This blog post was written by McKenzie Wood, a 2022 AS-L Outreach Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. She is in her master’s program for Library and Information Science at St. John’s University in Queens, New York and is particularly interested in criminal justice. On September 9, 1891, Adolf F. Kohler was shot and killed by local …
Celebrating Sunshine Week with GRAMA
This blog post was written by Becky Wright who is an Archivist with the Davis County Clerk and Auditor’s Office. This is the first in a series of blog posts she authored in celebration of Sunshine Week. Sunshine Week is a nation-wide initiative promoting open government and access to public information. To read the other blog posts, check out the …
Uncovering History: Dr. William D. Reeve Through The Years
This blog post was written by Eric Schubert, a 2021 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. He is a junior at Elizabethtown College and working on his history and political science degree. In today’s day and age, various historical databases can tell us so much about the lives of those who lived before us. By picking a record …
Eugenics in Twentieth-Century Utah
This blog post was written by Jack Tingey, a 2021 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. Jack graduated from BYU with a BA in history and an emphasis on 19th century American history. In the spring of 1927, Esau Walton awaited forced sterilization under Utah’s eugenics laws. In May of that year, the state corrections board had ruled …
“All Were Rattled”: Butch Cassidy, The Castle Gate Robbery, and the Wild West
This blog post was written by Emily Stoll, a summer 2021 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. She is a senior at Weber State University and working on her public history degree. On April 21st, 1897, the Pleasant Valley Coal Company located in Castle Gate, Utah, was robbed in broad daylight. Considered to be one of the …
Where Do I Catch the Train to Las Vegas?
Written by Tony Castro, Reference Archivist at the Utah State Archives and Records Service Research Center. These days, historic railroad stations across the country seem to be for everything except purchasing tickets and boarding trains. What’s more popular these days are a variety of services such as chambers of commerce, history museums, and antique shops. In some cases, the stations …
Remembering the Castle Gate Mining Disaster
On March 8, 1924, explosions within a Castle Gate coal mine changed the lives of over one hundred families in Carbon County, UT. A headlamp ignited methane gas, which in turn incinerated airborne coal dust and caused an explosive chain reaction killing 172 men. There were no survivors. The disaster left 110 widows with 264 dependent children. The Red Cross …
Documents on the Utah Public Notice Website
This guest post is written by Glen Fairclough who is the administrator of the Utah Public Notice Website. From time to time, people ask whether documents posted on the Utah Public Notice Website are ever removed. The answer to that question has changed. From its inception in 2008, the practice was to make all documents available through the website. Given …
Finding the Needle in a Haystack
Finding a needle in a haystack, better known as locating a single file among 139,264 boxes.
State of the State Archives – 2019
Guest Post by Ken Williams, State Archivist and Director of the State Archives. A new year has arrived at the Utah State Archives and Records Service with several exciting accomplishments behind us, initiatives on the horizon, and the kick-off of another legislative session. Here are just a few things that we have been doing. Last year, our Open Government team …