ByValerie Vaughan

The aspens turn gold and the sage faintly lavender near Temple Fork in Logan Canyon. / Photo by USU communication department.

Editor's note: This story was produced for the USU mass communication class "Beyond the Inverted Pyramid," COMM 3110.

The car begins to accelerate as it makes its descent onto the narrow, winding pathway that darts in and out of a towering mountain range. At first I'm startled to see the vast array of reds, yellows, oranges and greens speckled across the mountain side like an accident on a painter's canvas. I am in awe at mother nature's autumn display. A cool scented breeze wafts in through a partially cracked window filling the car with the fragrance of wood and leaves. I can't help letting my mind wander as I contemplate the tales of a canyon.

The story of Logan Canyon begins with the first humans to explore it in 4,000 B.C., the Northwest Shoshoni tribe. According to historical accounts, these nomadic hunters and gatherers found their way through the canyon to what they believed to be a holy place they called "The House of the Great Spirit."

For nearly 5,000 years, the Shoshoni people lived off the land and were dependent on wild food. The land was rich with buffalo and other large game. However, in the early 1770s, the Shoshoni acquired horses, which changed their lives dramatically. Horses made it easier for the tribe to kill bison, which eventually led to the decline of buffalo in Logan Canyon and Cache Valley. The winter of 1827 brought severe cold that killed off what remained of the buffalo population.

The next group of people to make their way through Logan Canyon were fur trappers in the early 1800s. This group included men such as Jim Bridger, Jedediah Smith and Peter Skene Ogden. As they journeyed through the canyon and valley, they trapped beaver and hoarded the pelts to sell and trade at the Mountainman Rendezvous. In order to store the pelts until rendezvous time, the trappers would dig holes or "caches" in the sides of the mountains and hide their goods. The rendevous were an opportunity to "cache" in one's goods, hence the name "Cache Valley."

Ross Peterson, a Utah historian and former Utah State University professor, explained that rendezvous time was not only for economic reasons, but for social reasons as well. The mountainmen would trap in the winter and hold their rendezvous in the summer. There they would meet with their employers and receive money for the pelts they had collected. These meetings could last anywhere from one month to six weeks. It was a time to party, have fun, and meet with friends.

"Old Eph was such

a magnificent specimen

and I was not happy over

having killed him."

Peterson says that rendezvous are still held today, but they are simply re-enactments. Participants dress like the mountainmen, have cooking competitions and engage in recreational activities such as knife throwing.

One of the first fur trappers was Ephraim Logan. He came to Cache Valley in 1824 and trapped for a couple of years. He attended his first Mountainman Rendezvous in 1825. A few years later, Logan was hunting on the Snake River when he was attacked and killed by a group of Shoshoni Indians. News of Logan's death spread. His friends and fellow trappers decided to honor him by changing the name of the Bourdon River to the Logan River. Once settlers came to the valley, they used the name of the river for their new settlement, the town of Logan.

Warren Angus Ferris, another well-known mountainman, was the first person to write about travel through Logan Canyon in his book, Life in the Rocky Mountains.

Part of his account reads: "The sun could be seen only for a short time, and that in the middle of the day. We were often compelled while struggling over the defile, to cross the stream and force our way through almost impenetrable thickets, and at times, to follow a narrow trail along the borders of precipices, where a single misstep would inevitably have sent horse and rider to the shades of death." The travel through the canyon was difficult and not made by many people because of the obstacles that needed to be overcome. The impenetrable thickets have now been removed to make room for the smooth black Highway 89 that winds through the trails Ferris had once struggled through.

By 1840 the fashion trend had changed and fur prices declined, bringing an end to the Mountainman Era. Until 1855, few people traveled through Logan Canyon because of the narrow trails covered in overgrown thickets and deep snow in the winter.

On July 24, 1855, the first white settlers, part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came to Cache Valley. Brigham Young, president of the Mormon church, sent 23 men and two women to the valley in order to establish a cattle ranch.

The settlers knew of the treacherous canyon conditions and avoided using the resources of wood and building material the canyon had to offer. Instead they built their homes and some businesses out of adobe bricks. When lumber was needed, the settlers would go to Green Canyon, north of Logan Canyon, and cut the trees there. In 1862, E.T. Benson, a local leader, proposed building a road through Logan Canyon. By 1869 the work was completed and a toll road was in use from Logan to Wood Camp.

Frequent use of Logan Canyon did not begin until the 1880s when Mormon settlers were in search of lumber to build a tabernacle and temple. Logan Canyon offered abundant amounts of resources to these settlers. A sawmill was built at Temple Fork, a few miles up-canyon from Wood Camp, to help with the building efforts of the temple, tabernacle and railroad. A crew of 20 to 30 employees, appointed by church leaders, worked year round to produce the needed materials. The workers were paid in mill products that they used to build their own houses, graineries and buildings.

Between 1884 and 1887, the mill produced 2.5 million board feet of lumber, 21,000 railroad ties, 900,000 laths, 2 million shingles, 50,000 pickets, charcoal and an unaccounted number of broom handles. Twelve yoke of oxen had to be used to move lumber through the canyon. Work at the saw mill continued through the harsh winters. It was easier to move the lumber over the smooth surface of snow during the winter months. A bunkhouse was built at the sawmill to house the workers and became a social hub as families would visit on weekends and holidays. The temple and tabernacle were completed by 1883 and the sawmill ceased operations.

The sawmill mysteriously burned down in February 1886. A boulder with an embedded plaque now marks the road to Temple Fork and provides a glimpse of the history for this section of the canyon.

After the dedication of the Logan LDS Temple and the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad, the road through Logan Canyon once again saw little use. The deterioration of the road was extensive and in 1890, the county and state took control of the road and began efforts to improve it.

Second Dam stands as a symbol that it was not long before other groups found uses for Logan Canyon. Here, the first power plant was built for the city of Logan by Hercules Power Company around 1895. After 20 years and several court battles, the Logan city government gained control of the power plant and has operated it ever since.

People also began to use the canyon for recreational purposes. President Young admonished the LDS people to enjoy the Utah canyons. He said, "I am going to explore in the mountains, and I invite you to go. . . . The outdoor air is what the people need for health, it is good for them to campout." By the 1880s, people had taken heed to his counsel and sought escape in the canyon. By the early 20th century, they would load up their Model T's with food and musical instruments and head to the mountains to escape the summer heat. Places like Camp Guinavah-Malibu grew in popularity.

One unnamed forest ranger observed, "A stranger passing through Logan Canyon on a holiday in midsummer would surely think that Cache Valley had moved to the mountains!"

A Forest Service report from 1927 stated that over 79,000 cars passed through the canyon during that summer and at least 30,000 spent the entire day. This opinion was a sign of the canyon's growing recreational popularity.

In 1932, Utah State Agricultural College held its Winter Carnival at Tony Grove, where competitive skiing was the main event. By 1939, a ski lift was installed at Beaver Mountain, but there were several obstacles that skiers faced. There was no parking, skiers had to walk a mile to get to the lift, and someone had to hike to the top of the hill to turn on the tow rope's engine made from a DeSoto car engine and a half-inch steel cable. Skiers would use an iron hook with a rope attached in order to hold on to the cable and get to the top of the hill. But, within 10 years, a ski resort was built and was in full operation.

Another use for Logan Canyon was livestock grazing. Beginning in the early 1870s cattlemen herded their cattle into the canyon at the beginning of grazing season and rounded them up in the fall. By 1903, the land was over-grazed and barren.

Utah State Professor William Peterson wrote, "I purposely visited the very head of the canyons, those areas which were most generally in accessible, but greatly to my surprise sheep had been there and had transformed what had previously been a luxuriant growth of grass and flowers into a dirty, uninviting barren spot."

In 1930, the Taylor Grazing Act was created, reducing the number of cattle and sheep allowed to graze on the land. Many people felt the damage was too much to be repaired. Several native animals, such as bighorn sheep, had been displaced by the more domestic animals. Cattle and sheep herders also killed off large amounts of wildlife to protect their flocks.

Take, for instance, the tale of Old Ephraim, the last grizzly bear of Logan Canyon. Frank Clark, a sheepherder, believed that part of his flock had been killed by a giant grizzly bear. He had been following "Old Eph" for several weeks, but was never able to outsmart the bear.

Clark disguised a 23-pound trap in what was believed to be the bear's wallows. Clark was awakened the evening he set the trap to an awful roar. He jumped out of bed and ran to find the disturbance. There he met Old Ephraim, dragging the huge trap behind him. Clark sneaked behind the creature and shot him in the upper back. Years later, Clark regretted that dreadful night when he met Old Ephraim.

"Old Eph was such a magnificent specimen and I was not happy over having killed him, and if I had it to do over again I wouldn't do it," he said.

Today, the skull of the grizzly that once stood 9 feet, 11 inches tall and could kill an elk by snapping its back with a single mighty blow, now sits on display in Special Collections in Merrill Library at Utah State University. The mangled remains of the bear are barely recognizable. One large tooth protrudes from a mass of yellow and charred black bone deteriorated and discolored by age. The skull is marked by serial number 243406, much like an ancient dinosaur display in a museum.

This piece, however, proudly rests atop soft, red velvet in a case with crystal clear glass and illuminated by a striking spotlight. This display radiates respect for a creature that once roamed only a few miles away.

The canyon experienced great growth and improvement during the 1930s because of a group known as the Civilian Conservation Corps. This group, numbering some 2.5 million young men nationwide, was part of President Franklin Roosevelt's plan to provide employment for able-bodied but destitute workers. The CCC was responsible for building campgrounds, fighting forest fires, installing snow surveys, repairing roads and fences and other projects meant for the improvement of the canyon. For the first time, the highway through Logan Canyon was in good enough condition to allow the road to stay open year round in 1939.

On Jan. 6, 1953, the largest disaster in Logan Canyon occurred at Beaver Mountain. A chartered C-47 airplane was traveling from Seattle, Wash., to Fort Jackson, S.C., when it iced up and crashed in a forest near the mountain. Thirty-seven servicemen, veterans of the Korean War, and three crew members were all killed. Today the crash site is marked by a memorial honoring those who died in the crash.

So much has taken place in Logan Canyon over time, from Indians to Mountainmen, and recreation to disasters. But the canyon awaits so much more in the future. With in increase in tourism and travel through the canyon, many questions have surfaced.

"I believe Logan Canyon will be a battleground for environmental and watershed issues in the future," Ross Peterson predicted.

My car comes to a stop off the main road. As I leave the shelter of my vehicle, a cool autumn breeze brushes against my skin. The colorful array of leaves crunch beneath my feet as I find a rock to rest on nestled in a thicket of trees. As I breathe in the fresh mountain air, I can sense the rich history in the scene around me. I can almost feel the anticipation of the future as it unravels and adds to the past. I come to the conclusion that this canyon is the culmination of thousands of years, a collection of memories, and a history of past generations. It doesn't end there, the canyon will continue to play a role in lives of Cache Valley residents and visitors for years to come.

MS
MS

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