14065 Canyon Vista Lane
Draper, UT 84020
United States
About to rend a description of the nestled and scenic Draper, Utah area, where the new temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) is underway, I found this finely-woven account that says it all:
Sivogah, meaning Willows, the Indian name for the area later known as Draper, is a beautiful cove of approximately fifteen square miles tucked away in the southeast corner of Great Salt Lake Valley. Draper, nestled west of towering Lone Peak, receives water from glaciated and stream-cut canyons beginning at 12,000 feet and sweeping down to a valley floor of 4,400 feet.
On the southern edge of this fertile cove are the Traverse Mountains, low hills branching west from the mighty Wasatch Range and continuing west for three miles to end suddenly in a dramatic drop to benches formed by ancient Lake Bonneville. The highest and most famous of these drops, Steep Mountain, has been a mecca for gliders towed into the air by motorized vehicles to catch updrafts and climb hundreds of feet into the clear, blue sky. A part of Steep Mountain called Widow Maker became nationally known for motorcycle hill-climbing contests. Motorcyclists, congregated for competition, were trying to be first to reach the top of the mountain. Hang gliders came later to take pilots soaring off Steep Mountain; both the less daring glider and hang-glider pilots had a bird’s-eye view of little-known Hidden Valley, and the well-known Jordan River to the west. All of these events were popular during the 1960s through the 1980s. Some hang-glider pilots continue to soar off Steep Mountain.
A mountain of sand, a gift of ancient Lake Bonneville, creates the southwestern boundary of the cove, known as Point of the Mountain. In bygone years, train cars of sand in the thousands were loaded by steam shovels, cutting back into the mountain and destroying the ribbon-like Indian trails that traversed this area long ago. Currently, semi-trucks, filled to capacity by diesel loaders, move sand from these benches for use locally and nationwide in building roads, houses, skyscraper buildings, and hundreds of other projects requiring sand. Moving millions of yards of sand over many years has allowed the I-15 freeway to be widened into a six-lane highway, with frontage roads on each side and a railroad track along its east side. Very few drivers know of the space between mountain benches and the one-hundred foot cliff-like drop into Hidden Valley below.
Draper, Utah Historical Society
http://keepsake-memories.com/draper_1st_chapter.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment