Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2010-07-08 Making the Desert Blossom: Public Works in Washington County, Utah Michael Lyle Shamo Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the History Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Shamo, Michael Lyle, "Making the Desert Blossom: Public Works in Washington County, Utah" (2010). Theses and Dissertations. 2555. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/2555 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Making the Desert Blossom: Public Works In Washington County, Utah Michael Lyle Shamo A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Brian Q. Cannon, Chair Kathryn M. Daynes Ignacio M. Garcia Department of History Brigham Young University August 2010 Copyright © 2010 Michael Lyle Shamo All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Making the Desert Blossom: Public Works in Washington County, Utah Michael Lyle Shamo Department of History Master of Arts The following thesis is a study of how communities of Washington County, Utah developed within one of the most inhospitable deserts of the American West. A trend of reliance on public works programs during economic depressions, not only put people to work, but also provided an influx of outside aid to develop an infrastructure for future economic stability and growth. Each of these public works was carefully planned by leaders who not only saw the immediate impact these projects would have, but also future benefits they would confer. These communities also became dependent on acquiring outside investment capital from the Mormon Church, private companies and government agencies. This dependency required residents to cooperate not only with each other, but with these outside interests who now had a stake in the county’s development. The construction of the Mormon Tabernacle and Temple in St. George during the 1870s made that community an important religious and cultural hub for the entire region. Large-scale irrigation and reclamation projects in the 1890s opened up new areas for agriculture and settlement. And in the 1920s and 1930s the development of Zion National Park and the construction of roads provided the infrastructure for one of the county’s most important industries, tourism. Long after these projects’ completion they still provided economic and cultural value to the communities they served. Some of these projects provided the infrastructural foundation that allowed Washington County communities to have greater security and control over their economic future. Over time the communities of southern Utah created dramatic reenactments and erected monuments of these very projects to celebrate and preserve the story of their construction. During the first decade of the twenty-first century Washington County has become one of the fastest growing areas in the country, and as a result public works programs continue to be important to support this growth. Keywords: American West, Colonialism, Public Works, Dependency, Economic Development, Great Depression, Mormon History, Utah History, Irrigation, Reclamation, Roads, National Parks, Tourism, Washington County Utah, St. George Utah, Hurricane Utah, Enterprise Utah, Springdale Utah, Zion National Park, St. George Tabernacle, Temples, St. George Temple, Enterprise Reservoir, Enterprise Dam, Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway, Zion Tunnel ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Just as the residents of Washington County, Utah depended on the aid of others to complete their work, so have I depended on so many for assistance. Special recognition must be given to the several individuals and groups who made this work possible. This thesis was certainly a joy to write and research, and the help others has only enriched the experience. To my mentors at Brigham Young University I owe sincere appreciation for their helpful corrections, thoughtful suggestions and motivating encouragement. I doubt I could have found any better expertise and experience than from my committee members Brian Q. Cannon, Kathryn M. Daynes, and Ignacio M. Garcia. Their enthusiasm for history has been contagious and each pushed me to think about this topic in new ways. Also gratitude must be given to Mary S. Richards and William G. Hartley who reviewed portions of this work and offered helpful comments. I also owe special thanks for W. Paul Reeve from the University of Utah and Douglas D. Alder of Dixie State College who took the time to provide me with a wealth of information and knowledgeable insights for their Washington County home. Similarly, I appreciated the assistance of Lyman Hafen, Executive Director of the Zion Natural History Association who willingly provided a wealth of sources on the development of Zion National Park. I also learned from the experiences of those whom I interviewed for this work: Victor Hall, a Hurricane native who made the history of his community a life-long study, and J. L. Crawford whose life history is also the story of Zion National Park. Also, I have enjoyed the assistance of my aunt Teresa Brown Shamo, cataloger for the Washington County Library System, and uncle George Wayne Shamo, communications professor at Dixie State College, whose interest in this work has made a significant contribution. I also owe special appreciation to all of my friends and colleagues at the LDS Church History Library in Salt Lake City. Special thanks are given to Church Historian Marlin K. Jensen and Assistant Church Historian Richard E. Turley, Jr., whose kind encouragement motivated me to seek greater educational opportunities in Mormon and Western Studies. Also I am grateful for Michael Landon and Emily Utt for giving so freely of their knowledge of the St. George and who have both been a great sounding board to develop my ideas. Also to the rest of the staff who cheerfully gave of their time to help gather sources and provide insights. I must also thank my family to whom this work is dedicated. To my wife Randi, I cannot express my gratitude enough for the patience she has shown me and for her assistance, without which this work would never have been completed. To my parents Lyle and Tracy Shamo, whose love of learning has inspired me, I express appreciation though they are an ocean apart they have always been close enough to provide assistance. Finally, I dedicate this to George Shamo whose life was the inspiration for this work and who taught me that through hard work anything is possible. CONTENTS CHAPTER I .................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER II ................................................................................................................................. 27 “A CITY, WITH SPIRES, TOWERS AND STEEPLES”: ST. GEORGE TABERNACLE AND TEMPLE, 1860s AND 1870s CHAPTER III ............................................................................................................................... 57 “IT IS TOO GOOD TO THROW AWAY”: WATER AND NEW SETTLEMENT, 1890s AND 1900s CHAPTER IV ............................................................................................................................... 93 “A MAGNET WHICH NONE COULD RESIST”: ROADS AND TOURISM, 1920s AND 1930s CHAPTER V .............................................................................................................................. 126 “A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF THE BUILDING OF THE WEST”: HERITAGE AND THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC WORKS IN WASHINGTON COUNTY APPENDIX ................................................................................................................................. 147 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 151 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Historians have been fascinated by questions regarding how the American West was built. They marvel how communities located in some of the most barren reaches of the continent could develop some of the largest and fastest growing cities in the United States. Some areas have been blessed with rich resources which attracted many wishing to profit. But other areas have not been so fortunate in having an abundance of water, arable land, or other natural resources. Despite these limitations, some of these areas have been able to develop a stable set of communities. One such area in the West can be found in Washington County in the southwest corner of Utah, geographically on the border between the Colorado Plateau and the Mohave Desert. The first Mormon settlers, or members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came midway through the nineteenth century and found the area nearly inhospitable. During the first decade of the twenty-first century, only 150 years later, the county had one of the fastest growth rates in the United States. 1 Turning the desert into stable communities required a tremendous amount of outside capital, careful planning from visionary leaders and cooperation from the local population as well as interested outside parties. The first people to inhabit this harsh environment exhibited these same qualities of cooperation, leadership and a pooling of