Utah History Encyclopedia
SOUTHERN SLAVS IN UTAH Miners, including Southern Slavs, at Scofield Southern Slavs, comprising Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs, formed another aspect of the "new" immigration that arrived in Utah in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As with other southern and eastern European groups, South Slavs were drawn to Utah for its mining and railroading opportunities. The first wave arrived in the late 1890s, congregating in the coal-mining regions of southeastern Utah, particularly Carbon County. These peoples, labeled as "Austrians," were a significant force in the Carbon County coal mines in the 1903-04 strike. Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs came from Austria-Hungary, from the provinces of Croatia-Slavonia, Carniola, Dalmatia, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. They generally came from farming villages that were homogenous in their particular culture, language, and religion. Serbs were Serbian Orthodox, while Slovenes and Croats were Roman Catholic. Slavic immigration into Utah was but one manifestation of a general Southern Slav population movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. First attracted to the East and Midwest, many Southern Slavs left communities there to seek greater opportunities in the American West, including Utah. In addition to Carbon County, these immigrants traveled to Ogden, working for the Union Pacific Railroad, and to the mines of Bingham Canyon, Alta, and Park City, as well as to the smelters of the Salt Lake Valley. A second wave came to Utah in the period prior to World War I. A pattern of migration developed between the mining areas of Utah, Colorado, Montana, and Nevada. The flow was based upon the seasonal demand for coal, causing men to migrate to metal 1 of 5 mining areas when coal mines experienced a slowdown.
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