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Show Creek channel project (which dredged portions of the creek and the Jordan River), assisted in helping the city to recover from the otherwise devastating economic difficulties of the time. As the worst effects of the Depression passed, many of Murray's industries began to see a rise in business, but the smelting industry never really fully recovered from the decline experienced during the previous decade. However, the citizens of Murray began bracing for the war to come. "The smelter of the American Smelting and Refming Company, usually closed between May and October each year, began operations the first week in August, (1940) due to the fact that the war ha(d) made smelters in Belgium unavailable and smelter capacity (was) in greater demand.... Two hundred fifty men received early employment at the Murray smelter as a result of the breakout of war" (Rasmussen and McAllister1976: 100). After hostilities were formally announced, Murray citizens faced rationing of resources and money with the rest of the nation. "When the long, exhausting war finally ended in 1945 ... Murray was finally able to begin taking steps for a post-war economy" (Rasmussen and McAllister 1976: 102). The need for increased power, water, and other infrastructural improvements required that the city again issue municipal bonds for the purpose of extending and upgrading the systems. The increased use of the automobile also necessitated the expenditure of funds for road improvements and the installation and maintenance of street signs. The first Planning and Zoning Commission was also put into place following the war, in an effort to ensure that future city building and expansion could be better managed. The city gained its frrst radio station following the war, and the much-needed water and power plant upgrades continued. Population in Murray again expanded quickly, rising from around 5700 (1940) to 9006 (1950) to over 27,000 in 1976 (Rasmussen and McAllister 1976). Since 1950, "the focus of growth .. , has been in the housing industry. Emphasis returned to the community improvement notion of the first settlers" (Polk et al. 1995:11). Since the end of the post-war period, Murray and the surrounding areas have continued to grow and modernize. "With the completion of two major highway systems, Interstate 15 and Interstate 215, the (area) has become a bedroom community for the rapidly growing number of people employed in Salt Lake City" (Polk et al. 1995:11). West Jordan West of the Jordan River in the Salt Lake Valley is the community of West Jordan. The Joseph Harker family, who arrived into the Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and were among the first of the Mormon pioneers to enter the region, built a log cabin along the river in December 1848. Proximity to water, and good agricultural land, drew others, such as Samuel and John Bennion, William Blackhurst, John Robinson, James Taylor, Thomas Mackey, and Thomas Turbett to join Harker the following spring (Daughters of Utah Pioneers 1947:155). Many other families joined the group over the next few years, settling along the river . bottom and hills west of the river (polk 1991). "The development of Utah's economy has often been seen as a three-phase progression, beginning with agriculture, then supplemented with a mining sector in the 1870s, and finally supported by a manufacturing sector around the tum of the century" (poll et al. 1989:234). While this progression appears to have been generally followed for the West Jordan community, the first industry actually arrived in 1850, with the construction of a sawmill built by Robert and Archibald Gardner. The facility required that a mill race two and one half miles long be built (North Jordan canal), and that logs be hauled from the Oquirrh mountains more than 14 miles away (Daughters of Utah Pioneers 1947). Agriculture continued to slowly expand throughout the late 1800s, but was held back significantly by the lack of irrigation. 25 |
