Service Learning Project

Lake Point History Web Site

 Hist 2700                                                                                                                                 Justin Garrard

 Prof. Mulderink                                                                                                                             11/26/01

            The goal of my service-learning project is to create a web site that will provide historical information about the town of Lake Point and surrounding areas to many people via the internet. I decided on this project because I have been learning how to program in HTML for one of my other classes and knew where to obtain the information necessary for the web site.

            The majority of my information was drawn from the book Lake Point Revisited 1854 - 1998. This book was published to inform residents about the history of Lake Point. It was originally sold during a day long celebration held on June 27,1998 for the Lake Point Community. During this event the community met in the morning at the Lake Point Chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints where they had a breakfast, displays of historical heirlooms and a Remembrance Quilt. Later they gathered at the Benson Grist Mill site where they enjoyed a picnic, dance and activities for the children. Many people also went and visited many of the historical sites around Lake Point. The book was for sale throughout the day along with tee shirts.

            The book was compiled by a group chaired by Colleen Garrard and made up of Jill Garrard Pearson, Mary Beth McKendrick, and Jodi Garrard Brunson. It was printed and bound by Diane Rich of Color Media Consultants and financed by SaddleBack Partners. This book was an updated version of an earlier book entitled Lake Point Through the Years 1854 - 1986. Which was distributed when the new Lake Point chapel was built and dedicated. It was assembled by a committee chaired by Colleen Garrard and made up of Allen Jordan, Jill Garrard, Diane Young, Floyd Skelton, Diana Garrard, and Mike Scholfield. In addition information and pictures were provided by JoAnne Davis, Mildred Mercer, Marvin Davis, Elva Jackson Ball, and Zell Yates Tracy. Both of these books gathered information about the Lake Point area and trying to share it with the residents to help them understand the communities rich heritage.

As Lake Point continues to grow rapidly along with all of its neighboring communities there is a greater need to keep the new inhabitants informed about the history and memories of Lake Point. I hope that by making this information available on the World Wide Web that all current and future residents will continue to be aware and informed about the history of the town where they live. I also hope that it will provide a way for people who do not live in Lake Point will also be able to learn about the town and its legacy.

            In my web site I have concentrated on three different areas, the first is some of the historical sites around Lake Point. For this section I included pictures and a brief historical sketch outlining each areas importance. One of the sites I discussed are the petroglyphs carved by Native Americans that are located in the foothills above Lake Point. I also mentioned the fossils dating from the time of Lake Bonnenville which can be found in the rock slides above where the petroglyphs are found on this page.

 Another important site is the landmark Adobe Rock which was used as a lookout station for Tooele valley. It received its name from the adobe house that was built at its base by Captain Howard Stansbury of the U.S. Topographical Engineers when he surveyed and mapped the territory. As a result of its significance to Utah history a plaque has been placed on the rock by The Daughters of the Utah Pioneers.

 I also provided information about the old rock Chapel  that was built in 1884 and used by the community until 1986. Although many people in town have tried to have the chapel preserved as a historic landmark they have had no success so far and it has been sold and turned into a small business. One of the most interesting parts of this page is the picture I was able to copy that shows all of the people that attended one of the last meeting held in the old chaple.

Another important site was the red brick schoolhouse that was built in 1894 and served as the center of education for Lake Point until 1938 when the students were transferred to Tooele and Grantsville. It is interesting to note that it was home to some of the projects completed by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. After 1951 the building was traded to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints which used it as a cultural hall and primary classrooms. This building was home to many happy memories of growing up in Lake Point because it was the site of many Primary carnival’s, road shows, and the starting point for the Primary parade.

The next building that I provided information about is the Clinton Hotel. This was the first truly popular resort located on the Great Salt Lake. It allowed people the enjoy the sensation of floating in the salt water. The hotel also provided refreshments, shows and sailboat or rowboat excursions out on the lake. It was popular for many years and during the summer cheap trains would bring people in from Salt Lake City. Then the railroad built a resort in Garfield and refused to transport people to the Clinton Resort cutting off most of its clientel dooming it to failure.

 I also provided information about the Amusement Hall which served as a gathering place and brought the population together through dances and parties. During the years that the building was in use it served as the cultural center of Lake Point it was used to present plays, hold dances, and for other social gatherings including funerals. It also served as a place for people to practice and display their musical talents, by forming bands and playing for dances. Eventually it was declared unsafe for public use and the curch traded the property to the county school board in exchange for the red brick schoolhouse. In 1940 the building was demolished, during the process workers had to use dynamite to tear it down provig that the building had never been unsafe.

The Summerhayes Wool Pullery is important because it served as an source of employment for many inhabitants of Lake Point. At this plant sheep hides were brought in and the wool was removed, then the wool was sent to Salt Lake City and the hides were either sent to a tannery or turned into glue. Most of the information I have on this site comes from my Grandfather who woked at the pullery when he was young. The Pullery suffered a series of misfortunes, burning down two or three time before it was finally shut down in the 1940’s.

Located next to the Summerhayes Wool Pullery is the Grist Mill which was built by Ezra Taft Benson. This mill was powered by the springs which feed into the Millpond and provide water for the area. It played an important role in Lake Point’s history by allowing farmers from the surrounding areas to process and sell their grain. Although the mill shut down in 1939 it has since been restored and other early building have been moved onto the site. Tours are offered during the summer months and everyone is welcome to visit. This has also served as a site for many town parties since it has been opened.

Another consequential business in Lake Point’s history is the salt plant. Early settlers set up their own boilers to collect salt out of the waters of the Great Salt Lake. Later salt production was taken over by businesses and although the plant changed hands many times it served as a source of employment for many people in Lake Point. Even though the Lake Point plant has been closed down many people still work at the new plant established in Timpie, Utah. The Lake Point Service Station and UNXLD cafe also provided jobs for many Lake Point teenagers as well as serving as a hang out and providing a place to play baseball.

Another historic location is the site of the Grantsville Woolen Mill. It was built in 1869 by a group of citizens in Tooele County and machinery was imported to try and produce more and better quality wool. Disaster struck little over a year later when the dam they were using to channel water to the water wheel broke and flooded the site causing quicksand and destroying years of work and investment. Later the building was used for many other businesses but now it lies in ruins.

 Finally, I provided information about the local cemetery and how it has been improved over the years. I remember when the cememtery was little mor than a weed covered patch of dirt surrounded by a rusty chain link fence. Since that time a committee has been formed to care for the cemetery and a sprinkler system has been installed and grass planted. In addition, it has been the site of many Eagle scout projects and volunteer efforts that has resulted in a new flagpole, benches and a wrought iron fence being installed. Greatly improving the look of the cemetery.

            In addition, I also provided a site map that shows the location of each of these sites. From this map people can click on the number associated with each site and see a picture of the location. From there they can go back to the map or link to the page with the information about the history of the site. This aspect provided some technical difficulties because I had never created a site map before and had to learn how from my HTML class. In order to accomplish this I had to scan in a picture of a map and then convert it to a bitmap image so that I could modify it with paint. Once I had done this I was able to insert numbers at each of the locations, then I had to adjust the size of the picture in paint to match that of the image I used in the web site. Then I found the locations on the map necessary to create the links, and wrote the program to connect the map to the pictures sites. The biggest problem was trying to convert the image back to JPEG format so that it could be displayed on the web, I had to search through many different programs before I found one that worked.

            I also included a section about the role of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the history of Lake Point. This is important because the town was first settled by Mormon pioneers in 1854, and it continued to shape life in Lake Point. The church provided opportunities for the community to gather together for activities and to help one another. It has acted as a binding force throughout the history of the town. In this section I included a link back to the information about the old stone church and also created a page with information about the new chapel. This information describes the process that leaders went through to obtain the lands and funds to build the church. I also provided some facts about the groundbreaking ceremony and dedication. The dedication was very unique because the dedicatory prayer was given by President Ezra Taft Benson of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

            The final part of this section is a list of biographies for each of the bishops that have presided over the Lake Point Ward. Whenever possible the biographies were written by the by each of the former and current bishops. When this was not possible the data was drawn from their personal papers and written by their descendants. Each of these biographies include information about each bishops education, family, work and other positions held in the church. Since the publication of Lake Point Revisited the Lake Point Ward has split creating the Big Canyon Ward. I have contacted the new bishop of this ward but he has not been able to write up a biography, so I plan to add his information as soon as I get it.

            The third major section of  my web site is comprised of personal recollections and stories about living and growing up in Lake Point. One part entitled Remember When contains some short recollections of some of the things that people remember from Lake Point’s past. Another area contains longer accounts by specific individuals. Clarine Davies talks about the many different ward activities and campouts that the residents have enjoyed throughout the years. Howard Davies wrote an account about how the bishop’s had taken the young men of the ward on campouts. Rick Thompson writes about spending summers swimming at the Millpond. Jill Pearson reminds everyone of the annual Primary Parade and Carnival that used to be held at the old schoolhouse. She also talks about when the ward sold concessions at the Days of ‘47 Parade. Marion Duke shares his memories about hanging out at the service station and watching all the cars people had fixed up. Leonard Garrard talks about the annual Father’s and Son’s Campout held in the foothills above Lake Point. Finally Lewis and Carla Yates provide an account about the families that have delivered the newspaper to Lake Point through its’ history.

            In this section I also included information about the legend of a gold vein located in the mountains above Lake Point. The vein was discovered by John Croslin in the 1860s. At this time the President of the Church, Brigham Young, was warning settlers not to search after gold so Croslin went to Young in order to ask what he should do. Young told him to keep the location a secret and said that anyone who mined the vein would be cursed. Croslin followed this advice and never returned to his find although he told people that he could see where it was located from the doorway of the Rowberry Sawmill.

            The last part of this section deals with the story about the buffalo herd that was located in Lake Point. The buffalo were originally brought in to populate a magnificent resort town located on the old Clinton Hotel site that was going to be called Buffalo Park. Shortly after the buffalo arrived the venture went bankrupt and the buffalo were shipped out to Antelope Island. Not long after they were shipped out a large bull buffalo was found wandering around Lake Point with his coat covered with salt. Apparently he decided to return to the area he had known as home and had swam across the Great Salt Lake in order to return.

            Not only did I gather, organize, update and type in all of this data I also had to learn how to put this information in HTML format. I learned how to create tables, forms, links, frames and how to use many other tags and attributes to create this web site. At first I tried to build the web pages with a table for the menus, but it required more space and made it more difficult to maneuver between pages. Instead I ended up creating a design that uses two frames, one for the menu and another for the information. This helped to create a more uniform appearance and eliminate the need to scroll up to see the menu. As a result I had to make changes in the various menus designating a target location for each destination so that they would open in the correct frame. 

            In addition, I wanted to be able to receive feedback and comments from people who view the site and hopefully also get some more personal stories to include. As a result, I created a form for visitors to fill out and let me know their thoughts and opinions about the site. I created a table to organize the form and set it up so that it will verify the data entered and then e-mail the information to me. On the form I ask people to identify themselves and provide an e-mail address so I can contact them if necessary. I also put in text boxes where they can tell me what they liked about the site and what they would like to see added.

            In order to complete this project I also had to use other tools including a scanner and digital camera. I scanned most of the pictures in from ones that I found in family albums or that had been used to create the books. Unfortunately, some had been returned to their owners or were outdated so I used a digital camera to take current pictures to fill in the gaps. For example, I took pictures of the cemetery, the restored Grist Mill and the Millpond. Then I created thumbnails of these pictures in with the information about each site that I talked about. After that I turned each of these thumbnail images into a link to a larger copy of the picture.

            Finally, one of the most difficult obstacles I faced in creating this site was finding a permanent home for it. This project would fail in its goal if it were not available to everyone via the internet. I was able to work on this project at home and put it temporarily on the universities server, but I will lose that access when I finish with school. In order to find a permanent home I first looked on the internet, while there were many places offering web hosting most of them charged a fee that I can not afford. I did find some sites that offered free hosting with the condition that they could display banner and pop-up ads. I signed up for one of these but was unable to transfer my HTML documents to the site. I finally found a solution when my mother suggested I talk to Jerry Winters, because he already had a site about Lake Point on the web and so he might know a good server to host my site. It turned out that he told me that he would be happy to include my site in his location. This worked out well for him because hi had an area set up for Lake Point history but didn’t have any information yet. It worked out well for me because it provides a permanent home for my work with a short and easy to remember URL and plenty of memory. Although my web site is still located on the school server at http://student.web.suu.edu/~Garr5035/lakepoint/ethome.htm I will later move it to http://www.mylakepoint.com.

            In conclusion, by gathering together information, pictures and personal recollections and using the things I learned about HTML I have put this data on the internet. By doing this I hope to enable more people to learn about the rich heritage of the community of Lake Point. Especially, those people that live in the town or who are moving in as the community continues to grow. It will also make it possible for me to keep an updated record of important events in Lake Point. I also plan to continue to add to and improve the site, some of the things I have thought about adding is a map of the cemetery showing the separate plots and maybe a picture of the headstones. I think that this could be a useful tool for people trying to do genealogy and trying to find where their ancestors are buried. Another would be to include information about Black Rock Cave, or the large cement arrow in the foothills which guided planes to the Salt Lake Airport. It will be a continuing project to inform as many people as possible about the history of Lake Point.