Safeguarding Utah’s prehistoric rock art

Volunteers record and guard the state’s precious archaeological sites. By Ellen Fagg Weist | Photography by Keith Johnson TOOELE VALLEY > This morning’s fog makes everything look mysterious as we head to the West Desert to see rock art. It’s a gray January Saturday in-between snow storms, so access roads have turned into mud wrestling pits under our tires. On …

We are the Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement.

New Name. Better Alignment. The Utah Department of Heritage & Arts officially became the Utah Department of Cultural & Community Engagement (CCE) on May 5, 2021. This name change better reflects who we are as a department, and it brings common goals to the forefront as it aligns us as a family of divisions. Just as the name Cultural and …

“The Peoples of Utah”- revisited, to be ready for USA’s 250th (1776-2026) anniversary celebration

January 11, 2021 (Season 2, Episode 10, 42 minutes) BuzzSprout version of this Speak Your Piece podcast. The above panoramic photo is of members of the Ogden chapter of AHEPA (American Hellenic Educational Progressive Associations) gathered at the Mantua, Utah Fish Hatchery on July 28, 1929. Courtesy of the Utah State Historical Society. It has been forty-five years (1976-2021) since Utah historian Helen …

Utah’s Archaeological Past and the “Utah Cultural Stewardship Program”

01.25.2021 (Season 2: Episode 12; 54 minutes long) BuzzSprout version of the Speak Your Piece Podcast. Above photograph is of a petroglyph panel in Nine Mile Canyon (Duchesne County, Utah); Frank Beckwith photographer, Classified Photograph Collection, Utah State Historical Society. This episode of Speak Your Piece is about how you can learn, how you can experience the wonder, and how …

Utah’s Small Museum Landscape

1.18.2021 (Season 2: Episode 11; 64 minutes) Speak Your Piece Podcast on Buzzsprout. Above photograph is of the Uintah County Heritage Musuem (Vernal, Utah, 2019). The guests in this Speak Your Piece episode live and work in three dispersed regions of Utah: LeeAnn Denzer from east central Utah (Ashley Valley), Diana Call in the southwest corner (Little Valley) and Jami Van Huss …

Dr. Martha Bradley Evans: 20th century Utah and LDS women’s history, including the fight over the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

January 4, 2021 (Season 2, Episode 9) BuzzSprout version of this Speak Your Piece podcast. Above photo caption: Anti-ERA banquet, Washington, D.C., March 22, 1979; Anti-ERA activist Phyllis Schlafry (center) framed by Utah Repulican senator Orrin G. Hatch (right) and North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms (left), as the three accept applauds from banquet attendees (use by permission from Associated Press). …

Sons of Utah Pioneers (SUP), their magazine “The Pioneer,” & their 125th statehood anniversary issue

12.28.2020 (Season 2: Episode 8; 57 minutes) BuzzSprout version Speak Your Piece Podcast. Above illustration: The front cover of the Pioneer (vol. 67: No. 4, 2020 released 01.2021); courtesy of the SUP. Podcast (part 1 and 2 combined): Podcast Introduction: This episode includes William Tanner, the publisher of the Sons of Utah Pioneer’s (SUP) magazine; Wayne Hinton, the organization’s 2020 national …

A Patriarch & Three Scions: George Q. Cannon and his oldest sons John, Frank & Abraham

12.11.2020 (Season 2: Episode 7; 50 minutes) Speak Your Piece Podcast. Above photograph (left to right): Frank J. Cannon, Abraham H. Cannon, George Q. Cannon (patriarch) and John Q. Cannon; Charles R. Savage, photographer, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. Courtesy of the LDS Church HIstory Library. Podcast (part 1 and 2 combined): Podcast Introduction: Keep in mind that on January …

Psychiatric Hospitals (mid-1800s to the 1950s), Scientific Race Theories and Eugenics in the Interior West: a Conversation with Dr. Cassandra Clark

09.14.2020 (Season 2: Episode 4, Segment one 40 min. and two 35 min.) Speak Your Piece Podcast. Above illustrations: Phrenology illustration (Wikipedia Commons) and Eugenics Congress announcement (Vermont Eugenics: A Documentary History). Part One: Part Two: Podcast Intro: Speaking about the development of psychiatric hospitals in the interior West (Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming and Utah), Dr. Cassandra Clark describes in this …

Pre-European Settlement, Crossroads, and the Idea of Home

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Fourby Brad Westwood Native Americans lived in what is now Salt Lake’s west side. After Europeans began to colonize North, South, and Central America, the Great Basin became a site where many different people and nationalities claimed ownership. In this post, we will consider how the Native Americans of the Salt Lake Valley interacted …

The Old Pioneer Fort’s First and Second Years

Salt Lake West Side Stories: Post Sixby Brad Westwood Above photo caption: Kirk Henrichsen’s bird’s eye sketch of the Fort on the Great Salt Lake, circa 1849, extending from 300 to 400 West and 250 to 600 South. Henrichsen’s drawings included log and adobe cabins, gateways, hundreds of wagons used for cooking and sleeping (inside, under, and around), the flagpole, …