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Show PRESS ASSOCIA TION Clipping Sen-ice (801) 328-8678 DESERET NEWS \ His":;;i~ S.L. eagle grows "" I.•"~m ' ' :''1 r~I ,;t,g:"fo"'~""":' ..... . '" 'NDMAAK . and adapts to changing times By Irene M. Chen Deseret News staff writer In the hustle of downtown Salt Lake traffic, few drivers along State Street witness the eagle of Eagle Gate swooping down ALONG 89 to sneak a drink of water at the ringing of a bell, as the legend tells. Today's 20-foot-wide, 4,000pound bronze bird "nested" with Utah's pioneers more than a century ago as an II-foot-wide, 500pound wooden chick. J . Don Carlos Young recalled when the first eagle hovered over the street, a thoroughfare for U.S. 89. Young was there when the Eagle Gate was first erected in 1859, and he was one of two sons of President Brigham Young who survived to see the modernization of Eagle Gate in 1963. Under President Young's direction, Hiram B. Clawson designed the gate and Ralph Ramsey carved the eagle with wood from the Creek Canyon. Ramsey also did work on many other Utah land- marks, including the temple and Tabernacle and created the 12oxen foundation for temple baptismal fonts. Connected to an 8-foot-high cobblestone wall, the early gate held two large wooden doors designed to protect Young's family and estate from Indians. The doors also served as posts upon which announcements for performances of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" at the old Salt Lake Theatre (now Pioneer Memorial Museum) were hung. But in keeping with the state's growth, eagle and its perch have grown with time and development. The original gate rested on cobblestone pillars 22 feet apart, sufficient to allow passage of horsepulled wagons. In the late 1880s, the advent of streetcars and traffic threatened to squeeze the eagle off Canyon Road (now State Street). Public protest over proposed removal of the cherished landmark prompted state officials to ship Ramsey's wooden eagle east in 1891, where it was electroplated with copper. Meanwhile a new perch was built with four square piers., carved 1 The eagle atop Eagle Gate today weighs 2 tons and has a wingspan of 20 feet. Placed there In 1963, it Is modeled on the original bird. of gray sandstone and granite, each topped with an electric lamp. Reconstruction on the eagle and gate cost about $4,450. The renewed eagle watched as seven decades, two world wars and myriad presidential figures passed by. Automobiles sprung forth from American ingenuity and took off in an auspicious consumer market. Once again, state officials and citizens debated the preservation or extinction of the bird in a faster and bigger city. One morning in 1960, a heavy crane swinging around accidentally knocked the eagle from its post. State Street was widened again, with a new gate that sported bronze posts 76 feet apan., leaving room for six lanes of automobiles. However, the wooden eagle had deteriorated under its copper plating after more than a century of rain and snow and could not be remounted on the gate. In 1963, a bronze, scale enlargement of Ramsey's original eagle was added to the gate, contributing to a total price tag of $95,000 for reconstruction. During reconstruction, a time Please see HIGHWAY on B2 |
