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SALT LAKE CITY LIFE STYLES

Since May 10, 1869, in a ceremony, East and West are joined with a toast. The Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads have spanned 1776 miles where east meet west and it all happened along the Wasatch Front! For 150 years Utah has a way of attracting pioneers and innovators, making them want to stay. It starts with the mild four-season climate and the mountain and desert natural scenery that looks like it oughta be in pictures… and frequently is.

No wonder then that almost since the massive Lake Bonneville, once the size of Lake Michigan, drained through Red Rock Pass people have been drawn to the Wasatch Front.

The Wasatch Range soars 7,000 feet above the high basin and range topography left behind by the retreated Lake Bonneville. The mountains not only a beautiful site to behold… they also provide a handy reference point when navigating the Salt Lake Valley… pulling from the sky rain and especially snow. Without all that snow… famous among the world over for its airy-lightness…Utah could not be home to 2.3 million innovators and pioneers.

It’s as if nature herself conspired to create an easy life for the State’s visitor and convention bureaus and chambers of commerce. Come once and the place beckons forever after. Drop someone anywhere along the Wasatch Front and at no point is she more than about 25 miles as the crow flies from a National Forest, a wilderness area, a state preserve. There are wild buffalo roaming the pristine Antelope Island in the middle of the Great Salt Lake barely 20 miles from the center of the capital city!

IN THE BEGINNING

It all started with the first recorded inhabitants who made their way to the Wasatch Front not long after Lake Bonneville receded.
By AD 1 until 1300 AD large swaths of Utah were populated by ancient Pueblo cultures, known as the Anasazi and Fremont Indians. Remnants of their lives, art and beliefs are scattered across the State. Hundreds of years before the first white people the ancestors of the Shoshones, Utes, Southern Paiutes, and Goshutes first made their home in the mountains and valleys of Utah.
The first white men in Utah were Franciscan friars Dominguez and Escalante and 11 others who tried in 1776 to forge an overland route between Santa Fe and Monterrey, California, but were stopped by the daunting Southern Utah wilderness.

PIONEERS

On Saturday July 24, 1847, a vanguard group of religious refugees fleeing persecution in the East made their way to the Salt Lake Valley. Under the leadership of the ‘American Moses’ Brigham Young, the industrious Mormons held a Sabbath service on Sunday and on Monday were tilling the soil and planting crops. Within a few days, plans were sketched for “Great Salt Lake City” and the site for the Salt Lake LDS (Mormon) Temple was dedicated on July 28, 1847. Workers broke ground for the landmark structure in 1853.
By 1849-50, in the wake of the California Gold Rush, more settlers chose to put down their roots. And, by the time the railroad came in 1869 Utah had more than 60,000 inhabitants mostly from Northern and Western Europe, who had journeyed across the plains. Utah’s total population approached a quarter of a million people by the time it became the 45th state admitted to the Union.
Between 1860 and 1930, hundreds of copper, silver, gold, and lead mines were opened in the nearby canyons. The largest of the bunch, the Kennecott Bingham Canyon mine in the southwest corner of the Salt Lake Valley, was the first open pit copper mine in the world and probably the most productive mine anywhere. By itself it provides 10 percent of the U.S. supply of copper each year. Over its 104-year life has yielded more copper, gold, silver and molybdenum than the Comstock Lode, Klondike and California gold rush mining regions combined!
With their wealth wrestled from the earth, some of the mine owners built elegant mansions along the city’s South Temple Street. At the same time, the State Capitol, patterned after the US Capitol, and many of the city’s historic buildings were constructed. Electric trolleys were installed to transport people who lived in the Avenues, Capitol Hill, Liberty Park, and the Sugarhouse areas to the downtown business district.

Salt Lake TODAy

In the first decade of the new millennium the city’s skyline rose with the completion of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Conference Center with seating for 21,000, the Five-Star, Five-Diamond Grand America Hotel, and construction of the Salt Lake City Marriott-City Center.

The Gateway Mall, at the historic Union Pacific Depot downtown, had their grand opening in November of 2001 and brought with it the renewal of the City’s near west side.

In February 2003, a new $80 million library by renowned architect Moshie Safdie was opened to the public.

The LDS Church purchased the Triad Center near The Gateway to create a new college campus for LDS Business College and BYU Salt Lake Center.

The Salt Palace Convention Center added 145,000 square feet of exhibit space and 64,000 square feet of meeting space at a cost of $58 million, making the county facility competitive for any convention.

The $35 million Children’s Museum of Utah opened its doors at a new 70,000 square foot space at the Gateway.

The second phase of Gateway added 80,000 square feet of retail space and 22,000 square feet of office space. 4 Gateway Tower, a seven-story building with 230,000 square feet of office space was completed early in 2007.

The $20 million Intermodal Transportation Hub serves as the central depot for Amtrak, Trax light rail, FrontRunner commuter rail and Greyhound Bus service. The Amtrak and Greyhound Bus services are currently operational at the hub while work continues on the Trax extension to the hub.

The mammoth $1 billion redevelopment of two city blocks into a mixed-use retail, housing and office space by Zions Securities, PRI, and Taubman Development began with demolition in late 2006. Called City Creek Center, the 20-acre development is scheduled for completion in mid-2011.

Other major initiatives include:

•The Leonardo Center—a $25 million education center at Library Square that will house the Utah Science Center, Center for Documentary Arts and Global Artways.
•5 Gateway Tower—62,000 sq. ft. of office space.
•Utah Office Space - Premiere office space in Salt Lake City, Utah.
•222 South Main—a 21-story office building with 410,000 square feet of office space and 11,000 square feet of storefront retail.
•Walker Building Upgrade—a major renovation of the 13-story building that dates from 1906.
•Metro Condominiums—117 luxury condominiums setting the benchmark for innovative residential architecture downtown.
•Frank Moss Federal Courthouse—a $100 million expansion and renovation of the federal court building on Main Street.
•The Marmalade—a $40 million mixed-use project with 87 condominiums and townhouses.
•Bridges at City Front—295 unit residential condominiums at 631 West South Temple.
All told, a 10-block area of downtown Salt Lake City will receive an astonishing $1.5 billion in investment over the next 5 years!