled.
Movies were wildly popular in April 1954, when Walt Disney's "Living Desert," in its ninth week at the Tower Theater, set a new "continuous run record in a single theater for pictures in Salt Lake City," surpassing records set by "The Robe," "The Jolson Story" and "From Here to Eternity."
On the other hand, you could stay home and watch a variety of entertainment on your small, snow-plagued, black-and-white, but much-loved, television set. After all, KSL-TV had announced in the newspaper that beginning Feb. 14, 1956, it would begin afternoon programming two days a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) and "will go on the air one-half hour earlier at 7 p.m. on Monday through Thursday. A combination of highly colorful children's programs including 'Uncle Roscoe and His Story Sketch Book' will occupy the earlier time."
And while it's true that many parents were worried about the effect of the new rock 'n' roll music, the appearance of Elvis Presley on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on Sept. 10, 1956, was a phenomenon.
The '50s saw the rise of an Interstate Highway system, which, the Deseret News noted in June 1956, would criss-cross the state by 1970 with "splendid four- and six-lane highways."
One place Utahns could go on those new roads was to Disneyland: The historic amusement park had opened in 1955.
Going places, after all, was in the air. The decade saw the conquering of Mount Everest, the voyages of the submarine Nautilus under polar ice caps, and the first launching of an "artificial moon," the Soviet satellite Sputnik.
1960s: The unthinkable
Maybe, in retrospect, the '50s only looked so good because of the '60s that came after them. History views this decade as the most divisive decade in our history. It definitely was in ways we thought about the world.
First, there was the Vietnam War, which started out as another idealistic, communism-containing venture, but it eventually divided the nation.
At first Utahns were supportive, and sent many of their own:
DESERET NEWS, Sept. 13, 1964: The "they shoot first" war in Viet Nam comes home to Kearns every few days when a couple there gets a letter from a son who's a machine gunner on a U.S. Army helicopter.
Robert Prester … has flown more than 25 combat missions as a helicopter machine gunner looking down for orange bursts of flame.
DESERET NEWS, March 2, 1968: "There are more LDS servicemen fighting the war in Vietnam than our own members and people in general realize."
So said Navy Lt. (Chaplain) Preston N. Kearsley of Victor, Idaho, as he paused in Salt Lake City on a leave of absence.
But as the conflict dragged on year after year with little progress and much destruction, stories in the Deseret News told of increasing protests, angry demonstrators and growing frustration.
The war played a part, but other social factors were at work: rebellion against authority, new social mores, disillusion with life. They all added new terms to news stories: counterculture, sit-in, hippie, psychedelic drugs.
Even more shocking were the gunshots that rang out in "Camelot" in 1963. John F. Kennedy's proposals for a "New Frontier" offered a great deal of hope as the "torch had been passed to a new generation."
So, Utahns could hardly comprehend what happened in Dallas, when a banner headline across the front page proclaimed simply "Kennedy Assassinated":
DESERET NEWS, Nov. 22, 1963: President Kennedy was assassinated Friday in a burst of gunfire in downtown Dallas. Texas Gov. John Connally was shot down with him.
The president, cradled in his wife's arms, has been rushed in his blood-spattered limousine to Parkland Hospital and taken to an emergency room. An urgent call went out for neurosurgeons and blood.
Five years later, an eerily similar tragedy added to the decade's despair:
DESERET NEWS, June 5, 1968: Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was critically wounded early today by a swarthy gunman as he was leaving a jubilant primary election celebration. After undergoing nearly four hours of surgery doctors said his condition was "extremely critical."
The decade was also scarred by the battle for civil rights. A hundred years after being freed from slavery, blacks were still treated as second-class citizens, but the time had come to fight for the equal benefits of citizenship they deserved.
Deseret News stories told of boycotts, marches, sit-ins — and violence. Once again, the unthinkable happened.
DESERET NEWS, April 6, 1968: MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. triggered Negro violence across the nation and caused President Johnson to cancel his planned trip to Hawaii.
The 39-year-old Dr. King died in a Memphis hospital Thursday night less than an hour after he was shot in the neck as he stood on the balcony of his motel here. Police searched for a white gunman. President Johnson called on the nation today — all men and all races — to "stand their ground to deny violence its victory" in the wake of the slaying of Dr. King.
As much as it seemed like civilization was teetering on the brink, there were also things to enjoy and celebrate in the '60s. It was the decade of the Beatles and the "English Invasion" of music. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir appeared at the New York World's Fair in 1964 and also gave a "command performance" at the White House for President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The Utah Symphony and Ballet West were going strong. Utah's own Gene Fullmer and Merlin Olsen were making news on the sports pages.
And the decade closed with a very high note, something equally unimaginable to many: man walking on the moon. The Deseret News even sent its own correspondent, Hal Knight, to Florida to cover the event:
DESERET NEWS, July 21, 1969: CAPE CANAVERAL — It was a heart-stopping, emotional experience to follow Apollo 11's dramatic landing on the moon and see man step out to explore the desolate lunar surface.
The feat ushered in a new era in human history. For better or worse, mankind has irrevocably turned its face toward the stars.
Words fail to describe adequately the feeling raised by this enormous event. The sense of awe and wonder was overwhelming as the scenes unfold.
1970s: A new mood
From fashion to music to women's rights to politics and the economy, America was ready for something different as the next decade dawned.
The rise and fall of President Richard Nixon was indicative of that. Nixon had campaigned on a promise to end the Vietnam War. Once in office, however, he found it harder than he thought. Still, the end finally arrived:
DESERET NEWS, March 29, 1973: SAIGON (UPI) — The United States' direct military role in the Vietnam War came to an official end at 5:53 p.m. today 12 years, two months and 29 days after it began — the longest war in American history.
At that moment, the last of a fleet of gleaming military transport planes left Saigon's Tan Son airport with the final group of the 2,501 departing GI.
The U.S. had not exactly lost the war, but it hadn't won it, either.
Still, Nixon was gaining accolades for his foreign policy, which had also included an unprecedented trip to China in 1972. That year he and national security adviser Henry Kissinger were described as an "odd couple, an improbable partnership," by Time Magazine, which selected them as "Men of the Year," the Deseret News reported.
Two years later, Nixon would be in disgrace, forced to leave office by a country increasingly intolerant of shady dealing. It was all due to his role in a burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington's Watergate Hotel. As evidence mounted of cover-ups and dirty dealing, the public became more outraged, and Nixon's days were numbered.
DESERET NEWS, Aug. 9, 1974: WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard M. Nixon took tearful leave of the White House and his devastated presidency today, telling the men and women who served him that only a man in the deepest valley can know "how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain." Then he flew to California, one last journey aboard Air Force One, departing a scant two hours before the formal passage of presidential power to Gerald R. Ford.
The political scene was one battleground of the '70s; the economy was another. It was bad at the beginning of the decade, and it would get worse. Almost daily price increases were spurred by inflation; and everyone, including the Deseret News, speculated where it would end.
DESERET NEWS, Nov. 19, 1970: If you had been earning $10,000 in 1949, you'd need $17,049 to get along today — and a whopping $5,526 of the increase would have been lost through inflation.
DESERET NEWS, April 1, 1974: Five cents isn't worth a plug nickel these days. You can't get a newspaper, send a postcard, you can't even find a pickle for a nickel anymore.
Problems were compounded by gasoline shortages that created long lines at gas stations. The government tried price controls, imposed a 55-mph speed limit, and story after story in the Deseret News offered cost-cutting, energy-saving, coping-with-life tips.
The paper also offered advice on fashion, where polyester was queen, and nothing too extreme, whether it was the hot pants of 1970, the chubby jacket of 1971, the Ultrasuede of 1972, the wrap-dress of 1973, the sloppy look of 1975, the skin-tight jeans of 1976, the Annie Hall droopy look of 1977 or the Thirties, Forties, Fifties look of 1978.
Women were fighting for more than freedom of fashion expression. Women's Lib, the Equal Rights Amendment and other issues all made headlines.
On the sports front, Utah was moving into the big time with its ABA basketball team, the Utah Stars, which took the championship title in 1971 before going defunct in 1975. Four years later, the ball would bounce again:
DESERET NEWS, Oct. 22, 1979: It has been a long time between tipoffs, but professional basketball — brown ball style — officially returns to the Salt Palace Monday night when the Utah Jazz hosts the Milwaukee Bucks.
With everything else that was going on, it's no surprise that the country was in the mood for a big party mid-decade, when 200 years had passed since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
The Bicentennial was celebrated everywhere—and with fervor.
New York put on a spectacular gathering of "tall ships." The Deseret News reported "there had never been anything like it before and there probably will never be again.… It has been described as a dramatic salute to a historic past, honoring the role of 'wooden ships and iron men' in the discovery, settlement and development of the United States."
In Washington, D.C., the original declaration was on display for a historic 76-hour salute. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, in town for the dedication of the visitor's center at the Washington Temple, sang to a crowd of 14,000 at the Capitol Center.
Utahns celebrated with statewide projects: Gov. Calvin Rampton's "A Million Trees for a Million People" tree-planting; the Bicentennial concert hall-art center in downtown Salt Lake (eventually to be named Abravanel Hall); renovation of the Capitol Theater, restoration of Willard's pioneer cemetery; new playground equipment in Hyde Park; restoration of the Union Pacific Railroad Station in Ogden and more.
Said the Deseret News, "Long after the echoes of the three-day Independence Day revelry have diffused and the burst of fireworks become only a twinkle in the mind's eye of a little boy who remembers, the Bicentennial observance will continue to have an impact on Utahns."
1980s: Battles everywhere
For a relatively peaceful decade, the 1980s served up battles on a number of fronts.
On the ideological side, after the frenetic '60s and '70s, Americans had turned to a new conservatism under actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan.
Reagan not only faced worsening U.S.-Soviet relations but survived two assassination attempts, ordered an invasion of Grenada and became embroiled in the Iran-Contra affair. Deseret New readers got in-depth coverage of it all:
DESERET NEWS, March 30, 1981: WASHINGTON — President Reagan was shot in the chest by a gunman Monday outside a Washington hotel. He was reported conscious and in stable condition at George Washington University Hospital. The gunman [John W. Hinckley], firing at close range, also wounded White House press secretary James Brady in the head.
DESERET NEWS, Oct. 24, 1983: WASHINGTON (AP) — President Reagan said Tuesday he ordered the invasion of Grenada because a large number of Americans were in danger from a new government run by a "brutal group of leftist thugs."
DESERET NEWS, Sept.. 13, 1987: Utahns like Lt. Col Oliver North. They don't want him prosecuted for his involvement in giving Contras money from the Iranian arms sales, even though they believe he acted illegally. They say North is a hero and patriot who didn't act out of hope for personal gain.
As a response to potential missile attacks, Reagan proposed a system of missiles mounted on railroad tracks. As Utah was a possible location, it generated a lot of ink locally, even though it never got off the ground:
DESERET NEWS, Jan. 16, 1981: Some are for it. Some are against it. Some are confused by it and all of them wonder about it. But all in the Delta area would be touched by the MX [Missile Experimental] if the Air Forces decides to base the gigantic project in their backyard.
Even the Olympics became a political target. In February 1980, President Jimmy Carter announced that the United States would not participate in that summer's Olympics in Moscow. Four years later, the Soviets returned the favor, citing, as an AP story said, "the United States' 'cavalier attitude' toward the Olympic charter."
Mother Nature offered battles of a different sort:
DESERET NEWS, Mar. 28, 1980: An 'eruptive plume" of volcanic gas and ash spewed four miles high, and mudslides oozed down the snowy slopes of Mount St. Helens Friday in the first eruption of the volcano in more than 120 years.
And at home:
DESERET NEWS, April 16, 1983: THISTLE JUNCTION — Three Utah construction companies are working around the clock to stop a moving mountain.
DESERET NEWS, May 29, 1983: Swift increases in City Creek's streamflow Saturday afternoon flooded downtown Salt Lake City, turning North Temple into a river blocking Main and State streets.
On the technology front, Utahns struggled to learn how to program new videocassette recorders and figure out how to use personal computers, learning that they were not, as the Deseret News said, "magic machines after all, but only tools. All that will come out is what you put in."
In the meantime scientists at the University of Utah were dealing with larger scientific issues. On Dec. 2, 1982, announcement came that the "Jarvik 7, Utah's artificial heart, was pumping in the chest of Barney Clark." It may have extended Clark's life a few months, but that was all, and scientists went back to the drawing board.
In March 1989 came an even more radical announcement; The U.'s Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann announced they had created a "cold fusion" reaction that "could provide virtually, clean and inexpensive energy." The announcement generated a worldwide buzz; sadly, the experiment was never successfully repeated.
Worse news came for the space shuttle, which had replaced moon landings as America's presence in space:
DESERET NEWS, Jan. 28, 1986: (AP) — Space Shuttle Challenger exploded into a gigantic fireball 75 seconds after liftoff Tuesday, apparently killing all seven crew members, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
Blame was eventually traced to faulty O-ring seals produced at Utah's Thiokol, which were later found to have been impacted by the weather. It took more than two years of testing and redesign before America returned to space.
But one of the decade's battles turned out with unequivocally good results — at least if you were a BYU football fan. After an undefeated season and a win in the Holiday Bowl — and a lot of naysaying on the part of national football fans everywhere — the Deseret News reported the good news: The AP, UPI and CNN/USA polls all agreed: BYU was No. 1.
1990s: A few victories
Much news of the 1990s was good news.
The decade started with a booming economy, especially locally. The Deseret News reported in December 1990, that "Utah retailers may have a merrier Christmas than merchants elsewhere in the nation." In 1991, the paper noted that "Despite a 'sluggish national economic performance,' Utah's business conditions remain healthy."
And in 1999: "America's cheerful spending spree is zooming right along and the shopping center was a dominant force in retail sales last year."
Equally bright was the news from the world's political front as the Cold War finally came to an end. Beginning in 1989, Germany reunited; the Soviet Union fell apart; and the Iron Curtain rose all over eastern Europe.
DESERET NEWS, Dec. 25, 1991: MOSCOW (AP) — Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, announced Wednesday night that he is resigning as president of the now-dissolved communist empire.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia managed a "velvet revolution," without bloodshed. The countries arising out of the former Yugoslavia were not so lucky, as violence erupted in Bosnia, Kosovo and other former states.
For a time, at least, the world seemed like a brighter place.
But America quickly found a new enemy: In August 1990, Iraq's Saddam Hussein sent his army into the neighboring kingdom of Kuwait. When U.N. pleas for withdrawal and a trade embargo failed to move the invaders, President George H. W. Bush put together a coalition of 39 countries and went to war.
DESERET NEWS, Jan. 17, 1991: "It was tremendous. Baghdad was lit up like a Christmas tree," said a U.S. wing commander back from bombing the Iraqi capital. "There were lots of bombs going off. It was an awesome display," said another pilot who took part in the first raids of the gulf war to drive Iraq out of Kuwait."
Unlike the wars that preceded it, and those that would come after, the so-called Deseret Storm was over in a hurry, with an outcome Americans loved: On Feb. 27, 1991, the Deseret News announced that Baghdad was willing to drop all claims to Kuwait if the "allied assault would only stop."
But like many others in the country, Deseret News editorial writers offered a note of caution:
DESERET NEWS, Feb. 27, 1991: Now that allied forces seem assured of sweeping victory in the Persian Gulf, the resulting elation must not obscure a painful fact of international life:
Victory in war does not automatically translate into victory in the ensuing peace.
The nation discovered that in another arena, as well. After a stand-off that lasted for weeks between federal agents and a radical sect called the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the news came:
DESERET NEWS, April 19, 1993: (AP) — The compound where cult leader David Koresh and 95 follwers holed up for 51 days burned to the ground Monday after FBI agents in an armored vehicle smashed in buildings and pumped in tear gas. The Justice Department said cult members set the fire.
The Feds had lost four agents earlier in the skirmish; 40 of the Branch Davidians died in the fire. It should have been over. Instead, one watcher, Timothy McVeigh, plotted his own twisted revenge.
DESERET NEWS, April 19, 1995: OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An explosion believed caused by a bomb shattered a downtown federal office building Wednesday, blowing out a huge chunk of the nine-story structure.
The death toll was 168. In a lucky fluke, McVeigh was stopped on a traffic violation in Perry, Okla., 90 minutes after the blast and arrested because he carried a gun, and the horrible story began to come together.
Better news came as Utah and the LDS church celebrated a milestone victory in 1997, with the sesquicentennial anniversary of the original pioneer trek. The celebration included a commemorative wagon train from Nauvoo, Ill., to Salt Lake City.
In 1997 and 1998, the Utah Jazz finally made its way into the NBA finals. Although they came up short both years in heart-breaking losses to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, the appearances were still seen as a victory for Utah sports.
As was the fact that BYU's Ty Detmer has won football's Heisman Trophy in 1990, winning for Jim McMahon, Steve Young, Marc Wilson and Robbie Bosco and "all those great Brigham Young quarterbacks who posted eye-popping numbers, yet were slighted."
The decade closed out with bizarre series of events that came to be known as the Clinton Affair. President Bill Clinton's administration had been plagued with rumors of shady business dealings and charges of infidelity. Then came reports that he had engaged in an affair with a White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.
On Dec. 19, 1998, the Deseret News reported that Clinton had been impeached by the House of Representatives for "obstructing justice and lying under oath." But in February 1991, after lengthy hearings, the Senate failed to convict him.
Hard to say just who was the ultimate victor in that one.
2000s: By the numbers
At midnight on Dec. 31, 1999, the world's odometer turned over. We welcomed not only a new century, but a new millennium. True, it didn't technically start until 2001, but we loved those zeroes.
Fittingly, the double-zeroed decade now called by some "The Aughts," was in many ways a decade that will be remembered by its numbers.
It started off with worries about Y2K. For months before the new year arrived, computer geeks, technology experts and even government leaders posed concerns that the world's computers might not be able to handle the shift from 1999 to 2000. It might prove disastrous to everything from payroll schedules to nuclear reactors.
But a few days into the new year, the Deseret News Washington correspondent reported that all was well:
DESERET NEWS, Jan. 4, 2000: WASHINGTON — The federal Y2K command center ceased around-the-clock operations Tuesday as officials declared final victory over the Y2K computer bug.
"We can safely say what has been referred to as the Y2K bug has been squashed," said John A. Koskinen, the president's Y2K adviser, after the first full work day of the millennium on Monday produced no major Y2K problems. In fact, things have gone almost too smoothly since the New Year, leaving Koskinen and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah — the first national leader to draw major attention to the problem — to face constant questions about whether the threat was ever real.
"That's interesting because just before the new year, some doomsdayers attacked me for happy talk, saying I was lying when I said I didn't think it would be too bad," Bennett said in the national Y2K command center.
The news was much, much worse on a September morning the next year:
DESERET NEWS, Sept. 11, 2001: NEW YORK (AP) — In a horrific sequence of destruction, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center and one of the towers collapsed Tuesday morning in what President Bush said was an apparent terrorist attack. A witness said he saw bodies falling from the 110-story towers and people jumping out. ...
Within the hour, an aircraft crashed at the Pentagon as well, and officials evacuated the White House and other major government buildings.
One of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center had been hijacked after takeoff from Boston, a U.S. official said, citing a transmission from the plane.
The planes that slammed into the Trade Center blasted fiery, gaping holes in the upper floors of the twin towers. The southern tower collapsed with a roar about an hour later.
The world changed overnight after what would become known simply at 9/11. Air travel would never be the same. Tensions between the United States and Muslim extremists, particularly al-Qaida, which was blamed for the terrorist attack, escalated into long, heart-wrenching wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New security measures and agencies were pressed into action. Perhaps more importantly, Americans never felt quite as whole, quite as idealistic, again. They had been attacked on their home soil, and it would hurt for a long, long time.
In a Christmas Day story, first lady Laura Bush expressed the feelings of many. Since then, "all of us have changed," she said. "Our lives have changed. What we expect has changed, and what we think about has changed, and the feeling that we have as Americans of not being vulnerable, you know, has changed."
Those changes would pretty much color everything that happened in the decade. But the country was ready for some relief and celebration when the XIX Winter Games opened in Salt Lake City in February 2002.
Utahns had been talking about bringing the games to Salt Lake City for decades, and had been presenting their case to the International Olympics Committee for years. Finally, in June 1995, the city got the good news: "the city of Salt Lake City" would host the 2002 games.
Pretty much everyone on the organizing committee, at least, knew that the way to get the games was not just to offer the best location, but also to treat the selection committee as royalty. As news of some that treatment broke, however, the Games became mired in scandal. Tom Welch resigned from his post as head of SLOC; Mitt Romney was brought in "as a white knight to pick up the pieces."
But all that was in the past as the actual games, with increased security, arrived:
DESERET NEWS, Feb. 8, 2002: President Bush, casting the Olympics as a patriotic tribute to U.S. virtues, said Friday the competition in Salt Lake City will celebrate the same ideals displayed by firefighters, police and other heroes of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"We believe that these ideals — liberty and freedom — make it possible for people to live together in peace, and the Olympics give the world a chance in the middle of a difficult struggle to celebrate international peace and cooperation," Bush said in remarks prepared for delivery at an Olympic reception.
The games went on with few hitches and many heart-warming stories. At the end, a Deseret News editorial summed up the achievements:
DESERET NEWS, Feb. 25, 2002: Is it really over? The event that dominated organizers' lives for years?
The 2002 Winter Olympic Games are indeed at an end, and they went out soaring and literally with more than a few bangs.
Sunday's closing ceremony featured the biggest fireworks display the state has ever seen — large cannons spewed 24-inch fireworks shells into the sky. Francis Scott Key might have thought he was reliving the 1814 battle of Fort McHenry that inspired the "Star Spangled Banner."
But it had so much more than the other-worldly aerial displays.
What was also on display for the world to see were the hearts of the athletes, which transcended national and political boundaries.
That, as much as the incredible performances, is what needs to be taken from these Games.
The theme of the Games was "Light the fire within." Mission accomplished.
Numbers were used to measure the impact of "America's deadliest natural disaster in a century," when Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast on August 28, 2005. The Category 4 storm had winds of 135-145 mph. News came in piecemeal: 80 percent of New Orleans was under water, some of it 20 feet deep, and the whole city of 485,000 was urged by its mayor to evacuate; 400,000 people were out of power in Alabama; at least 50 and maybe as many as 80 were killed in Mississippi.
The final toll was unmeasurable: billions of dollars in damage; thousands of casualties of one kind or another.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Gordon B. Hinckley made news when he died on Jan. 27, 2008, at age 97, "after guiding the LDS Church through explosive growth during his more than 12 years as president. Worldwide church membership grew from 9 million to more than 13 million during his administration, and dozens of new temples were constructed," noted the Deseret News. On Feb. 4, Thomas S. Monson was introduced as the 16th president of the LDS Church.
Barack Obama made history in 2008 when he became the first African-American to be elected president of the United States.
Through the decade, the numbers of technology were mind-boggling. Just one example:
DESERET NEWS, Dec. 28, 2009: Apple's 1999 iMac came with 64 megabytes of RAM, memory that helps computers switch among programs. Today's iMac today has 60 times as much. The vintage iMac had a 10-gigabyte hard drive for storing digital photos and other files. Now iPods have more space than that, and iMac drives start at 500 gigabytes.
In pop culture, the numbers also reflected an increasing Utah presence on the national stage: No. 1 best sellers for BYU graduate Stephenie Meyer and her vampires, for Brandon Mull and his "Fablehaven" series, for Richard Paul Evans. Donny Osmond came in No. 1 on "Dancing With the Stars." The 5 Browns hit it big on classical charts. There was a Tony award for the Shakespearean Festival; Utahns appeared regularly on TV's reality shows and more.
"You could certainly argue," said the Deseret News, "that for a state with less than 1 percent of the nation's population, Utah made a disproportionately large splash."
e-mail: carma@desnews.com